Love a Lego Birthday!

It was my original hope to get all caught up on blog posts before my birthday.  Does "on" my birthday count?  Because you see, we've been having some great birthdays around here!  

Ten days ago, Eli Jameson Wheeler turned five.  That's a whole handful of digits!  And of course, once you're officially a big boy of five whole years, there's no better way to celebrate than with a Lego party.

Lego card courtesy of Daddy Jason.

Working together with Eli to create the cake and party favors was just as much fun as the party itself.  We used frosting to stick smarties on Nutter Butters for our Lego brick popsicles, and the cake was nothing more than mini cupcakes stacked on top of lemon cake baked in a bread pan.  Sooo easy. 

Eli seems to like the Lego men on his Lego cake.

I think they like him, too!

For dinner, we let Orsi's in Little Italy do the baking so that we could have more time for playing.  (By the way, all of the face paint is courtesy of a morning at the Children's Museum.)

Annika's turning on the charm for NomiAnn.

Aww, she's so cute!

 Especially when she steals NomiAnn's glasses!

Okay, back to the real star of the evening, Eli turned himself into a Lego Brick...

So the Lego piñata was great because of its simplicity.  Nothing but a wrapped-up diaper box with mason jar lids and colored foam circles hot glued to it.  Plus, it was so big that instead of filling it with candy, I threw in a few small gifts for the birthday boy.  

Everything is awesome!!!  Well, maybe not so much.  Turns out that breaking open a diaper box with a plastic bat is pretty dang impossible.  We finally had to let Papa K and Jason have at it with a wooden bat.  By the time they finally broke into it, one of the presents inside wasn't looking too good...

Whoops!  The puzzle's still in great shape.  The cute metal tin? Not so much.

 Time to blow out the candles on the cake!  While I don't know for certain, I have a pretty good idea what he wished for.

And yes, his dreams came true.  In addition to some other fun presents like the Trunki and Squigz, Eli received a plethora of Legos.  A logging truck, a fire engine, a tree house--even the Hogwarts Express!  The entire family's been building for days, so everything is awesome.

Even though he may still fit Size 3 clothing, Eli's been growing up really fast lately.  This fall he started attending preschool every afternoon at Yates Early Childhood Center where he's a peer model in a special needs classroom.  He absolutely loves it, and counts down the hours each day until he can go.

Here's Eli again in front of his gorgeous old school.  The school board is planning on replacing it entirely because it will cost less than updating it.  Argh!

Other exciting new tidbits in Eli's life: he's recently learned to both read and ride a two wheeler.  It took all of about two seconds to teach him to ride, thanks to all the practice he had on his balance bike.  The hardest part was finding a bike with a small enough frame (his happens to be decorated with Dora).  Once that was purchase, we set him on it and whoosh, he was gone. 

Life isn't particularly easy when you've got three sisters to get along with.  Eli definitely has his moody spells and occasionally lives up to the title of "annoying little brother."  Most often, though, he's still his same easy going self, full of giggles and laughter.  I think the birthday card Talia made somes it up best.

 Happy Birthday, Eli!  We love you!