Lincoln turns 5!

Lincoln's 5.  5!  I know...I cannot believe it either!

Lincoln started the day opening his gifts from us.  He got a lot of fun stuff including a new fishing pole and a puppet theater.  Hopefully he will have a chance to use the new pole on our fall camping trip.

(Confession: I totally see my 3 year old self in the above picture!)

After opening presents and breakfast, we went to the Great Lakes Zoological Society in Ann Arbor where we met Kirk's mom and my sister-in-law and her two girls.  What a fun place to take the kids!  They had all kinds of crazy reptiles and amphibians.  One of the girls who worked there was kind enough to take a blue tongue skink out of his cage and let the kids touch him.  That was awesome and really nice of her. 

After GLZS, we went to Olga's (where else?) for lunch.  I think Lincoln finished a basket of snackers on his own. It amazes me how much kids love those things!  He opened up his presents while we waited for a table. The present he was most excited about?  Party in the Tub.  Needless to say, there have been parties in our bathtub since Friday.

We had cake and ice cream for dinner.  I loved this cake from Mom and Pop's Bakery.  They did a nice job with the dinosaur on the cake and it was really good!

Saturday, Lincoln's friend Alex came over and they played with his new toys.  Lincoln had used some of his birthday money to buy a fossil finding kit.  It kept the boys busy, quiet and outside for more than 2 hours. Perfect.

Yesterday, we met my family at one of our favorite places, Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park.  It was incredibly hot and humid and busy, but we were still able to feed the giraffes and the camel and ridge the safari bus.  Gigi and Papa got Lincoln a dinosaur packed birthday gift.  Lincoln woke me up this morning asking me why pterodactyls ate fish.  Oye.

I missed last year, but this year I asked LJ 20 questions about himself.  His answers make me smile.

1.  How old are you? 5
2.  Who is your best friend? Alex and all my other friends
3.  What is your favorite thing to do? Play with my friends and family
4.  What is your favorite color? Blue and green
5.  What is your favorite food? Pasta
6.  What do you like to do with family? Spend quiet time with them
7.  What is your favorite toy? The dinosaurs I got yesterday
8.  What do you want to be when you grow up? A museum worker and a paleontologist
9.  What makes you happy? When my friends laugh and I laugh too.  And when you laugh.
10. What makes you sad? When people aren't very nice to me. (*whoever you are, I'm coming after you)
11. What is your favorite tv show? Wild Kratts
12. What is your favorite book? Library books and the baseball one
13. What do you love to learn about? Reading
14. What was the best part of your birthday? Presents and cake
15. Where do you like to go? To all of my friend's houses who are very nice to me
16. Who is your favorite teacher? Ms. Debbie (at his old school)
17. What is your favorite treat? Suckers
18. What do you think about before you fall asleep? My day
19. If you could meet someone famous, who would it be? A rockstar
20. What was your favorite birthday present? Party in the tub

Oh, Lincoln.  One of the sweetest souls I have met.  He's so sensitive and kind and so caring.  He also doesn't always listen and rebels in his own little way.  Then again, he's 5.

Tomorrow is the first day of Begindergarten.  Crazy, crazy, crazy.

Camping Close By

A couple weeks ago we camped at Sleepy Hollow State Park just north of Lansing.  It's actually a really nice state park.  Our site was nice and private and wooded.  We had people across from us and next to us but they were quiet.

There are 16 miles of trails around the campground, although, I only enjoyed one short hike because I bit it and totally twisted my ankle.  Typical me, I know!  I was limping around the whole time we were there.  Our site was a half mile walk to the beach and less than 10 minutes to a fishing pier. You all know about LJ's love of fishing.  One day he caught 10 fish!  The kid loves it.

There were a lot of deer around and Lincoln loved catching fireflies.  He also was on a caterpillar hunt.  This particular one he named Michael.  Cause everyone names their caterpillar Michael.

Kirk worked one day which is why we stayed close to Lansing.  It's hard being a campsite alone with two kids.  Even worse when it starts thunderstorming and you're in small popup camper.  We were all going a little crazy by the time Kirk got home that night.  The kids enjoyed the day by taking slefies while sneaking playtime on my phone.

Camping for less than a week is hard!  I feel like we just unpack and then it's time to go.  But, never fear, we are planning a fall camping trip for less than a week the beginning of October.  I am trying to talk K into going south for spring break and camping.  No luck yet.  

After our fall camping trip we will winterize the popup and put it away until next year.  I'm sad to even type a word with the word "winter" in it.

Another successful trip in the books!