Spies Like Us!

Here you have it, Owen's 5th birthday in a nutshell...

I am sure that mine are not the only kids in the world to talk about their birthday and what kind of party they are going to have for 12 months out of the year, are they? Finally, about a month before the big day Owen decided...a SPY party! What fun. Owen received a package from Nana and Papa the day before his birthday. We told him that he would have to wait until the next morning to open the package, so like any soon to be five year old, he slept with the present and woke us up the next morning saying, "It's my birthday! Can I open my present?" It was too cute. Lucky for us the present was a spy laser trap that kept both boys occupied for the next several hours. We had a yummy breakfast, sent Daddy off to work and the boys and I continued to set traps. Then we went to McDonalds for lunch. Both boys were thrilled to learn that I had chosen McDonalds, not because it is my favorite place, but because they have Star Wars kids meals right now (our rule is that we only get kids meals on trips, but birthdays are an exception to the rule). Of course Owen was telling everyone he saw that today was his birthday and that he was now FIVE! After lunch we went home. I still needed to decorate the cake and do a few other things, so the boys watched a kids Spy movie, "Get a Clue", and Kate took a nap. Once again Beth helped me out with the cake decorating, just in time for the little spies to arrive. The first thing we did was Owen gave each spy a disguise to wear. We had I-Spy books out, which a few of the kids looked at, and the others ran off to set more spy traps. Once everyone had arrived we made spy watches (ie. slap bracelets that they decorated) and spy notebooks (notebooks with blank covers that they decorated with markers and stickers). Then finally, they got their mission...bring me something round, something green and something small from the backyard and they would be rewarded (ie. given a bag of candy--oh, and I did make the bigger kids bring me something they could eat as well). By this time Jed was home and able to be apart of the fun too. It was fun to see what the kids came up with. Some of them were very creative. Then of course there was the cake, ice cream and ridiculous amount of presents. Owen is so spoiled and loved by his friends and family...what a lucky boy. He even had Miss Cindy come by from Daddy's office. He had wanted Cindy and Kim (the gals who work up front) to come so that all of the kids could meet them. Then after the party we had dinner together as a family and Owen was able to end the night opening his gift (a "how to draw monsters book"--perfect for him) from Grandma Nila. Grandma Nila has a way of timing the arrival of her gifts perfectly. The gift always seems to arrive ON the actual day, which is so great. Who doesn't love having a large package arrive with your name on it, ON YOUR DAY? Anyway, he said it was the greatest day ever, so I was pleased. I always feel at the end of a birthday that I need to call our parents and thank them for everything they ever did for us on our birthdays...let's face it, we were tired!! Happy fifth birthday buddy!