Little Man's Birthday

Little J's birthday is coming up soon and I'm feeling so torn.  Mostly excited about how fun it is to be his momma, but he is growing so fast that I'd love for time to stand still.  When he was a wee bebe I loved to call him my little man.  He was such a stud and still is.  He loves learning new things and he devours information.  He's so much like his daddy.  We'll be talking about something--like just recently how fast alligators grow--and  he'll say, "oh yeh, I know.  I read that in a book!".  He loves checking the weather and Find It books and mazes and games.  He loves that I keep a big calendar on the wall so he knows what's coming up.  Little does he know that he is the main person I thought would like it and that's what motivated me to make it.  He loves snuggling up to read with me.  He loves all things sports and all things outdoors.

Yet, he is my most hesitant and reserved kid and we have to (gently) push him into facing many of his fears.  I know he will get over those and that it's our job as parents to help him face them rather than ignore them.  He is a tough little man but he still cries and every time it breaks my heart.  He's the kind of kid who will unload the dishwasher in the morning before anyone else wakes up and not announce it to everyone so they know he did it.  He loves to do things with his sisters and family.  He is not the kind of boy who complains when things don't go his way.  He loves jokes and he loves to laugh.  He gets an idea in his head and can keep it there a long time.  He thinks life is pretty darn cool.  This past summer he LOVED watching the Olympics and was a serious Olympic fan.  It didn't matter which sport was on because he loved them all.  So, this year for his birthday we decided on an Olympic birthday party.  This worked out perfect for me as well as him because with Thanksgiving holidays his party had to be the day after we came back from Louisiana and this turned out to be an easy party to do.  It helps that he likes to keep a small circle of good friends but also I'm trying to keep parties more simple.  I planned out the party before we left but otherwise was able to get everything together the day of the party.  You may enjoy listening to this while scrolling through the pictures so get you in the mood as we did at the party (you'll have to open this again in a new window and wait 15 seconds for the comercial).

Creating their Olympic Flag

Same.  I include this picture because an apparently arm-less woman makes an appearance!

These two working well together designing their half of the flag.

I made an Olympic torch that the kids took turns taking a lap with before handing it off to the next athlete in line.

Our Olympic Sports included:  hurdles (as seen here), discus (frisbee) throwing, long jump, weight lifting, shooting (nerf gun at target), and soccer shootout (best of 5 goal attempts).  The first three events they got two attempts to show improvement.  They loved all of the events.  And fittingly little J won overall gold, which he thought was ideal as the birthday boy.

Six little cuties with their Olympic flag and torch.  

We decorated with the five olympic color balloons outside and Dollar store gold stars hanging from the ceiling inside.  Easy peasy.

Pizzas, Olympic style.  

Okay, so I had to put something blue in the blue spot, so they didn't actually put blueberries on their pizza but everything got eaten one way or another:  blueberries, black olives, red pepperoni, yellow/white cheese and green onions.

The party favor.  There are also Rolos hidden inside.  I also tried my hand at those water bottle covers I've seen everywhere only I did it on Gatorade, obviously since that's the chosen drink of athletes.  

and the most important thing--> I think they had a grand time celebrating my favorite little man's birthday!!