Ian Charles is a FIVE-YEAR-OLD!!!

There's my sweet little man. He was so excited about his birthday party! 

Well, he was actually crying to his teacher on the 14th because he was scared that turning 5 meant that his school work was going to be really hard. Poor thing. She assured him that it wouldn't change and he was too smart to worry anyway. Oh, and I don't have pictures of his cupcake party at school. (I left the memory card in our computer at home AND the video camera battery was dead.)

My friend, Lindsay, had him stay the night at her house with his best bud, Erik, the night before his party so I could prepare for everything (she was so much help) and she reported to me that he woke up at 4:30am and turned on all of their lights. He was ready for his big day! 

At first he wanted a Cars 2 party, then he changed his mind and decided on a "constwuction"-translation:  construction- party with the big vehicles "wike excavatoes and dump twucks and stuff." 

He requested nachos, cheese balls, and strawberries for food, which turned out to be delicious and made a happy boy which is what it is all about, right? 

Side note:  We planned on having the party at a local park so the kids could all dig with trucks in the sand, but we had rain the day before and the day of was the coldest day of the year so we had to move it to our house. It was still super fun, but I went a little bizerk the day before trying to reprogram my brain to prepare. Thank goodness I had Josh and my friend Lindsay to help me get it all put together. We had a kiddie pool filled with rocks for digging, but the kids just preferred to run around and play, which was fine. 

 Coolest cake I've ever made, and I was a little prideful over it!! 

 The kids each had a toy CAT vehicle with chocolate rocks as parting gifts.

 "Pin the Stop Sign on the Construction Site"

Pay attention to 2 things in this picture:  

1. The awesomeness of the construction striped cake
(inspired by this website that I found off pinterest)

2. Afton's total melt down caught on camera. I later realized that she wanted to have one of the orange cones (made of marshmallow creme fondant) to eat with her cake and apparently felt betrayed.

 I tried to get a picture of Ian in front of his gift bench, but these guys all joined in.

It made a super cute picture!

Opening his gifts...the long awaited part of his big day!!

Oh, my little big Ian. You are such a joy in our lives. 

You have a way of melting everyone's heart without even trying.

You are so smart, hilarious, dangerously stubborn, kind hearted, sly, 

you have got some serious dance moves,

and you are a carbon copy of your Paw-paw Charles, by the way- 

even in the fine motor skills and music departments. 

Were we inspired with your middle name or what?!

Watch out world, because this is one amazing kid on his way to greatness!!