The REAL Game of Life

Dear Evan,

So you turned 5 back in September.....and mommy thought she published this post but just realized she did not! OOPS!

Some of your highlights as a 5 year old:

- You love to draw. You're super creative and a great artist. Your teachers tell us during "free time" at school that you love to draw and write stories. It's amazing to see what you create!
- You make the best paper airplanes ever. I think you started those around 4 years old and the airplanes you "design" are so impressive.
- You continue to take swim lessons but you just hate back stroke and getting water in your ears!
- You are sooo energetic. You'll spend the whole day at school, come home and play and still be ready for another activity at night. Where do you get all this energy?!
- You've mastered the alphabet and your numbers...I think up to 30.
- You love to read and have us read to you.
- You love super heroes - Iron Man, The Hulk, Spider Man, Batman
- You're really a sweet boy. You sure can be a stinker and drive Dad & I crazy, but at heart you're super sweet. And while Tyler can "ruin" a lot of your activities or color all over a book you made and make you upset, it's really sweet to watch how much you truly care about him. You're his older brother and he really does look up to you already! You also care a lot about your friends. Sometimes when we're shopping you want to buy gifts for them!
- You are competitive. You played soccer this summer and are continuing with it this winter and you just hate if someone is getting in your way or better than you! Hopefully as you get older you'll learn from this to make yourself better. :)

Evan - 5 Years Old

1. What is your favorite color? Blue

2. What is your favorite toy? Bounce house and anything I can build

3. What is your favorite fruit? Strawberries

4. What is your favorite tv show? PJ Mask

5. What is your favorite movie? Inside Out

6. What is your favorite thing to wear? Pajamas

7. What is your favorite animal? Tiger

8. What is your favorite song? Uptown Funk and Benny & The Jets

9. What is your favorite book? Marvel Reads books on my new Kindle

10. Who is your best friend? Grayson

11. What is your favorite snack? Pop Tarts

12. What is your favorite drink? Chocolate milk

13. What is your favorite food? Macaroni

14. What is your favorite game? My new engineering game

15. What is your favorite thing to play outside? Practice fishing and bow & arrow

16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas because I get presents

17. What do you sleep with at night? Green Bear or my Panda

18. What do you want to be when you grow up? Police Officer

19. What's your favorite thing to do with mom? Go biking or exercise in Mommy's office

20. What's your favorite thing to do with dad? Building things

Me: "OK Evan, hold Tyler's hand and run with him so we can get a cute picture."......

Evan had major attitude this day and sometimes the best way to deal with him is to be extra silly which drives him crazy, hahaha

5 Years Old!

This photo really captures Evan's pure happiness and energy.

And this photo really captures his ATTITUDE!!

A special gift from Grandma & Grandpa Anderson - a ukulele!

Proud of his new instrument :)

A birthday isn't complete without a celebration at Red Robin!

....and "Happy Birthday" sung by the Red Robin crew!

We surprised Evan with tickets to Marvel LIVE where he watched his favorite super heros perform right in front of him!

Tyler sat like this the entire show, clinging to us and covering his ears when he would hear loud noises (which was most of the show!).

Evan, we love you so much! Happy 5th birthday!

Love,
Mom & Dad

We ended the summer with a fun charity activity with Moms Club. A Trike-A-Thon to support St. Jude's Children's Hospital. Kids rode their bike around a school track to raise money. We had a police officer talk to the kids about bike safety and a local bike shop help the kids get set-up with helmets. It was a great family event and the boys had a lot of fun!

I feel like this should be in a minivan ad showing just how much stuff I can fit in it! Event prep = filling the minivan with 2 dozen balloons!

Evan had a front row seat to the police officer's presentation and asked the most questions out of anyone. Seriously, probably like 20 questions in 5 minutes. He's a good student! ;)

Our little Trike-A-Thon'ers!

The bike shop owner was super impressed with Evan's old school bike (well, my old bike from the 80's!). Evan really cruises on it!

This fall started off with Evan starting at a REAL school in a "young 5's" program. He's just shy of the Michigan cut-off for starting Kindergarten and this young 5's program is just perfect for him! He will be more than ready for Kindergarten next year!

I've only started to get a glimpse of all that sending a child to school entails - supplies, volunteering, class parties, packing lunches. I've had the pleasure of attending a few of Evan's class parties so far and they sure are interesting! I give his teachers A LOT of credit for handling 25 5-6 year olds all day. I've hosted a few crafts at the class parties and can barely control a table of 5 kids making a craft! I am proud of Evan when I see him interact with his friends. While he (and all kids this age) have their silly moments, he really is a good kid and friend.

School supplies! And yes, a bag of Pumpkin Spice M&M's for Momma ;)

So excited for his first day!

Being silly of course!

Evan first day of school 2015 vs. 2014!!

On the first day of school, parents stayed for the morning story and craft.

Evan's project with pictures of things he likes or that describe him. He actually cut all of these out himself and we glued them together.

"Mom, can you take a picture of the jet I colored?" Evan's favorite activity during free time at school is drawing and coloring. He has very impressive coloring skills already!

I love his detail with the birds and his little hat

We had a very warm fall and got outside as much as we could - bike rides, cider mill trips, playing outside. We knew winter was coming......

Family bike ride with the Wolak's! Like how my kiddos are just concerned with their snacks? Evan & Kellan enjoyed chasing the geese at the beach. Boys!

Just two boys hangin' out....or talking about what kind of trouble they can get into....

Tyler LOVES the park! I love this swing picture and his crazy hair!

When you live in Michigan, and as close to a cider mill as we do, you eat A LOT of apples, donuts and cider in the fall. It's called gaining the "Fall 15" here in MI, ha!

Evan 2014 (left) and 2015 (right)

Evan & I enjoyed a trip to the cider mill together to pick apples!

"Found one mom!"

The Fall Fair is so much fun especially with the special kids only preview day. No lines and just little kids!

Hey Tyler, can you see from under that hat?

How cute are they on this little ride?!

My boys racing down the slide!

So this ride looked ok at first.....then it kept going higher, and higher, then made these crazy loud noises and Evan FREAKED OUT (he's up there with Erik) so they stopped the ride. Poor Evan! Hope he's not scarred for life!

Evan & his best buddy Grayson. These two together = trouble!

Erik, Evan & Grayson. Who's having more fun?

Sweet Baby T

Evan & Grayson's turn to race!

We had some visitors at the fair! Aunt Katie & Cousin Howie, Aunt Kristie and Cousins Colin and Madelyn. And of course Grandma!

Surprise cider mill visit from Nia & Guh! We didn't tell Evan they were in town and it was fun to see his excitement when they showed up.

Tyler, my big boy....he loves his donuts!

"NIA!"

Love our Nia & Guh visits!

Evan & his buddy Grayson at their Fall party.....they look like they are up to something!

This fall we took a little road trip for a long weekend to Ludington with the kiddos and to see Nia & Guh (well, Greg & Christina are their real names...I realized that I've probably never called them by their real names since Evan started these names for them, ha!).