The Big Six

When we went in to sing to Sir L on the morning of his 6th birthday (in October, ha!) I was quite surprised to see him up, dressed and waiting excitedly in bed for us :)  Not sure how long he had been "ready", but he was EXCITED!! :)

As one with zero artistic talent, he is always surprising me with his! :)  He is our little artist, and loves books, so a book about art was a HUGE hit!

Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to get a decent picture of an energetic 6yr old, in low light?? lol, Never a dull moment..

..yes we (aka the kids) stuck the candles back in a few times for photos sake..

Books about animals (another of his favorite subjects!), a remote control car, art supplies, and a marble run were among the evening fun..

But the REAL fun surrounding his "big six" was when his friends showed up earlier that weekend!...  We had a full blown Halloween costume party in his honor.  Everyone carved their own pumpkins,

While my amazing husband set up the donuts, which by the way take MUCH longer to do than I had anticipated!

..and sweet boys played with Charming C for me. :)

There was plenty of fun food and friends to go around :)

 When the donuts were finally ready, it was my most favorite part! lol..

I spy a cheater!  But he's the birthday boy so I let it slide ;)

Just in case that wasn't enough sugar, we also had some fabulous cupcakes ready!

And I choked back proud mommy tears realizing how big this sweet boy of mine has gotten!

Talk about a fun group of friends..

After the sun started to set we brought everyone inside and set up a dance hall in our family room turned mega stage with mini strobe lights, black lights, a smoke machine which I'm pretty sure isn't supposed to be confined indoors (oops!), and enough kid approved Halloween dance hits to make any adults head throb.  It truly was a super fun day worthy of a super fun kid! :)  Happy "Big Six" to my charismatic little heart throb!  Until next year..

Seven's Heaven

In August (that would be LAST August, as in 2014.. I know what you're thinking, but remember it's not nice to judge!), this incredibly handsome boy happened to turn 7.  Of course we did the usual: breakfast in bed, lunch with mom, choose your dinner and open gifts, but this time it was different.  THIS time I had a SEVEN year old boy!  Seeing as I am NOT a boy, and my husband is old and has a hard time remembering when he WAS a boy, figuring out what to give him was H-A-R-D!  Then I gained some "I think I really can pull this off" pride points (and major cool mom points as well, I might add!), when my trusty companion, Amazon, had the coolest shark tooth necklace EVER (and a scorpion encased in acrylic bracelet)!  That smile is holding back a LOT of excitement!  Apparently that's cool when you're 7..

As is this..

..and this.. (SIDENOTE: this was my first attempt at a non-boxed cake.  It was carrot because he likes orange.  And I like cream cheese frosting.  Hideous, but delicious!  Again, thou shalt not judge.  Especially if you happen to be a baker..)

Saving money is a worthy desire.. So is doing extra chores to do so.  He hasn't quite mastered that last part yet, but it's a cute piggy bank regardless! ;)

The Box Car Children series.  I couldn't remember much about them accept that I loved them as a kid and wanted to relive my childhood through him a smidge.

And then there's this.  I have a series of about a dozen shots just like this thanks to our little "Charming C" who is the new twister in the house these days!  Boys..

This was his only request.  The best part?  It has a zoom lens so he can get REEEEALLY close to his subjects.  I am now the proud owner of HUNDREDS of pictures of bugs.

Summer birthday parties can be hard, but we pulled off an awesome one!  Superhero style :)  They had to complete a series of "training" tasks to be awarded the ultimate reward and be dubbed as superheros!

Laser beam mazes.. it's serious stuff!

Because every superhero has awesome hand-eye coordination..

And web spraying skills..

The best part though had to be when I told my awesome husband that he was the super villain with the stolen loot of candy and armed the new found superheros with water balloons to knock out handfuls from him!  GENIUS I tell you!  It was priceless on ALL accounts! :)

Melty orange cupcakes.  Because I meant for them to look that way.  It's all the rage!

Seriously one super awesome party!! :)  And one SUPER amazing 7 year old that has me smitten with his little "not" smile that still shows his dimples and gives me joy beyond measure!