James is 5!

 For James' fifth birthday he decided he wanted to have an Odd Squad birthday (it's a PBS math show with detectives who investigate odd things). 

A couple days before the party, the kids helped me paint shirts. 

Eliza looked pretty cute in her shirt!

If you look close, you can see the 'odd' candles James picked out. The flames were different colors.

We covered the house in numbers so that it could be the 'math room'.

Here's the whole birthday crew in their odd glasses.

Each kid got a Ms. O juice box.

We had the birthday party a couple weeks before James' birthday because Christian had the potential to be in Canada for several weeks in March. He ended up not going (THANK GOODNESS!). 

On James' actual birthday we had a celebration as well. James requested a Lego cake. It's not my finest work, but James liked it.

James REALLY wanted to go to school on his birthday, and luckily his birthday was on a Friday. He decided he wanted to take doughnuts to school. 

In the evening we went to Casa Bonita for dinner. The last time I was there was when I was 8 or 9 and my family went to Denver on a road trip. It was EXACTLY like a remembered it.

Here is James' Birthday interview:

1. What is your favorite color? Red

2. What is your favorite toy?LEGOS

3. What is your favorite fruit? apples

4. What is your favorite tv show? Lego Shows

5. What is your favorite movie? I don't know. I can't choose.

6. What is your favorite thing to wear? Shark PJ's

7. What is your favorite animal? cat

8. What is your favorite song? Can't stop that feeling 

9. What is your favorite book? Star Wars

10. Who is your best friend? Copper

11. What is your favorite snack? Chocolate 

12. What is your favorite drink? Hot Chocolate and Lemonade

13. What is your favorite breakfast? Chocolate Cheerios and Chocolate Cheerios in the same bowl.

14. What is your favorite lunch? Peanut Butter and Jelly with all the things I like on it like chocolate and candy. 

15. What is your favorite dinner? Macaroni and Cheese and chicken nuggets.

16. What is your favorite game? My Candy Land (we have two versions)

17. What is your favorite thing to play outside? Go to the father/son campout.

18. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas.

19. What do you sleep with at night? Christmas mouse.

 20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A firefighter.

James is such a joy in our family. He really enjoys his sisters, and is so glad he has a baby sister. He's pretty enamored with any baby he sees. When I was pregnant he would always say, "My whole life, even when I was a baby, I always wanted a baby." When Eliza and her friend Sybil are together, he hugs them both and says, "These are my babies." He had great math skills. One day last summer (when he was 4) he asked me when he could work downtown. I said, "I don't know, maybe when you are twenty." He said, "Oh, 5 more of what I am now." He constantly asking math problems (Mom, what's 45+32? 77, why? Oh, I was just thinking about math) and is pretty good at solving problems himself. He loves to dance and recently he decided he likes to dance/clean (dance while cleaning up) which I absolutely love. Some of his phrases that we say often are, "I kind of like it, and I kind of don't." and "You never know, until you know, and then you know." He's got lots of enthusiasm and knows how to charm a crowd. He loves to play soccer, but is not super excited about competition. He often wants to play games we can all win. The other day he wanted to play Candyland with me on the same team, even though there were only two of us. He's such a good kid and I love him to pieces.