Five Years Old

Oh boy. My son turned 5 last week.


Pretty scary.

He is maturing so quickly. At the rate he's growing, I know that he'll be taller than me soon enough. But pretty soon he will out-mature me. (Of course, most of us know that won't be a hard thing to do)

The Wall-E theme for Alexander's party

We were out of town at a funeral during his actual birthday -- but we had planned a small "kids" party for him on the Saturday following his big day. We held it at Zoom Zoom's in Ancaster.

What a fantastic place, great staff and great hospitality. Zoom Zoom's offers drop-in options, party bookings and even private party bookings. There is a complimentary coffee bar for the adults (because the kids don't really need coffee to find energy), comfortable recliner chairs and free wireless internet access. (Some really nice touches to ensure that it's not just fun for the kids but also fun for the adults, too)

Some of the kids hanging out in the climbing structure

Pierre emerging from the yellow slide. Don't worry, he wasn't TOO scared.

Fran taking advantage of one of the reclining chairs - shot from near the top of climber

Alexander and his buddy in the rope maze

I can't say enough about how wonderful the owners and staff of Zoom Zoom's are. My neighbours had a party for their daughter there a few months ago, and when we asked Alexander what he wanted to do for his birthday, he said he wanted to go to the same place. I was delighted to hear it because I'd had just as much fun.

A mid-play snack - "Can we take the party hats off now please?"

After Alexander's party, we headed off to Selkirk to my brother in law's cottage where Alexander collected rocks on the beach, enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather, an incredible sudden thunderstorm, then a remarkable after-storm rainbow and sunset. All in the matter of about four hours. Talk about packing multiple experiences into a short-time frame.

Fran and Alexander collecting rocks

I took some video of the incredibly phenomenal cloud lightning that happened offshore a few hours after the storm had passed, but the pictures didn't turn out that well -- I suppose my Palm Treo wasn't designed to be optimal for taking video after dark of something about 5 miles away.

But sitting in the hot-tub with the only light coming from the campfire, the hot-tub lights and the gorgeous distant lightning-filled clouds over Lake Erie was the perfect way to end Alexander's birthday party day.