Jonah turns 5!!!

 I can't believe it's already been 5 years since that eventful car delivery one cold January morning!  Jonah has been so excited for his birthday.  He hasn't stopped talking about it since his 4th birthday.  Jonah got a friend party this year.  He could hardly wait.  But 1st we had our own little family celebration.  Store bough cupcakes worked great with the craziness of life at the moment.  Jonah wanted chocolate everything!

 

 Jonah got some super hero stuff from Grandma & Grandpa, Legos from Mom & Dad, and a new Rescue Bot from his siblings.

 

 Jonah wanted a super hero party!  Can you tell that's a green "J" for Jonah made out of M&M's?  One of the easiest cakes I've ever made!

 

 I really debated how to do this party so that it wouldn't be overwhelming for Jonah.  I could have invited a whole bunch of kids, but I knew that wouldn't go well.  So I kept it to a very small group of boys.  Jonah didn't care how many kids there were or weren't.  He was just excited to have a party with friends!  We started by coloring giant pictures of super heroes while the boys arrived.

 

 After completing super hero training, the boys all received capes and masks.  These were so easy and required no sewing.  I just cut them out of felt.  The masks weren't great.  Oh well.  We also played fun games like the kryptonite game (hot potato), x-ray vision (penny, penny), Follow the Super Hero (Simon says), and Freeze (musical statues) to super hero music.  Don't you love putting a theme spin on old classic games that never fail.  They work for everything!

 

 Then we had cake and ice cream.  There was a lot of green since that's Jonah's favorite color!

 

 Jonah got some fun presents from his friends.

 

My darling niece, Hannah, was my super helper!  I knew there would be moments with Jonah when I would need to turn the party over to someone else while I helped him calm down . . . and there were those moments.  I was grateful Hannah could come help so things didn't get out of control.

 

Jonah loves green, Transformer Rescue Bots, building GeoTrax, Legos, cars, listening to music, playing with Sarah, and doing just about anything with his dad.  We sure do love you, Jonah!  You make our home an exciting place to be.  It's been a hard year.  I keep hoping it'll get easier, and in some ways it has I guess.  Sometimes it's just hard for me to wrap my mind around this autism thing.  I struggle to know where the line is between having high expectations that you'll live up to, and what's just too much to expect of you.  I find I mourn frequently the "normal" life everyone else seems to lead when ours is often so stressful.  And yet, I can see remarkable growth in all of us in our family because we have you with us.  I love your little quirks and funny ways.  They've become endearing to me.  I truly hope for you a successful life and that somehow I will be able to help you function as normally as possible, not because it's bad to be different but because I hope for you all the blessings that come with the gospel and family.