Evan's 5th Birthday

This past Friday, Evan turned 5, on August 5th.  So our little man celebrated his Golden Birthday, and while we had originally planned to spend the day at his favorite (outdoor) swimming pool (The Bay), the weather didn't cooperate.  In fact, the day ended up being a rather cool and overcast day with some light showers.  So we changed our plans and headed to the Denver Children's Museum, which is actually where we have gone for each of his past two birthdays (see Evan's 3rd Birthday and Evan's 4th birthday posts)!  Guess it's becoming a bit of a tradition now!?

Before I go into the story of our outing to the museum, let me first back up and say that Evan awoke to the house decorated for his birthday with all of his presents from us and family sitting on the couch. This is also becoming kind of a tradition for us too, and he was up early and quite excited when he saw it all.  He got to open all of them, except the ones from Nanna we saved until later for when she was awake and could join us on Skype.  Evan got a RC "monster truck", a new Spiderman backpack, 3 packages of Bunch-o-ballons water balloons, and a bell for his bicycle from us, and then a dino charger from Aunt Linda. He was thrilled to get the dino charger, though it didn't make sounds (rather it was a set of the charger "cells" that you can collect to have lots.  Once John and I realized what it was he wanted, I decided to swing by the store and pick one up to go with the chargers from Linda.  Until this point, I was not quite sure what it was though! He learned about these from a friend at school.).  John had ordered another gift that was due to arrive in the mail later in the afternoon, so Evan had a few more things to open along with Nanna's presents later.

After he opened his presents, we started to get ready to get out of the house.  John had to take our car to the tire store to replace the tires (they were old and worn, but the day before we'd also gotten a flat from a blade stuck in the tire!).  Then we picked up John and headed south into Denver.

The museum was packed that day...we were lucky to get a parking spot when we did!  The museum had been under various stages of renovation the past two years, but this time it was complete.  And it was pretty awesome.  We spent nearly 5 hours there, and we didn't do everything! In the entry way they have a camera and some props so the kids started there while we got our tickets.

Evan wanted to start at the "suck up balls" (kinetics), which has always been a favorite for him.  Since we wanted the kids to really enjoy themselves, we let them play there for quite awhile before suggesting to go elsewhere.  That was kind of our motto all day, in fact, which is why we didn't get to everything.  After the kinetics, Evan and John went to climb in the new climbing area, but Emma wasn't big enough so she and I first went to the Colorado-themed camping play area and then to the toddler play area.  Emma was so funny in the camping area...she found a mountain lion stuffed toy and latched onto it.  And when she found the bowls and cups she started pretending to make food and drink and then would feed it to her mountain lion.  In the toddler area, she did some fishing in a little boat.  Also very cute.

After that we met up with Evan and John at the firetruck play area.  Evan waited patiently for a turn to drive the truck, and also did the fireman pole many times.  Emma even got to try the pole, and she also enjoyed playing in the play kitchen that is in the firehouse.  She also went right up to the firefighter mannequin and started shaking its hand and then gave it a hug.  Glad to see she's not afraid of it with all the masks and things on!

Then we figured we should eat our lunch so we found a table outside and had our picnic that I packed.  After that, Evan wanted to play in the sand again (he had loved that last time too).  The kids also did the zipline for the first time.  Evan did it over and over, while Emma gave it a try once.  They also played in the water "stream" too.  Emma had chosen to wear her rubber boots, so she splashed around with them on. 

After outdoor play we went back inside and found a brand new water play area.  It was pretty awesome.  Emma loved the balls in the water activities, and collected as many as she could (also what she was doing in the kinetics area).  Evan tried a little bit of this and that, and clearly was having a good time!

After the kids were wet (despite wearing rain jackets), we went upstairs and found the new rockets area.  The first time we'd gone Evan had loved the rockets area, but it was under renovation last year. Evan and John spent quite awhile at the rockets, while Emma tried a few of the other activities in the area, but then wanted to go do the bubbles play area.  I took her to bubbles and on the way she found the floating ball activity, where she had a blast for quite awhile.  I think she not only liked playing with the ball and trying to get it to float, but also the feel of the air blowing on her.  She even tried drying her dress with the air!  haha!  I got some pretty funny pictures (most are blurry though) of this activity.

Then we did bubbles, all the while Evan and John were still doing rockets and a new hot air balloon activity by the rockets.  Then Emma went shopping in the market/kitchen area while Evan did bubbles.  This is when I realized how late it was getting and if we didn't leave soon we'd hit rush hour traffic!  So we let the kids choose one more thing to do, and Emma wanted to go back to the fire truck, but that's when we remembered the vet play area was by the fire truck, so I took her in there and she was at home right away.  She ran over and sat behind the desk, and then ran and got a dog and started giving it shots and brushing its hair.  She would talk to the dog the whole time telling it what she was doing.  Then she went back to the desk and played on the computer and picked up the phone and started talking, "Hello, I'm the doctor...." I don't recall the rest, but it was adorable!  

To get the kids to go we had to offer them a popsicle and then we were on our way.  Both kids fell asleep right away in the car, for good reason!  What a fun, but long, day!

Once we were home we dropped John off to get the car, and then we went home to Skype with Nanna.  That's when Evan got his new spiderman sleeping bag and hot wheels loop the loop track set.  The package from Amazon John ordered arrived as well, with another hot wheels set in it too.

Evan wanted Papa John's pizza for his birthday dinner and an ice cream cake from Freddy's.  He went into Freddy's to pick out the one he wanted (brownie delight) and then we picked up our pizzas.  He chose pepperoni with black olives.  After we ate our pizza we put 5 candles on the cake.  He blew them out with ease and wished for the dino charger that made sounds.  We asked if he had looked inside the new backpack, and he said no, so he ran over and sure enough there was that dino charger he'd just wished for! :) I think I can safely say this boy got everything he could have ever wanted.  And he still has his birthday party the next day!!

Sadly, he didn't like his ice cream cake, but he was so preoccupied with all his new toys he wasn't bothered.  He'd had a great day and was so happy to be 5.  :)