Pics of Six

We shall now commence life with a six year old!  Ethan has been counting down the days for his sixth birthday and he was an enormous bundle of energy this morning.  At the end of the summer we started talking about what he wanted to do for his birthday party and he said he just wanted to have a few friends over to race each other - in the front yard - foot races -with soccer cones.  My stress level immediately decreased and I gave him about 57 hugs a day thanking him for being so wonderfully easy and laid back.  So, last Friday afternoon we had a few friends over after school and I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun a bunch of boys could have racing each other in the driveway.  We had some balloon races, crazy clothes races, ping pong ball races, etc., but Ethan still says his favorite one was the backwards race.  I have had several good laughs over the past few weeks when I would catch him "practicing" his running in the hall.  And I laughed even harder when he tried to start altering the guest list - saying that he only wanted to invite friends that he thought would run slower than him.  Nice try buddy.  And on Thursday morning he announced that he wanted all of the races to be backwards, but since he was the birthday boy he would get to run forward.  Again, nice try.

Waiting for his friends to arrive

Ready to race

Balloon race

With his faithful companion by his side (at one point I heard Rachel say, "Bubba - I can't wait to see what WE got!")

He requested donuts for breakfast this morning so I went to the "cool" donut shop that has decorated donut holes.  Clay and I gave him a remote controlled car at his party, but I just couldn't bear the thought of him not having anything to open on his actual birthday.  So, Rachel and I went to the dollar store and picked out a construction paper pad, a drawing pad and the largest pencil in the entire world (which I quickly realized would be used as a sword and definitely not as a pencil).

The picture at the top is one Clay took this morning before school.  That picture was quickly followed by this gem:

And just a few more shots of this 6 year old.  I have no words to describe how proud I am that God chose me to be Ethan's mom.  I know that he is not perfect, and neither am I, but we sure do fit together nicely.  He is kind and affectionate and smart and silly and playful and obedient and responsible.  He's an amazing big brother and a wonderful son.  I sit on the side of my bed each morning thanking God for the gift of my kids and my husband.  I am so blessed.  And I am so thankful that this little boy made me a mom.  I love you Ethan William.  And I always will.

at the pumpkin patch

kindergarten school picture (he was so mad when he saw this picture because he hadn't lost his teeth yet!)

before church last week