5!

Isaiah is five now! What a wonderful age five is. I still remember my own life at age five; it was a very happy year.

We had a wonderful little gathering last week with a few of his young friends. It was a Dusty Crophopper party, at his request, and I'm certain none of the other guests even knew who that was, but that's fine. We've watched the movie "Planes" and the sequel "Planes: Fire and Rescue" so many times as a family that multiple lines have been woven into our daily lexicon.

We hosted this party when I was 36 weeks along, just one day after Patrick being away for several days for a work trip. Thus, I was considerably not on my game as far as party prep work went.

This Pin the Propeller on Dusty, I drew and furiously coloured in at about 1:45 PM the day of the party (and the guests were expected at 3). I was still cutting and tracing the actual propellers while the kids were being dropped off.

But the kids seemed to enjoy it.

It was cute, though, because the few 'competitive' games I had planned (this, as well as Musical Chairs) were slightly lost on all sweet little children in attendance. We ended up singing them through a few rousing rounds of "Sleeping Bunnies" which they were all much more comfortable with. 

It reminded me again how much I love little four year olds and five year olds; they're old enough to be genuinely interested in playing, having friends and living life, but still incredibly innocent.

Another hit was having Dusty colouring pages for the kids.

And homemade sky blue play-doh (which I cooked up with minutes to spare before the kiddos arrived) with some cookie cutters and disposable knives.

Again, how much I love this age. Play-doh is my jam.

Patrick has been experimenting with his new camera, and keeps taking artsy pictures of my hands while I prepare food. It's sort of Van Gogh of him.

Again:

The Peasant Woman and the Watermelon.
(It looks like I'm hiding a second watermelon under that blouse.

I assure you, though, that's a baby.)

It was pretty charming: when two of my friends called prior to the party, I mentioned Isaiah had been campaigning for sand toys as well as markers for a while. When he opened his gifts to discover he had received those exact things, he gasped in delight and said "how did you know that's all I wanted?!"

He's still been talking about the amazing "coincidence" since.

"I-S-A-I-A-haitch"

 Isaiah loved this cake. I thought it was acceptable.

I was glad the kids in attendance are both young enough to a) not be literate and b) not be blunt enough to tell me how illegible my icing words were.

All in all, it was a fun, sweet, charming time.
Perfect for a fun, sweet charming fellow.

On his actual birthday, we had take-out pizza and watched, of course, "Planes" again. I got pretty sentimental when I insisted they freely chose to wear matching jammies as we ate our pizza and watched the movie. So little time before that couch will hold a fourth Craine kid.

And a store-bought cake. Ah, so much prettier, so much less hassle. Whew.