Van had an epic birthday this year! Saturday night, we did our tradition of setting up a poster and balloons and displaying his gifts. He was so excited on Sunday morning to see a Batman suit, Maui hook and new bike!
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He really wanted a Batman suit, which cracked me up because last year he wanted a Mario costume. This boy loves dressing up!! The past few weeks, he's been doing push-ups and wall crawls so he can get strong muscles like Batman. Grandma Lisa bought him the Maui fish hook. Van loves Maui from Moana. He and William love to sing the rap in "You're Welcome". We threw Van's bike away when we moved so when Aunt Lana asked what she could get Van for his bday I told her money towards a bike. Then she said, "We'll just get him a new bike!" Sooo nice! I can't wait to get him practicing on the trails around here. He loves it and when he sits on it wearing the Batman suit, it's amazing.
I hope this slow motion video works! It was a rainy Sunday. I love rainy days! Van was stoked to get his big candy from the bishop for his birthday. When he asked how old he was, the Bishop replied, "Oh! What happens on your next birthday?" Van said, "I'm getting baptized.....But I don't HAVE to." After church, we played the game Mario Kart 8 that Uncle Walker gave Van and Will for their birthday. It's such a fun game! When the rain cleared up we played on the "go cart" Isaac assembled. Walker took some funny videos of Van and posted them on Facebook. That night we ate dirt cake--pudding cake with crushed Oreos and gummy worms on top--and said what we love about Van. At the end, Van said, "Now I want to say what I love about myself. What I love about myself is...I'm not an orphan." By the way, he was not digging that dirt cake he requested. He was basically choking it down, trying to force himself to like it. It was hysterical. |
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| The night before his birthday I said, "Oh Van. This is the last night you'll be a six year old!" Then I made a frowny face. He said, "Don't worry mom that I'm turning seven because I'll always be the baby of the family......unless you have another baby. Then I won't be the baby." Then we sang three songs together. The day before he brought home a blank book by Mo Willems. Inside were instructions on how to draw the Pigeon and Gerald and Piggy from his beloved series. Van was so excited to make his own book. It turned out so cute! The first story was titled, "The Pigeon Gets an App!" and the second one was Elephant and Piggy go to a party!" |
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| At his swimming lesson, he asked the teacher if he could go down the tall windy slide. While he was going down, I could hear him yelling, "Wooo! Yahoo!!! This is awesome!!" On our way home he told me, "Mom, if they were going to say that I wasn't tall enough for that slide, I would've just said, 'Well I went on the old Tower of Terror. It's called Guardians of the Galaxy now and it's WAY higher and it's WAY faster so if I went on that ride, I can go on this slide." Such a negotiator! |
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| Van is our Slo-Mo! Some days it takes us FOREVER to walk home, but he just loves to stop and smell the roses. I appreciate that he takes in all the goodness around him. One morning, he pulled me to the window to look at the pretty sunrise. |
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| Van loves his older bro! One day this summer, William was at his wit's end with Van. Isaac took William aside and explained to him that Van LOVES him and wants to be funny like him. Since then, I've noticed a huge difference in the way Will treats Van. He's more patient and forgiving and all around rock star brother. |
It had been a while since we went all out and did formal birthday parties so I went out of my comfort zone and invited Van's whole class to a bowling party. The rule of the school is that if you bring invitations to school, you have to invite the whole class. So we invited his class, plus his younger friends in the neighborhood, PLUS his friends from church. Out of all the friends we invited, 13 RSVP'd. Since his birthday was on a Sunday this year, we scheduled his party for yesterday, Monday. The only bowling alley in town is at UCM so we reserved three lanes. I brought six Little Caesar pizzas, some Kool-Aid jammers, and instead of cupcakes, Van wanted "dirt and sand" cups just like his cake. For party favors, I bought mini bags of popcorn and attached a tag that said, "Thanks for popping by and celebrating my birthday with me! From, Van" We put 6 bowlers on each lane--some of the kids had a brother or sister so it ended up being exactly 18 bowlers which is what we reserved. The kids had a blast!! I scheduled the party to be one hour which was perfect since it was a Monday night. I came home totally exhausted. It felt like Christmas with the bazillion presents and gifts we opened. Sheesh! This boy got spoooooiled!
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We love you Van and we're so thankful that you were born into our family!
FYI- the beautiful professional photos were taken by Angie Seare courtesy of Aunt Sophie!! |
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