Happy Birthday, Eli!

Eli turned 6 a few weeks ago but I haven't had a chance to post his birthday party pictures.  

Sometimes it feels like I'm the last parent on earth doing at-home birthday parties.  I must be out of date or something - wouldn't be the first time!  They're a lot of work but they're a lot of fun and very cheap so…we're going to stick to them until my kids decide they're "too old" for them!

That's Alden being goofy for the picture. Man he sure looks old in pictures these days! He must be aging faster than me. ;)

Eli decided he wanted to have a ninja party.  When we hit the dollar store hoping to find some ninja figurines for the cake, we hit the jackpot.  The dollar store had all these blow-up Ninja punching bags and punching gloves as well.  

First we gave everybody a ninja headband and had a ninja class where we learned punching, kicking, and stealth walking moves.  I guess the YouTube videos I'd watched to learn some moves were pretty effective because one of our little neighbor girls went home and asked her mom if she knew that I was a ninja.  Yesss!  Haha.

 After that we threw some origami throwing stars into some targets and took a break for pizza and chips.  I've said it before but can I just say it again - we have so many absolutely awesome, well behaved neighborhood kids!  Makes for an awesome party.  We are going to miss this neighborhood TERRIBLY when we move!

 So the cake wasn't my finest but…it was my last week of school and my energies were directed elsewhere.  It did the job well enough.  Since I can't seem to make frosting that is actually red and actually black, I bought some from our little neighborhood grocery store's bakery.  They charged me $0.75 each color!  Score!

 This was one of the first kid first birthday parties that Jaron was actually around for.  He usually requests that I do it when he won't be around, which has been a request that is relatively easy to grant since he's gone so much.  It was great to have his help this time around but this little guy was so fascinated by all the action that he was mostly just content to watch from his comfy little seat here.

 After dinner we opened gifts, chopped ninja boards (aka grocery store styrofoam meat boards - they sold me 15 for $1!), and used up the extra time for a few rounds of hide-and-go-seek in the dark.  I think everybody had fun.

Since we always have Eli's birthday early because it's so close to Christmas, we have cake and ice cream again as a family on his actual birthday.  (See what I said about Gracen only wearing dance leotards?!)

 At six Eli is a ton of fun.  He is extremely kind, aware of others' needs, and able to put others' needs first.  Eli is a great brother and friend.  Eli loves playing with Reed but does great playing with all of his siblings.  He loves kindergarten and has read the first collection of Bob Books on his own.  Eli is encouraged by his successes but shuts down quickly when he's challenged by something.  He's my kid who is most ruled by his blood sugar - if he's hungry, he ain't happy!  Eli loves superheroes right now, particularly Batman and Spiderman, and dresses as one almost every day.  We sure love our Eli!!

And a few random pics:
Gracen has worn a dance leotard every. single. day. since the week before her dance recital (3 weeks and counting!).  She dances periodically throughout the day with this hilarious half-closed eyes look on her face.  Such a cutie.  I snapped this picture one day when her and her dolls were taking a break from dancing. :)

 And how could I not include this pic? Cute kid.  Reed is rolling and scooting all over the floor - I'm a "Don't leave anything on the floor!!" and "Reed could choke on that!" maniac these days.  I've just never had a baby and big kid toys around at the same time. He's finally gotten good enough at sitting that I don't worry about him tipping over anymore.

 And on a completely different note, we had a few crazy days of fog roll in and they left the bushes and trees looking pretty cool: