Five Years

Yesterday this crazy kid turned 5 years old:

I haven't had time to do Grant's "5 year pictures"  yet, so
I'm re-using one of my favorites from his party day. 

So what is this little man up to at 5:

• KINDERGARTNER! Crazy, right? So far, so good, though. He seems to be enjoying school and loves to tell us about his day so we're trying to enjoy that while it lasts.
• At least 45" tall. I know this because my sister & took Grant to a water park last week and he was tall enough to go on some of the crazier water slides. He has his check up next week.
• SO excited to be 5! I'm not sure why this year more than last year but he just couldn't wait to be 5.
• Current obsessions: dinosaurs - the boy is crazy over dinosaurs; volcanoes - probably because he associates them with dinosaurs; solar system - not sure what started this but we've been reading some interesting stuff (also if you ask Grant what he knows about the solar system, you may hear "Jupiter has gas!"); cars, trucks, trains, planes, helicopters, and anything else that has an engine; Minions - they fart, 'nuff said.
• What's on TV: Transformers, Jurassic Park, The Land Before Time, DinoTrux, Ninja Turtles, Paw Patrol, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Sofia the First, Night at the Museum, Lion King, Cars (and Cars 2).
• Books! I love that this kid is a book lover. 9 time out of 10, if Grant is quiet, he's in his room thumbing through a book. For Easter he got a big book about dinosaurs so he looks through that often and most recently he's been requesting his book about sharks when we read at bed time (although the new book about the solar system he got from us yesterday may be taking the #1 spot for a while).
• Music: Grant is alarmingly into country music. It started out kind of funny because he just loved to listen to Boxcar Willie in the truck with Husband. But then he really got into Eric Church and now Luke Brian is his favorite thing ever. Sometimes in my car I have to impose a "No Country Music Rule" where he has to listen to the Disney pandora station or sometimes he'll ask to listen to Trans Siberian Orchestra (he does actually like TSO). 
• Very animated. Loves to act things out when telling stories.
• Loves to build! Legos are everywhere in our house. Grant is always building something (and then crashing it and building it again).
• Still loves board games and puzzles and recently got him into some card games (Go Fish and Crazy 8's). We have so much fun playing games together...and I don't even have to let him win.
• Grant loves to be outside. In the sandbox, hitting baseballs, knocking around his kickball, doesn't matter. Most recently we've started going on long walks at the park. I love that he's at an age where we can take bigger walks together and explore places we couldn't go back when he needed a stroller. 

After having Grant's birthday party on Saturday, we had a small celebration yesterday just the three of us. Husband & I had lunch at school with Grant. He had requested Olive Garden for dinner so we did that and then went home to open a couple presents. I think he had a really good day and even told us at dinner "This has been the best birthday EVER!" 

I love that Grant is always looking forward. But as his Mama I can't help but look back at how he's grown into the awesome little man that I'm so proud of.

I'm aiming for this weekend to do some 5 year pictures. I promised a choice of ice cream or a snow cone for cooperation (I remember when it just used to be a lollipop). But I think Grant is looking a little forward to it too...I told him he could wear his "cowboy outfit" for a couple pictures.

Grant's 5th Birthday Party

This year for Grant's 5th birthday party, we had a splash party (or water party or whatever you want to call it). I filled the backyard with water-related items and let the kids go to town. It was a bit chaotic (to be expected, yes?) but I think the kids had fun. My sister was in town for the week and was a HUGE help getting the party ready!

There were approximately one million children in my backyard but these pictures kind of look like no one showed up. I left out pictures that included other children just in case the other parents don't want their kid plastered all over my blog.

We did some beachy decorations inside and pretty much let the water toys outside be the decorations for the yard (except for some pool noodle garland I made that was so fun!).

The banner I made for Grant's first birthday!

Fun little buckets for Grant's friends to take home
(my sister did a LOT of cooking and cleaning for me
so I could sew stuff for the kiddos - thanks sister!)

I didn't have any games or anything planned for the kids, just play time. I had a slip-n-slide, a sprinkler, some beach balls to play with, water guns, and water balloons. The water balloons lasted about 5 minutes - I should have seen that coming. The slip-n-slide had to be repositioned about 10 times but we eventually got it working great (especially after putting some soap on it!).

I have no idea how I managed to get a picture of just
Grant going on the slip-n-slide

Sitting in one of the water gun re-fill buckets

Bubbles!

I love this beach ball sprinkler! And it's apparently quite sturdy.

The kids played for about an hour before we broke out the pinata. After going to a birthday party earlier this year that had a pinata, Grant really wanted to do one. He picked out a shark. 

So we filled it with his favorite candies...and those poor kids tried so hard to bust it open but in the end, we had to get Husband to knock it down. Which STILL didn't actually bust it. So he tore it open and dumped out the candy...ha!

We did presents and cake after the pinata.

He got a real pair of cowboy boots from Gramma
& Grandpa so he put on his hat to go with them

Telling an animated story of dragons blowing
fire after eating spicy tacos

Really not sure what this was about...maybe cake.

Cake. Grant wanted a shark cake (his favorite birthday activity is looking at cake pictures to figure out what he wants me to make) and he picked one that was supposed to have the shark standing up but that didn't happen. I think he loved it anyway.

3 layers of chocolate cake

Happy Birthday, Grant!

Would you believe he ate the cake this year?? We went from Grant wanting a cake, to Grant wanting ice cream sundaes, back to cake because he decided he loves cake  - which I didn't believe for a minute. I don't know how much he ate at the party, but we still have some leftovers and he's actually eating it. It only took 5 years :)

Grant put on a little show for us after his friends left:

(Currently, he's asking to be a country singer for Halloween)

And he kind of continued the party while we were cleaning up. We turned the slip-n-slide back on and Grant kept up the fun while we cleaned up the yard (and picked up what must have been thousands of pieces of balloon). 

Grant had such an awesome time! I'm so glad his friends could come play and celebrate with him!

First Day of Kindergarten

I don't care how cliche it sounds, this day came way too fast! But look at that boy's face. So excited! 

On Friday - Grant's last day of preschool/day care - I would have told you I was expecting his first day of kindergarten to be bumpy. Because on Friday when Grant came home from his last day, he seemed fine...until I asked him to brush his teeth. He started crying, saying he couldn't do it. I knew something bigger was going on. So I asked if he was upset about leaving preschool. Oh man! He cried harder, begging to stay at his "old school". We got him calmed down and then had to head to the elementary school to meet Grant's new teacher. Quite a few kids from his preschool would be going to his elementary school...and we found out that not one was in his class. But he seemed to handle that well, knowing that he would still see them.

So yesterday morning, there was not an ounce of nervousness in this child. He was SO excited to go to kindergarten. He couldn't wait to wear his new backpack and carry his lunch bag. And he even sat still for some pictures :)

We decided to take Grant to school at the time school starts so we could walk him to his class (instead of using the before school program on his first day). He was so proud of himself walking into school.

We got to walk Grant to his class, get him settled and see his new classroom which we'd not had the opportunity to do yet. 

Putting his backpack & lunch away

Please forgive the blurriness of this picture...I was
barely holding on at this point

Already settled in and coloring!

I only cried a little! And I managed to not let Grant see me, I was worried that he would get nervous if he saw me upset. But I got myself together to say bye to him and he barely even noticed when we left. 

Last year & this year

Grant had a great first day, he was so excited telling us about it. We had read Pete the Cat: Rocking in my School Shoes the night before. He said he drew Pete the Cat in art class and when Husband asked him what else he did at school he said he was "rocking in my school shoes!" And when I kissed him good night and told him I was so glad he had a good first day, he said "And I'm going to do it again tomorrow!" which is at the end of the book. 

So far, so good!