5th Birthday Celebration Weekend!

The 5th birthday is a big one! In lieu of a party, I thought we should do something different this year and I wanted to spend time together as a family. And have some fun! We decided to go to Dollywood for the boys's birthday weekend. I had friends and family that have been and have said wonderful things about Dollywood but I had never been and the boys have never been to any sort of amusement park yet.We were so excited to put these plans into action!

The Dollywood idea had a lot of supporting factors that became a reality. We got to stay in Knoxville at Granddad's lake house, since it's only about 30 minutes or so away from Pigeon Forge where Dollywood is; see Ashley, Zack, Taylor and Anna; and we invited Joey, Lisa and Davis to stay with us and go to the park with us (they are Dollywood pros and former season ticket holders!) and see Jim Ed, Suzy, Stephanie and Ava while in town. So many great things packed into one weekend!

Here's the rundown and photo evidence of our fun!

We met Ashley, Zack and the girls at Calhoun's on the river for dinner. They secured the most perfect table for us! It was surrounded by windows so the kids could look out at the river and the boats and it was away from most of the other restaurant patrons so we wouldn't disturb others. We all had a great time.

Dinner with the Lewis family at Calhoun's on the river

Stokes & birthday dessert

Ryan & birthday dessert

William & birthday dessert

After dinner we went out with the girls to feed the ducks and look at the fish!

Taylor holding William

Feeding the ducks

Family fun

After dinner, we went back to Granddad's house with Joey, Lisa and Davis. We got unpacked and tried to put the kids to bed as early as possible so that they would be well-rested for the big day the next day.

After they were asleep, I snuck in to take pictures of them on their last night as 4 year olds. Thinking about that and how fast time is going makes my heart ache just a little!

Stokes at 4 years old

Ryan at 4 years old

William at 4 years old

I put some balloons in their room so they could wake up
to a birthday celebration!

The next morning was their big BIRTHDAY!!!! The boys all woke up as FIVE YEAR OLDS! Did I mention that Joey's birthday is the same day as the boys'? He is a little older than five though. ;)

We had birthday cake for breakfast!

All the birthday boys!

Homemade (egg-free) cake, per the boys's request:
chocolate cake with strawberry icing.

Make a wish!

Davis wore one of the party hats!

After breakfast everyone got ready and we went on over to Dollywood. I couldn't believe all the traffic! We were able to park in a handicapped space and also got an accessibility pass for Ryan, so that helped us out a lot.

The Peerys take on Dollywood!

We rented strollers for all the boys (I wish I would have thought to pack my double stroller!) and we were SO GLAD that we did. We definitely needed them...a lot. The boys were already complaining about being tired of walking from where we parked in the handicapped lot to the front gates of the park. Eye roll....

We looked down and saw this sweet moment
of Stokes and Davis holding hands!

We had Happy Birthday balloons tied on to Ryan's wheelchair and the Dollywood employees at the front of the park noticed and gave the boys buttons to wear on their shirt indicating it was their birthday. It was an extra special touch because every employee that noticed would comment about it or wish the boys a happy birthday.

Time for rides! The kids were so excited!

William, Stokes and Davis

Stokes (aka Mr Serious) and Davis

William

They all got to ride together on this one!

Bzzzzzzz

Sweet Ryan!

Photo time!

Stokes, Ryan and William

#Reallife

We took a ride on the Dollywood Express. This was a great "rest" time after having walked around a lot and gotten really, really hot. It felt nice to sit for a while in the shade and when the train was moving, there was a great breeze! Definitely a must-do to break up the day!

Tribe on the train

These 3 are besties!

Mama, Ryan and Dada

My heart

Our Dollywood Express Train
If I recall correctly, her name was Klondike Katie! LOL

We split off from the Pruetts for a little while after the train and did a few more rides! We found this River Rampage water ride - we all got so wet and had a blast! When we got on this ride, all the employees working the ride came up to our tube-thing and sang "Happy birthday" to the boys. :)

Ready to go!

Woo hoo!

Yay, Ryan!

Then we meandered over to this vintage car area which was pretty cool!

Ladies man!

Charmers...

Selfie with William on the vintage car ride!

After a few rides, we met back up with the Pruetts to have a snack and gather thoughts...

We love Dollywood!

Birthday boys.!

All these kiddos are so fun!

Our gang

Joey, Lisa and Davis were pretty much done for the day and they decided to head on home...I wasn't quite ready yet! I {somehow} managed to get Thomas to agree to go on a few more rides with the boys. We went back to the little kids area where we spent most of the morning and tried a few more rides that we hadn't been on yet. I could tell the boys were starting to get pretty tired, but they were gamers to do more rides!

Dada on the elephant ride

Dada and Ryan

Dollywood family selfie

Meltdowns were starting, and it became apparent that it was our time to go on as well. Plus, we were all sweaty, hot, and exhausted. As you can see below, it took all of 5 seconds for the boys to crash once we got to the car.

William and Stokes

We headed back towards Knoxville and met up with the Pruetts for dinner at the Smoky Mountain Brewery.

Big Man Ryan

Besties at dinner

It was a fun, casual dinner and a great way to cap off a big birthday for all these guys! I think we were all at the point of exhaustion by the time we got our check at the restaurant. We were pretty much ready to sleep by the time we got back to Granddad's!

In all the excitement of Saturday and going to Dollywood, we didn't give the boys their birthday gifts! We didn't really have time to do it in the morning before going to the park (and I didn't want them to want to bring their new toys with us!) and then by the time we got home, it was BED TIME, so we ended up opening gifts on Sunday morning, the day after their birthday.

Ryan with Baby Jack Jack

Stokes and William opening their gifts

William got a "Flynn Rider" - the guy
from Disney's Tangled. He LOVES Flynn
Rider. Mainly because he wears boots.

We all left to grab breakfast and we parted with the Pruetts. You should have seen these boys! Look at that group hug. They really all get along so, so well! Lisa told me that while they were at Dollywood, Davis called the boys his "brothers"! Love it...

Group hug

From there we stopped by Jim Ed and Suzy's house to see them! It had been so long since we'd seen any of them and the boys had never been to their house before. It was a long overdue visit. We weren't able to stay all that long, but we loved seeing everyone and catching up.

Ava with the boys

Kiddos with Stephanie, Jim Ed and Suzy

Kiddos with Thomas and me

Last few minutes of our Knoxville weekend - bittersweet! We loved visiting Granddad's lake house, had so much fun with friends and family, wore ourselves out at Dollywood and had a blast celebrating our sweet, spunky and fun five year olds. I was sad that our fun weekend was coming to an end.

Granddad's beautiful back yard

Bye bye, lake house! Thanks for the memories!