Kip's 5th Birthday Party

Kip turns 5 years old tomorrow!! It's absolutely wild that it has been five years since we welcomed him into our lives and at the same time it feels much longer than five years. I can hardly believe it.

Every year on Kip's birthday, we've always just done a small celebration at home with family, no major party. This year he has friends from school and he really wanted to have a party so we planned a small and simple gathering with two of his classmates and their moms and siblings. There were really high expectations from Kip mixed with a lot of emotions because he actually didn't know what to expect. We all tried our best to help him trust that we knew what to do and that it would be fun for everyone.  

We decided to host the party outside in our garage/driveway since it is a much more open space and we could control the activities a little better. Of course, it was crazy hot and humid outside, but ultimately, it ended up being fine. We decorated with balloons and sidewalk chalk and it turned out really cute.

For activities we had the little bounce house that we've been eyeing since 2020 and Mandy decided to finally splurge on it. It was a major it. We had all the random garage toys, painting wooden "little trains," and at the last minute we added water balloons and squirters. Those ended-up being really fun for the kids since Dan let them all attack him so they enjoyed going after him. Dan earned major points for being the all around "Fun Dad" that he is. 

Kip wanted all his friends to paint wooden little trains. He was into it more than anyone else but I think all the parents enjoyed the lull from running around and it was a perfect quiet activity.

We had pizza, cupcakes, and of course presents. 

The party was only two hours and that ended up being the perfect amount of time as Kip was starting to reach his limit and wanted to just play with his toys. Plus, it was so hot we were all melting.

Each kid went home with a little goodie bag which I forgot to photograph. They had ring pops, sour patch kids, a wooden train whistle, a steam engine key chain that lights up, and a little shrinky-dinks craft kit. They got to take home their painted trains as well.

I think Kip enjoyed his party and is still pretty excited that his actual birthday is still to come!