The big 5!

Oh my, he's five folks!  What a day we had!  We got up early to make sure we got to wake Max up singing at the top of our lungs!

We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then Stephen had to head to work.  Max and I spent the morning doing fun things here at the house and then headed to lunch with dad!  We had lunch on campus with him (he works for Eastern Illinois University) which Max thinks is just the coolest place and then Max got a backstage tour of the football stadium from one of Stephen's friends who just so happens to be one of the coaches.  When we were walking in Max quietly asked "are we allowed to be here Mom ?!"  He got to go into the locker room and weight room and up into the victory suite.  He felt pretty important!

We had a Wii marathon in the afternoon (Max totally kicked my booty) and then Stephen cut out early from work to spend the evening with his boy.  Max picked his all time fave restaurant for his birthday dinner (Buffalo Wild Wings) so he could catch all the sports fun while he ate.

Then it was home for presents and cake and ice cream!!!  Max got to skype with Grandpa and Grandma while he opened his gifts from them and then he opened ours.

The bike is called a "co-pilot" and we're pretty excited about it.  Max is too big for a traditional children's bike seat or pull behind trailor, but he's not quite big enough to keep up with us on a long bike ride.  So this is the perfect solution!  He gets to "ride" his own bike but if he gets tired, he can stop pedaling and it doesn't affect Stephen's riding at all.  We're pumped to try it out!  The last picture is the present that Max is most excited about.  Of course.....it has to do with baseball!  Its a practice net for pitching and catching.  Perfect indoor/basement solution for a long winter without baseball!!!  Great idea dad!!

And then it was time for cake.  You guessed it...this year we went with a baseball theme!  Surprise, surprise!

It was SUCH a fun day!  Max kept saying "this is such a fun birthday guys!"  That makes a mama's heart glad!

I also wanted to post pictures from last week.  Max got a package in the mail all the way from Thailand, and to say he was excited would be a bit of an understatement :)  Max LOVES getting mail from Lek and Edmond, and Stephen and I LOVE that he gets to have such a special relationship with the two people that loved and cared for him so strongly for the three years before we were able to.  Lek and Edmond, you are amazing, and we are so blessed to have you in our lives!!!

Oh Max, I can't believe you're five!  You were supposed to stay little forever!  But, you are growing into an amazing young man and your dad and I are so proud!!!  Happy Birthday Max!!!

The love of the game

So, apparently I've forgotten that I have a blog!!  In all honestly, we've just been enjoying summer, and my pictures have been piling up on my camera as I occasionally think to myself "oh, this would make a great blog post!"

Several weeks ago we asked Max what he would like to do for his 5th birthday (I still can't believe he's going to be five!!!).  We were fulling expecting him to request a party with all his best buds.  After thinking about it for all of 3.5 seconds, he says "guys, I just want to go to St. Louis, watch a Cardinals game, stay in a hotel and go to a restaurant."  Music to my ears!  You mean no planning a party?!  We asked him several times over the next couple weeks if he was sure he didn't want a party and his answer was always the same.  "I REALLY REALLY want to go to a Cardinals game."  Well, judging by the pure excitement on his face every second of this past weekend, I'd say he was VERY happy with his decision!

Stephen was able to call ahead to the hotel and get a room with an AMAZING view of the stadium.  When we checked in they made a big deal of wishing Max a happy birthday which of course made him feel extra special!!  As soon as we got into the room, Max's yelled "guys look!!!!"  We had to pry him away from the window just to get over to the game :)

We all had a blast at the game.  Max sat through all 9 innings, totally loving every minute.  He seriously loves all things baseball and couldn't believe he was actually in the same stadium he had seen on tv so many times!

Not only did they wish him happy birthday when we checked in, when we got back to our room, Max had a special birthday treat waiting just for him.  There was a stuffed Cardinal, a bottle of Fitz' rootbeer (famous in STL) and two HUGE bags of gummy worms and jelly beans!

Sunday morning we surprised Max and took him to the St. Louis zoo!  Its such a great zoo.  The weather was perfect and all the animals were out.  We made sure to make a stop at the giraffes.  When we were waiting to bring Max home, we received a video of him looking at a picture book of animals.  I watched it EVERY day until we traveled!  In it, he excitedly keeps flipping back to the same page and saying "giraffe!!!!" as he pointed at it.  We brought a stuffed giraffe with us the morning we met Max for the first time (he still has it on his bed).  It was fun for us to remind Max of all this while we stood at the zoo looking at them yesterday.  Of course now, as an almost five year old boy, he patiently listened to our story and then replied "cool Mom."  Not quite the emotional response I may have dreamed up in my head, but that ok :)

 We headed to my folk's after the zoo so Max could open his gifts from them.  Such a loved kid!

I've got a little over a week left, and then I will actually be the mom of a five year old.  Its really crazy how fast time flies!  Sometimes I just hear him say something, or watch him solve a problem and I'm blown away by how grown up he is!  I'm so thankful for the young man he is growing into!!!