Woops, I just noticed that I never hit publish on this one!
Jeb's 5th birthday was more low key than his party, but we made sure to make it really special. The night before his birthday we went to the store for his birthday 'picks', a tradition in our family where the birthday child gets to go shopping and pick special treats like juice, sugary cereal, chips, etc. Jeb picked Bolthouse Farms mango lemonade, Envirokidz Chocolate peanut butter cereal, Natural Cheetos, and because he doesn't like ice cream, I let him pick a different treat, so he picked Kashi blackberry graham cereal bars. He also picked clementines and green grapes to go with breakfast and lunch. He had a lot of fun walking up and down the aisles saying "I think I should probably get this for my birthday" to the most random things like energy drinks and spice packets :)
We also got the ingredients for his birthday dinner, which was an Ethiopian feast. He specifically requested injera (Ethiopian spongey bread that is used to eat the food), and 'beef siga' (siga is Amharic for beef, the all of the kids use both names for it.) Even though it's kind of a small thing, I was thrilled that he chose Ethiopian food for his birthday dinner. I'm glad that he still loves his first culture and of all the new American foods he's had, he chose injera and siga for his special day.
After we put him to bed for the last time as a 4 year old, we got to work blowing up 3 packages of balloons to fill his room. That was more work than I realized it would be!
It was so worth it, we woke him up and as he sleepily climbed down, his face lit up and he said "balloons!"and got right to work playing with them.
All 3 kids are somewhere in this picture, the balloons were a hit!
Jeb's birthday was also his first day of school at the Homeschool Enrichment Hub, he was excited to get to wear his 'birthday boy' shirt to school.
After school we opened presents, we gave him $5 in singles (he's really big on saving money for specific toys), Cooties the game, a basketball hoop for his room, some new cars, a Mickey Mouse nightlight, and some clothes. After all of the presents, he still said the best part of his birthday was the balloons ;)
I was so busy cooking and serving and eating the Ethiopian food that I forgot to take a picture, but I made injera, doro wat (spicy chicken stew), siga wat (beef stew), and a spicy lentil stew. It was reallllly good and Jeb ate a ton of it :)
Cinnamon rolls for dessert, his favorite and the only dessert he'll eat a whole piece of. We pointed out that there were 5 candles and asked why there were 5. He thought for a minute and said "uh...because it's a big cake?" :) We sometimes forget some of the cultural things like that that seem so obvious to us aren't obvious to others.
Last year he *should* have been home in time for his birthday but didn't pass court in time, so we were a little bummed out on his 4th birthday. We still made a cake and we knew he'd be home for his 5th birthday for sure, but this year's birthday celebrations more than made up for the agonizing wait :)
Jeb's 5th birthday was more low key than his party, but we made sure to make it really special. The night before his birthday we went to the store for his birthday 'picks', a tradition in our family where the birthday child gets to go shopping and pick special treats like juice, sugary cereal, chips, etc. Jeb picked Bolthouse Farms mango lemonade, Envirokidz Chocolate peanut butter cereal, Natural Cheetos, and because he doesn't like ice cream, I let him pick a different treat, so he picked Kashi blackberry graham cereal bars. He also picked clementines and green grapes to go with breakfast and lunch. He had a lot of fun walking up and down the aisles saying "I think I should probably get this for my birthday" to the most random things like energy drinks and spice packets :)
We also got the ingredients for his birthday dinner, which was an Ethiopian feast. He specifically requested injera (Ethiopian spongey bread that is used to eat the food), and 'beef siga' (siga is Amharic for beef, the all of the kids use both names for it.) Even though it's kind of a small thing, I was thrilled that he chose Ethiopian food for his birthday dinner. I'm glad that he still loves his first culture and of all the new American foods he's had, he chose injera and siga for his special day.
After we put him to bed for the last time as a 4 year old, we got to work blowing up 3 packages of balloons to fill his room. That was more work than I realized it would be!
It was so worth it, we woke him up and as he sleepily climbed down, his face lit up and he said "balloons!"and got right to work playing with them.
All 3 kids are somewhere in this picture, the balloons were a hit!
Jeb's birthday was also his first day of school at the Homeschool Enrichment Hub, he was excited to get to wear his 'birthday boy' shirt to school.
After school we opened presents, we gave him $5 in singles (he's really big on saving money for specific toys), Cooties the game, a basketball hoop for his room, some new cars, a Mickey Mouse nightlight, and some clothes. After all of the presents, he still said the best part of his birthday was the balloons ;)
I was so busy cooking and serving and eating the Ethiopian food that I forgot to take a picture, but I made injera, doro wat (spicy chicken stew), siga wat (beef stew), and a spicy lentil stew. It was reallllly good and Jeb ate a ton of it :)
Cinnamon rolls for dessert, his favorite and the only dessert he'll eat a whole piece of. We pointed out that there were 5 candles and asked why there were 5. He thought for a minute and said "uh...because it's a big cake?" :) We sometimes forget some of the cultural things like that that seem so obvious to us aren't obvious to others.
Last year he *should* have been home in time for his birthday but didn't pass court in time, so we were a little bummed out on his 4th birthday. We still made a cake and we knew he'd be home for his 5th birthday for sure, but this year's birthday celebrations more than made up for the agonizing wait :)
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