Happy Birthday Connor

Connor is 5 now!

 I asked Connor some questions about himself. Here are his answers (with my comments in parentheses).

Connor, according to Connor (Age 5)

Favorite color: red, for fire

Favorite game: Guess Who (the old-school game)

Favorite tv show: Transformers Rescue Bots and PJ masks. "Transformers isn't better than PJ Masks and PJ Masks isn't better than Transformers. They're both the same like."

Favorite book: A Big Guy Took My Ball by Mo Willems

I really like to wear: my shark shirt

I love: cake

Favorite animal: cheetah and armadillo. When asked which animal would win in a one-on-one battle: "Armadillo, 'cause it can roll into a ball and has armor all around and under him. And then when he jumps into the cheetahs face it just Boom! Bonks him in the face."

favorite stuffed animal: octopus

(He just got this for his birthday. I made it.)

Favorite breakfast: cereal, cookie crisp or frosted flakes

Favorite lunch: chicken nuggets or a hot dog

Favorite dinner: corn dogs

food you don't like: onions

what are you really good at: drawing

Best Friend: Ellen (she moved away a few months ago and Connor misses her)

Are you going to get married when you grow up? Yes

To whom? Maddie (a friend from church who we see all the time at playgroup, the library, etc.)

What do you love to do with mom: go on bike rides

With dad: build things, help him with projects. But I couldn't help him with his thesis, cause I didn't know any words I could write.

With Dallin: play legos and swing outside

With Bennett: running away from Bennett when he's chasing us with a lightsaber and we have to run until we get to the secret base.

I would describe myself as: a painter.

What do you want to be when you grow up: a painter. (He changed to this answer about 2 months ago. Before that, his answer was an animal doctor.  Before that, it was librarian. He asked if he was allowed to change his mind on what job he wanted to have as a grown up. I told him he could still change his mind lots of times and that he has many years before he REALLY has to decide.)

***

Connor loves to learn. He loves to ask a lot of questions (which is very tiring at times) because he likes to understand how things work. He likes looking at maps, and he asks me to draw him maps of the roads we're driving on to follow while we're driving. After using several poorly drawn maps, we gave him some free ones from the Lafayette visitors center as a birthday gift. He is so excited to start marking all our favorite landmarks in town.

We also got Connor a bigger, surprise present. Here is a video of him opening it.

We love our Connor boy!

Connor's 5th Birthday

Connor's birthday in October is always at a busy time of year when all our weekends are filled up with Halloween parties, piano recitals, etc., so his birthdays are usually a family-only affair. This year, he really wanted to have a party with some friends, and we made it happen. The only time that worked for us was a weekday morning, which meant that his 5 year old friends already in Kindergarten couldn't come, but it worked out really well for the preschool crowd. Connor wanted an animal themed party. That's a pretty easy theme to throw together at the last minute (which is what I did!). 

When the kids first arrived, they decorated paper animal masks (found at Hobby Lobby).

Then we played a few games. Monkey bean bag toss.

I drew the monkey free hand on poster board, added details and color and attached to a large cardboard box.

Then they played an Elephant peanut race.

The kids had to push a shelled peanut with their nose across the floor to the finish line. This was actually harder than I thought it would be.

For the next game, the kids each had a straw to be their elephant trunk. They had to suck air through the straw to pick up foam packing peanuts with their "trunk" and move it into a bowl.

You could make this into a competition to see who could pick up the most peanuts, but these young kids just enjoyed the process and worked together to fill bowls. And they were all so quiet with straws in their mouths! This game was a win!

Then it was lunch time. I used our sandwich shape cutters to make elephant and penguin shaped bread.

 Everyone got to make their own sandwich.

Sides: animal crackers (obviously), tiger tails (cheetos puffs), apple boats (I'm not sure why, but that's what Connor called these apple slices), watermelon, and lion hummus.

I love the way the lion turned out.

Connor helped me decorate the cupcakes to look like monkeys and pandas. 

Connor placed most of the candy eyes on the monkeys, which is why it looks like they're all looking up surprised. We used m&ms, mini oreos, chocolate chips and sprinkles to make the rest of the details.

He looks very serious here, but I promise he was super excited to eat the panda.

I forgot to put these out with lunch, so they became a party favor to take home: tiger cutie oranges!

So simple but pretty adorable.

The decorations were also simple but I loved how it looked. I taped strips of green streamers to the ceiling to look like jungle vines. Connor cut out some paper leaves to attach to a few of the vines.

 The easiest part of decorating was using all the stuffed animals we already had at home and putting them on any surface that would hold them.

Like on on the ceiling fan, the couches, the TV cabinet...

and the curtain rods.

 Connor wanted me to take a picture of him coloring in a new coloring book he got as a gift at his party.

 We had a fun time and played pretty hard. So hard that Connor wiped out on the couch not to long after.

Snuggled up with his octopus.