The DeLorme Family: Dawson's 5th Birthday

On January 29th, Dawson turned five years old!!!! Where does the time go? I can't believe our sweet boy is already 5 years old. Dawson is seriously one of the coolest kids in the world.
He has such a vivid imagination and loves to use it. He is into all the typical boy things. He still loves trains and Transformers, and recently fell in love with all things Star Wars. Joey took him to the newest movie and he loved it!
Dawson could honestly entertain himself, and often actually does, for hours with a small basket of blocks. He is so good at building things. He constantly amazes me with his creativity and his ability to build things that resemble other things. The other day he made a tornado that even had the ability to twist and turn. Today he built an At At from Star Wars that looked so much like a real one. He does this all without any instructions or pictures. I swear he is going to be an engineer or something similar when he grows up. He and Ashlyn are so different with their likes. Ashlyn is so artistic and Dawson has never shown any interest in coloring or drawing. He much prefers to construct and build things. To further harvest his love for building, I buy him toys that encourage creativity and imagination.
Dawson is a very smart boy. He started reading several months ago and has become a very good reader. (I'm sure it helps a little that his mom is a reading tutor). He loves to read to me and has become quite good. He knows his sight words very well for just turning five. He also can read most basic words without even sounding them out. I think he is going to be a very advanced reader much like his older sister is. He is also very good at math. He amazes me with the math facts he will just randomly tell me out of the blue. He is definitely ready for kindergarten next year. As much as I will miss my little buddy, I can not wait to see him grow and flourish at school.
Dawson is a very sweet and loving child. He and I share a very special relationship and I love that he is so close to me. He is very mild mannered and pretty laid back. He has his moments if he is overly tired, but as long as we keep him well rested (he is an awesome sleeper) he is very agreeable and such a good boy. He is very caring towards his sisters most of the time.
Dawson is also very decisive which he definitely did not get from me. My mom recently told him he could pick out a toy at the store and he walked directly to the one he wanted, grabbed it, and said, "Okay I am ready." My mom asked if he wanted to look around some more, but he was positive that is what he wanted. I envy his ability to make decisions! At night, he will often announce he is ready for bed and he will head upstairs and start his bedtime routine. Once we get him all tucked in, he is out in a matter of minutes.
I could go on for days about what an incredible child Dawson is. He has such a special place in my heart as my only son. I always mention how difficult it really is to describe a child in a short blog post. Words just are not adequate. I try to do my best since we publish our blog yearly and I want to remember what he was like. To sum it up, he is one awesome, smart, sweet, amazing child and I am so blessed God chose us to be his parents.
For his birthday this year, we decided to do just a family party. Joey and I have pretty much decided to start the big friend birthday parties when the kids start school. Until then, we will keep it small and family only. I asked him what theme he wanted, and of course he answered immediately with Star Wars. He wanted me to make his cake and I tried my best at making him a Death Star. I have decided my cake making abilities are just get worse over the years, so after that cake I am officially retiring. Despite how awful I thought it turned out, he absolutely loved it. He got to eat pizza and cake with his sisters and cousins. He opened presents and then played with all his new toys. It was a great day for him.

The decorations the birthday elf left

Eddie Buddy comes back for birthdays

This is the note Ashlyn left for the elf

Dawson loved his decorations

Ready for his special breakfast

The elf even had fun on the stairs

Dawson decided he wanted cinnamon rolls with sprinkles.

Dawson's birthday was on a Friday this year. He usually goes to school on Fridays, but we decided that he could take the day off. I don't work Fridays so we got to have some fun. We went to a local bounce house place that we haven't been to for years. Just he and Gracie got to go since everyone else was at school/daycare. They had a blast bouncing and going down slides. After we played, we went to Noodles for lunch since that is one of his favorites.