Jacob's 5th Birthday

Four months since I last updated.  I'm so lame.  If you're actually reading this, hats off to you!  I'm surprised anyone checks back anymore, these days.  ;)


My little guy Jacob actually turned five last week.  How did the years go by so fast?  And why do they just keep on getting faster?  It's not exactly fair.

We went to Idaho to visit my sisters Melissa and Jacy (Jacy came from Eastern WA to meet us in the middle), and while I was there, I realized that once we got back home, I'd have all of about 2 weeks before Jacob's birthday.  Therefore, I needed to plan things quickly.  And throw together a party somehow.  Lucky for me, Melissa had recently done a birthday party for her son, and it seemed really simple to pull off.  So I copied her, grateful for an easy idea.

I was originally going to have his birthday party on his actual birthday, since it was a Saturday.  But before I actually managed to send out any invitations, I learned that our ward camp-out for church was to be held from the 13th to the 14th... making it so that if I had actually invited all his classmates from church, I'd be darn lucky for anyone to show up, since they'd still be camping if their family attended.  So at the last minute, I decided to have his party the following Monday... the day before school started.  Also not an ideal time, but more likely to have party-goers show up and attend.  ;)

On his birthday, actually, we attended the funeral of a friend's baby.  What a hard combination of emotions to process -- grief for the loss of such a very young life, sorrow for the family... and yet, gratitude for the birthday I was allowed to celebrate, joy for the boy who was getting so big and looking forward to new, exciting things.  It did make me appreciate his birthday so much more.  Though I still had a very hard time fitting that in between all the sad emotions.

After the funeral and back at home, we let Jacob open up a few family presents- one from me, one from Jesse, and a couple sent in the mail from Grandma Wilcox.

Following Jesse's family tradition, we play a little game of "Heavy Heavy Hangover Thy Poor Head.... What are you going to do with it?"  Then the person getting the gift has to guess, and if they're wrong, they get a bonk on the head.

Jacob opens the first gift from Grandma Wilcox.... and it's... an UMBRELLA!  He was thrilled.  :) 

Next up, he opened a gift I worked very hard on.  I wanted to get him a t-shirt with a picture of Link from the Legend of Zelda, but I absolutely could not find one.  Every store online that sold video game shirts either only had adult-sized shirts, or all their child sizes were sold out.  Well, that just wouldn't do.  So I decided to get my hands on some t-shirt transfer paper.  I looked around online and found a supply store that seemed to sell very nice quality transfer paper (based on reviews, it seems like the stuff I could walk out and buy at a craft store wouldn't work well or last long).  I ordered a sample size of 3 sheets, and it got to me just a couple days before his birthday.  I found some images, arranged them in Photoshop to my liking, and printed it on the paper.  Then I had to cut out the paper by hand (ugggggh, it took so long!!), and then iron it on.  I was very happy with the result!  I've already washed this shirt three times and it's holding up awesomely.  And Jacob loves it!!  That's what I was going for, of course.  :)  (And now, I have extra sheets of transfer paper, and I can't stop thinking about what else I could do with it!!)

We also got another package in the mail while we were out, which we opened once we got back home- it was a package full of Disney Car socks from Grandma Wilcox.  He put a pair on right away!  Despite the insanely hot weather.

The worst part about this day was that Jacob started throwing an absolute fit over not having more presents to open.  We wanted him to have something special on his birthday, which is why we opened any presents at all.  But he also already knew that we'd be having a birthday dinner at Grandma's house the next day, and get some more presents from Aunt Rachel and Grandma Newson then.  And beyond that, he also knew that he was going to be having a party with all of his friends coming over the day after that.  So THREE days of fun and gifts, and he decided to throw a fit on the very first day because he wanted more presents.  It made me feel so bad.  I felt like Jacob had transformed into Dudley Dursley or something.  I have no idea where the attitude came from - I don't remember any of my children ever doing that before.   Eventually, he stopped, and I could tell he really liked all his gifts, but it was still a shocking attitude.

So, on Sunday, the usual Sunday Dinner with family was now Jacob's Birthday Dinner.  He wanted spaghetti, but we had just had a lot of spaghetti recently, and nobody else really wanted it again, so we talked him into chicken drumsticks and various sides (like fancy green jello with pineapple), instead.  He ended up really happy with that (phew!), and we had a lovely meal. 

After dinner Rachel and Grandma presented their gifts to Jacob.  (And poor Rachel, don't mind her.  She was doing some dishes and got wet at the sink!)  Another round of Heavy Heavy Hangover....

And Rachel made him a lovely name banner, which we have now hung up on the underside of the bunk bed, where he sleeps.  :)  We also used it as decoration at his party!  Wonderful.  :)

Grandpa gets excited to do Heavy Heavy Hangover....

Grandma Newson made him an awesome Link (Legend of Zelda) costume!  A nice green tunic styled just like the character, with belt and sword harness trappings made from some perfect vinyl, which was leftover from her's and Rachel's re-upholstering of my dining chairs for my birthday.  It looks awesome!  And he's always wanted a Link costume. 

Rachel went the extra distance and made a dessert for Jacob's birthday dinner - homemade brownies with mini M&M's scattered on top, then topped with ice cream, whipped cream, and a few more M&M's.  It was a hit!!

Tomorrow I'll blog about the birthday party.  I think it was a lot of fun and I want to share!