Happy 6th Birthday!

Aidan turned 6 last Friday. On Friday we sent cupcakes to school for his class, daddy and Aidan made a trip to Chucky Cheese to play games in the afternoon, we went to Texas Pizza for dinner (Aidan's choice), and then we returned home to open gifts. On Saturday we celebrated with some of Aidan's friends with a soccer party ( again, Aidan's choice).

6 years old feels so old to me. I think it is because it fully confirms the reality that he is no longer a preschooler. People tell you all the time that it all goes so fast and I cannot believe we are already at this point. Aidan isn't all that sentimental so when I commented that I can't believe how old he is he simply told me that it didn't take very long to get from 3 to 6 so it won't be long until he is 10. The sad truth is that he is right! In no time he will be grown.

This age is sweet and fun. I love learning who he is more and more. I love watching his personality and individuality develop. I love seeing who the Lord made Aidan to be. I can remember when I would hold him as a baby, cradled in my arms and just be overwhelmed with love. I don't get to hold him in my arms nearly as often so that feeling of love looks a little different these days. I feel it as he walks into school (so grown up like) with his backpack on every morning and I experience it everyday when I pick him up from school with excitement to hear every detail about his day (at least what I can get him to tell me). I experience it when I watch him play soccer and he looks over to us to see our reaction when his team scores. And I experience it when he comes home from school and wants to quiz me to make sure I know the things he is learning. I experience that love when I overhear him and Rebecca playing together and talking to each other and I experience it when I get to hear Aidan's sweet voice singing praise songs he made up to the Lord. It looks different but I love you more and more every year Aidan! I am so thankful that the Lord blessed me with you! I am proud of the boy you are becoming and the heart that you have!

Here are some pictures of the recent birthday festivities:

Opening Presents

What Else would Andrew be doing, but playing ball while we open presents

The Table - made to look like a soccer field. We kept it simple and did cake and ice cream. I provided all the toppings to make sundaes just to make it a little more fun.

Here is the cake I made

Blowing out the candles

Playing Soccer Style freeze tag.

I really did a terrible job taking pictures to show you what we did. We had several games that included:

1. Soccer Bowling - kick over the bottles filled with water with a soccer ball.

2. Balloon heads - a little chaotic, but fun. The kids got balloons were instructed to keep them in the air with their heads or feet, just no hands. We played individual and teams. After a little bit it turned into pop the balloons.

3. We played soccer with a soccer beach ball, a small rubber ball, and a real soccer ball. Some of the kids ended up arguing about who could be the goalie. I would have NEVER guessed that. I mean isn't it more fun to really play? Oh well, we took turns.

4. Lastly we played Yellow Card Freeze Tag. The referee was given a yellow sticky pad (post its) and was to put them on the other kids. When the kids got 2 yellow card they were out. When they were tagged they had to freeze and wait for a teammate to crawl through their legs. This was the favorite game.

Thanks to all of you who came and helped us celebrate Aidan's birthday! He had a great time!