Five is fabulous.

A couple weeks ago, Finnian celebrated his fifth birthday. Five is fabulous! There are so many big boy things to do when one turns five. Finnian's taste in food choices has started to expand beyond nuggets, yogurt and waffles. (I just love broccoli!) He's old enough to make his first trip to the movie theater (clearly he's an oldest child), to see Rio, which was a beautiful movie with a kickin soundtrack. But, he's still young enough to choose to sit in my lap for half of the film. He's old enough to truly anticipate his birthday and give some thought to a present he would like to have (a bowling set). He loved the packages the post lady brought to our door, with his name as the addressee (thank you for all the super thoughtful gifts!). 

His friends are starting to lose their teeth and Finnian keeps checking for wiggles (none yet). He's old enough to be scared, but bravely take his booster shots because that's what you do when you want to go to Kindergarten. A favorite activity is a playdate at a friend's house "without moms." And his mind is just growing, reminding us that we no longer live with a little guy, but a boy. He's very curious about dinosaurs, geography, design and trains. And to our dismay, he's a boy who's now making lifelong memories - our parenting grace period is over!

He's reading everything he can get his hands on and reminds me daily of how much he loves art: "I love art. I just love art!" He wants to be an artist when he grows up (to him that includes a combination of design, engineering, legos and sidewalk chalk)... but occasionally he's going to take a break from that career to be a train conductor. He's learned how to swim across the pool without any floaties.

We've been talking (and he's been thinking) in a more serious way about death, illness, divorce and some of the harder parts of life. But we also talk about faith and God, as well as many of the great joys in life's journey. 

It's fun having such a little man in our presence now. He's a kind soul and a great friend with a creative outlook and limitless ideas and questions. As we think about being five, we're thinking about learning to tie shoes and maybe ride a bike without training wheels. 

What a joy it is to witness this person's growth and experience the beauty of life together. 

So how did we celebrate 5? Well of course we brought cupcakes and goodie bags to school. For the record, I hate all that little plastic crap for goodie bags. It's overpriced and becomes trash after one use - yuck! But guess what? Kids love that stuff! And I remember treasuring the littlest toys as a kid too. So we compromised this year. I let Finnian choose a few items for his pals, and I sewed super simple drawstring bags to contain the treasures. I'm hoping the treasure bags will last a little while at least! 

His actual birthday was not a school day, but it was an unusually beautiful and mild spring day, so we met our friends at the park for a picnic lunch. Friends, kids, siblings and one grami joined in the fun. The boys' favorite game is squish friends on the curly slide. Really, they play this game forever every time we go to the playground. It's an icebreaker to making new friends.

As I wrote about before, I don't have a great assortment of photos as my camera quit that day. But I did get a few of that day's sidewalk chalk masterpieces. Finnian would spend half of every day drawing with sidewalk chalk if he could. I guess he just likes a big canvas. I'm with you, bud. That day there was a new subject: a train with a box car for every letter of the alphabet (thanks for the inspirational puzzle Avery and Parker!).

Love the cows. And love being five! Happy birthday to my sweet baby.