Ryan Turns 6!

Ok, maybe the title of this post should be past tense, as in "he TURNED 6." And his mom didn't share much about it. Indicative of a very busy holiday filled with so much good stuff. So maybe it's ok to spend a day in January looking back and remembering what a great day we had celebrating the boy with all his friends.

We were originally supposed to have a sledding party for 26 kids on Sunday the 26th. So when the arctic freeze of 2014 subsided and there wasn't a flake in site, we did a quick change of plans and morphed the basement into Legoland Michigan for 19. The kids were thoroughly tricked...just like the time we let Ryan believe the Lego store in Watertower place was indeed Legoland. Parents of the Year, right? (I mean about the mis-truth... not the party.)

Ryan had a mix of Valley View friends, Milestone friends and then our "framily"...those kiddos that have been with us since the beginning. It was so nice to look around and see how many sweet friends he has, as well as people in his life that he can truly count on.

The hose was decked out in Lego everything (and yes, we had spiked cider...I promise, it was not a rager.) And so many friends made original pieces of art as cards. It was the best part of the opening...for me. Who am I kidding? He's 6!

The cake was a big undertaking that every year, gives me so much happiness. Not only is it a fun challenge, there's just something old fashioned about making your kiddos cake. It was banana as usual.

Elise was a bit shy, but hung with the kids and watched the Lego movie after our "stations" were complete. We had a station for vehicle building & racing, team tower building competition and cake/decorate your loot bag art station. And we could not have done it without the help of all our dear friends. It ran like clockwork!

The party ended with a pinata outside on the patio. That's how warm it was! 6 year olds love to hit things with sticks. And girls with sticks are the master at busting them open (nice work Tess.)

Ryan performed in his first school Christmas pageant. It was VERY impressive. The kids must have sang 8+ songs...none of which were the standard carols. The staff worked so hard, as did the kids. Ryan was so excited that he asked me the morning of if we could get him a shirt and tie. And he wanted to wear jeans rather than wind pants, which for him, is the equivalent of a tux.

We don't encourage this kind of talk, and ask that you don't either, but this has to be documented! This is the girl that Ryan told me was his girlfriend right after school began. (When asked if his buddies had girlfriends, he said, "Chase isn't with Izzy any more. He didn't listen to his feelings and gave him headaches.") He's only spoken of it once (when he told me they'd "...get married, that's what you do with girlfriends,") but clearly he thinks she's amazing.

He has good taste. She's as sweet as she is cute. I hadn't seen much of them around one another until the pageant, and then I realized....this is real. This is just three of the many where he's checking her out!