Jared's birthday parties!

Jared recently had his birthday!  He is such a big boy!

I seriously agonized over the decision about whether to have a birthday party with friends.  I wanted him to have them every other year (like I did growing up), and since he had one last year, this was an off-year.  But it's hard to explain that to such a young kid who has been to like a dozen other friends' birthday parties over the past months.  I was considering trying to pull something small together with just a few friends, but then I was agonizing about how I could just invite a handful of kids over and leave so many out!  I was losing sleep over it, and Alan was so awesome to tell me to just stick to my original plan of no party this year.  Anyway, I tried to make up for it by celebrating Jared's birthday sort of over a whole week's time.  We did tons of fun things.  

We had a birthday dinner with my parents a few days before.  Rigatoni--Jared's favorite!

Maggie was there, too!

On Jared's actual birthday, we went to the local splash pad. 

 Jared got to open presents from us (his parents) on two different days.  He was so nice to let Maggie help open some of them.

He got a lot of new books, the movie Toy Story, and these fun HexBugs and a HexBug habitat.  He's loving everything!

Celebrating over the course of a week meant he also got several different birthday cakes AND he got sung to several different times!

Alan's mom also hosted a little birthday party for Jared at her house (combined with Aunt Laura's birthday).  Alan's mom makes some pretty amazing cakes:  We got a rocking horse cake and a giraffe cake!

Grandma S. also made Jared one of her famous candy bar cards.  It uses candy bars and other small toys to create some fun puns.  He LOVED it, and he has been enjoying the spongy grow capsules, glow-in-the-dark stars, and the kazoo!  Thanks for the fun parties!

We love Jared so much.  I can't believe he will be starting Kindergarten in a month!!