It’s all about Will! This week on The Little Couple, Jen Arnold and Bill Klein celebrated their son Will’s 5th birthday. The first project involved redecorating the birthday boy’s room from a fish theme to a “things that move” theme. Will and his sister, Zoey, got down to business, showing off their Jackson Pollock-like painting skills and somehow banishing their father to a “time out” — and it only got more challenging from there.
Birthday Book Battle
When — in a moment of seemingly temporary insanity — Bill handed Zoey a book that her brother received for his birthday, he learned his children’s latest skill: not sharing with each other. Will asked Zoey nicely to give it back to him, but like a good sister, she refused.
“Will and Zoey have only recently started to get a little possessive about ‘what’s my stuff versus your stuff,’ and we’re seeing more typical sibling rivalries coming out,” Jen explained. “I think it’s probably the typical stuff that we will see a whole lot more of over time.”
Move Over, Martha Stewart
Despite her infatuation with Will’s book, Zoey did rise to the occasion and helped decorate her brother’s room with decals of fire trucks, trains, and cars. Jen did her best to not micromanage the decoration placement, and overall, she did a pretty good job. (She lasted two hours before returning to the scene to rearrange the decals and “change a few things here and there.”)
They finished decorating by measuring Will on the annual growth chart and were thrilled to learn he had grown two full inches. Obviously, Zoey didn’t want to be left out and they were excited to learn that in the last 18, months she had grown a full 3 ½ inches. Will still made a point of noting how “tiny” Zoey is, but hey—isn’t that what brothers are for?
Boys Will Be Boys
Bill continued the birthday festivities by busting out one of Will’s new toys, which happened to be a motorized helicopter. Though Will and Bill were thoroughly enjoying the chopper, Jen was less enthused.
“I don’t think there are too many people out there, particularly moms, who are too excited about a helicopter flying around their house,” she noted. “It’s just not something that says, ‘Wow, isn’t that awesome?'” That seemed to be exactly what the boys thought of it, but we understand Jen’s point.
Jen struggled to get Will focused on the invite list for his belated party, but she couldn’t compete with the toy. Bill — who was in charge of every aspect of the event planning except sending out the invites — revealed that he pretty much outsourced it all, which he acknowledged made Jen uncomfortable.
“I think from Jen’s perspective, she is normally so hands on with all these things, that it’s almost uncomfortable for her,” he said to the camera. “I think that’s fantastic because getting her out of her comfort zone is a good thing. I’m not forcing her to do more. I’m forcing her to do less, which Jen could deal with a dose of less.”
Willie-Palooza or Bust
Bill was confident the party was going to “go off without a hitch,” but his expectations were quickly proven incorrect when Jen discovered that the wrong address had auto-filled on the Evite that went out.
“Bill, apparently the Evite, when you put the location in automatically, it gave the wrong address,” Jen told her husband as he struggled to load gigantic balloons into the car. “Apparently it says two different places, so no one might be there. We might have a problem.” That’s what we call a party fail.
“Jennifer, unfortunately, selected the summer camp location as the location of the party, which is about 30, 40 minutes away in a different direction from our chosen destination,” Bill explained to the camera. Still he looked on the bright side. “I guess the good news is since I planned it, if the party sucks, if nobody’s there, nobody will critique it,” he quipped. Jen quickly started letting all of the parents know the correct address and, for the most part, the crisis was averted. (Whew!)
Two of the most non-scientist-looking “scientists” led Will and his friends through some experiments that involved giant plastic bags and something called a heat gun. (Where do we get one of those?!) The highlight though, was a demonstration of static electricity involving Will’s hair.
The celebration also included a healthy dose of pizza and a fabulous “things that move”-themed birthday cake. In the end, Jen declared the Mad Science party “fantastic,” and praised Bill for doing “an amazing job.”
The Afterparty
After the party it’s the afterparty — even when you’re 5. Once the family got home, Will opened his presents while Zoey tried to claim as many of them as hers as possible. (To be fair, Bill also seemed interested in a few of the gifts.) “It’s great when Will gets new cars, because technically they’re our cars,” Bill opined with a smile.
