October Birthday Extravaganza: Nathan's Birthday

Nathan handled the anticipation of his birthday well... of having to wait through the whole month of October plus lots of other birthday celebrations before he finally got to have his big day.  And I'm pretty sure that he'd say it was worth the wait.

And because I love this picture so much, I'm going to jump straight to it...

Yes, our FIVE-YEAR OLD birthday boy was pretty excited about his big day, especially the part where he was surrounded by lots of family for the most important part of the day - singing and blowing out the candle.

But to back up, Brian was on vacation the week of Nathan's birthday (a happy coincidence), so in the morning Daddy offered to take the kids to get doughnuts after a light breakfast.  Though going out for doughnuts was one of Nathan's favorite activities in Boston, to our surprise he turned down the offer of a ride in the truck in favor of playing with his blocks and Duplos upstairs while listening to his "Jack and Annie stories" (Magic Treehouse series) books on CD.  I have been checking out different stories for him to listen to for his quiet time, but he loves listening so much that many mornings he and Sarah will disappear up to their playroom to listen and play (usually nicely, though sometimes with intermittent screaming) together for thirty minutes or an hour or more!  Since that's what he wanted to do on his birthday morning, Sarah got the fun of riding alone with Daddy in the truck to get our treats.  I'm not sure whether the highlight was getting to eat a doughnut in the car on the way home or getting to hold Daddy's hand during the ride (she's such a sterotypical girl in some ways!), but she came home super excited about the trip. Nathan was not reluctant, however, to partake of the Krispy Kreme deliciousness once they arrived back home!

Shortly thereafter, Gran and Pawpaw showed up at our house to take Nathan on his birthday outing.  Their first stop was the store to pick out a Tennessee baseball hat (Nathan really, really wanted me to get him one when we went shopping for preschool "orange day", so at the time I thought this might be the perfect birthday present from another big "Big Orange" fan - Pawpaw!), then it was out to lunch at Chick-fil-a.  Nathan came back with a huge grin on his face, though unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of him and the grandparents with his loot.

After quiet time and TV, Nana and Granddad came over so that Nathan could open his presents early and have time to play before dinner.  Knowing Nathan loves Thomas Train stuff, Nana and Granddad got him a Gordon engine ("Express coming through!").

Then he got to open his biggest present - a wooden train track set (which thankfully Gordon is compatible with, even though he is a Mega Blocks train) and a set of freight cars.  We also ordered two Thomas engines and two Percy engines that came the next day - we figured I would not survive the kids fighting over one Thomas and one Percy, even for the two weeks until Sarah's birthday, so we proactively ordered duplicates of these favorite characters. And it was cute the other day when I heard Sarah say "Where is my "S" Thomas?", since Daddy even labeled the bottoms of the duplicates with the kids' initials!

The kids both have LOVED their new train track sets and we are constantly hearing them make up stories with either other and their engines: "Nathan, I need Thomas to shunt me to my Tidemouth Sheds!" (FYI "Tidemouth" is pronounced "tid-muth"), "Sarah, my wheels are wobbly!", "Express coming through!", etc.

Then most of the rest of the family joined us for dinner - Grandmother and Granddaddy, Gran and Pawpaw, and Uncle David - the only person we were missing was Aunt Bridget.

For dinner Nathan requested hot dogs and broccoli salad, and I added pineapple and potato salad to the menu.  And the cake?  Chocolate cake with chocolate icing, red words on the inside, orange decorative icing on the outside. 

Which brings us back to this...

And I love how since then he'll tell me "This is the first time I've been to school when I'm five" or "This is the first time I've come to Grandmother and Granddaddy's house since I was five".  Being five is turning out to be one special milestone for this sweet boy!