Ethan's 5th Birthday Party

Those who know Ethan know that Nintendo Mario Kart is his world right now. He just loves playing this game and all the characters, races and special cars in it. So, naturally for his 5th birthday celebration we had a Nintendo Mario Kart theme!

I didn't find a whole lot of party supply options for his party theme so, I designed the decorations and games myself (with the exception of the party banner shown below). Ethan was so excited to see me make the materials that he pulled up a chair and sat along side me by the computer! :)

Party Banner

Party Invitation

Party Signs

Party Games

Musical Mario Kart
I printed out a character for each kid, cut it out and taped to colorful card stock. We arranged the cards out in a circle on the grass and each player stands on a character to begin. When the music starts the kids walk around the circle and when the music stops they jump on the nearest character. I then pull a character out a hat and that person is out and plays the dj - character puller for the next round. The last person standing wins a gold medal! We played this for 2 rounds and at the end of the game I handed out a gold medal to each child.


Mario Kart Bingo
We played Mario Kart Bingo! I created character boards (which took way longer then I anticipated) and printed them out. Each kid got a game board and marker. I called off the characters and they marked them off. First one to get 3 in a row won Bingo! then we played full card Bingo and the first to get the full card won! We played 2 rounds of this game.

We had plenty of outdoor and indoor fun. The boys played inside building trains, doing puzzles and of course some video game playtime with Mario Kart Wii!

Ethan hanging with his friends!

Cake time!
We were not able to find a Mario Kart cake so, we ordered a Nascar cake and bought Mario & Luigi figures to place on top.

Presents!

Thanks to all Ethan's friends that made his 5th birthday a super Mario Kart day!!!

Ethan turns 5!

Ethan at about 6 weeks old

Ethan Jerome was born 5 years ago today. After 16 hours of active labor our little boy was born. My reaction? "Oh, my God". The joy was overwhelming - my emotions were so strong and came so quickly. I felt awe of this little miracle. The only words I could muster were "Oh, my God." I knew our lives had changed forever. 5 years old. I have to keep saying 5 years over and over in my head to let it sink in. It doesn't seem possible that it's been that long ... yet, it fells like he has always been a part of our lives. Funny how that works.

From the start Ethan was a happy, energetic, determined and very social baby and he still is all those things today. He smiles all the time and first laughed out loud at 3 months old. At age 2 he recited the alphabet and ended it with "zebra" for z. He decided zebra was the last letter of the alphabet, no changing his mind on that and it was so darn cute.

Harmonica'd

Ethan has also always loved music. As a toddler, he used to round up all the music toys and we would all pretend to play in a band. He loved going to concerts at the park where he could shake his booty. We always laughed when he would say "Go Ethan, Go Ethan" as he danced around (sounds bit like his mom - huh?). For his birthday we got him a harmonica. He loves to play grandpa's when we visit him so, now he has his own to practice on (he's really good already!)

Well, my baby is now 5 and I couldn't be happier or more proud. He is a fun, smart and gentle little guy and I know he's going to have a blast starting kindergarten this year. Love you, Ethan.