The Big 5!!!

I am late posting, because of a REALLY busy week/month, but I wanted to take a few moments and talk about Jayden's landmark birthday!  On July nineteenth my big boy turned 5!  I can't believe the time has gone by so fast.  He was so excited and seemed to know what an important birthday it was.  He talked about how he was soon going to be five for weeks before. 
What a fun five years it has been for me!  Of course we were very excited for his arrival since we felt we had waited a long time for him and we have certainly never been dissapointed.  Our whole world revolved around our little Jayden man.  And he sure LOVED the attention!  He was a ham from the very start, always making faces and doing silly things that made everyone laugh.  He has also always been very active and rambunctious boy, I feel like I am correcting him constantly, and sometimes feel like I am talking to a brick wall!  And yet, he is very sensitive in many ways, wants to be good, TRIES to be good, and is way to hard on himself.  Just the other night he was crying because he felt like he wasn't a good boy...(talk about ripping a mother's heart out!  It confirmed that I am stealing his self esteem!)  It was nice to be able to talk to him about how much I and Heavenly Father and Jesus love him.  And that they just want us to try our best, because they know that will make us most happy.  But that none of us are perfect and we just have to let things go.  Not to mention that he IS a REALLY good boy and does so many wonderful things.  I know I probably lean too much toward laying down the law.  But I try really hard to let him know how AMAZING I think he is.
It is difficult to describe in words, but he is very sensitive, kind, and observant...the reason it is hard to describe is because it is hard to come up with examples.  But I see it almost every day, in what he says and watching his little mind work...it is one of my favorite things about him.  I really feel like it is a gift.  He seems very aware of others, and concerned for their well being.  We saw a homeless man, and he asked me about him and why he didn't have a home.  He asks me questions like that a lot, when he sees things on the news etc...  He seems so aware for his age and I am always surprised by what he observes and understands when we watch the news, or when Jay and I are talking.  And he wants to make connections and learn new things too.  He really keeps me on my toes with his questions.  Not to mention delighting me with his discoveries.
In less than two weeks I will have to put him in kindergarten for the first time...  I don't know if I am ready for it!  He can't wait and is always asking how close it is, so I am happy for him.  But I have loved having my kids all to myself, and I will miss those times.  In short, I have felt so blessed to have such a special, amazing little man come into my life.  He teaches me so much and enriches my life more than words can say.


I am going to include a few of his favorite things and then I'll talk about his birthday party!
Favorite color: Red
Favorite food:  chicken nuggets, mac and cheese
Favorite toy:  bumblebee, optimus prime, turtle puppet
Favorite tv show:  transformers, curious george
Favorite things to do:  playing, riding his bike
Favorite Restaurant:  Olive Garden and Burger King

We celebrated his birthday on Sunday, the 18th.  It followed several BUSY days so we were working all day preparing for the party not to mention being TIRED from an already crazy week!  All the preparations are worth it though, when everyone has a wonderful time.  Jayden wanted an Optimus prime truck cake.  I found a pretty fun looking cake online and looked forward to the opportunity to try it out.  I started making cakes and rice krispy treats in the days before, but hadn't finished as much as I had planned to when Sunday morning rolled around.  (You know, stacking, frosting, and covering the cake with fondant :)  Then when I started rolling the fondant that I had prepared the day before, I discovered that forgetting to put it somewhere cooler than my car the day before, had ruined it....  So luckily, I had bought extra fondant supplies and I rushed to make another batch.  With the help of Jay, my mom, and sisters we got the house ready, the food ready and the cake ready, just in the nick of time!!  (well we worked on the cake through the party, but it was done in time to sing and cut it up! :)  I spent the WHOLE day on the cake, the rest of the food was made by my mom and Jana. (not to mention, Rachel did all the painting on the cake and helped me the whole time with that.)   Thanks guys!  What a great day it was.  Jayden helped me remember the final touch I forgot: oreo sticks for smoke stacks. He seemed pretty happy with the cake after they were added.

Grandpa Turpin was one of the first ones there, he read to the boys while we finished preparing the party.

We had so many family and friends there to wish him a happy birthday.  Even my parents and Cari were in town.  As usual, I think Jay made the party for the kids.  We bought a bunch of squirt bottles for the kids.  He found a big squirt gun and ran around with him against all twenty of them.  A couple of times he tried to jump over the crocodile pool, slipped and fell in getting soaked from head to toe.  SO fun to watch him being a kid with all of them! 

This is just after he fell into the pool for the first time :).

Presents!

Cake!

After the cake and the presents we tried to calm things down with a little sidewalk chalk.  I wish I got a picture of the driveway before the rainstorm yesterday!  It was very cute.  A huge rainbow and tons of the kids names who were there with their drawings.  I love summer birthday parties, they require very little activity planning yet always end up a blast!  Happy Birthday Jayden!