Jack’s 5th Birthday Party

This was Jack’s first time to have a birthday party and invite lots of friends. The past two years we have celebrated by going to an indoor waterpark with some good friends of ours who have two little boys. But this year, we decided it was time to do a big friend party. Jack has made lots of really great friends at preschool and we knew he would enjoy having them there for his big day.

The party was at a tae-kwon-do studio and it was lots of fun. 18 kids came to the party! They started by getting their uniforms on and learning the rules. The most important was you can’t kick and punch each other.

Then they lined up and started their class. They learned how to do all kinds of kicks and punches.

Next they did several fun obstacle courses.

By then they had worked up an appetite and it was time for pizza. Several of the kids, Henry included, were very impressed with the beverage selection. They could choose orange or red drink. I don’t know if it was pop or punch. But Henry thought it was great that he could just raise his hand and someone would bring him more orange drink. I heard another little boy exclaim, “Where did they get this orange drink?”

One of the highlights was cutting the cake. Jack got to cut his cupcake with a sword.

Then he got to break a board.

After breaking the board, it was time for presents. This turned out to be my favorite moment of the party. They had a little bench for him to sit on. Each friend came up and sat next to Jack while he opened their present. We weren’t sure how Jack would react to receiving so many presents. We talked with him beforehand about remembering to thank each friend. He was such a little gentleman. He looked at each card very carefully and asked the friend what it said. And he examined each present and thanked each friend. We actually had to hurry him along because the partygoers were getting restless. I was so proud of him. I loved seeing him have fun with the little friends he talks about all the time.