7 years (and 3+ months)

This one blog post is evidence of how quickly time goes by.  I really didn't think I was that far behind on Ryan's birthday update until I started counting the months.  

So, way back in May, Ryan turned 7.

He continues to grow up and mature in wonderful, surprising ways.  He is still very much a kid, but more and more I see evidence of him leaving some of his childishness behind.  

Ryan continues to flourish in his role as the oldest in the family.  He is patient and sweet to his younger brothers and cousins (most of the time), and they very much look up to him.  He rather likes being looked up to too :)  He is also a big help to me.  Just last week, I was upstairs getting something out of the attic, and when I came down, Ryan was sitting in the bathroom reading to Ethan as he sat on the potty.  

Cuddles for Ethan

Checking out the river with Kaeden

These three are such sweet buddies

We've really enjoyed hiking together this past year!

Sweet cousins

School has continued to go very well for Ryan.  He started 2nd grade in July (seriously... time is flying) and has enjoyed getting to know his new teacher and classmates.  His best friend from kindergarten and first grade is not in his class this year, which has been a disappointment, but Ryan has handled it very well.  He continues to surprise us with his social nature and really seems to like making new friends in addition to the old :)

Ryan with his best bud Aiden in 1st grade

Ryan has learned to love reading on his own... finally!  It took him a while, even after he was reading fluently, to want to read to himself.  But now it is one of his favorite things to do.  I am thrilled, even when it means I have to get right in his face to get his attention because he's off in book land.  He really loved reading the Geronimo Stilton Kingdom of Fantasy books.  Some other current favorites are the Imagination Station series, Roald Dahl books (James and the Giant Peach and Matilda so far), Lego Ninjago (ugh), and of course Pokemon (double ugh).

Ryan hasn't really latched on to a sport, although he's tried a number of things and enjoyed them all fine.  He played both soccer and baseball last year.  This year, he's holding out for basketball, although he tried tennis at Ampersand and is sort of interested in that too.  He loves to swim, but he doesn't like swimming lessons because he's afraid of the jets in the pool.  Sigh. :)

Playing baseball this spring

Some of Ryan's favorite things as a seven-year-old are: playing with friends, building forts/hide-outs (inside and out), reading, swimming, building with Legos, collecting and learning about gemstones, and video games (especially when Daddy is playing with him). 

Some highlights from the past year: 

Ryan has lost three teeth so far... one of them twice!  He fell last summer and his tooth popped out, but we didn't realize that part of it was left in his gums.  So, eventually he had to have it pulled out.  He handled it like a champ, and we went out to frozen yogurt as a reward.

We started our first (hope-to-be annual) Christmas season viewing of "Elf," just the two of us.  Any time we get to do something one-on-one with any of the boys, it is very special, but this was an extra fun one for me.  We stayed up late, ate popcorn and M&Ms, and cracked up together at one of my favorite movies.  Good times, especially in the midst of the crazy holiday season.

We had an unusually snowy winter, and Ryan had lots of fun playing in the snow:

Like I said, we've been doing quite a bit of hiking now that Ethan is old enough to walk on his own most of the time.  We have loved exploring the trails nearby, and Ryan especially likes finding big rocks to climb on.

This spring/summer, we've been to two magic shows at our local library as well as the circus at Nana & Papa's house.  Ryan LOVED them all!

Mesmerized by the circus

Ryan, I love your sweet, sensitive spirit and your fun, people loving personality.  I am so proud of the  way that you care for others and grateful that you still like to give your mama hugs and kisses.  And every night that I put you to bed and you want to just lay down and talk instead of reading a book?  It melts my heart, even if you are just doing it so that I'll scratch your back :)  

I'm back!

I cannot believe that it has been 7 months since I have blogged.  Sometimes I get too busy living life to document it.  And then it gets super overwhelming to even think about where to begin.  But I love having this record of the boys and what life is like as they're growing up, so I don't want to give up.  I'm back, and I'm going to try to catch up a bit on 2015... as much as I can.  I'll back date posts so that events are in chronological order, but I'll try to post the links here as they go up.


7/20 - Cooking Camp
7/18 - Kaeden-Mommy date
7/18 - Mommy camp

Cooking camp

Kaeden has always loved baking with me.  I call him my sous-chef, and he's really a big help (as long as it's just the two of us and he's not fighting with siblings for his spot).

A couple of months ago, I signed him up for baking camp, and he has been looking forward to it ever since.  Last week finally came, and "cooking camp" lived up to its expectations.  It doesn't hurt that they baked 3 different treats every day and got to sample them all at camp.  Needless to say, Kaeden didn't eat much lunch last week :)

Tasting his Jello cookie - one of the more unique creations, which definitely won it points on Kaeden's scorecard.

The favorite from a taste perspective - chocolate marshmallow cupcakes!

And my little baker in his chef hat and apron.  

Kaeden-Mommy date

Being the baby of the family, I have no idea what it is like to be the middle child, but as I see our family life unfold, it is surprising and somewhat sad to me just how much the middle child gets the raw deal.  Kaeden pretty much never gets parent time just to himself.  And since his behavior has been a little off lately, I decided it was time to make him feel extra special and go on a date. 

I let Kaeden pick out his own clothes for our date - this was his "fancy" outfit, complete with what he said were his fanciest socks, and a bead necklace to match mine.  So sweet.

When I asked where he wanted to go to dinner, Kaeden insisted on Wendy's, but I eventually talked him into a sit down restaurant.  Red Robin is one of his very favorites, so off we went.  

Smiley face pizza!  And an incredibly overdone "cheese" :)

We had such a fun dinner.  We colored together and chatted and asked each other random questions.  I found out that Kaeden wants to be a farmer and a dragon when he grows up - what a combo!  He thinks that he is the bravest person in the world, and his cousin Atticus is his hero.  He wants to play soccer.

When you're on a rare date with your son, it's a great opportunity to splurge on dessert.  Check this beauty out!  Kaeden was SO excited.  We didn't finish the whole thing, but we came close.  And he declared that it was the best thing he'd ever eaten.  

When we got home, Kaeden said, "Mommy!  I want to go on a date with you again!"  

Mission accomplished :)

Mommy camp

This past week was the first week of school for Ryan (more on that later) and baking camp for Kaeden.  Ethan was a little jealous about camp, so we decided that we would have "Mommy camp."  We stayed pretty busy and had LOTS of fun.  We also had LOTS of tantrums and battles of the will, because well, Ethan is a very stereotypical 2 year old right now.  Lucky for you, I didn't take any pictures of that part :)

Monday was simply the grocery store and playing outside.  Both of us were rather unaccustomed to the absence of big brothers, but it was a nice change of pace.

Tuesday, we went to the museum of life & science, which is one of Ethan's favorite places because there are animals there :)  We got there while the animals were "still sleeping," though, so Ethan found some other ways to entertain himself as well:

We went for a train ride too and got a little bored while waiting for the ride to start, so we resorted to selfies for entertainment :)

On Wednesday, we went blueberry picking.  I'm pretty sure I had more fun than he did, and he got bored of picking quickly once it sunk in that he wasn't allowed to eat them as he picked.  But it was still a nice morning and we got plenty of beautiful berries!

We also did some "cooking camp" of our own.

Cheese is even more fun when you make stars with it!

Making cool whip "ice cream" sandwiches and licking the container!

Just doing a little reading while Mommy cleaned up the kitchen

Thursday, we went to a park and then came home for the rest of the morning.

Getting some swing snuggles

Exploring the flower (and consequently bug) garden

And we spent some time doing yarn letters at home :)

Finally, on Friday, we went hiking.  I haven't been with just Ethan before.  Usually I'm having to nag at him to keep up with his brothers or scream ahead for Ryan & Kaeden to wait on us.  But it was wonderful to just go at Ethan's pace.  He loves to stop and investigate every little thing.  He played with a roly poly for about 5 minutes with glee every time it rolled up into a ball.  I love this nature loving little boy! :)

I tried to teach him about walking sticks.  It quickly become dangerous to both of us and was abandoned.

What happens when you actually let your child pick up a roly poly

Looking for frogs and bugs at the pond

 When we got home, we made a whole zoo full of play dough animals.

I'd call Mommy camp a big success :)