A Better Birthday Post

I can't believe Dane is 6! He was more than ready for kindergarten this year and was so excited his first day was on his birthday. It's his year for a friend party and while I'm not the party planning mom, I got down to business about 4 days (or less!) before his party and invited a few friends. Thankfully we had kids show up and the party was a success. We had it at the pool and while it was a little cold for the adults (I didn't even put my suit on), the kids didn't care one bit.

I still haven't posted about our camping trip (!) but this is such a funny photo and very classic Dane. He is 'creating' all the time and while we were camping he took it upon himself to make this 'monkey house'. What, you aren't seeing it? Yeah, neither did we. He wrapped leaves around a can of cream soda, tied it up with green twigs, found a funny shaped stick to shove in the hole of the pop can and carried the dang thing everywhere. He left it on the picnic table and while we were gone there was some wind that carried it away. Let's just say that produced some dra-ma because he wanted to take it home and store in on his dresser until we went camping again (next year). He did get over it once we were home.... 2 hours later after whining about the in the car the whole way. I just love Kate cross eyed looking at his creation.

Mr. Dane, at 6::

:: you stopped sucking your thumb! We're so proud of you! You've had a hard time sleeping and getting back to sleep when you wake up at 5:30am. I hope that goes away soon because you always come to my side of the bed first. I like that you want to snuggle but in the middle of the night, I wish you wanted to snuggle your dad. I like sleep.

:: you have started reading and sounding out words. In fact you had this book you insisted on reading before school started and it was loooong. I took us days to read it. You could sound out all sorts of words that surprised me. You're going to love school this year.

:: your dress up/costume phase has almost gone by the wayside. I don't miss the mess of it everywhere but I loved you dressed as a superhero.

:: (this is not a shock) you still love your maple and brown sugar oatmeal in the morning. Now you ask for a side of toast to go with it. Someone taught you how to pile it up high on your toast and make a royal mess while eating it. I've quit getting after you about it. It's just not worth it.

:: you snuggle me everyday. Thanks buddy, I love it and I need it.

:: you love to play with your brothers and sister and depending on your mood you'll play almost anything. You'll run, wrestle and fight battles with Nathan, Polly Pockets, paper dolls and animals with Kathryn and anything with Reed so he doesn't cry.

:: you are this year, as in years past.... funny, smart, silly, moody, talkative, creative, happy and a big blessing in our life. Happy Birthday!!

{Cason, Alizah, Kathryn, Kimble, Dane, Nathan, Cael, Malcolm and Quinn in front}

Here's the party crew after we ate lunch. I was able to get a group shot this good with the promise of taking one like this...

Notice the girls aren't doing much but standing there and smiling. Kat's pretty used to it but Alizah only has sisters, I doubt they get bribed with a goofy photo. Alizah and Kimble are in our ward, Cael and Cason went to preschool with Dane and Malcolm and Quinn are cousins. So glad everyone could make it. Parties stress me out but this one wasn't too bad. I'm so glad we were able to have it at the pool. The day's weather got progressively worse and it ended up raining this evening. Not very often can you thank Mother Nature on a holiday weekend but she pulled through on this one!

Reed was loving the pizza, scarffed a whole piece and the finished it off with Doritios and a cupcake. Love his little chocolate goatee.

I doubt we'll get Dane to take showers for the next few weeks. He got this pirate toy set that goes in the bath and he stayed in there tonight until the water was cold.

We had a pesky wasp problem while we were eating around the table, can you spot the one near Dane's head (click photo)? They bugged the kids like crazy while we were eating and then followed me out to the car as I carried the left over pizza. I kid you not, they really wanted a piece!

Cousins that rarely act normal in a photo (we missed Jayni, the other 6 yr old cousin). It was just the 3 boys but Reed wasn't having that, he climbed right up there and stared to smile. Now instead of liking my other kids fall/winter birthdays, I'm wishing for summer ones so the rest of our parties can call the pool 'home'. Nice and easy!

And a little bit of diving to send the summer off....

This is Nathan's, eyes open, are you watching me jump/dive. He's come along way with his diving board jumping this summer. He used to stop at the end of the board, look around, plug his nose, jump and cover his eyes. He's gotten brave.

Kat barely stops when she's on the board. Runs full bore to the end and jumps. She's done a few flips and they were great but after a few side/belly flops she decided to stick with cannonballs. She was not a fan of the flopping.

This is Milo's back twist, something or other dive/flop. He's a great sport to go diving with them. I do not like it one bit.

Since I didn't even have a suit on Reed swam with Milo and Poppy today. No way is he staying out of the water. He is not afraid of anything and loves to be in the water. He goes down the slide and under the waterfall sporting the biggest smiles. He crawls around on his stomach and licks/drinks the water too. Disgusting.

He also loves to stick his tongue out while he's splashing the water and 'drink' the water droplets when his splashes are big enough to reach his face. A few days ago he started 'swimming' in the bathtub so maybe he wont miss the pool as much as I thought.

Definitely looking forward to the weekend and a day off on Monday. After the party I came home and washed at least 7 loads of laundry. The best part, while I was helping my grandma hook up her high speed internet (she's not on dial up anymore so beware cousins, she wants me to teach her how to comment!), Milo folded it all while watching BYU and UW football. I'm pretty sure he loves that arrangement because then I don't complain about football being on our only TV. All the baskets are empty and that is a good feeling. For the 12 hours it lasts that is.