Growth Chart...

She's up three inches from a year ago. No wonder why none of her pants fit!

Weekly Photo Wrap Up...

A week ago Tuesday, I set up the studio lights for the last shoot of Cannon's weekly photos. Part of me was relieved that I didn't have to come up with another chalk drawing (some days when the creative juices weren't flowing it was really hard!) Part of me was surprised that I made it 52 weeks. And of course part of me was sad because he's one years old and we were done with this chapter. My Tuesdays are now looking surprisingly empty!

Check out the video of his weekly photos here.


I can't decide which is my favorite, I love them all for one reason or another. But I really like weeks 37-40 - perhaps just a fun stage he was in. What's your favorite?

Get a closer look at the weekly photos here.

Birthday dreams...

Do you want to know how to make a nine-year-old's birthday dreams come true?

Have her grandma visiting.

Have her dad home from work - who also cooks her pancakes for breakfast.

The announcements give her a shout out for her birthday and give her a birthday pencil.

Go out to lunch at Panda Express (her choice).


Take popcorn balls in for the class treat.

Choose the dinner menu.



Open presents and be over the moon excited that she got exactly what she asked for...Roller Blades. Yes, we bought her roller blades. Yes, I asked her a million times to make sure she knew what roller blades were. No, I had no idea people still used those things.


The trick will be keeping Hunter off of those things! Hallie went to school this morning and wanted me to hide them so while she was at tennis after school no one (i.e. little brothers) could be using them!

Happy Birthday...

It's funny how as my kids grow older, I hold on to a young image of them that is burned into my memory. Although Hallie is now nine years old, she's still three years old in my head. Curly hair, high cartoon voice and as OCD as a kid can be! She was funny and full of life and she loved to sing.

Not much has changed.

Here's a couple things we love about this birthday girl...

She loves her brothers - although she begs for a sister.

She takes care of Cannon as if he's her own. She talks to him in high pitch squeals and baby talk and she always knows how to get him to stop crying.

She is tender through and through. She hates to see people hurt.

She is my sidekick project girl. She is always asking how she can help or what she can work on. She's becoming quite useful to me as far as projects are concerned.

She's adventurous - she loves roller coasters and anything else that would be potentially scary.

She talks. She talks about her day, her friends, her schoolwork...an open book.

She adores her father and wants him to be a part of everything we're doing during the day.

She is lovely and I'm so glad she's mine. I tell you what...we had a rough start with this kid, but she's made up for all the crying ten times over. Happy birthday sweet girl.

Have your cake...

And eat it too...

Actually - there wasn't a whole lot of eating. His first go at sugar and he wasn't a big fan. The minute he got it on his hands, he cried and started flicking frosting everywhere.


And after he flicked frosting everywhere, he finally got some in his mouth and kinda liked it.




And then he was done and he turned over the plate to let us know he was done.


He didn't dive into it like the kids were hoping and cheering him on to do - and he left quite the mess which is all we expect out a first cake experience! I'm sure the next time he sees cake he'll put a little more in his mouth.


Check out Hunter's first cake and Bennett's first cake.

Birthday pictures...

One year older and taller too!



He is exactly an inch taller than Hallie at the same age - and Bennett might beat them all!

Lego Party Details...

This is how a Lego party goes down at our house. Both Hallie and Hunter had helped on decor and treats the week before but when they got off the bus and saw it all put together there was a lot of excitement. Hunter exclaimed, "This is the best party ever." I love that my six year old is as enthusiastic about parties as I am.


When friends arrived they each colored a Lego mini figure. Not surprising all but one chose to make it look like Emmet or Wild Style from the Lego Movie.



We had a photoshoot with our Emmet photo board for each kid.

We also had each kid build a rubber band lego car. This took much longer than I expected but they were the perfect ages for the activity. We raced them and tried different sized rubber bands to see what changes it had. The thinnest rubber band gave the most favorable results!




This boy was on cloud nine. We took his favorite toy and mixed that with his favorite people and he was beyond happy. His friend asked if we could keep everything so he could have it for his birthday party in a couple months. Flattery from a six year old is priceless!


Source List:
Lego Invites with printable
Lego photo board
Yellow Cups - draw faces with marker
Gift bags - White bags from Target (comes in pack of 8 for $4) with a yellow lego head cut out and "thanks" written on it.
Lego Candy
Bags for lego candy - 1" x 8"
Sparkler candle - Party City
Lego Jello Mold
Yellow tablecloth roll
Happy face balloons
Blue Legos hanging above table - blue poster board with foam adhesive behind circles
Red/white checked background - wrapping paper
Duplo Legos built around cake and candle

Lego Birthday Treats...

The key to throwing a party is to enlist the troops - even when they're six and eight and even when the party is for them!

I had Hunter and Hallie stuffing little bags of lego candies - making patterns - we should've just counted it as homework for the day!






We also wrapped chocolates for the gift bags - which ended up not going in the gift bags until they were going home because it didn't cross my mind that the chocolates would melt in our warm fall weather!




The biggest hit was the lego jello. My kids love jello molds and we have them for all the holidays. I saw these on Amazon and I was skeptical that they would actually work - they were awesome! Besides, jello always tastes better when it's in the shape of something cool.

Disneyland...

Getting to experience Disneyland with a first-time six year old is a treat. It's a whole new world they've never experienced and everything is new and exciting.


The first ride out of the gate was Star Tours and Hunter was in heaven. After we got off he said, "That was my favorite ride". At that point it was the only ride - but at the end of the day, it still ranked as the favorite. We took him to Space Mountain next...not a good idea. This was Hallie's all time favorite ride and Hunter was so excited to go on it. But by the end he was scared and not loving it. We felt awful. But that helped us determine what rides to avoid the rest of the day. He didn't need to ride the fast/intense rides. He was happy at a slower pace. This gave us time to meet Mickey and Goofy.



He was so excited to drive the cars at Autopia. As close to a real car as he's going to get anytime soon. He did claim that I was a poor gas pedal operator and that I messed him up a lot...it couldn't have been that he was new to driving!


He did enjoy Splash Mountain and went on a it a couple times. Luckily the Haunted Mansion wasn't too scary and he liked Pirates of Caribbean. He definitely had a different interest than Hallie but it was fun all the same.

Being able to spend one-on-one time with him was valuable. There was no one to tease or fight with, or steal the attention from. It was 100% him and he soaked it up, as did we. He's not our chatty kid, but when he wanted to talk he did and we listened. He chose lunch. He chose rides. He made the big decisions and we could see that he enjoyed that.







It was tiring. Having fun is hard work, especially when you're six with shorter legs. Towards the end of the day, we were all dragging - and we still had the 5 1/2 hour drive home. But it was worth it. I'd do it again tomorrow if we could. I look forward to taking each kid on this trip.

I felt a little bad leaving Hallie behind because I knew she would love it all over again. Before we left, I had asked if she was sad that she wasn't coming with us. She offered the most selfless love for her brother when she said, "No, I'm not sad. I'm really happy for Hunter because I just know he's going to love it." And he totally did.