Jack's 5th Birthday

Happy Birthday Jack!!!

Last week Jack celebrated his 5th birthday. Boy was it a fun one.

On the day of his birthday (the 20th) Jack came downtown to visit me (Eric) at work, we had a daddy-son lunch at my work, went to the science museum, and took the train back home to Mom and the kids. Then on Saturday we had an all out Mario birthday party with his friends packed with cake, coin harvesting, pipe building, an obstacle course. All the anticipation Jack had for his birthday paid off, he had a great time.

Lunch with Daddy

Crossing the Hawthorn bridge in Portland. The museum was just on the other side of the river.

Jack fearlessly poking his head out of the bridge while we were walking to the science museum from my office. The heights even spooked me out.

Fun shot of the Willamette river, Jack showing how old he is.

Flying under the bridge.

Portland skyline from the other side of the river. We love this place. Thanks to the random couple docking their stand-up paddle boards for taking a picture of us.

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. This is where I took Jack. It's a pretty fun place with a lot of fun things to learn about for kids and adults.

Experimenting with water.

Jack wanted to get on the rocket and do a couple laps around the world in low-earth orbit, I'm glad they took a picture of him up their in his astronaut suit cause it was too expensive for both of us to go up.

There was a cool rotating table that people were playing on but Jack kept knocking everything off. They turn into punks when they get five.

It was a fun time at the museum.

After we got home that night Jack opened some of his family presents. And we had a low key evening playing with what he got...

Fun Gifts.

Fun bubble wrap.

Thanks Grandma Sharon!

It was a a great night with the family. Jack knew that his big party wasn't until that Saturday.

Mario Birthday Party!!!

Then came Saturday, when we had all the kids come over for a fun Mario-themed party. We started off by coloring Mario and putting them on our Mario wall.

Sawyer with his Tanooki Mario

Annabelle with her Princess Peach

Personally I think Jack got a bit lazy with his rendition of Ice Mario but I guess you can take short cuts on your birthday.

All the kids by the Mario wall.

Then we had the kids make a pipe world for the Mario marbles. They split up in two teams to see who could build the highest pipe world. Then we had a marble race.

They really got into it, all of them.

Team Luigi went first.

Then Team Mario.

One of the kids had to leave early so we did cake and ice cream in the middle.

What can be better than some birthday pals and a Mario cake?

Blowing out the candles of one more year.

Woo hoo! Mario cake!

After that we did some coin harvesting. This was a great game that Brooke found online where you freeze coins into some water and then have the kids hack away at them...

I was impressed at how engaged they were and how much fun they had when they got to the coin.

(I think Ellen might have gotten into it a bit too much)

Jack's best friend Zack after finally getting to his coin.

Fun video of the kids at work.

Present time!!!

Of course the coolest gift was the punching bag Jack's dad got ;)

Stuffed animal Mario from Bentley, just what Jack wanted.

Jack's love language = gifts.

Then for the climax for the whole party...the Mario obstacle course!!! Nothing big just Mario-hoping down stairs, crossing the Mario bridge while knocking blocks to get coins, swimming under the sea, sliding down Mario hill to break through the wall, getting fire power and hitting Angry Sun and Goombas, going through Bowser's Castle, and then killing Bowser without falling into the lava. This was awesome.