9-23-13, or, the day Rowan turned 5!

Seriously, I can't believe he's 5. Seems so much older than 4. I feel like he's officially becoming a big boy now that he's 5.

Rowan loves glazed donuts, so for breakfast we had a donut cake.  I made his annual birthday shirt, but of course procrastinated until the night before, so I simply cut out a "5" with some felt and pinned it on. Not sure how long I will continue this tradition.  I was kind of thinking until he was 10, but then I thought he might be embarrassed by it at that point, so we shall see.  His birthday fell on a Monday so he picked out some sugar cookies to share with his class.  He came home with a crown and a cute game the teachers made for the kids' birthdays.  It's a honey pot bear game.  There are all these different colored bears and you hide a honey pot under one.  Then you sing, "Brown bear, brown bear, what you hiding under there?"  Then the child lifts up the brown bear to see if the honey pot is underneath.  If it's not, the child continues on until he finds it.  Of course changing the color to coordinate with the bear he's chosen to look under.  

For his birthday picture backdrop this year I just did balloons and dinosaur hats that I picked up at the $1 store.  Here's Rowan giving us his best T-rex.  

Mommy and daddy and the oh so stylish dino hat.

Had to get a picture with my big kid.

He insisted on getting this red power rangers costume while we were at Costco one day.  And since I didn't want to spend an extra 20 minutes in Costco trying to get him to calm down if we didn't leave the store with it, I gave in and bought it.  Course he wasn't getting it until his birthday, and the other toys I had purchased for his birthday are now Christmas gifts.  I did pick up some additional ninja toys at the $1 store to accompany his costume.  He was happy as a clam with this gift and has woken me up many mornings since asking for help getting his costume on.  

Simple cake.  Might just stick with all donuts next year.  He likes the frosting- not the cake.  But he'll eat a whole donut.  

I picked these candles up at Michael's and didn't realize they were sparkler candles until he started blowing them out and they kept relighting.  Good thing he likes blowing out candles.  He found the whole situation to be very funny.

I am never really sure what to do with Rowan's birthday parties as far as friends go. Do I invite the 2-3 kids that he knows well enough from church over?  Do I invite cousins that are close in age?  I am just never sure how Rowan is going to react and that makes planning a "normal" party hard.  Instead of stressing over it I just invited two of his favorite big people, grandma and papa.  And he was content.

The big 5 year old with two of his favorite people.

It was a low key day/party.  We had pizza as a family for dinner, and grandma and grandpa joined us later for cake and ice-cream.  He blew out candles, opened presents, licked some frosting off his cake, and proceeded to play with his gifts.  His birthday was easy, simple, and he's OK with that.  Until he starts to ask for something more fancy, that's how they're going to be.  I don't know if he'll ever be the kid who wants to celebrate with lots of friends.  Time will tell.  For now I am happy that he is happy spending his day at home with the people who love him most.  Happy birthday Rowan!