lovin' life: Brady's 5th Birthday!!!

Brady is FIVE! holy cow! part of me feels like he's been five forever (since he's only been talking about it since his fourth birthday) and part of me literally feels like he was just born this morning because that memory is so clear and fresh feeling. time is so crazy.

Brady's birthday is somewhat cursed. there seems to just always be something that gets in the way of just a regular birthday celebration at home with our family. I mean, on his first birthday, we left him with a babysitter. his second birthday, we may have done the same thing? or I scheduled dentist appointments that night or something? I'd have to go back and check. we had a great birthday at my parents' with baseball cupcakes and baseball themed everything at the table. I loved that but I was still kind of sad that it was born out of necessity because we were traveling and out of town on his birthday. well, this year was our year. we were in town, we kept the night totally free (Chris had asked me a week or two ago if he should keep the hockey tickets for tonight and take Brady to the avs/penguins game, but I told him that I thought it would be better to all be home as a family), and we had awesome birthday gifts we were soooo excited to give him.

so of course he came down sick on his birthday eve. was totally fine until he sat down at dinner and just mentioned that he didn't want to eat. and then kept true to that. within an hour or two, he was a crying mess because having even the most minor sickness means that he is just a few short breaths away from death. but I gave him drugs that eventually kicked in (which was great because we barely finished that last reading lesson since he was an emotional disaster, but the Motrin made him feel great and giggly again) and he went to bed happy.

so today I had kind of low expectations because Brady was sick (same as me... sore throat, congestion, achey head/neck) and Andrew was still throwing up but the day was actually pretty great all things considered!

so sick and sad.

he watched a lot of shows. frosty the snowman was the favorite... that got a few viewings. especially while ms. stacey worked with Elizabeth and I was in the shower, it was good to have some Christmas shows on.

I asked Elizabeth to grab me a diaper and pjs for Andrew and she actually did! and quickly!

came out to find this. I know it looks like he's watching tv... he's not. sometimes when he's really tired, he just like to find a patch of sunlight and lay down to rest. I think if I had left him, he would have fallen asleep even though it was only 11am.

I'd promised him forever ago that he could have a big treat (like a trip to get ice cream or something) when he finished his entire reading lesson book. it worked out well that he finished last night and he chose a chick fil a milkshake as his treat. so I waited until after 11 to load us in the car and we went through the drive through (at first he was sad when I told him we wouldn't go inside to play but I told him that he and Elizabeth could stay in their pjs for the car and he was good with it). we got two chocolate milkshakes (Elizabeth and I could share) and two chicken sandwiches (thanks again for the calendar cards, mother! and poor Christopher that he let me borrow it one month and I've never given it back. whoops. it's just been so nice to have two because I always have at least one kid with me) and then picked up our Walmart order on our way home. I asked Brady if he was sleepy (it was obvious) and he said no. two minutes later... this.

and I gazed longingly at the chick fil a. so then I decided to wake him up so we could all go inside to eat. totally worth it.

Brady said he wanted a hockey cake. a cake that looked like a hockey rink. this image was VERY helpful for me to reference.

eventually I got to this point. it was more time consuming than I wanted it to be (the whole process of baking and making a cake) because it took all of my time that Elizabeth was napping, but it was fun. Brady helped me with the cake baking and with frosting the whole thing white (tip: heat the frosting and then pour it over... it spreads evenly like a glaze and it doesn't even matter that the top half of your cake was ripped in shreds (because it was really the bottom that didn't come out of the pan evenly)... not that that happened to me. anyway... it all came together better than anticipated and I let it be when I got to this point.

when honey came home, I had him place the players in a way that made sense to the play of the game. because one of the goalies was broken, we used that one... the one that wasn't broken still had the long piece attached to his back so the player can move him around... I told honey I only wanted to use the broken one (since he didn't have a stick coming out of his back) and he'd need to craft a situation in which the yellow team pulled their goalie to get an extra player on the ice. he did a great job.

that puck is a raisin.

honey wrapped all of Brady's gifts and then stuck them on the entertainment center. his family tradition is on the fireplace but ours is full of Christmas stuff right now. and mostly because we were SO excited for Brady to open his gifts and didn't want to take any chances about the surprise being ruined.

got some pjs from the Kelsey grandparents.

starting with elbow pads, Brady unwrapped an entire hockey outfit (minus hockey socks though... he'll tell you he got everything except hockey socks) and I may be even more excited than he is because he's been wearing Chris's elbow pads on his arms and his legs (Chris has two sets... two different sizes) and it is the biggest pain ever to try to get those just right. now Brady has everything for the size he is.

he was soooo happy. and during presents and throughout the rest of the night, he would just stop and tell me or Chris "thanks for getting me my own hockey stuff" or some variation of that. my heart was warm at how truly grateful he was. maybe my favorite moment was when he opened one of his first gifts that wasn't identified (Christopher didn't label anything... he would just tell Brady when he gave it to him) and he was all "dad, who gave this to me?" it was precious.

he kept putting it on piece by piece... here he's still wearing his little basketball shorts and one set of Chris's elbow pads on his knees. this was also the point in the night where Elizabeth decided to strip down and denounce clothing for the rest of the night.

we all played hockey together in the basement multiple times before bed.

it was basically just a dress rehearsal for Christmas next week. and oh my goodness I love my honey so much. he completely cleaned up this entire room and all the kitchen and dishes and started the dishwasher and put our three kids to bed while I helped Andrew and really, this is my love language. and then we watched a hallmark Christmas movie together. well, the end of one and beginning of another... we can't seem to sit through a whole one in one night.

but for real. I made this cake. from a box, but whatever. I didn't even eat any because I don't like cake. unless it's an amazing cake. funfetti doesn't count. also, I was able to surprise Brady with the cake because he didn't see it after I did the initial blue lines. I think it was better than he thought it would be.

with his gifts. this was definitely a hockey heavy birthday but he did get nuggets tickets for Wednesday night (Chris and I are going to take him and his best friend, Zack) and a soccer ball toy from brian and Kelsey. and then dinosaur pjs from the Kelsey's. mom and dad sent him this cute baseball card (the envelope even had a little circle baseball stamp!) but they cancelled it out by face timing him and giving him roller hockey lessons. I'll sign him up at the rec center and I can't wait until it starts in march.