Finnegan Turns Five!

Madie made this tie and two more for him as a gift. She really did a great job--I don't know if she will enjoy sewing, but she does like to craft and paint, so maybe with a little more practice she'll get to a point where she can do it alone and have fun with it.

^This kid^ turned five today. 

He is an active boy who loves riding his bike, rock climbing with Dad and Madie, playing dress up with his friends, going swimming, camping, and canoeing, playing Harry Potter with Madie, and is extremely interested this year in going fishing. He is our sharing and caring kid, which is good because the older and younger sisters he has need the example in those areas. Above all, he loves Elvis--maybe a little bit too much for the dog's taste.

He got some new clothes and a water gun from Nana and Papa. One of his shirts even glows in the dark!

Finn had plenty of present requests, but we settled on getting him this Captain America armor and I made him a lunch bag for kindergarten. He seems happy with the choices.

We strung his birthday celebration out over the weekend. We were supposed to go camping as a family per his request on Friday night at a campground on the far end of the island, but because of weather we decided to bail. Mike set up a giant fort in their room, we opened some presents, and had hot dogs for dinner. Mike even started a fire in the wood stove so we could roast the hot dogs as if we were camping.

Finn chose cookie dough in a waffle cone. 

Saturday dawned bright and beautiful. We had doughnuts for breakfast--Finn's request--and Mike took the kids swimming at Echo Lake. We all went to the pizzeria in the village for lunch and finished up with ice cream. 

After some chores and yard work, Mike and the big kids set up camp in the woods. Petya and I slept inside since we spent the night before hanging out with each other from 12:15 to 5:30. Needless to say, we slept like rocks. I don't know how the other kids did, but generally they sleep better in a tent than they do in the house.

It was a family birthday this year, so I asked Finn if he wanted to go to Grammy Haskins' house after church and have cake up there. He was excited at that prospect, so we stayed for sacrament meeting and drove the hour and a half to Gram's right after. We had Elvis with us, since we were dropping him off at my uncle's before our trip out west, and an ice cream cake. Thankfully, only the very top of the cake was melted at all when we arrived, so we popped it in the freezer and it was ready by the time we got to it. Finn wanted a s'mores ice cream cake this year. It's graham cracker crust with a layer of chocolate, followed by fluff, followed by s'mores ice cream (or chocolate if you're unfortunate enough to not have s'mores ice cream available) and then you top it with halved marshmallows and stick them under the broiler until toasted. It was slightly melted on top, but really it held together well and Finn and everyone else loved it.

Grammy Haskins provided pizza and punch and Aunt Alexa bought balloons and a banner so the house looked festive. He got another water gun, a toy pistol and handcuffs (which he loved locking people up with), and his own box of Lucky Charms. Grammy and Grampy Conner gave him an awesome camping hammock that everyone was excited to try. 

Happy birthday to the Chunk Man.