Time flies. I wonder how many times I've typed those words since I started this blog. Too many to count, I imagine. But it's true. Time...does...fly. Yesterday, my little boy celebrated his fifth birthday. He's five years old and I can hardly believe it. He can. He has been revelling in this fact all week. In fact, when he woke up last Monday morning, he excitedly announced, "It's my birthday week!" Ever since, he's been looking at his teeth in the bathroom mirror and feeling them to see if any are loose. "My teeth will start to fall out when I'm five," he says.

Jacob loves LEGOS. He meticulously follows the building set instructions and is able to put together a set pretty much on his own. After it is put together, he plays with it for a while, then takes it apart, changing pieces here and there to make his own creation. His engineering mind is always hard at work. Heath is super excited about Jacob's love of LEGOS, but he cringes at the fact that Jacob mixes up all the individual sets. Once Jacob takes a set apart, I dare say, we will never see the set put together correctly (i.e. per the instructions) again. But this is exactly why Jacob loves them. He likes to invent. He comes up with a story in his head and builds boats, cars, machines, buildings, etc... to go along with his plot.

Given his love of LEGOS, I decided on a LEGO themed birthday party. The kids built with LEGOs, played LEGO games, ate LEGO pizza and LEGO cake, and everyone seemed to have a great time.

Hmmm...what should we build now?

Jacob, Annabelle and I worked on the LEGO man together. They colored the shirt and pants, while I colored the head and arms. They were fascinated by how small their crayons were when they finished coloring. That was a BIG LEGO man!

We played "Pin the mustache on LEGO man." No, it wasn't my own idea. I found it on a website somewhere. The kids loved it.



This was Jacob's second attempt. The first time, he planted the mustache right in the middle of LEGO man's face. I knew when that happened, the blindfold needed to be adjusted. :)

Mustache silliness!

The LEGO cake was actually fairly simple. But, since I got a late start on my baking, Erika and I worked tirelessly through the night finishing the cake and the LEGO man cake pops. The long night was worth it though as we were both pleased with the finished product. I have to credit Erika with the cake decorating this year. I may have baked the cake, but she did the decorating. After all, she is the master. :) .....and I can't thank her enough for EVERYTHING she did to help with the party. Erika, you are one true friend.

JoBeth and David helped out a lot too. They surprised us and showed up at our house Friday evening. I had no idea they were going to drive down from D.C. for the party. While Erika and I were working on the cake, I heard someone coming in the door. It was them! I was completely shocked! When I saw JoBeth, I felt guilty because I cut our phone conversation short earlier. I had so much to do with the party preparations, I felt like I didn't have time to talk. Little did I know, when she called she was sitting in a restaurant just a few miles from our house -- the same restaurant Heath and I had just stopped by to pick up our take-out order. :) JoBeth and David, I'm so happy you made the long drive down! I know Jacob (and Annabelle, too) was excited. Love you!

After the cake, we moved on to the presents. At the end of the day, Jacob said this was his favorite part of the party...as if I didn't already know. :)

He put that fireboat together later in the day. It took him (and Uncle David) almost three solid hours, but he got it done. Some accomplishment, wouldn't you say? He played with it all afternoon today.

A group shot...minus one. It's hard to get a group of kids together for a picture.

Birthdays are fun -- especially when you turn five. Jacob had a blast at his party yesterday and that made all the planning and effort totally worth it. Happy 5th birthday, Jacob! I love you, buddy!!