Wow! Eight years old as of February 26th! Henry is such a fun kid, and he's had a great year. He grows and matures a little each day, yet his sweet, fun-loving self doesn't change! I'm realizing I didn't do a 7.5 year update, so this one has a little more than normal. See below for a bit about him. Pics are out of order but I haven't posted any of him in so long that I tried to include highlights over the whole year.
1. What is your favorite color? Turquoise
2. What is your favorite toy? Art stuff
3. What is your favorite fruit? Vegetable? Strawberry, carrot
4. What is your favorite tv show? Wild Kratts/Word Girl
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? pizza
6. What is your favorite outfit? Turquoise Nike shorts with yellow stripe on side and Nike turquoise shirt
7. What is your favorite game? Golf, air hockey
8. What is your favorite snack? Muffins
9. What is your favorite animal? Deer, squirrel, lizard
10. What is your favorite song? All Slugs and Bugs
11. What is your favorite book? All Boxcar Children
12. Who is your best friend? Dawson, Carter, Jackson
13. What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play basketball, ride the Flickr
15. What is your favorite drink? Water
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Gray blanket
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Pancakes
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? El Olmeca, Handels ice cream (Oreo is his fave!)
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Architect or Zoologist
-Henry is in 2nd grade in Mrs. Shirley's class at PCS. This has been his best year yet. He says Mrs. Shirley is the nicest teacher he's ever had, and I agree! She is sweet and encouraging-very gentle spirit. This is his last year to do part home school with me, which is surreal! Next year he will go everyday, but MWF will only be til 12:30. It is flying by! Henry still isn't much for reading "just for fun" much to my chagrin, BUT his reading has really taken off this year as far as fluency goes. He would prefer art class to anything else, though! His favorite school buddy is Jackson, but he seems to get along with everyone fairly well-especially the girls! :) He's had some play dates with Jackson and also another school buddy Hudson.
-Last summer he attended a golf camp, this fall he played soccer, and in winter was basketball (his favorite). He also did a basketball day camp hosted by the PCS basketball team one Saturday this winter. He takes golf lessons a couple times a month, and I don't know much about golf, but he can hit it way farther than I could! It is a great thing for him and Steven to get out in the backyard and do, and it's fun to see him make such progress. Henry also loves to swim, and he's probably meant to be on swim team, but this mom didn't want our summers dominated by that, so we just swim for fun! He is usually under the water more than on top and is always flipping around and "porpoising". He is also known for getting out, wrapping up in a towel, and laying directly on the warm concrete. We call him a beached whale when he does this:) We got to go on a cruise last August, so he experienced his first snorkeling and had a blast!
-Henry is tender hearted and sensitive to others when they are sad/upset. If anything has happened at school he immediately off loads it when he gets in the car with me. So and so had to have his dad called (in a concerned way), so and so was crying and I asked if there was anything I could do...stuff like that.
-He is also still a great gift giver and will work and work on homemade gifts to give us for different occasions. It is definitely one of his love languages! He got a Hobby Lobby gift card from Grandma for his bday, and he went and spent it all on necklace making supplies for both grandmas and me. I kept trying to get him to get something for himself, but the joy he got from picking it all out and coming home to make them and then give them far surpassed anything else he could have picked! The boy loves a good craft!
-He's a great brother (most of the time-haha), and is a great sport about doing girl things with the girls. He doesn't care what it is as long as he can play WITH them, so he will happily play family, babies, be the prince and dance with them when they play dress up, etc. He's gotten into the Star Wars movies (finally?), and has been watching them all with Steven. Poor guy asks to play Star Wars with the girls, but is denied most of the time. He loves to act out stories and can get the girls on board with this...he directs and has them do all sorts of things! We put on a Thanksgiving skit for family this year, and he loved it.
-I may have written this already, but his aunt asked him who makes the decisions in our family, and Henry's reply was, "Mom thinks of the ideas and dad says yes or no". This was hilarious and so true!
- Henry isn't a super competitive kid, but he loves to play board and card games, and this is when we see his competitive nature come out. He loves to win-and especially to beat his parents-haha! Some favorite games are Monopoly, Uno, Sorry, Hot Lava, Sleeping Queens, Guess Who?, War...anything really!
-He finally learned to whistle, and now he whistles ALL.THE.TIME! We had to make a rule for no whistling during schoolwork, bc it was getting excessive! He is also such a little singer and is constantly singing or humming something...if he's not whistling! He's still participating in church choir and has music weekly at school. People still come up to us and tell us what a great voice he has when they've overheard him singing. He is known at school for all the singing he does....he's usually first in the halls (with all the other teacher kids!), and sometimes he sings everyone's name as they come through the halls....the boy is going to be great in some drama productions some day!
-He finally also learned to ride his bike! He's always preferred the scooter or flickr, and Steven would make him on and off practice his bike, but I think he just always felt a little too unsteady. His bike was always so tall, too, that he didn't have the stability he needed. Anyway, determination and gaining some height helped and he got it in just a few days! Now he rides it ALL the time! A new world has been opened up to him, and he loves the freedom of riding around the neighborhood and we all love our family bike rides now.
-Henry is a nature lover and is always gathering treasures from the yard or pulling flowers to make into a bouquet for me. His room is full of all sorts of collections...shells, rocks, random nature finds. Sometimes I go clean in there and can't believe the things he's brought in! ;)
-Henry has a special relationship with each of his grandparents, in particular with his great Grandma DeWitt (91). He is so good to sit by her and carry on a conversation when we get to visit. He truly loves it-we don't have to persuade him to interact with her. He does puzzles and plays Uno with her. He tells her stories and shows her treasures from his room, and she eats it up! It is very sweet. They have their own little way with each other that is hard to describe. Henry has also had some really fun time over the past year with Grandpa in his woodworking shop. They plan something, draw it out, make it out of wood, then paint it. Henry loves this...it's right up his "planner" alley.
-One more thing! He has taken on pet responsibilities in a big way! His fish Jack has lived for over a year now, and in December we added a dog (I need to post on this!). Henry is awesome to walk/run Goldie, let her out of her crate in the morning, feed her, play with her, and keep her out of trouble. He has shown great responsibility here, and best of all, he LOVES her! He thinks she is the best and cutest dog in the world. :) They have bonded beautifully, and we are so happy to see the boy with his dog.
There is so much more, but I must stop! We sure do love you, Henry, and look forward to this next year with you. You are a great kid.
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| Present time! This was on his actual 8th bday. |
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| He requested an Oreo ice cream cake. The grandmas came one day to help us celebrate at home since we didn't have a big family party for him. |
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| Gatlinburg (Anakeesta) in Feb. We got a cabin one weekend just for fun and had a blast! Chilly, but fun. |
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| A school project. He gets SOOO into them! He has to create a visual and prepare a speech. He does this completely on his own. Even when I want to help, he does NOT appreciate it. Which is great! It's truly student led! I think this was fog?? |
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| Scarecrow in October (girls were Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion). He also wore this for school spirit week "S" day in Feb. I heard afterward that Mrs. Shirley was sweeping up hay all day from this costume. Oh dear! |
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| We stopped at the Birmingham Zoo on our way back from the beach in October. Lorakeets! |
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| PCS family ice skating night in January. He's independent now! |
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| Third quarter Krispy Kreme report card donuts. |
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| Henry dancing with a princess. He's a good sport. |
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| Another school project-all his design, but got grandpa involved with the wood working part. He was SOO proud of this ark. He made all the tiny animals out of clay to go in it. |
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| Apple bobbing at Aunt Mae's in October. |
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| A crab friend! Navarre in October. A wonderful trip! |
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| PCS mile run for Presidential Physical Fitness in September. He did great! It was SOOO hot. |
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| Snorkeling in Mexico in August (cruise). |
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| Exciting night in August-went to Slugs and Bugs Live concert and got to meet Randall Goodgame. We got autographs! |
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| Fall soccer |
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| Cruise in August! The waiter was doing a magic trick with Henry. |
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| Another school project. Beginning of 2nd grade-a timeline of his life. |
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| First day of 2nd grade! August 2019 |
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| Grandparents Day in September. So proud to have the grandmas in his classroom! Grandpa and Peggy also visited. |
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| Henry went through a phase of making this dessert for everyone last summer-sherbet with frozen blackberries from our own blackberry bushes! |
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| We had to capture this SINGLE scoop of ice cream from Handel's.....what do you think a double would look like??? |
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| Ut basketball game in January in Nashville. We gave him his ticket in his Christmas stocking. John, Dawson, and Carter went, too! |
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| Asbury car show...a real Delorean! |
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| You ARE awfully sweet! |
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| My mom came many Wednesdays during the school year to play with the girls while Henry and I did homeschool. Such a blessing! This was a very rare time when we left the house, but I think we went to get free Dairy Queen ice cream cones?? |
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| Very loose front tooth! April 2019 |
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| Hammock reading on a homeschool day! |
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| Orange Beach trip in April 2019-over Easter. Our week long October trip got cut to only 2 nights due to hurricane evacuation, so we needed to go back to get our full fix!:) |
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| The tooth is out! |
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| Easter April 2019 |
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| His Easter gift was Betta fish supplies, so when we got home from the beach he went and picked his fish (Jack) from Petsmart! He has loved this! |
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| Golf camp summer 2019 at TopGolf. This was dress in you favorite team attire or something like that. |
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| BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER |
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| Our Thanksgiving pilgrim (we put on a short skit for family) |
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| Decorating gingerbread houses at church in December. |
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| The whole family got to watch one of his basketball games in December before our family Christmas celebration. Heather had "cousin crew" shirts made for all 6 cousins, so this was the perfect time to wear them! |
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| Love at first sight! Christmas day 2019. |
