Alex's Big 5

Somehow I only got 1 picture of Alex's little birthday party. I guess that's how most of the day went. I was going to let him have a birthday party...didn't happen. He loves store-bought cakes, so I was going to order a birthday cake early this year so I wouldn't have to create the monster truck one he wanted out of a Halloween cake and Milky Ways...didn't happen. I wanted to take lots of good pictures of his cool new bike and other gifts...didn't happen. Basically I put very little effort into making it a 5th birthday to remember. Oh well, I don't remember mine either. Needless to say, we had a busy day, or month, really. My parents were down for his birthday. We went to his soccer game first thing in the morning. Then we came home and threw a quick little party before my parents left for Vegas. He blew out the candles of this AWESOME cake! Ha! We gave him a new big-boy bike and some other things that I can't even remember now. My parents gave him a Jake pirate ship, and Tanner's parents gave him a baseball pitching machine, which has basically been the hit of the neighborhood since it entered our existence. I swear there is some kind of alarm that alerts all children within a 1-mile radius when it gets turned on. It's been quite the friend-maker.

Then we went to the town Halloween carnival. They're a cute little couple, aren't they?

The months leading up to Alex's birthday, we were trying to prepare him to be a BIG 5-year-old! He kept telling us things like, "I'll eat my vegetables when I'm 5 because then I'll be a big boy!"  Well, since I'm writing this 2 months later, I can say that he hasn't tried a vegetable once, but it's still a pretty good way to get him to do things. We love this kid. He's definitely our sweet little boy who always cares about everyone and doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Getting mad doesn't work near as good on him as just doing a pouty face and acting like he hurt my feelings. It just makes him melt. His preschool teacher tells me all the time that he's her and her mom's favorite (her mom helps with the class sometimes). They say he's always nice to everyone and always participates and listens in class. He's a good big brother, and he's got a little sister and brother who look up to him big time. Happy Birthday, buddy!