Reder's Birthday Party

We had Reder's birthday party last Saturday. We didn't have a giant affair - Gramma and Papa were here. My parents came over too, and that was it! We let him open the present from Karie and Andrew earlier in the day so he had something new to play with...surprisingly we had all of his presents in the family room all week and he was never obnoxious about wanting to open them (I distinctly remember doing that to my parents when I was a kid!). It was a new Lego set - a log cabin. Very cool! Of course he loved it.

Some of these pictures are out of order. He got a sleeping bag from Jason's parents. It was a HIT. Ruby got to open an early birthday present from them too, and it was a purple sleeping bag. We can't wait to take these camping this summer!! Note that Reder is wearing his special birthday hat he made at school on his actual birthday. For some reason he reminds me of the Pope in this hat.

Nice face Mom. Too bad I can't see these photos too clearly when I'm choosing which ones to upload.

These pictures are of poor quality....our camera is dying. Does that mean we need a new one before Disney? Jason would say yes.

Here is a really cool puzzle he got from Wally. This is an awesome thing for him to play while he's making his "daytime rest". Sadly he already solved the hardest level. He's still having fun with it though.

We made a bunch of homemade pizzas for dinner. Yummy!!

Two proud parents who simply can't believe their son is 5:

Reder requested a rocket cake. I think we did pretty good. Of course he didn't eat any of it. He hates cake, remember? But, he insisted he wanted a cake, not a pie for his birthday. Too bad there's no way to carve pie into cool shapes. Then we'd be set!

We also had a Dora the Explorer pinata. Reder all but begged me for a pinata and I told him they were too expensive so not to count on it (I could only find $20 varieties!). Then Ruby and I were at the grocery store and they had them for $8, so we surprised him with one. I was a bit nervous, as you will remember how well this went over the last time we tried a pinata. At Reder's 2nd birthday, Aunt Karie brought an Elmo pinata. Reder and Wally were so confused as to why we would want them to hit their friend with a bat. Alas, we just dumped out the candy and they played with Elmo instead:

This time was different. They both thought this was so fun!

After Dora got her legs whacked off and we took the shovel handle away from Reder, he runs around acting all violent and crazy. No wonder they say violent tv makes for violent kids! This definitely proved their point! It was short-lived, thank goodness. We love PBS!

That night Reder insisted on sleeping in his sleeping bag on the floor. Being a boring adult, there is no way you would get me to sleep on the floor when my comfy bed is feet away. But when you're 5 I guess the floor isn't that bad, especially when you have a cool thing to sleep in. He loved it!

Thank you everyone for all the nice gifts, and for making Reder's day special!