Colin's 5th Birthday!

Colin's requests for his birthday=a pinata, a sword fight, a ninja theme and a marshmallow shooter.

We started Colin's birthday off bright and early before Ben had to go to work.

Cinnamon rolls shaped as a 5 for breakfast.  Lesson learned: don't put candles in hot cinnamon rolls!  I don't know what I was thinking.  Lesson #2: don't wait until the last minute to try and find black decorations (Colin wanted everything black).  His ninja theme wasn't ninja-y at all but he didn't seem to mind.

Ben left for work and Alison and Colin asked to help make his cake.  He wanted a '5' funfetti cake.

Eli helped me put the 5 on.

Lunch was hotdogs, peppers and cherries.  He has such refined taste :)

He found the wrapping paper roll and was pretending to be a ninja.  I love how Colin is always full of expression.  It doesn't matter what he is telling you, it always comes with facial and hand expressions.

After lunch, we had our first cooking class.  It sounds crazy, but Colin was excited to be able to play with all his friends while the girls cooked.  Laurel did a little Bible study with the girls to kick off the afternoon.

We made mini quiches (aka egg muffins).  We talked about basic kitchen rules, how to turn on an oven, egg and knife safety and they learned how to crack/whisk eggs and how to properly hold a knife.  The quiches were a great place to start because they could add in whatever ingredients they wanted to make it their own and they were quick.

Aline, Aveline, Alison, Lilly, Cameron, Brealyn

The boys played Apples to Apples on the stairs...I have no idea why they chose there, but they were having a good time.

Colin, Tolson and Dahlia ran around with swords the whole time, having the time of their life.  

After cooking class, we set up the pinata.

Gwen was so gracious to be the person out there running the game.  Gracious and brave.
When it started to crack open, Brian cut a giant hole in the back and they let Colin wack until it all came out.  He worked SO hard!

 

The kids played a little more and then we had to head to basketball.  Ben made cheese pizza while we were gone and then we had our own little party that evening.

A friend asked me the day before Colin's birthday if I thought this year would finally be easier.  I thought it would.  But then Colin asked to look at pictures from the day he was born and this was the first year that he understood that his story is different.  Now, he understands what it means when he sees the picture of us facetiming daddy in the hospital.  He understands that the picture of daddy holding him for the first time is not on his birthday and he sure noticed how rough I looked (sorry kid, what do you expect when you fall out of your momma at lightening speed?).  Ben pointed out this year something I hadn't thought of before...most people who have had a traumatic event, don't have a yearly (actually daily) reminder of it, but more than that, don't have a day that they are supposed to celebrate it.  Colin's birthday may always be a hard day for me, but I am thankful for him every.single.day.  It was completely worth all the hard to have this amazing person in my life.