kindergarten field trip!

I had the opportunity to be a chaperone on kullen's first kindergarten field trip! (thanks heather!)
we had a blast! i think kullen really enjoyed having me there with him and his classmates. I was chaperoning three additional boys (yes, even as a chaperone, i'm blessed with all boys!).

We visited the local Shlagel Farms (where we went strawberry picking) and learned a lot about our local farming. During the hayride, Farmer Russ pointed out all the crops they're currently growing, harvesting and will be planting later in the season.

After our hayride, we saw a lot of chickens (no roosters!), a wild turkey, calves, baby pigs, sheep and goats! the kids really loved that!

The next adventure was the hay maze. I am fairly positive that this was every kids favorite part of the day. They got to run through the maze multiple times and the way out of the maze was down a big slide! it was fun watching them!

They also got to hold baby chicks after the maze and then played in corn boxes for a while! After that we ate lunch on hay bales and then picked our pumpkins!

It was such a fun day with my boy! I loved watching him play, learn and ride the bus like a reallllly big kid! ;)

FIVE!

FIVE

can you believe it! i can't. 

you've grown up so much in the last year. you are still the same wild child as always but you're personality continues to develop and so does your independence! 

you've had a few major things happen this year:

2 crowns (unfortunately)

learned to peddle your big kid bike

learned to swim without floaties

learned to pump on the swings

completed pre-k

had your first sleepover (at grandmas!)

love you so much, bub. 

i am proud of all that you do! 

for fun - last years FOUR post

kullen's 5th birthday inspiration

i can't believe my boy is about to turn 5! 
we wanted to tone it down a bit this year and start doing 'big kid' parties! he decided that he wanted to have a pool party [although still tossed around 'themes'] and wanted to invite a handful of his friends. 
i let him decide who to invite - which was still a fairly large group! - and let him call [most of] the shots!

we browsed Pinterest for some ideas, which proved to be hard because he wanted a pool party, a star wars party, a skylander party, a penguin party and most recently [after indulging in a Zebra Cake] told me that he wanted a zebra party! he's obviously just like his mama - all over the place and super indecisive! 

but here are some ideas were throwing around:

penguin beach balls - via Amazon 

we won't be able to use these at our community pool but we can use them as favors!

these cute penguin banana snacks. they can be frozen that way they won't turn to mush in the heat!

image via Hand Made Charlotte 

no party is complete without a piñata!

courtesy of Amazon

penguin cake pops!

image via pinterest 

we're very lucky to have a grandma that ROCKS at cake pops! can't wait to see her penguins!

image via Fowl Single File Blog

since i'm not an expert cake maker - i'm thinking something *maybe* like this. i make no promises though.

in addition to the penguin fun - i thought i'd do some simple 'pool/beach' like decorations as well!

image via Party Supplies Delivered 

The Frugal Girls has a ton of cute pool party ideas! this is a definite DO!

and of course this super cute fruit pizza from Hungry Happenings! 

i can't wait to see how it really comes together! knowing kullen, he'll probably change his mind last minute and i'll be doing something other than penguins! [which is why i'm doing mostly pool related foods!]

hopefully it turns out okay for my big FIVE year old, dude! ;)