Happy 7th Birthday, Owen!

 We've had fun celebrating Owen's 7th birthday! He woke up to balloons on his door and a birthday serenade, had a school field field trip to a zoo with beautiful weather, played ball at the school field with Gramps and Gramma, chose Golden Corral for dinner, then had his Ninja class. It was a full day!

Birthday Breakfast!

He can't walk out from under his bed without ducking now =)

Owen wanted his party to be Ninja themed again and also wanted it to be at the gym where he takes Ninja class again. I thought I'd already used all of Pinterest's best ideas, but was able to find a few new things for the party ;)

The kids helped make pool noodle "katanas."

Willow helped make "sushi"

We were excited that the Murrays were able to drive out for the party! The weather was beautiful so they spent a lot of time outside, especially warming up the "katanas" on the trampoline. Check out this slow-mo!

Even Canton came over when he heard all the noise out back!

Willow was especially excited to see Cadence! She even made a Venn Diagram comparing them in the days leading up to them arriving =)

Ninja girls!!

Owen enjoyed having a friend from school, friend from Ninja class, and his two neighborhood friends come to the party. Hannah had just been "released" to do gymnastics since her broken leg but seemed to do well! The instructor, Zach, did a great job of keeping it pretty organized and structured for the kids. They had 30 minutes of organized ninja circuits, 15 minutes of free play, 5 minutes of sword fighting, and 5 minutes of Hide and Seek in the dark! The kids had a great time and sure were sweaty!

Can you find the hidden kiddos??

Sword fight time!!

Ella would rather use hers like a telescope ;)

What a fun crew!

Pizza time!

Here's Owen answering his 20 questions

1. Favorite color: green

2. Favorite toy: Legos

3. Favorite fruit: apples

4. Favorite TV show: American Ninja Warrior

5. Favorite thing to eat at lunch: salami circles with cheese on crackers

6. Favorite outfit to wear: ninja clothes

7. Favorite game to play: Star Wars Angry Birds

8. Favorite snack: granola bars

9. Favorite animal: white tiger

10. Favorite song: "Unbeatable"

11. Favorite book: Ultimate Lego Star Wars

12. Best friend: Mom and Dad

13. Favorite cereal: Rice Krispies

14. Favorite thing to do outside: trampoline

15. Favorite drink: Fruit Punch

16. Favorite holiday: Christmas and Easter

17 What do you take to bed at night: "buddy buddy"

18. Favorite thing to eat for breakfast: Rice Krispies

19. What did you have for dinner on your birthday? Golden Corral

20. What job do you want to have when you're older? undecided

* Owen's favorite things these days are still Star Wars, Legos, and Star Wars Legos. He's really enjoyed the Star Wars Angry Birds game for the Wii that he got for Christmas as well as the Wii Fit games, especially the snow ball fight game. He really enjoys books, especially Star Wars books, GI Dogs, and the I Survived series. He enjoys learning about nonfiction topics, including the body, animals, and wars. You'll find him with a book while he eats breakfast and lunch. He got a few nerf guns for Christmas and really enjoys when we have nerf battles. Foosball has also become one of his favorites. He loves to be outside, especially on the trampoline or being with the neighborhood boys Canton and Jacob. 

* Owen does really well in school. He earns a sticker most days and if he doesn't earn it, it's usually for talking. He works hard on his schoolwork and takes pride in his work. He's reading chapter books in his reading group with another boy from class. I haven't "tested" him in a while, but he did read a 4th grade book to me that I'd brought home to work on for school and didn't have any trouble. He's a great little artist and writer. His teacher is also giving him some more challenging work in math. 

* Owen tried tball last school year and soccer this school year for the first time. He does a great job of listening to his coaches and following directions at practices and games. He's more natural at baseball, so we're excited to see how he does this year in a kid-pitch league. He's finished up swimming lessons and continues to enjoy his Ninja Zone class at the gym. 

* Owen gets to bed most nights by 8:00 and is usually up at 6:00, which is the earliest time he's allowed out of bed. The burning question is always how long he's been laying in the dark staring at the clock waiting for it to switch to 6:00! There are random times when he's still asleep when I go to school at 6:50. 

* Owen's favorite foods are hotdogs, apples, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and pizza. He ejoys a variety of things for breakfast including waffles with peanut butter, egg on toast, or dry cereal. For lunch he likes peanut butter and honey sandwiches or salami circles with cheese and crackers. On the weekends he likes to have grilled cheese. He's not a fan of most dinners we make but has gotten better about the expectations we have of him. We are convinced that we either (a) never taught him to chew, or (b) his chewing teeth are broken. The boy can chew on the same piece of meat for 5 minutes! 

* Owen has such a sweet, tender heart and feels all the feels lately. He loves to laugh and especially to make others laugh. The dinner table is his stage. On the other hand, when he's upset, the tears come and he wants to be alone and not talk about it. He's such a snuggler - his love language is definitely physical touch. He loves Alli cat and is so gentle with her. His greatest wish is for her to spend more time in his room. 

We love our Buddy!!

7-yr old stats (June apt):

Height: 4'4" (94%ile)

Weight: 60 lbs (81%ile)

BMI: 15 (51%ile)

Happy 4th Birthday Owen!!

Owen's birthday was on a Monday this year so he had a few days to wait for his party. He enjoyed opening gifts on the morning of his birthday and has been building Lego sets ever since. Chris was pretty excited to get him the Star Wars millennium falcon. I'm surprised he hasn't finished putting it together while Owen's at school. It has 12 bags in the kit, so it's definitely a long term project!

It was only appropriate to have a Lego themed party this year since Owen is all about Legos. As always, Pinterest had a ton of fun ideas that were fun to try. 

Thanks to Chris for his artwork on the cups!

I found Lego molds online and used them for everything! Chocolate for favors, Koolaid ice cubes for the punch, fruit snacks (Jello) for lunch, and cake pops for lunch too!

Thanks to Nana for making 40+ fun Lego bean bags for the bean bag toss game. The kids got to bring home one of each color. 

Coloring books!

Thanks to Gramma for her help with the fun Lego banners! Foam tape gave them a fun 3-D look.

We definitely rely on our backyard for birthday party entertainment, but not this year!! With a high of 42 and snowflakes falling multiple times throughout the morinng, we all packed inside to play. 

We invited Owen's whole preschool class since he talks about playing with a lot of the kids in his class. I was very pleased with the number of friends who were interested in attending. We ended up with 14 kids and it was a bit much for our buddy. He was happy when Roman showed up so they could play trucks together instead of kitchen with all the girls. 

We had a couple games/activities but the kids were pretty happy just playing with the toys in the play room.

Owen wanted a little help (support) with his candles.

Chris snuck away for some fun pics:

Owen's friends all picked out such thoughtful gifts for him. His friend Nora told her mom about 5 things that Owen likes. I love that she knows him so well!

Nora checks out Ironman

Some down time with Daddy after the party

Here are Owen's answers to the 20 questions this year. It's been fun to go back and watch his video from when he was 3. And Willow's from when she was 3 and 4 also. Here were his answers:

1. What is your favorite color? red

2. What is your favorite toy? Star Wars

3. What is your favorite fruit? apples

4. What is your favorite TV show? Paw Patrol, Jake and the Neverland Pirates

5. What is your favorite thing to eat at lunch? PB &J

6. What is your favorite outfit to wear? Star Wars shirt

7. What is your favorite game to play? catch the bad guy

8. What is your favorite snack? apples

9. What is your favorite animal? jaguars and lions

10. What is your favorite song? Jake and the Neverland Pirates

11. What is your favorite book? Star Wars ABCs

12. Who is your best friend? Roman

13. What is your favorite cereal? Honeycomb

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play bad guys, trampoline

15. What is your favorite drink? chocolate milk

16. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween

17. What do you take to bed with you at night? Buddy buddy (blanket)

18. What is your favorite thing to eat at breakfast? oatmeal

19. What did you have for dinner on your birthday? Wendy's

20. What job do you want to have when you're older? fix Star Wars vehicles

Owen is quite a joy to be around lately. He loves making people laugh, especially at the dinner table (instead of eating). He loves to tell knock-knock jokes, but they go something like this:

Owen: Knock, knock.

Us: Whose there?

Owen: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...

No joke. It's pitiful. Pitifully funny most of the time. We're going a year strong on dinnertime battles. He loves breakfast, lunch, and snacks, but isn't a big fan of dinner. Just when you think a meal is a "guaranteed good dinner meal" for him, he won't like it the next time. He's still growing and usually not upset about dinner (just takes f o r e v e r and is not motivated by dessert afterwards) so I guess we'll try to relax about it. For lunch he loves peanut butter and jelly. He even picked that over the offered corndog at the kite festival this weekend. For breakfast he likes oatmeal or many types of cereal (shredded wheat, honeycomb, cinnamon swirl, vanilla flakes with almonds, granola....anything Chris puts in a bowl really...). His favorite drink is definitely juice although we've limited him to one cup a day. 

Owen

loves

Alli.

He is so incredibly sweet with her. He does such a good job petting her how she likes to be pet. He loves to let her in and out of the house when she's by the door. 

Owen is in a major Star Wars phase right now. Video evidence here. He's also really in to Legos. He has a really good attention span for building his sets and can follow the directions well on his own. The problem now is to keep the Legos contained!! He got the Millennium Falcon for his birthday. It has 12 bags containing 1329 pieces and a 160-page instruction manual. I think Chris is just as excited as Owen!

He also loves superheros. Here's a fun costume he got for his birthday from a friend: 

Owen still naps about 75% of the time. He naps for about an hour, then knows to play in his room until 3:00. He'll happily come down to announce that "the 2 turned to a 3!!!" When he doesn't nap he still does ok in the afternoon, just falls asleep faster at bedtime. He's usually asleep from 8pm-6am or so. In the morning he'll rest "quietly" until 6:30 and can tell that time on his clock. We request "quiet time" until 7:00 on weekends =)

He and Willow are continually getting better at playing together for longer peacefully. They definitely have their moments and push each other's buttons too far eventually, but there are many joy-filled moments on the trampoline, flopping on the couches, playing rough, or enjoying a bath together.

Owen loves reading books and will often ask for "one more" before nap/bedtime even though we've read 3 books and a Bible story. He often asks for stories to be read while he eats breakfast on the weekends or throughout the day between playing.

He has such a sweet heart and will regularly tell me that he likes my skirt, shirt, etc. He gives the best hugs and still loves to sit on my lap to read books.

Owen is doing well staying dry at night, but not consistently enough to go without a pull-up. He does great in underwear at naptime though.

He has had a great year in preschool this year. We've really liked his teachers and he seems to have made some good buddies in class. We hear most about Roman, Walker, and William. He seems to want to play with Grace more than she wants to play with him. He'll often say that Grace wanted to play with Ava today. She actually has an older brother at home, so she's probably happy to have girl time at school. He's doing well writing his name as well as recognizing letters and sounds. He likes to know what letter words start with and is pretty good at identifying it on his own when it's stretched out for him. He's super at rhyming and loves to play "What rhymes with _____" in the car. He'll be a little reader before we know it!

Here are Owen's stats from his 4-yr well visit (super late) in June:
Weight: 42 lb (85%ile)
Height: 43 3/4" (96%ile)
BMI: 15 (44%ile)

We love you so much Buddy!!