Max turns 5 today! Oh my goodness, how this time has flown by! This time 5 years ago we were clueless new parents and now look at us! Clueless "experienced" parents of three! Max is such a joy to have in our lives. He is our sensitive, detail oriented, thinker. Honestly, he completely reminds me of myself at his age. Everything from his sharp memory (I said me at his age...not now...memory loss is mamabrain), his imagination, his attitude and tantrums, his talkativeness and storytelling. But he also has a supremely kind heart and is always thinking about others. So proud to call that amazing little man mine!!
Sunday evening we decided to kick off our celebrations for his special day. We brought out our family celebration plate that we take out of our china cabinet for any special occasion to signify we have something special going on. Max was very excited when he saw me getting it out. He came and sat at the table to watch me put it into place. He was smiling from ear to ear. Probably more so because his Papa had told him that he was going to get to be the boss on his birthday and he was ready to take on that challenge than because he is turning a year older. After I got little Ms. Belle to bed I set up the living room for an indoor camp out. We've been talking about doing this for a long time and we thought that Max's birthday kickoff was the perfect opportunity. We "redboxed it" (that's the term our family uses when we rent a movie) and found the classic movie, "The Muppets Take Manhattan". We had the tents set up filled with lots of comfy blankets and pillows to make it soft. The boys had their stuffed animals too. We got the movie going and I made some homemade microwave popcorn with butter. We also shared an XL KitKat bar. They got to stay up until 9 which was a big deal too. Nico said to me, "Mama, why is it so dark outside??" In the summer the kids are always going to bed when the sun is still up or when there is still a glow. He wasn't used to seeing it dark outside...not before bed anyway. Most likely he's noticed it being dark outside on one of the countless number of times he's gotten up in the middle of the night. 
They slept very well in their camp with Papa positioned on the couch behind them. I camped out upstairs in my bed. I had to stay up late cleaning, wrapping presents, showering, then taking care of the baby. We had a girls only slumber party in my room.Today as soon as Belle woke up we heard the guys moving downstairs. Belle and I grabbed Max's presents and headed downstairs to surprise him!
It is tradition in our house that on whatever occasion we are having, if it involves presents we give them the second we get up. We also have the tradition of waking up the birthday person with their breakfast lit up with candles. However, since the guys were downstairs I didn't want to wake them early to get Max's requested birthday breakfast of Reese's Puffs cereal, bacon, and waffles ready to go. Instead, Belle and I brought the presents down and let him open them first. 
He got a Hot Wheels track, some colored Cars themed pens and kazoos (that he saw at Party City and just had to have), and a 700+ Lego set. I don't know what we were thinking with those Legos. I had no idea they would be so tiny! We will be establishing some strict rules regarding those right away. Max won't care though. He was so excited! Nico being 2 1/2 and not understanding that it's Max's special day had a little bit of a meltdown during the present opening, wondering where his special presents were. Luckily we had a present stashed for him just in case a situation like this occurred. 
Max would rather his brother get a present too then ruin the fun by crying. Once he saw that he was going to be getting something too, he didn't care that Max had several gifts to open. In fact, he got very excited for Max!  |
| Every year we decorate a shirt for the birthday. The front is typically the birthday party theme. |
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| Making his wish |
Apparently, big breakfasts and birthdays when presents are already open are not going to work from now on. The boys were too excited to sit still and ate only half of what they could have. 
Finally after they went back and forth from the table for an hour I gave up on them. There was too much they would rather do. We quickly cleaned up and got everyone ready to go and headed out the door for our first stop on Max's birthday adventure. Fernando had told Max that he was going to get to be the boss on his birthday so we let him make most of the decisions (within reason). Hence the combination of breakfast items. 
His next decision was LEGOLAND! We arrived around 10 a.m. and stayed for several hours. There was so much to do! I think that we could have spent the entire day there if we hadn't have had a long list of requested activities we wanted to get to for the celebration. 
We rode a car ride where we had to "shoot" the bad guys and save a princess. Max got to play in an indoor play area (Nico was too short :( ) 
They built race cars and raced them down ramps; 
Max got to drive a "police car" and catch some crooks; we watched a 4D movie; 
there was a spinning ride that I took Max on and then Nico decided he wanted to ride so we got back in line and I rode with him too. We did all kinds of fun activities, played, built, etc. 
Next up was a pizza lunch. Our first plan was to hit up a pizza buffet but thankfully Max changed his mind and wanted to eat pizza at home. That way no one could over eat on pizza and we'd have healthy side options like edemames and peas and a fruit. Once we got there and had lunch ready to go, of course, it was a chore trying to keep the boys at the table to eat because they wanted to play with the new toys some more. I kept having to bribe with the birthday cake. For his birthday cake, Max had a very specific request. Being the sweetheart that he is, he wanted to make sure there was something everyone could eat. He really really really wanted chocolate cake with chocolate icing, but he knew his papa couldn't eat that because of his allergy to chocolate. So Max decided that he didn't want me to make the cake. He wanted to go to the store and buy individual portions of birthday cake like we had done for his Papa's birthday. (You may recall we had done this because Max had said that it wasn't a birthday without cake, but we were going to be having Fer's favorite desserts at the party instead of cake.) Max came with me to the store. We picked out the two cakes he wanted the family to share. He picked a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and mini chocolate chips for him and I to share, and a white cake with white icing and colorful sprinkles for Fer and Nico to share.
We sang "Happy Birthday" again, but this time Max procrastinated and his brother attempted to blow the candles first. Max swooped in at the last second and blew them out before Nico could. I'm not sure what kind of mood he would have been in if Nico had succeeded. 
Because it's tradition, we had Max take a big bite of cake without utensils. That's always fun! 
Finally after lunch was taken care of, the boys got to go play with the toys for a while until Max was ready to continue with his list. 
His next item was play computer games. He loves to go on the Disney website and play games there. I for one was very thankful the next item on the list was low key. I had a terrible headache and took the time to sleep it off. 
When I woke, the kiddo was still playing his games, but it was time to move on to the next thing. SWIMMING! 
We swam until we were pooped out and ready to wind down our day. We got in and had early bath time. Dinner was in pjs!!! Belle had her cereal and the boys ate almost all of their dinner! They were starving after their crazy busy day and from neglecting their meals due to the temptation of playing the new toys.
There were two items on Max's list that did not get crossed off today. I guess we'll just have to celebrate more tomorrow. Too BAD!!! He wants to play a game of Mexican train and a good round of Hide-n-seek. I know what we'll be doing tomorrow!....If they want to take time out from the race track and legos. Our goal was to make Max feel special today. He needed a day to himself to feel extra loved and appreciated. Having three young kids makes it difficult to focus soley on one as much as we would like to every single day. I think that he got just what he needed/wanted today! We loved being able to do all of these fun things with him. He has a lot of favorite things that we tried to all put together to make it the BEST birthDAY EVER. The Facebook posts, phone calls, texts, voice mails, etc. really made it special for him. He got a voice message from his Pops who sang him "Happy Birthday" putting the biggest smile on his face. He listened to it twice and then we saved it so he could listen again later. His Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jon did the same for him. He listened several times and smiled just as big every time! By phone, he got to talk to his Tio Richo which made him very excited! Thanks, guys! You completely made his day! We will continue the fun throughout this week and into the next weekend when he has his birthday party with some of his friends. He can't wait!
Max,
Our love for you is bigger than the whole wide world. You are an amazing little man who is so caring and a great example to your little brother and sister. They are very blessed to have you looking out for them. Thank you for your big heart and silly personality! We are blessed that God entrusted you to us to be our son. You make us proud every day. We love you always and forever no matter what!
Love,
Papa and Mama
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