Scooter McTooterson's Fifth Birthday Extravaganzaa

Scout's 5. Holy guacamole. I remember looking forward to the day when our youngest would hit this mark. I love 5.

Scout is a GREAT 5 year old. She's spunky, smart and energetic. She's a daredevil, a sweetheart and a non-stop ball of goofy fun. She calls the world like she sees it, thinks about things that startle me with their weight and is a little nervous about starting kindergarten in a couple of days. We are SO glad she's in our family and were delighted to celebrate the anniversary of her earthly debut on August 8th.

Scout is a huge Totoro fan. My Neighbor Totoro is a cartoon by the animated film director Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service are some of his other titles you may recognize). We tried to throw her a theme party but as anyone who has ever tried to throw a theme birthday party for a small child who isn't totally enthralled by last year's summer blockbuster (never mind that it was Rated PG-13 for illicit naked-pirate-robot violence...don't get me started), there isn't a lot of pre-made Totoro party favors out there to make it easy.

We started the day with scrambled eggs and opening the ultimate giant stuffed Totoro. Troy took all the kids swimming and Scout had a blast running from the pool to the table to get a little coloring time in.

In the afternoon we all went to Champoeg park for a PARTY! Scout had a very distinguished guest list including our neighbors the Wallaces, our friends the Hupps, Grandma, Grandpa & cousin Jerred all the way down from Puyallup, WA and even the long-lost Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Matt from Orlando, FL. Scout requested hamburgers and hotdogs so we lit up the barbecue and did a picnic Oregon-style (which just means we also had veggie patties and tofu-dogs). After we ate, the kids played around with goodie bag junk (hand pump rockets and whistle-pops were the favorite among the kids...I was just glad the whistles were edible). We opened presents, made ice cream in single-serving ziploc bags, sang Happy Birthday and tore into the Totoro cake.

The grown ups sat around chatting while the kids ran around the park until dusk came. We packed up and drove back to our apartment where we visited with the out-of-towners until we were all tired and ready for bed...too bad they still had a 3 hour drive!





Scout had a great birthday and is already planning for her next one. The rest of us are just enjoying our brand new 5 year old!