Our Jackie Boy is 5!!! We love him so much. Jared pushed for and planned a Chuck E Cheese birthday party, and I am soooo happy he did. At first I was skeptical because the nearest Chuck E Cheese is about 45 minutes away from our town, and it's obviously pricier than throwing a little party at home. Jared and Jack attended a Chuck E Cheese bday party for one of Jack's preschool friends the month after Alice was born and they both had a blast, so that planted the seed. When Jared said the phrases "food and drinks included," "activities all taken care of," and "won't have to prep or plan a thing," I was sold. Especially during this the year of the baby/sleep deprivation. Every child needs to have a Chuck E Cheese birthday party once, right?? Most magical place on earth when I was 5.
My favorite parts of the party were as follows: Jared and Jack picking out the invitations. Jared and Jack delivering all the invitations (I did write them, which was maybe my only contribution). Jared doing all RSVP text communication. Jared coordinating everything with Chuck E Cheese. Waking up and cleaning NOTHING before going to the party. Showing up at the party and doing nothing but talk to and get to know other preschool parents. Preparing zero snacks. Baking zero cakes. Cleaning up nothing when it was all over. Jack looking at us with stars in his eyes all day long. Will we do this every year? Nope. Probably a one-time thing. Was it amazing? Yes, yes it was. I highly recommend marrying a birthday party dad. Especially if you have an inkling you might not be a birthday party mom. Jared was in his absolute element coordinating this party. Love that. Also love not being in the medical training years anymore and him having time for this. Amazing.
Anyway, Jack had a blast all day, even though he made this face in almost every picture at his birthday party hahaha:
It was absolutely wild to watch Jack around his preschool friends. Whenever we drop him off or pick him up from preschool, he goes into what Jared and I call "the preschool zone." Our always sunny, exuberant Jack all of a sudden gets very serious and puts on his game face. He loves preschool so much so it's not that he's not excited. It's almost like he has to focus in and do some processing to turn into preschool Jack? We're used to that, but I didn't expect Jack to drop into "the zone" for his birthday party, too. He had 3 church friends and 5 preschool friends show up with their parent(s), plus his Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Will.
When Chuck E Cheese came out and the employees asked the birthday kids (there were 5 kids having parties) to go up front to dance with Chuck E, Jack put his head down and REFUSED and avoided eye contact with everyone. Hey Jack, want to take a picture with your friends standing next to Chuck E? Absolutely not. I asked him if it was a "scared of giant mouse man" thing later, but he told me he just felt scared being put on the spot to do things in front of lots of friends and strangers. I totally get that. Just weird to watch your kid grow up, since he would've loved to dance in front of a crowd of strangers a year or two ago haha.
On the note of it being bitter-sweet to watch your kid grow up, there always comes a moment on or before or after Jack's birthday when I get all sentimental and teary. This year it was in the evening after he was in bed for the night. He recently grabbed our spare baby monitor and put it in his room, so I watched him fall asleep hugging his stuffed Bunny (and picking his nose lol). Then Jared came downstairs and I started sobbing about how I was blindsided by Jack changing his favorite color this year, and felt robbed of painting Jack's bedroom Jackie-Boy red, since a few months ago his favorite color changed from red to blue overnight with no notice. He had been asking for a red room since we moved in a year and a half ago, but I was preoccupied with other rooms and being pregnant so I planned to do it later this year. Everyone else was telling me not to because red is so bold, but Jack has always loved red and I found some really cool, classy ways to do it that I was so excited about. But now that his favorite color is blue I may never get to do my little Jackie-Boy red room.
I've never known anyone else close to me whose favorite color was red, but of course Jack's favorite color was red--he's always had big red energy. But now he's shifting to a more blue personality in some ways. It's sweet, and of course we're supposed to change as we grow up, but I just felt so unexpectedly sad about the sudden change in favorite color. I'm really starting to understand the part of my dad that's always asking my favorite color. I keep asking Jack the same thing every few weeks, kind of hoping he'll change his answer back to "red" someday. Love you dad! And mom! Being a parent is so sweet but the dumbest things will get you right in the feels. Since I'll never end up doing this in my own house, here are some of my red room inspiration pictures:
^^The birthday boy gets to go in the ticket blaster. He would only go in if Jared would join him. (Did not want to be seen jumping around in a glass case by himself in front of a bunch of people, no duh.) They collected enough tickets for Jack to win a toy lizard and a toy iguana! Very cool.
^^Uncle Will and Baby A.
^^A smile!
^^We're going backwards here, but this was Jack's birthday morning Bubble Wand situation.
^^Alice's room is almost officially finished! I would love to put her name above her bed and make a brass butterfly mobile to hang from the ceiling, but pretty soon I'll do a blog post of pictures of her finished nursery.
^^Built-ins are coming RIGHT along and I can't believe this room ever existed without them. We just need to finish adding trim, paint the whole wall, and then add hardware to the cabinets.
^^Me and Jack had a date together before he turned 5. He had so much fun that he asked if me and him can always have a date before he has a new birthday. Yes buddy, yes. We were going to have a McDonald's picnic in the park and then play "Wild Jack" tag. But then it was raining and cold so we pivoted to a Palisade Picnic and board games in the back of the car. It was a HIT. This boy loves a good board game more than almost anything else. 
^^Jack with two of his best preschool buddies, Theo and Seth. Would not stand for this picture unless I was next to him and held him in place there. Yay.
This was our very first friend birthday party. We learned a few things. First of all, don't forget to take a picture with all the friends in it. Also, 5-6 friends is probably a good number. At least for a party like this. 8 was just barely too many. He didn't have time to play with every single friend, and I didn't have time to have a conversation with every single parent. Not that there will always be parents there, but for this type of party at this age, there was. Also, think real hard about the food situation and don't overdo it. Chuck E Cheese recommended 2 pizzas and 2 pitchers of soda. We were like, we'll raise you 3 more pizzas and 3 more pitchers of soda to 5 total of each. Didn't know how many parents would show up and didn't want to be short on food during lunch time. Guess how many were left when we were done? 3 expensive pizzas and 3 pitchers of soda. Next time we'll listen to Mr. Cheese and staff.
It's been the best birthday weekend! I'm so happy Jack had a great time through every minute of it, even though you can't tell from the pics. He got a HAUL of new toys. Grandma and Grandpa Haines got him an e-reader that he used to "read" me a bedtime story and then was glued to the rest of the evening. Grandma and Grandpa Lambert got him a big wheel type of situation that will get lots of use when the weather warms up. The day after Jack's birthday felt like the day after Christmas. Jared and Jack spent the morning playing with Jack's new remote control cars and building legos together. I prepped some bolognese to simmer all day long and had music going in the background. It was lightly snowing outside and cozy cozy inside, with Jack's birthday decorations still hanging from the ceiling. Alice just smiling and jumping away in her activity bouncer. Jack's main gift from us was 2 remote control boats (and the party), so we even had a little outing to our neighborhood lake for some boat racing before it started hailing and we retreated back to our cozy, warm house. Big post-Christmas vibes. So fun.
In other news, Jared's office staff overheard some elderly ladies in our small local grocery store talking about how the new young doctor in town is a "tall glass of water." I always knew he'd be a hit with the little old ladies! Lots of glass of water jokes this week, but seriously, how fun. I feel like gaining popularity with the little old ladies demographic was always Jared's small-town-doc destiny. He loves them, and they love him. It's been a fun week with my babies and my tall glass of water.