There are times...

"There are times when I love you," Tristen told me. He was sitting on the couch next to me as I edited his birthday pix. Then he reached up and kissed my shoulder. I snapped this picture a few minutes later as Chris was reading him a story before nap.

Thing is, I know just what he meant. There are times when I really REALLY love him, too. Like this weekend. It was a perfect birthday weekend -- full of smiles and laughing and five-year-old chit chat.

Today we continued to chill and wait for Tillie. I sat in the yard while Chris weeded and Tristen deadheaded the hyrangea bush to make room for this year's blooms. He was careful with the clippers and eager to show off how much of a bucket he filled with the old dry stuff.

At one point I asked if he wanted to sing. He said that he wanted ME to sing -- a song about Tristen and Tillie. "Tristen row the boat ashore," he suggested. "I should row, because I'm the oldest."

He is VERY proud to be 5.

I'm sure it goes without saying that Chris and I are just overwhelmed with pride, too.

Five!

Tristen is five. We celebrated with an end-of-June birthday party (just in case Tillie came early) at Arena Sports Inflatables Fun Zone. I needed the party piece to be easy this year, so we went for "birthday in a box." It turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made; Arena Sports made things VERY easy.

Tristen had requested a cake with "Superman and Spider-Man playing soccer," so that's what we went for. Who would win? Superman, with his lightening speed? But how would he ever score on his web-slinging friend?

A slideshow from the party:



For Facebookers, the link: https://picasaweb.google.com/kannamarshall/2011JulyTBdayParty?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPezgKmI2e2QnQE&feat=directlink.

On his actual birthday the following weekend, we started off with a pancake breakfast, where we surprised Tristen with a new bicycle. He also got an awesome new marble run.

Note the creative mixing of marble runs. Yay, Dad!

Note two possible exits. Yay, Mom!

Owen's family and Amy joined us for dinner and some serious slip-n-slide action. See also "Fun ride chicken!"

And of course, cupcakes, ice cream, and fortune cookies for dessert. My fortune said something about a nice event soon happening. Let's hope so! :)

We ended the day with a homemade volcano.

Fun ride chicken!

I don't know what that means, but it's what Tristen and Owen yell as they're hurling themselves toward the slip-n-slide. So funny!



For Facebookers, the YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz3luB267oA.

Drink Silk!

Continuing our tradition of product placement, here's one from Tristen's birthday breakfast. That's Amy drinking creamer in her coffee. :)

An infamous duo

Owen and Tristen have been hanging since they were in the infant room at Interlake. Happy birthday, Owen!

Birthday frisbee

Eric and Miles came up from Portland to help me celebrate 40! It was such a great weekend: a Saturday Coleman Pool swim, dinner out, Sunday morning frisbee in the park, afternoon mojitos...

In fact, thanks to all the great friends and family who helped me celebrate this milestone throughout the week. It was about as rockin' a time as a woman who is 8 months pregnant could handle!

Summer!

Finally, we're getting some sunny days. Last weekend, we met up with Gep, Elana, and Liam at the park.

It's hard to believe that Elana and Tristen are already (or almost!) 5!