35

Craig turned 35 yesterday!!

We celebrated with breakfast in bed and homemade cards from the kids. 

Plus a couple of gifts to open... all before his toes touched the floor that morning. 

In the evening, we invited the Munoz family over for a chili and cornbread dinner. 

And I made my first ever double layer cake... well, first that actually looked pretty.  Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.   

Kelly's birthday is Monday the 21st, so we sang to both of them and they blew out the candles. 

There was some cousin play and hanging out that followed. 

Haha - Sophie's face in this pic.  

We celebrated a second time at Grandma & Papa's house with another dinner and chocolate cake too. 

Yum.  Birthdays are delicious!

William Dean at Age 6

A little late with this post, but here goes...

a few things we don't want to forget about our boy at the age of six.

Will, at this point in your life, you:

1) Are 42#10oz and 44 3/4"

2) Love Transformers and dinosaurs still... but have now taken an interest in Star Wars (what??), Avengers and Power Rangers.  Is there some kind of "boy handbook" you subscribe to that draws you into all this stuff?

3) Are an awesome eater - especially with fruits and vegetables - and only occasionally get complainy about some dinner main dishes.  Otherwise, you are efficient and all-business about eating while still being nicely social with your family at the table.

4) Take off all your clothes to go #2.  Oh, and the fan must be on while you do your business.  And usually there are several books involved because you definitely like to take your time!  We can't figure out why the nakedness is necessary though.  Lately, you've been tugging on the neckline of ALL shirts ALL the time like you just can't stand to have them touch you.  Plus you still prefer shorts, short sleeves and bare feet.  So I think the naked pottying is simply because you'd rather be naked than clothed most of the time.  And, although it's kind of late, you're just learning to wipe yourself now.  And we still check your work.  (Probably not something you're going to want to read about when you're older and looking back on mommy's little blog.)

5) Love Band Aids.

6) Love to lay down and relax in the tub.  You do NOT prefer bubbles anymore.

7) Are extremely sensitive and cry easily when your feelings are hurt.

8) Have become a champion room cleaner.  You love to surprise me with having everything straightened and your bed made.  Not all the time, but I sure do appreciate it the occasions!

9) Argue with me that it's not necessary to wash your hands that often.

10) Have gotten a bit lazier.  You don't rush out to ride your bike like you used to when we get home.  The various screens in our house have very much become your addiction and it's become far more challenging to interest you in other things.  Your screen time IS limited but it's definitely your favorite thing to do right now, much to your non-TV-watching-mommy's chagrin.

11) Have your brown stripe belt in karate and are the (or one of two?) highest rank in your class right now.

12) Are reading quietly to yourself for at least an hour on weekends while Sophie naps and you're doing awesome with it!  You've really racked up the time on your summer reading challenge at the library this way.  Sometimes you fall asleep while reading during "quiet time" while Sophie naps and that's when I know you needed that snooze.  When it happens, it's often for two to three hours!  You are a champion sleeper and still seem to need more of it than most kids your age.

13) Are AWESOME!

14) Are your daddy's biggest fan.  I love how much you love your family, but there is no one you look up to more than your daddy.  You just think he hung the moon.  Every interest daddy has, every team he cheers for, every funny thing he says... you just eagerly follow right in those footsteps and soak it all up.  And it's certainly obvious why.  Daddy plays and gets down and silly with you more than anybody else.  He helps you with the computer, the games, the transforming and the karate moves.  He praises you and keeps you in line.  He cheers you on and loves to surprise you.  Daddy is so very protective of you and, even more so, proud of you.  You and daddy are two peas in a pod and I love the relationship that you share.

{These next several pics are so similar but Will's expressions crack me up.  And remember how everything manages to turn into a gun?  This was an old weed whacker that daddy turned into a pretend rifle for Will.  It's an outside only toy.  Ahh, my sweet, shirtless hillbilly boys...}

Age six is starting off well!  Here's to another trip around the sun with you, buddy.

We love you so very much!

Will's 6th Birthday Party

This was hands down the easiest, most relaxed, most enjoyable birthday party to get ready for EVER!  And it was thanks in a very large part to the ladies in our family who helped with childcare last night and this morning/afternoon.

We decided to host the party at a local park this year.  That decision was largely because we wanted to be able to invite some of Will's and our mutual friends and our house simply can't accommodate any more people than we normally invite.  I'd checked into some of the bigger parks in Oregon and Genoa and the prices were between $50-80 for shelter house rental.  But one of my biggest concerns with either of those was that they are both very popular (especially Oregon's) and would undoubtedly be crowded.  Public parks  do not close to the rest of the public when rented for parties like this.  I didn't want the parents of any children worrying about where their child was at any given moment and losing them in the shuffle.  So finally I called about the playground and shelter house at the old Allen school.  The cost there was only $35 and it was actually a much nicer set-up with all the available facilities.  Better than I even expected and the playground is very rarely visited by regular public guests.  So the large open grounds around it were safe to run freely and we had the place completely to ourselves.

The shelter house had a "kitchen area" for setting out all the food, complete with a fridge and deep freeze, but no sink.  So we decided to keep the main dish simple and just order pizzas from Marco's in town.  Another big task off my hands!  I made up a large fruit salad, a large tray of veggies and dip, a really yummy store-bought green salad with dried fruit and nuts, and two banana cakes per the birthday boy's request.  And for ice cream to go with the cakes, we ordered individual cups of soft serve ice cream, pre-made from The Big Dipper in town just like Casey and Molly did at their parties this year.  Soooo nice!

So as I mentioned, Will & Sophie stayed with papa & grandma last night.  In the morning, grandma gave them both a shower for us and kept them until about lunch time so that Craig and I could sleep in a little and then head to the park to do a little cleaning and set up.  I was able to scrub down all the picnic tables, counters and benches while Craig raked the volleyball court, filled the helium balloons and put out garbage bags in all the waste bins.

We picked kids up, fed them lunch and then dropped Will off to Aunt Casey's house where she had asked to take him shopping to pick out some of his presents from her.  Apparently they'd talked about it before and  Casey wanted him to be able to select his own.  Will was elated to go on this "date" with his Godmother and the timing was so nice for us too!  We took Sophie home for a nap, got showers for ourselves and then dressed for the party.  Casey brought Will back after they finished and I got some pictures of the two of them together:

At about 2:45, my mom came over to stay with Soph while she finished her nap and Craig, Will & I headed back to the park to decorate and get the food ready.  Then mom was going to dress Sophie and do her hair and bring her to the party when she came at 4:00.  Timing makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE when it comes to party planning.  This day went SO SMOOTHLY because of all the help we had with our kids and it allowed us to feel so relaxed about getting everything done!  Thank you, Marilyn, Casey and mom!!!

Our birthday boy.

Will and Nana.

The shelter house as seen from the playground with part of the volleyball court in between.

I borrowed an idea from Pinterest to serve the fruit salad in waffle cones.  I set them out right away with some forks so the kids could dig in when they arrived.

We brought along several kick balls, soccer balls, a beach ball, a football, a volleyball, a couple hoola hoops and some bubbles for the kids to play with.

We ate...

Hello, Magnone family!

Hello, Clement & Mollenhauer families!  So glad some more friends could join us as we'd hoped.

Will with Charli and Cora.

And the kids played...

Haha!  Look at Charli & Will in the next three.  :-)

My favorite pic of the day.  My boys.

Gift opening time!

Jax and Brutus joined us and wandered the grounds together.

It was a pretty windy afternoon and so we had Will sit up on the counter in front of the kitchen area to try to block his birthday candles from the wind.  Everyone sang Happy Birthday to him.  :)

And he blew out his candles!

Banana cake is definitely a winner.

Love this picture of Lindsey and Taylor.

Jagger & Will.

Autobot wannabes.  ;-)

Veronica attempting to hoola hoop...

We had lots of help with clean up so that was a breeze.  But we returned home with a lot more than we came with because of all the gifts.  And everything and everyone felt a little bit sticky.  ;)  Both children and dog went straight into the tub (not together - ha!) upon arrival home.  Will played for a bit and then both kids crashed.  All in all, I'd say it was a success!  We're going to have to figure out some place bigger and indoors that we can have Sophie's party when it's time to invite some of her friends.  April is just too unpredictable for outdoors.