Alex is 6!

He's had a birthday, shout hooray!  Alex was SOOO excited about his birthday, that he kept begging and pleading to celebrate it several days early.  In the end, we went with the original plan which was to celebrate ONE day early, so that we'd have a little more leeway with a Saturday party than trying to do anything on Sunday the 13th.  His main request for the birthday was for it to be Mario themed once again, and after obsessively searching through Pinterest for ideas, he finally decided on Yoshi for his cake. 

 (This shot is hiding a LOT of the flaws with the execution.  It was certainly not my best effort.)

 

{Isaac dug into the cakes while they were cooling.  The Love Bug loves cake.}

I have to be honest, at that point in time -- with the summer droning on and stress levels at an all-time high with the kids being home all day long -- I was not really in the right, patient and loving, frame of mind to create this year's birthday cake.  Everything about the celebration itself felt a little last-minute-thrown-together, with Scott taking the others to Target that morning to pick out Alex's gifts and me slapping this Yoshi cake together without really trying all that hard.  I definitely opted for the lazy way out because I just couldn't care anymore, and skipped the crumb coat/popping it in the freezer to set up, and as a result it was kind of mess to frost and decorate.  And if you look TOO closely at the cake, you can definitely tell.  Whoopsie!  Hahaha.  Nevertheless, Alex was thrilled and that's all that really matters, RIGHT???  Hahaha. 

 

Since gifts are Alex's love language, it was present opening time that mattered the most anyway.  Luckily, the kids found plenty of Mario themed offerings to make his heart sing.  :)  After pictures were taken, and cake was devoured, the rest of his Saturday was spent playing with his new game on the Wii U, scootering around in the basement, and constantly checking the time on his new watch.  Hahaha.  I'd say he had a pretty good birthday. 

 New Mario hat -- although I'm not sure why he's holding up Elephant.  Hahaha.

 Mario themed Rubik's Cube that's impossible to solve now that it's mixed up.

 A watch.

 His very own scooter!

And the piece de resistance -- a new Wii U game.  (Super Mario Maker)

And that's all folks!  Have a happy weekend.  :)