Porter Turns 5!

Today was Porter's 5th birthday and I tell ya, sometimes that kid just totally cracks me up. A few days ago, he asked me if his head was going to get bigger when he turned 5. I chuckled and told him that his head wasn't going to grow drastically in the next few days just because he was turning 5. I'm not even sure where all this came from, but I found it amusing when he made a comment during the day today that his head wasn't even bigger yet. Too funny, kid! What's the big deal about having a big head anyway? Who knows?! Anywho, I thought it was cute this morning when I asked him about what we should do today. Here's a little snippet of our conversation:

Me: Porter, what would you like to do today for your birthday, after we drop off Brooklyn at preschool?

Porter: Ummm...I don't know...go get Brynn a new bike?

Me: (chuckle) You want to get Brynn a new bike on YOUR birthday?

Porter: Yeah, hers is all messed up.

Me: Well, that's a good idea, now let's think of some other ideas.

Porter: We could go to Walmart!

Me: Walmart?! Why would you want to go to Walmart?

Porter: So we could get me some presents.

Oh, so THAT'S why he wanted to go to Walmart. Smart boy! He really does crack me up a lot. We did have a great day together and had lots of fun doing the things that HE likes to do. We played at the park, ate at Sonic, got a small toy from the store, played with cousins all afternoon, opened presents, went out for pizza, made an awesome car at RideMakerz (a Build-a-Bear sort of place for cars) and finished it all off with cake and ice cream. What a full day, eh? It's fun to feel pampered...even if it is only one day out of the year. Here are a few fun facts about Porter at the ripe old age of 5:

Nicknames:

Porter boy

Porter Dane! (that one gets used the most)

Monkey boy

Favorite Colors:

Black, mostly, but also blue and red

Favorite Shows/Characters:

Anything Super-hero

Ben 10

Transformers

Phineas and Ferb

Favorite Activities:

playing on the computer

building Legos

playing "house"

playing with cars and little people

watching t.v.

Destroying things

Things I love about Porter:

Although he is very destructive and mischievous, he is also very loving and thoughtful. Just this morning, he offered to give his sisters some of his birthday balloons that he had just received so they wouldn't be left out. He always comes up to me and gives me a big hug and tells me he loves me. He's a bit of a "Drama King" and yet still very rough and tough. I really love my little guy! Even with all the stress and frustration he causes me sometimes, his sweet and generous nature makes up for it 100 times over. Happy Birthday, Porter Boy! You are a joy and a blessing to our family!! I love you!

Porter's Flamin' Hot New Bedroom

Well, I finally finished it (almost)! I've had this room planned for a couple of years now and finally had the opportunity to paint it. I picked up a paint brochure at a department store a couple of years ago with this design idea on it and Porter totally loved it. So I decided that when we finally got our own place I would tackle this project for him. It took me a few weeks because I couldn't work on it everyday, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I have to tell you a cute little side note about Porter during this process. Part of the process of painting the flames was priming them with a tinted primer (which ended up looking very pink) before I could paint the actual colors. He was not at all thrilled with the pink. Brooklyn, however, was ecstatic about them, of course. So when I finally got around to painting the flames the "real" colors he was very interested and started playing close by so he could see the progress. Then when it really started coming together he came over to me and gave me a huge hug and said, "Mom, I love you!". It was so cute! And then later that night as I was finishing up he came up and hugged me again and told me he loved me. That just melted my heart. It totally made all the hours I'd put into this project worth it.

Yes, I know there is a white spot on that wall. That's where a hole just mysteriously popped up about a month after we moved in. I'm still waiting for Dane to finish patching it so I can paint it.

First, I found a picture of flames I liked from the internet. Then I used Photoshop to tweek them and figure out how big they needed to be on the wall. Then I put a grid over it so I could reference it to the wall.

Then I used the basic grade school art class method to draw out the flames on the wall. I chalked out lines on the wall with regular old white chalk.

Then I drew out the flames with the chalk, using the paper as a guide.

Some primer, paint (yellow, orange and red) and many hours later...VOILA!! A bedroom fit for a fast-car-lovin' kid. The only things left to do are paint his dresser and his bed. I still have lots of red paint left so I'm going to paint them red. And on the dresser I'm going to get some diamond plate sheet metal to put across the fronts of the drawers to make it look like a toolbox. (Thanks for the diamond plate idea, Natalie!) It was a fun project that I'm really ready to be done with. But it makes me so happy that he is so happy about it. Totally worth it!!