Tuesday, May 12, 2015

People, we have a 7-year-old!



So this little, sweet baby just turned seven last month.  SEVEN.  No longer is he this tiny little thing (who was never actually a tiny baby at all, as he was born at a whopping 9 lbs!), he is this tall, thoughtful, sweet, silly, smart seven year old, capable of holding interesting conversations, telling funny jokes, giving awesome hugs, thinking through complex problems and so much more!

Since his birthday fell on Easter this year, we got to celebrate it 3 times!  Once the day before with just the immediate family, once on Easter with the extended family, and once the following week with his friends.  Lucky kid!  And lucky us, getting to celebrate with him! 
Celebrating the day before his birthday with a birthday donut!


The day before his big day, Rick, Aurelia and I gathered around the birthday donuts, sang "Happy Birthday" to Dashiell, and gave him our gift - a new aquarium for his room!  He and Rick set it up, then we all headed over to the pet store to pick out his new fish friends!  We went with Tetra since they are small "community" fish and we could comfortably fit 4 fish in D's tank without fear of overcrowding.  Dashiell picked out four different colors of tetra and immediately gave them names.  The red fish is Fred (it rhymes), green is Bib (your guess is as good as mine!), yellow is Goldie (natch), and the purple is She-sha (because it sounds girly and the purple fish is very pretty and feminine).

 The family hams it up with the fish
 Dashiell, CLEARLY excited about his new fish friends!
Aurelia needs to get in on the action, too
To say that Dashiell is thrilled with his fish is an understatement!  All weekend long he kept telling me it was the "best gift ever" and giving me the biggest hugs!  He reads books to his fish, tells them stories, films them whenever he gets the chance...It's pretty awesome.  And it tells me that we need more pets, but that probably won't happen for a while so we'll settle for fish!
The Easter eggs the kids colored with Grandpa
The next day - Dashiell's actual birthday - was Easter!  So the kids got us up early, hunted for Easter eggs, and ate tons of candy.  Or at least Aurelia ate tons of candy.  She's like me, and has no control over sugary foods.  Dashiell, on the other hand, asks permission for each piece of candy.  Such a rules follower!  We ate a good breakfast, then made Dashiell's birthday cake.  He requested a "number" cake like Aurelia had for her birthday.  I think his turned out even better!

Of course the kids helped with the sprinkles, which means I'm still cleaning up sprinkles over a month later.  Of course.

That afternoon we headed over the the grandparents' house for an Easter/Dashiell's Birthday celebration.  I'm totally a fan of the combined celebration, especially when it's not at my house! 
Waiting to blow out the candles!
So all in all it was a fabulous weekend!  But wait, the celebration was not over yet!

The next weekend we had a small party at our house for Dashiell and his friends.  He wanted to have an "art" party, which was pretty fun to plan!  We had a painting station for any kids who wanted to create their own artwork (about half of them did, the rest were too busy running around the yard - yes it was nice enough to have most of the party outside!).  We also had a bean bag toss and a paper airplane making/throwing contest.  Inside we had various snacks and a decorate-your-own-cupcake station. 
 
Everyone getting into the paper airplane contest!
 Paint chip banner
 Happy Birthday banner!
 Snacks, including rainbow fruit kabobs and pretzel "paintbrushes"
The Decorate-your-own-Cupcake station






Everyone had fun with all the sprinkles!

We attempted to do a "photo booth", but I think Aurelia was the only one who tried it out!

We think everyone had a pretty good time!  We were blessed with lovely weather, and counted ourselves lucky that most everyone who was invited was able to come over!  And most importantly, Dashiell loved it all! 

Happy 7th Birthday to my sweet little boy!  I hope the next year is even better than the last!