Tipton had his birthday party at the beginning of April (a joint birthday party with his friend, Keisuke.) So his actual birthday was a little low-key. Sort of.
The day started with presents. Lots and lots of presents. First opened was the present from Grandma Suzie. Tipton had been hearing about how cool this present was for over a month, and he couldn't wait to see for himself. He agreed that it was indeed very, very cool - K'Nex that you can build into a roller coaster!
The way birthday parties are 'done' over here, is that intead of each kind bringing a gift, all the parents chip in some money for one big gift (or gift card or cash...) Tipton opted for cash (and lots of it!) A few days before his birthday Grandma Suzie and I took him to Toys R Us to spend his birthday money. Tipton is all about Playmobil Knights right now, so that's what he spent his money on. One of the things he got was the Playmobil knights treasury wagon.
Grama Kay and Papa got Tipton a giant Playmobil Knights mountain castle. I think he likes it.
Another thing that he bought with his birthday money was a Playmobil knights take-along castle.
Tipton also got some extra Playmobil knights (to go with all of his castles) with his birthday money.
Lilli gave Tipton a Bump 'n Go Spiderman. Spiderman rides a motorcycle, and when it bumps into something (a wall, a foot, a chair, etc) it turns around and zooms off in another direction.
Mommy and Daddy gave Tipton Star Wars Legos.
The take-along castle came with a catapult that would 'fling' balls of fire. Lilli gathered up all the little balls of fire and put them on her toes. We're not exactly sure why. But it sure was funny!
Grama Kay and Papa sent musical birthday cards for the kids. We hung onto them until Tipton's birthday, then let the kids open the cards at the same time. Lilli's plays Rockin' Robin. She loved it! She dances every time she opens the card.
Tipton's was a Star Wars card. When you opened the card it played the Star Wars theme.
He took his birthday card to school for Show & Tell.
When we got in the car to go to school, this is what we saw:
It seems that my car has a calendar/reminder feature. And Dave had programmed Tipton's birthday into it. We all thought it was very cool that the car wished Tipton a happy birthday!
Because it was Tipton's birthday, I made cupcakes and brought them in to school. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures. Tipton requested the same cupcakes he had for his birthday last year. Strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. The cupcakes were pink. So we tinted the frosting bright/neon blue. Then I sprinkled green sugar on them in what I hoped would look like shields (staying with the knights birthday theme.) Then I sprinkled six silver candy balls/decors in the center of each 'shield.' Everybody loved them. In fact, one little girl asked me if I could make them again!
After school I invited all of Tipton's friends to John Ericsson park. We'd already had the cupcakes at school, but I had other munchies. Here are Sam and Mom watching over the muncies. (Sam is Aaron's Mom.)
And here's Mom and Me - because we never seem to get a picture of the two of us together.
And here's my friend, Nami, who was kind enough to take a picture of me and Mom. Nami is Keisuke's Mom.
Earlier in the week I had bought some new outdoor toys. I figured Tipton's birthday was the perfect opportunity to try them out. Here, Keisuke and Tipton are playing with the disk launchers. You pull a string and the little disk spins around and takes off like a helicopter. The kids had LOTS of fun with these. Not sure if you can see the little yellow disk just above and to the right of Tipton's head...
When we got to the playground, the sand pit was empty. Like, all of the sand had been dug out of it. About 20 minutes after we got there, a big truck drives up and starts dumping in new sand. We all stood around and watched. A big mechanical scoop would scoop up sand in the back of the truck and swing out and drop it (very precisely) into the sand pit. The guy in orange used a big joystick type controller to control the scoop. When he had finished, all the kids jumped into the new sand.
Keisuke shows Lilli how to make a little ball out of the new sand.
Lilli must have been awfully tired, because she had to lie down in the sand...
Then she laid down in the field...
Then she laid down in the daffodils. I guess she just couldn't get comfortable.
Meanwhile, the boys were having a great time! (L-R: Aaron, Tipton, Alexander and Keisuke)
Bubbles are magical - it doesn't matter how old you are, everyone wants to play with the bubbles! (L-R: Tipton, Keisuke, Alexander, Aaron, Nicolas)
Well, everyone except for Lilli...
...she just wanted to sit in the daffodils.
Tipton wanted to go to Burger King for his birthday dinner. So we invited all of his friends to come along. And they all did, except for Aaron who threw a MAJOR tantrum and so wasn't allowed to go. Here's Aaron and Tipton playing with the helicopter/disk things.
As I was labeling the kids in the pictures it occurred to me that I didn't get pictures of all of Tipton's friends. Some of the girls came, but they left early to go to the Talent Show (being performed at Bladins.) Also, Finn came late to our afternoon at the park. The kids that went with us to Burger King were: Keisuke, Alexander, Nicolas and Finn (and Tipton and Lilli, of course.) Mom, Tipton, Lilli and I went home really quickly before we left for Burger King. Lilli was absolutely FILTHY from rolling around (in the sand, in the grass, in the flowers...) and required a complete change of clothes. (I would have liked to have gotten her in the tub, too, but that had to wait until after we got home from Burger King.) Dave pulled into the driveway right after we did, so he was able to join us at Burger King for the birthday dinner.
When I tucked Tipton into bed, he said that he had a GREAT birthday.
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