5

Jackson turns 5 on Tuesday.  5.  Seriously?!

He has been waiting for this day for nearly a year, no joke.  Jack has always been a kid that wants to be older.  He wasn't content to coo, he wanted to talk.  He wasn't content to crawl, he wanted to run.  He wasn't content to play with baby toys, he wanted to play with big kid toys.  You get the picture.  So 5 for him is practically adulthood.  An entire hand.

We celebrated his birthday yesterday and this post was to come last night, but we had his party at Chuck E. Cheese.  Enough said right?  Now you can guess why this wasn't published.  Usually we have the boys' birthday parties at home, with just the family invited.  Until they're 6 that it, that's when they can have a big party with their friends.  But Jack had been looking forward to this birthday for so long we decided to make it a little special.  So we held our family party at the most insane fun place he could think of - Chuck E. Cheese.  Truth be told, I love me some Chuck E. Cheese though so I was pretty happy.  My favorite games are the ones where you insert the token and it drops, pushing others further to the precipice.  You know, the one where the more tokens that get pushed off, the more tickets you get.  Its like a gambling gateway game.  Just one more token and the rest will fall and you'll win big.  Chuck E. Cheese, like a closer, cheaper Vegas!  But I digress.

What we didn't anticipate for the party were the other 6 million people heading out on a Saturday evening in late September to enjoy pizza and games.  But as a parent you take one for the team when it comes to your kids.  Even if that means braving the crowds or pizza-crazed kids, lax parenting, and wide sampling of the population (seriously, you see some interesting people there).  But in the end it was a fun and successful time and the boys and their cousins had a great time.  Stella didn't take to the noise so much, but she tolerated it as best she could.

Jack was on cloud nine the entire night.  The tokens, the orange soda, the pizza, the games, the presents, the cake.  Oh the cake!  This year, in a startling break from tradition he chose to get his cake from Sam's rather than Costco.  Yes, we have memberships to both but that's another post.  Also, instead of the typical cake, he chose a cookie cake.  Jack, always his own person.  However, in case you didn't know already I'll tell you, the cookie cakes from Sam's are incredible.  They're not just a giant cookie.  They're a giant cookie stacked on top of another giant cookie with chocolate frosting sandwiched in between.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I won't say how much I ate, and don't ask the scale, but I highly recommend it.

So, all in all it was a great day.  Jack is still flying high though because he knows he gets to celebrate again on Tuesday so it's like one big party for him these next few days.  Ahhhh to be 5 again.  5, wow.

All is well, partied out, in Drosche Land.