The Boys Turn 5 *sniff, sniff*

 

Five years has sure gone by fast, too fast actually. I started to look through some old pictures and it really started to hit me. I feel so conflicted watching the boys grow up because while I love watching them grow, I know I will miss these days when they are little. I wanted to post some of my favorite pictures from over the years. I remember all of these pictures like they were yesterday, and they all bring a smile to my face as I recall the story behind each picture. The past five years has been so awesome, and my gratitude for the boys grows every day. If they are all we get, then we got more then we deserve.

 

(You can click on the collage to get a closer look).

It came as no surprise to me that the boys wanted to have a Mario themed birthday party because they had become Mario obsessed since they discovered Super Mario Bros.  What did surprise me was how scarce Mario party themed items were. I knew I was going to have to get creative, and while I was worried at first I think that everything turned out really cute.  The thing I was worried the most about was the cake. I knew the chances of me pulling off a Mario cake were slim so I decided to try cupcakes instead.  I watched a couple of YouTube videos to figure out how to decorate them, bought a few supplies and thought, 'how hard can it be?' Turns out it wasn't hard at all!

Of course if you have cute cupcakes you have to have a cute way to display them so my mom helped me make this one out of cardboard, soup cans and scrapbook paper - told you we were getting creative.

I also made favor boxes, toad juice, hanging decorations and invitations. Nothing too fancy but it made for a fun time for all of the kids.

I can't take too much credit for our Mario wall, this was mostly my mom's vision based on some ideas that I had.  It rocked!  It was super cute and all of the kids loved it.  We played Mario bingo by me holding up a character from the game and then putting it on the wall.  We also played a game where we blindfolded the kids and made them try and place their favorite character on a certain spot on the wall.  Then we just let the kids go crazy putting the characters where ever they wanted.

Birthday boys

 Bingo

 Pin the character on the wall

The completed Mario wall scene

Here are the boys getting ready for cake and ice cream and opening presents.  Things got a little crazy at this point in the party and it was all I could do to snap this blurry photo.  But that's life so it's making it into the blog even though it's not great.

 One of their favorite presents were these bed tent sets with matching sleeping bags, flashlights and compasses. They thought this gift from Grandma and Grandpa was ultra cool.

On their actual birthday I decided to follow the tradition that my mom had always done with me which was to let them have breakfast in bed.  And not just any bed, MY bed so that they could watch cartoons while they ate.  I made some cute pancakes, used syrup sparingly and made them drink out of sippy cups (I knew these would come in handy one day).  They thought it was awesome!

I had a hard time getting Spencer out of his Mario shirt...

Later that day I went with the boys to their preschool class. Too bad I forgot the camera, but luckily I had my phone - not the greatest but it works. It was so fun to take treats and watch as the boys got to wear their special crowns and get sung to. I had to laugh at Spencer though because he was worried if he wore the crown that it would mess up his spiked hair, that kid loves his spike.

I loved watching the boys play and learn in preschool. 

We capped the day off with bowling.  We did it last year as a family for their birthday and the boys liked it so much we thought we should keep the tradition going (again, no camera, just the phone). 

It was so much fun celebrating with the boys!!