Will's 5th Birthday Party!

On Saturday, June 9th we celebrated Will's 5th birthday with family and it was a gorgeous day!  Sadly, not everyone in our usual party crew could make it because my parents and grandparents had a wedding to attend.  Will was pretty devastated when I told him they weren't coming, but he did get some special one-on-one with them in the days around his birthday and party.

The morning of the party was beautiful too and we spent some time outside with the kids riding their new bikes.  (Soph has Will's old bike and she loves it!)

A little later in the day, I got started making the dough for our pizzas:  five large + several individuals for the kiddies.  Aside from that, most everything was prepared or delegated (thank you, mom, Case and grandma!) and I just had some cleaning to do.

Mom balled the melon for me and I just scooped it into cups.

Case prepped the veggies onto her own cute tray for me.

Here's a (dark) pic of me in my snazzy apron getting our pizzas ready.

Didn't get a close up of pizzas but we did a little variety of favorite toppings.

In keeping with the pizza theme I had going for the menu, I set up a make-your-own fruit pizza station (thank you, Pinterest!) for dessert.  Grandma made the sugar cookies (thank you!) and I made the cream cheese frosting and chopped up all the fruit.  Casey's three-tier tray was perfect for serving!

A few pictures of Will and Soph together before the party.  (So pleased with their cooperation!)

Love the hand-me-down dress and sandals Sophie wore this day.

Birthday boy!

Craig spent an obscene amount of time filling water balloons for later.  Thanks, babe!

But the little girls could hardly wait!

I love it when I capture this sweet, ernest expression on Sophie's face.  She can definitely be a stinker, but she is truly a sweet girl.  I think she was asking Cora if she wanted a water balloon here.

Sophie, Cora, Stella & Mya

Wes and my bros, Zach & Taylor

Case, Zach, Taylor and my cousin Molly

Craig's grandpa, mom, sister and of course, Craig :)

Steve came a little late with Cecilia and Veronica because they had another party to attend, but boy did Veronica charm Grandma & Papa when she arrived.  :)

Six months old now!

Kid plates

Kid table :)

Will, Cora, Lincoln, Mya, Stella and Sophie

Handsome little two-year-old

Gift time!

Pals

During gift opening, I was called away for a number of different things and didn't get to see everything he opened.  I know what all he received, but I didn't get to write down exactly what was from whom.  :(  I also didn't get my favorite gift picture at the end of the night with everything set out on the table.  That was because Will hoarded everything to his bedroom while the party was still going on and there were little pieces involved and I just never got it all back out and organized.  He had SUCH a great group of presents and loved them all.  Probably his favorite birthday ever.  :)

Dinos and color-by-number books from the Rethmans.

An awesome dino fact book from our friends, the Magnones, who sent a gift for Will.  So nice!

Magnifying glasses for Will AND Sophie from Grandma & Papa Riedeman.

And just to give you a glimpse of the mad chaos that parties ARE in our cozy, little house:

And that's without four other people that are normally there!  We are at maximum capacity.  ;)
So, whenever possible, we move outdoors!  Thankfully the weather was spectacular, if a little hot and windy, and we were able to be outside quite a bit.

You'll notice Will was in none of the outside pictures until now.  That's because while all of his guests headed outside to play, Will holed up in his room and played with all his new transformers and dinos.  We tried to coax him out to be polite, but he just wanted to check everything out for awhile before he agreed.  Finally, the call of the new squirt guns from Grandma & Papa was too much for him and he caved. 

Craig tossing a balloon to Soph.

Easy targets.  Sorry, ladies.

Dessert time!  We had strawberry ice cream, leftover strawberry yogurt cake and the fruit pizzas for dessert.  Will had a little of everything with five candles tucked into it.

Make a wish!

Passing out favor bags to cousins.

At the end of the night, when everyone was packing up to leave, a certain Goddaughter of mine had a little meltdown about not wanting to take her swimsuit off.  So I suggested that the three musketeers take a bubble bath together before bedtime and that solved the problem!  Why have we not done this before?!?!  So fun!  Can't wait for sleepovers!

Love them so much, I can't even stand it!!!

Such a great day.  We are so blessed!

Thank you, everyone!!!