Kohen's 5th Birthday

My sweet Kohen has officially turned 5 and is the first to have a birthday in Taiwan. This birthday took a lot of forethought (not my specialty) because I knew we would have been here less than 2 weeks and I would have no idea where anything was and that proved true. So I was grateful for every little decoration or present I thought to lug over here. The theme was Robot, but more accurately "Kobot" which is Kohen's Robot name given to him by his Aunt Natalie.

We ran into a few problems when it came to our birthday traditions. We felt like it would be really important to continue as many as possible. One tradition we have is that we sneak a bunch of helium balloons into the birthday child's bedroom before we go to bed so that is the first thing they see in the morning. Believe it or not I actually brought a foil balloon over unfilled and Nathan went on a hunt to go find some one with a helium tank- amazingly he found somewhere at a flower shop a ways away. The man was somehow able to communicate to Nathan that the problem with the latex balloons he'd brought was that they will probably only stay up for 5 hours. That had me praying they would last just until morning- prayers were answered as Kohen decided to get up at 6:30 am and the balloons were still fine.

Next tradition/problem: Pinata. I thought we were going to get away with not doing one but boy was I wrong. Kohen kept talking about having his birthday pinata all the time and I knew I had to try and make something legit. That's when I turned into McGyver/McGruber. I seriously had so few supplies, crappy tape, glue stick, no colored paper or markers etc. But I had some boxes from Costco purchases, paperclips, paper bowls and toilet paper rolls. It took me several hours but eventually Kobot 5.0 was finished. In case you're wondering the bottom part is his wheel that he gets around on. C'mon, expand your imagination with me.Kobot 5.o was a hit (that pun was not intended but I got a chuckle...you?). Kohen thought he was the greatest.
I like Nathan's face below, you can tell he's trying not to let Kennedy give him an America's Funniest Home Video Moment... you know the kind I speak of.
Right before we left Boise we took Kohen to Build-a-Bear for his birthday. He reacted better than the girls (age?) and now he always has his Monkey "George" nearby. Even gets the monkey a real banana or other food for meals. He was very excited to get a soccer outfit for George. I have to give a shout out here to both Gma's who both managed to send birthday presents with us- they are on it.
One other thing we had to get really creative with was wrapping paper, couldn't find any here. We used foil, a Disney store bag and also packing paper smoothed out, it worked out just fine. I have to mention the present Kohen is reacting to below. It is a GI "Jones" set that last Christmas cost $55.oo and I found on clearance for $13, thank you very much (Target!). The box was ginormous though and Nathan- I love him for doing this- actually lugged it clear to Taiwan to store at his apartment on one of his previous business trips. I told you I'd been planning this birthday for a while.
The cake was another small problem. Our oven here at the apartment won't fit a 9x13 plus I have no idea yet where to find other cake fixings. We stumbled upon a...wait for it...Cold Stone Creamery in one of the big department stores. When Nathan went to get the cake and asked if they write on them the girl politely told Nathan that "they weren't America or Costco." Fair enough.
When I think about Kohen, well you guys know, you read about him all the time- he is a genuinely good child. He is mostly happy, he is funny and creative and the pretend play is unlimited. He really does have a spirit about him and I am so grateful to be his mom. I am also grateful that he was turning 5 and not 12 so that he overlooked all the quirkiness that came with his first birthday in Taiwan!