Five Years Old!

Parker turned five years old on Saturday the 3rd! It really felt like a special birthday to me this year--five just feels like such a milestone. He's really growing up a lot lately. We decided to spend a day at the zoo to celebrate this year, and thanks to Dee and Niki we were able to enjoy the day with a whole group of family! When Parker woke up on the morning of his birthday, the first thing I heard him say (at about 6:20 am) was, "I'm five years old today!" it was really cute--cute enough to make me smile rather than just groan at being woken up so early :) We had a birthday breakfast celebration at Dee and Niki's house--Parker chose crepes for his special birthday breakfast, which Jared made for all of us. We stuck five candles in a fully loaded crepe for Parker in lieu of a cake. He was so excited to open his presents that he barely made it through the whole breakfast. We headed off to the zoo later that morning, where Nate, Lisa, and Alex met us by lunchtime; we all trekked back and forth around the zoo until closing time, where we wrapped up the day with a trip to the incredibly crowded gift shop. We finished off a long, fun, beautifully sunny day with a big dinner, and then it was off to bed for some much-needed rest for all of us. And so we begin a new year for Parker...

Thank you to every one, friends and family, near and far, for helping to make Parker's fifth birthday so much fun and so special!!

Zoo photos to come another day! There are of course tons to go through...