Birthday Boy - 5 years old!!

Zane's birthday coincided with his preschool classes field trip to the Gateway Children's Discovery Museum.... I couldn't have planned it better! His whole class got special treatment and access to all the different play stations and Zane owned the joint!

 We started at an art exhibit and Zane colored a few pages. He's getting pretty good at holding the pencil/crayon the right way and using lots of different colors. He uses the whole paper - from corner to corner - and has much better fine motor control than earlier this school year. He is very good at drawing circles - or spirals rather as none of his "circles" meet. I've noticed he is drawn to blue and green colors the most!

Then we went over to the magnets where we spent quite a bit of time. He didn't seem to interested until I showed him the stool to sit on... then he went to work: stacking, pulling them apart, building a magnet tower. He seemed to be very intent on his task at the table there... and fortunately has always been a very good worker. :)

From there we found the wind tunnels... they have a great quote on the front of these that reads something like, "A parachute is like our mind... both work best when they are open." They have a stack of cupcake papers for the kids to put inside the tunnel and watch them float up to the ceiling. Zane was totally fascinated... but it was a little too stimulating for him, so we  moved on quickly.

Then we went downstairs to the balls. There is a huge contraption where the balls are sucked up through giant tubes and circle overhead and land somewhere else. Zane was totally captivated and had just as much fun watching the balls overhead as he did putting them into the tubes. He also got to play a giant xylophone!

The water station was very fun - probably Zane's favorite. There are fun waterfalls and pools and slides that ping pong balls float down and Zane had a great time picking up the balls and throwing them into a pool... until his nemesis showed up. A little brown-haired girl stood across from him on the other side of the water station and to his left a few feet, right above the pool that Zane was throwing his balls into. She didn't seem to like what he was doing, so she'd rescue the balls and throw them back at him, making him flinch. After a couple of times that Zane tried to ignore her, he finally picked up a ball and pelted her right back, which started a brief ping pong ball war between the two. I, being the good parent that I am, stood back with my camera in tears from laughing at the interchange, while the little girl's mother frowned at me and scooted her daughter away..... she started it. (shrug innocently)

We tried to climb the rock wall and once Zane figured out what his legs were supposed to do, he wanted to keep trying the first two steps over and over again.... almost mastered it except he leans  back on me for support.

Then we visited the "grocery store." This is really cool.... it's a mini supermarket, complete with deli, where the kids can grab a shopping cart and go shopping, make a sandwich, and checkout and "pay" for their "food." I went wrong somewhere along the way, however.... Zane ended up stealing a "banana" so I had to make him go back and "pay" for it. ;) Too funny, though.... he seemed to understand his faux pas.

We also went out on the patio to see the helicopter! A real helicopter - gutted and bolted to the ground. Zane loved it and I couldn't get him out of the pilot's seat so we kept flying and flying the helicopter - complete with takeoff, in flight, and landing sounds! (hmmm.... must take after his mom!)

Zane's not much of a cake eater... must take after his dad. He does love cookies and donuts though, so I decided to do donuts for his birthday instead of the cake, which was a big hit with the kids. After lunch his classmates and friends sang him happy birthday and Zane just soaked in the attention. I get the impression he knows what's going on, even if he can't express it. I hope he had a special day today - he sure had a good time!