The Best Day of Dylan's Life!!!

Happy 6th birthday, Dylan!

Dylan may just be the luckiest kid alive - and he knows it! We decided to do a small party with just a few friends this year so we could enjoy it a little bit more. We're trying to gradually downscale the HUGE parties we started a few years ago. So here's how his day went.

I got the idea from a friend who makes a big deal out of birthdays in their family, but doesn't do parties. Every year, the "Birthday Bear" comes the night before your birthday. I don't have too many details on the Birthday Bear, but he comes and decorates to wish you a happy birthday on your special day. I thought it was a cool idea and that way no matter what you do for a party, they get to look forward to some decorations and feeling special first thing in the morning. What was I thinking adding more fairy tale creatures to the mix? Dylan gets WAY too excited about random creatures wandering the house and it makes it really hard for him to sleep. Last night, he asked me what bears ate. I thought nothing of it and said, "berries, nuts, honey, bugs..." He proceeded to get out a bowl and dump some honey in it for the Birthday Bear. I should've known. And he woke up at 4:00 and had a hard time going back to sleep. He was so excited the Birthday Bear had already been to the house, but bummed he had missed him. He kept telling me he wanted to give him a great big hug. Marcos ended up going in to sleep in Dylan's bed to get him to settle down from all the middle-of-the-night excitement.

After he went downstairs in the morning, he came running up to my room and yelled out in the most excited voice EVER, "Mom, the Birthday Bear even knows I like Star Wars. He put up a Happy Birthday sign with Obi-Wan Kenobi on it and everything. Isn't that cool? This is the best day of my life!" So cute! The school happened to have their "Dads and Donuts" day today too, which was perfect. Marcos got to take Dylan to school on his birthday, eat donuts for breakfast with him, and then read to him for a little bit in his classroom. And of course Dylan was super stoked about the blow pops he had picked out to bring for his birthday treat. The kid is so enthusiastic! When he's having a bad day, it can be really frightening, but when things are looking up, you can't help but smile watching the happiness oozing from every inch of his body.

After school, we brought Kambrie to our house since the party was less than an hour away. The kids played in the backyard for a bit and then we picked up Sam (another neighbor) and headed over to Hungry Bear Pizza. It's not my favorite place in the world, but the kids love it. They get to eat pizza and play games, but it's not so big that they get lost. It's perfect for something like this and wasn't crowded at all, which was even better. For most of the party, we had the entire place to ourselves. It was as if we had rented out the whole place. AWESOME! I cannot tell you how priceless it was for me to watch the kids at the party. It definitely is easier having fewer kids so you can really appreciate the interaction between them. The party consisted of Kambrie, Sam, Anthony, Mylo and Diego. Three friends and two cousins...and of course a crazy little brother named Preston. :) We gathered up the excited kids and had them eat some pizza. Then we turned them loose at the arcade. They each got ten quarters to spend on the machines, but I ended up caving and giving them each a few more. They had tons of fun and when the money was gone, they just pretended to play. After the arcade fun seemed to simmer down a bit, we came back to the table, sang to Dylan, had a cupcake and then opened presents. They were all so polite and generous and took turns the whole time. The kids were excited for Dylan and what he received and he was so cute to share and let everyone try his new stuff. He ended up with some pretty awesome presents: a BYU jacket, molding clay, a light saber, two Legos Star Wars sets (different ones - he was so excited), an Anakin figure (his favorite!) and a cool Legos Shark kit from Abuela.

After the party, I dropped off the kids, but the cousins came back to the house for a bit to play. I decided I would drop them off a little later so their parents wouldn't have to come so far to pick them up again. They were SO cute! They played with light sabers and opened the other gifts with Star Wars playing in the background. I don't think they watched much of it - just enough to keep them in Star Wars mode for the entire play date. They were DARLING!

I met up with Amy and Laura (my sisters-in-law) at a school in Kaysville to drop off the kids. It was fun for the cousins to all get to play together for a little bit. After that, we headed back home to pick up Papi and go to dinner. We tried Olive Garden, but the wait was so long so we ended up at Fiesta Guadalajara (kids eat free on Monday and Tuesday so SCORE for us!) Preston had just about given up for the day and fell asleep on the way there so it took a minute to get everyone happy again, but the food was great and the kids had a great time. Dylan got two presents from us and could hardly wait to get to open them. He got a fossil egg with tools that you dig to find the dinosaur and two Star Wars transformers. Can you tell what he's into right now? I have to say it really was a GREAT day! I still can't believe my baby just turned six though!

A few decorations brought by the Birthday Bear

The party guests

Hungry Bear Pizza

The arcade

PRESENTS!

Look how cute they were

Dinner with the fam