Noah turned 5 today

 When Noah woke up this morning the first thing he said was that he was soo excited to open his Transformers.  Mark and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes.  Noah has never mentioned anything about Transformers for his birthday.  He's such a punk.  Fortunately, he didn't seem too disappointed about not getting them. Anyway, we had a long church day (stake conference).  It was also unbelievably warm compared to the last month and a half and despite that it was raining all day.  So we made them take off their church clothes and put on their swim suits to frolic in the rain one last time before winter hits.  Mark and I had a nice quiet lunch inside :)

After lunch, I quickly set a little birthday scavenger hunt for Noah.  In his room he found his "new" sheets, pillowcase, and quilt:

pointing to his name.  you can also see "Stuart"

This bedding belonged to my brother, Stuart, who passed away when he was 14.  So Noah is pretty lucky that he inherited this special bedding.  (By the way, Noah is totally obsessed with Yoda right now an he will be Yoda for Halloween.  Light-saber-making tutorial on the way!)

Then he came downstairs to find this racetrack I made for him:

It's a 2 ft x 4 ft board that I painted.  I set his bazillion cars up on it.  I got the idea from Stephanie Nielson when she made an airplane runway for her son.

After that we told him to look for a present that was bigger than him hiding somewhere downstairs.  We bought him an adjustable basketball hoop that we hope will be a family fave for years to come.  Noah and Mark enjoyed playing outside in the warm fall air for a little while.  I wish I would have taken more pictures during the day but mama needed a nap!

Per Noah's request, we had box mac n cheese (none of that fancy homemade stuff that I like to make!) with polish sausage.  And cinnamon ice cream for dessert. 

Next week we will have his friend party, a yoda cake, and more presents to come I'm sure...

Happy Birthday Noah!