Look at my birthday boy! I was playing around with a new app on my iPhone for photo taking.
Monday. Tyler's birthday! I had been toying around with the idea of taking Tyler to LegoLand for his birthday, but the driving distance was quite a turnoff. But he's starting kindergarten in just a couple weeks, so I decided to man up. It's his birthday for goodness sake! We dropped Katelyn off at school in the morning. She didn't know we were going - she is so vocal and stubborn these days! How cute are they!
Tyler even got a nice birthday hug from his favorite teacher Vanessa that morning. This is probably the hardest part of leaving ICDC, Tyler not seeing her everyday!
A last minute decision the night before - Tyler's friend Kaden and his mom Jen decided to come with us! They were so excited and ready to go in the morning! We put Kaden's carseat in my car and we carpooled down to San Diego.
Quick drive! We got there before the park opened (930am, park opens at 10am) and there was a long line waiting to get in. It really looked worse than it was. After we bought the tickets (I had a great coupon - buy a park hopper adult pass and get a second day free ALONG with a 2 day kid park hopper pass!) the line was nice and short.
Here's a nice group shot right after we entered the park. Our good friend Joan and her 3 boys met up with us as well! It was already starting out to be a hot day. Not a good sign. Overall the lines were pretty long that day, but what did you expect - it's the Summer!
Dinosaur rollercoaster ride. Tyler's never been on this ride before and he always thought it was too scary. What? This is the kid who went on Space Mountain! It took Kaden ready to go on it that convinced Tyler to go on as well. The line took quite a while too, ugh. Tyler ended up really enjoying the ride too!
Lego car driving! Wow, didn't realize how slow these cars go. Too bad Tyler won't be old enough to go on the larger racetrack until he turns 6 next year. Very funny though, this little girl kept running her car into his and pushing him into the side of the road. Those women drivers...
Video of Tyler driving at Legoland:
Lunchtime giggles. He loved his "happy birthday" button and getting happy birthday wishes all day. He ate so much for lunch too! No naps on this big boy's schedule.
Whew, day was getting out! By 2pm we were already starting to think about leaving. Last stop was the Star Wars set in MiniLand on the way out. Here are the boys with R2D2.
Here's Tyler with all of the Lego characters, he wanted to take pictures with all of them. He was in a great mood that day, very agreeable and excited. He's getting so big!
Time to go home! Tyler was asleep before we even hit the freeway - very normal for him. Kaden fell asleep a bit after that...but then we were stuck in traffic. HORRIBLE traffic. You can see the cars in the photo - on the 5 freeway! Very painful. A drive that usually takes 45 minutes or so took us 2 1/2 hours. Oh the pain. We left at 3:20pm and didn't get back to ICDC until right before 6pm! I was very exhausted. Ugh! The kids were, as expected, starting to get really squeamish sitting in the car for that long too.
Will met us at school and we headed to dinner at BJs for a nice birthday dinner for Tyler.
Happy birthday to Tyler video at BJ's Restaurant:
Can't believe Tyler's time at ICDC is quickly coming to an end. I went to pick him up early one day and found him still sleeping. Adorable! My little boy. Waaaah! No more napping once kindergarten starts!
Tyler and his BFFs Zane and Brock. Their birthdays are all within days of each other!
At Taekwondo this week they got new Summer shirts. Doesn't Tyler look so grown in this photo?
Video of Tyler sparring and getting this TKD birthday whacks:
Thursday was birthday snack for July birthdays. Here are Brock and Tyler in their birthday crowns.
Thursday night our friend Joan and her boys came by for a visit after after dinner. The kids had a lot of fun playing, Katelyn blended in right along with the boys.
Group shot!
On Friday, Will and I picked up Tyler early for his 5 year doctor appointment. He was really cute and agreeable the whole time... until it was time for vaccinations! Oh man. OH MAN. It was pretty bad. Think hiding in the corner / crying / being held down in order to take the shots. He's 41 pounds (54%-ish?) and 44 inches (70-something %). Has he even gained any weight since last year? He's still so skinny! Anyway, Will and I were pretty exhausted by the time this appointment ended. We had spent the day doing last minute party preparation. Party preparation that included renting a bounce house and table/chairs last minute. Ugh, shady businesses are so unreliable! LAME!
We decided not to go to soccer that night since Tyler's BFF Zane was having a birthday party that night from 7-9pm. It would have been too tiring and rushed, especially since the party was down in Foothill Ranch. We toyed around with bringing Katelyn but ultimately decided not too - it was so late and she would be tired! So I took Tyler and Will took Katelyn home. Tyler had a great time with his friends!
Video of Tyler at Zane's PJ bounce birthday party:
Zane is SOOO TALL.
The ballpit. I am very paranoid of going in there, after getting hit in the eye by a foam ball last time! I made Tyler wear goggles the whole time he was in it, and he thank goodness didn't fuss. He is so silly - here he is doing some dance moves in the line of fire, haha!
Doing slides with his friend Dylan!
Group picture at the end!
Saturday. PARTY DAY! We were trying to be kind of relaxed in the morning, no last minute rushing allowed! Everything went pretty smoothly, except that it was blastingly hot! Will and I started setting up the chairs/tables/canopies around 10am-ish, with the help of our wonderful friend Robb! What a help he was! By the time we finished we were all sweat drenched! The kids napped (well only Katelyn actually, Tyler really tried though) and then we split up. Will picked up the balloons and waited at the park for the bounce house delivery while I took Tyler to get his cake and last minute items. By 4pm everything was up and ready to go! This will definitely be the last time we do a party like this. I know I said it last year but these outside Summer parties are just too hot and too many people! Here's a bunch of the photos from the party! In honor of the Star Wars theme, even Katelyn had her little Star Wars Ewok shirt!
Here's the invitation!
Katelyn is holding one of the light sabers that Will made from pool noodles. They were a huge hit.
The early arrivers were really excited to do some bouncing ahead of time.
Not such a great photo of my decorations, but I won't complain... much. Each table had these tins with Star Wars figures mounted, as well as Star Wars coloring pages with twistable crayons! It was cute watching the kids color excitedly and look for the particular Star Wars printout. The coloring pages were half sheets and I had made them so they each said "Happy 5th Birthday Tyler!" in Star Wars font on them.
Signing mat! 5 year old are old enough to do this. I was excited to see the cute little ways each kid wrote their name. :)
We ordered food from a local Hawaiin BBQ place called Da'Luau. Very tasty - spicy pork, kalua pork, bbq chicken, bbq beef, asian coleslaw, fried potstickers, somen salad, spam musubi and rice!
Bounce House fun!
Then the Jedi Training started. Oooooohhh. The kids were really excited. The Jedi Master walked in with music and everything!
The training started out with everyone practicing some basic moves...
Here's a video of the group Jedi padawan training:
And then lining up to do some one-on-one practicing with the Jedi Master. Tyler was first (of course) and he was TOTALLY INTO IT and had some good moves! The other kids got a chance to fight as well.
Video of Tyler's Jedi training:
Then Darth Vader showed up! Him and the Jedi Master did a light saber fight scene.
Tyler's turn to fight Darth Vader! He unleashed on him, no fear!
Jedi force...
Video of Tyler getting his battle on with Darth Vader:
We tried to get Katelyn up next but she looked pretty worried... the other kids all got turns as well. It was great to watch!
After battling Darth Vader, the kids played a parachute activity. We moved a canopy from the tables over so that they could have some shade. Darth Vader must have been burning up in his costume! I was not too excited about the parachute part of the activity, but I was surprised to see how much fun the kids were having with it!
Later I asked Katelyn if she wanted to fight Darth Vader and she said to me: "I hold Darth Vader hand!". I didn't know what she meant until I found this picture that Will had taken. She really did hold his hand! :)
Nearing the end, all the kids got Jedi temporary tattoos.
Even I got one too! (By the way, the small amount of sangria I drank that afternoon was quite strong due to the intense heat and lack of fluids!)
Family picture with Darth Vader and the Jedi Master! I was pleased with their performances! These pictures would have been nicer if just one of them we could see Katelyn's face!
Last thing - getting the kids into teams for the final battle. Jedi Master's team vs Darth Vader's team. They passed out balloon light sabers for all the kids.
...does Katelyn's light saber look a little funny to you?
FIGHT!
Video of the balloon lightsaber battle royale:
Lastly, Tyler got a Jedi certificate for completing Jedi Training. We had to ask his cousin to sit down a couple times since it was Tyler's time to accept the certificate!
Pretty unsuccessful group photo. Oh well.
My little boy is all grown up!
And the rest of these are random party photos.
Oops, our family photo has a +1!
Cupcake time!
Whew, what a party. We have great friends that helped us pack everything up - including the tables and chairs! We put the kids down to bed and then my in-laws came over to watch them for a bit (watch them sleep I guess) so that Will/I could head up to West Covina for my good friend Shirley's daughter's birthday party! OK, so we didn't get there until almost 10pm, but we don't get to see them that often and it seemed perfect since the kids were in bed and Will's parents could just hang out and watch some TV at our place for a few hours. It was almost like an impromptu date night - we didn't even ask Will's parents until early that afternoon!
Tired. Long day. Sunday morning we were feeling pretty sleep deprived but dragged ourselves out of bed to get ready to go to the beach for a friend's birthday party. Will and I are definitely not beach people. Not at all. I don't even remember really EVER going to the beach for a day of hanging out at the beach. Maybe we've walked and visited it for a little, but nothing that ever included swim suits! The kids were VERY excited though. We were almost an hour late. Sigh. But our friends didn't give us a hard time since they knew we had the party just the day before!
This photo I snapped of Katelyn and some of her girl friends. They were taking turns washing their feet off in the water bucket! I love how the other girls are all older but let Katelyn play with them. :)
Video of Daddy and the kids at the beach:
Picked up this shade tent from Costco a couple months back - LOVE it and it is so easy to assemble! Katelyn looks like she wants to eat my hat!
Group kid shot!
Exhausting but fun filled weekend. I'm looking forward to some relaxing ones coming up...Tyler has one last week at ICDC and then he'll be starting kindergarten!!!
And one last video of Tyler practicing biking without training wheels:
1 comment:
legoland and the jedi knight training party was so fun!! it was a fun filled week. can't wait to see what next year's party looks like! hahah
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