It's Birthday Time!

Happy 5th Birthday Cole!
Ok, I have been a little slow posting these pictures. The anticipation of the birthday, then the birthday, then more of the birthday, and then even more birthday required a little bit of recovery time and lots of time to download all of the pictures. But, I think I am recovered. (At least for a few days until Emily's birthday preparation starts!!)
After weeks of discussing what exactly he wanted to do and what kind of cake he wanted (which changed quite a few times), we had everything settled and planned. He wanted a soccer ball cake and a sports themed party. (He didn't really care about the theme, but I kept suggesting sports things and he kept agreeing!)
We started with a rousing game of the Sports Edition of "Don't Eat Pete". I was a little skeptical about the game, but Katie insisted that kids loved it, and sure enough they did.
Then, we moved to a sports obstacle course, where they had to shoot a basket, hit a ball, throw a football through a hoop, and dribble a soccer ball.
Then it was time for pizza and Gatorade. (We had to have a sports themed meal also!)
As they were finishing eating, a special visitor appeared. (Chad had called me the day before and told me that he had arranged for a special visitor to come to the party. So all of my careful planning had to be adjusted and all of my neat ideas had just been trumped! But, looking at Cole's face when his special visitor showed up made it all ok!)

Cosmo was lots of fun. He wrestled with Cole, threw a ball with the kids, and then tried to beat the record in the obstacle course. (Emily and another girl at the party did not think Cosmo was fun. Because they were scared of him, they ran inside and locked all of the doors to the house!)
Finally, Cosmo signed everything from papers to shorts before rushing off to his next event.
After Cosmo left, we decided it was time to open presents.
Then, we broke out the cake and ice cream. (When they are already hyper from Cosmo and presents, why not pump them with sugar!)
Finally, we ended the party with a pinata that Chad got from a Mexican store. (This was actually the second pinata that Chad picked out. The first one was a Spiderman pinata, but because I had convinced Cole that we should do a sports theme, he had decided that he wanted a ball pinata. Cole's face fell as soon as Chad showed him the Spiderman one! Chad, being the nice dad that he is, immediately told Cole that he would take the Spiderman one back and exchange it for a sports one. Cole spent the whole next day asking me if I thought his Dad was going to be able to find a sports one. Thankfully he did!) We found out the cheaper pinatas from the grocery store might be a better choice because the thing was so hard to break that Chad finally had to use a metal bat to break it open. At least that meant every kid got several swings!
Even Addy got a swing!
The big slugger!The mad rush for the candy.
And the Pinata Joker?
Enjoy being 5 Cole!