Henry is 9

 Below are a few notes about Henry’s past year along with his favorites.

Henry at 9 

What is your favorite color? Green

 2. What is your favorite toy? Art stuff

3. What is your favorite fruit? Strawberry 

Favorite vegetable? Mashed potatoes 

4. What is your favorite tv show? Star Wars, wild kratts 

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Pizza

6. What is your favorite outfit? Nike turquoise shirt

7. What is your favorite game? Golf, stratego 

8. What is your favorite snack? Energy balls (the ones I make with oats/honey/PB, etc)

9. What is your favorite animal? Deer, squirrel, lizard, dog

10. What is your favorite song? All slugs and bugs 

11. What is your favorite book? Moody series

12. Who is your best friend? Dawson and carter and Jackson 

13. What is your favorite cereal? Honey bunches oats, Cinnamon Toast Crunch 

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Swim

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

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Veterinarian 

-He learned to mow last Spring, and it’s awesome! He’s really good at it and it’s very helpful!

-He finally figured out how to Blow bubble gum bubbles.

-He came up with a Blanket sniffing contest with the girls-close their eyes and sniff the blanket in front of them, then decide who’s it is-ha! 

-He had a great 3rd grade year, and had a great attitude about homework even though he had quite a bit each afternoon (shortened days and seat work done at home due to COVID). He started Latin this year and really liked it. He loves his teacher Mrs Raper-they are kindered spirits bc they’re both artists. He says his favorite part of the day is History when Mrs Raper reads to them (from the story of the world) and Literature time (this year they read Little House on the Prairie, The Door in the Wall, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Charlottes Webb, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew, A Christmas carol, Alice in Wonderland, and more!). On his own time, he has enjoyed Calvin and Hobbes, the Moody series, and Magic Tree House (especially the nonfiction companion guides and fact trackers). 

-Henry is still a thinker and is always pondering different things like, I wonder what it would be like to have an older sibling? He has many questions each day that we can’t answer and we have to ask Alexa. Guinness book of world records type stuff. 

-Henry loves to take his time with things and would rather us not help when it comes to his school projects, so we usually have minimal involvement. This year he had a solar system project, a history biography bottle project, an illuminated letter, and much more! He always does a good job and the projects are truly his! Creating is his favorite pastime-proof of this is on the Friday starting our fall break he grabbed his art book and colored his heart out the entire afternoon! He will often choose to put in his earbuds and draw.

-grandpa put in a treehouse in the fall, and Henry helped. He busied himself making 

“furniture” for it using his drill. We put in a Zip line and he had some unexpected fear we had to work through the first few times, but now he’s a pro (it has a pretty intense ending).

-the girls and he like to discuss their plans for Hen’s den-their future restaurant where moms will eat for free and Annie will take care of the horses outside for the patrons to come see. 

-for a while he was planning and leading Devotions w the girls-reading certain passages, having them memorize certain verses, etc. he had it all planned out and did a good job-a teacher in the making?? He is a great brother. 

-Henry had a fish Jack for many months that finally died. He was a sad boy and we buried Jack in the backyard in a wooden box he’d decorated, then Henry made a mosaic stepping stone to put on top. 

-He played spring soccer and was on golf team for the first time (end of his second grade year). He earned National on the Presidential Physical Fitness test in 2nd grade. 

-he memorized John 1-3 in 3rd grade (it’s amazing) and was featured on the virtual church svc during COVID reciting a verse the preacher would preach on. He also sang a part with his choir that was on the Mother’s Day church video. 

We love you, sensitive, creative, silly boy! Happy birthday!

Henry’s 9th bday celebrations

 Wow, time has flown by and we now have a 9 year old. We had fun celebrating this guy in February. He’s had a great year! Below are a few pictures of his celebrations (out of order but you can still get the idea). 

On the 26th, we’d planned to have friends to the backyard to play and celebrate, but rain caused us to switch to bowling on the arsenal which worked out great given the circumstances! He wanted a Star Wars theme, and all the boys from his class came plus two church buddies! For our family celebration we opened gifts and Henry chose Mexican for dinner. We also went to the theater as a family and saw Tom & Jerry!

School friends Benjamin, Andrew, Jackson, William, & Harvey.

May the force be with you!

A van full of 3rd grade boys-oy!

He was thrilled to receive this game in the mail from buddy Jackson. 

Getting creamed in the face is funny every time!

Buddies Dawson and Carter!

The whole crew!

He spent some bday money on this art kit. 

Beating me at Stratego. 

Enjoying his bouncy ball making kit from cousins.

FaceTime call from the grandmas.

Star Wars favors:)

Annie's 6th Bday celebrations

We told Annie we probably wouldn't be able to have a "real" party for her birthday, and she really seemed ok with it! I think we all just got used to things being cancelled. We celebrated on her actual bday as a family, and we ended up very last minute having the Zorio family over to swim for a party. The shut downs were letting up, and people were starting to emerge by the end of May. The Zorios had taken similar precautions to us during the shut down, so we were feeling good about this decision. I'm so glad we did it! Everyone was thrilled bc we hadn't gotten together in sooooo long. We had a blast, stayed healthy, and she felt fully celebrated, so it was a win! She had asked for a "flower" theme, so I dug around in  my party supplies and pulled together just what we needed to make it happen! This is where stockpiling (hoarding?) this type of stuff pays off-haha!

We made an event of making the party decorations! Anything to keep these kids entertained!

We used stencils for her bday sign, then the kids colored them in with my "special" pearly markers. They had a blast doing this! And they were so proud of the result, so it was great.

We used their bow tie pasta butterfly art ad more decor! And she pulled out a flower headband to match the theme!

This was right before the party started (10am). We had just spent a while putting up a bunch of streamers-it looked like a maypole on the deck! It was threatening rain, and of course it started....all the streamers were droopy and broken by the time the guests arrived, but I got these pictures by golly!

How can she be 6!?

I had snagged some cheap Easter flower stickers when I ran into a store looking for toilet paper, and we stuck them everywhere! Perfect!

This was totally her pose. I did NOT tell her to do this. Such a girly girl.

I had fun putting together her flower cupcake cake. She was proud of it, too!

We had bought this slip n slide super cheap the previous summer, so I asked Steven if we could get it out. He did it hesitantly (knowing that the grass would be ruined!).

Bust the kids had so much fun that it was totally worth it. I love seeing all their poses and motions going down. I don't know that our kids had experienced a s&s before...definitely not Ruby. They loved it! And the mud pit at the end has since grown grass, so it's ok!:) But it did go in the trash after the party...

Cuties!

I usually let the kids pick out their special party drink for their bday...like capri suns, lemonade, gatorade, etc. So when I asked Annie, she said Dr. Pepper!! Ha! It is such a mysterious, unknown drink to the kids! Steven drinks diet DP and they always beg for sips. Anyway, just a random note that the 6 year old got Dr. Pepper and Sprite for her bday party drink.

Best buddies!

 See? Just add family with 4 kids and you get an instant party! Everyone has a friend! Seriously, we were so happy to be hanging out and ended up swimming until it was time for dinner and ordered pizza! It was an all day party, and we loved it!

 Looking so big!

Yum! Happy girl with that pink cupcake! 

 

 

 

For Annie's actual bday, we always try to do something special as a family. She got to pick the restaurant for dinner and where she wanted to get a special treat. She actually chose pizza and ice cream from earth and stone, but they'd had a covid case, so they were closed for a few days. So, we got Chick-fil-A and ate it in the car, then I ran in Edgar's for treats and we came back home to eat them, open gifts, and swim. It was a fun celebration day for our sweet girl!

We woke up and had her bday breakfast request-powdered sugar donuts and Lucky Charms. Can we say SUGAR?!

Her preschool class had set up a Zoom call on her bday. They all sang to her and held up bday signs they'd made. It was SO sweet. The preschool teacher read a book about cupcakes in honor of Annie's bday.

Then I took the 3 kids to walk the trail at Providence village...Steven has to get quiet at the house somehow. It started to sprinkle, so we didn't get to stay as long as we'd planned.

We got back and the Grandmas arrived! They'd decided to make a day trip to see Annie on her special day. Very sweet! We ate our normal lunch at home with them!

Opening gifts from them and Aunt Mae

This gift was a hit...her own make up. What are you trying to do to me, Aunt Mae?!

She also got these hair clip ins. She was thrilled.

She got several mermaid art projects and started working on them right away.

The birthday crew!

She got a special delivery from the Rollins-a bday poster, balloons/streamers, treat, and lots of great art!

Our gift was this Dune Racer which you can see was a hit. The Jeep officially bit the dust, so we figured it was time for another power wheels. With our size yard they are just so much fun.

This is in the evening-her treat pick was chocolate covered marshmallows, so I stuck a candle in it! She'd been working on the mermaid canvas all day, so it made it in the photo, too.

Sweet siblings! We gave her the first Samantha book and the little Samantha doll. I wasn't sure if she'd like them, so I got them at a consignment sale and didn't invest a lot. She's loved it! We've read all the Samantha stuff since. And Ruby gave her bubble bath (that she's holding) and a bath puff scrubber thing. Henry gave her the necklace and charms that she's wearing. She loved it all!

Another special thing! Bestie Owen came by with a gift. They hadn't seen each other in such a long time, and they were so excited. They love each other!  

 

 

Happy 6th birthday, bright eyed girl! We love you and can't wait to see what this next year holds for you!