happy 6th birthday to me!

posted by owen

i turned 6 on sunday! my family planned an entire weekend of fun for me starting with daddy taking everett and me on friday to the driving range to hit some golf balls. on saturday, we went to do my chosen special birthday activity - rock climbing. we found a fun rock climbing place in parker, rock'n & jam'n, and everett and i had a blast.

sunday began with a special birthday breakfast request of baked french toast with chocolate chips, strawberries, whipped cream and sprinkles. daddy then took me just the two of us back to the driving range just the two of us (i got new clubs as one of my gifts!). for dinner, i asked to grill out and play lawn games.

throughout the day, i opened lots of fun gifts. mommy and daddy gave me a new bike and helmet (they actually gave it to me a few weeks early), golf clubs from amma and appa, some neat games from grammie and gampa, and a cool avengers coloring book and new legos from everett and eloise. my friend kathleen gave me a movie gift card and our neighbor, beth, made me a new '6' shirt with a rock climber on it. it was a great birthday and an awesome weekend!

i woke up to our traditional birthday streamers covering my door

baked french toast, birthday cake-style

yummy and decadent!

evie and eloises splitting cheerios on my birthday

i think eloise needs to demand a recount

celebrating my birthday with the world's best siblings.
thanks beth for my awesome new shirt.

yummy, nothing like a backyard grill out

we all enjoyed a few games of cornhole

of course, as the birthday boy, i went first every time

my birthday dessert request, a root beer float, complete with
homemade ice cream. man, oh man! i want another!

i totally loved my morning of rock climbing

ready to hit golf balls with my daddy and brother.
everett was so excited for me to pass down my first real set!

owen and eliana

posted by owen

my friend and neighbor eliana is moving to a new house. i've known her my whole life and this is the first time i won't be right across the street from her. i know that no matter how far away we are from each other, she will always be the very first friend i ever had and that makes her very special in my book. her moving away doesn't mean my friendship with her stops growing, it just means i have to work a little harder to keep it going. i love eliana and always have. even though i can't walk out on my driveway and see her running over to play anymore, i can always bug mommy and daddy to drive me to her new house. i've known her from the first day i was born and i don't intend to let a few miles keep us from growing as friends.

my first friend

my first date

i loved when she came over to my house

inseparable friends

pool buddies

she always loved to share my toys

peter pan and tinker bell

she was always by my side

halloween partners

beth was like a second mommy

eliana was always a hugger

did i mention she liked to hug

i was always there to lend her a hand

always there to give her push

bike buddies

bike buddies even to this day

thanks for being a great neighbor and friend

owen and eliana

rock climbing

posted by owen and everett

living in colorado has many benefits. one of them is rock climbing. recently for owen's birthday, we went to rock'n & jam'n to start working on our climbing skills. we need to start early if we're going to be the next american ninja warrior.

on my way up the mountain

owen taking on the rock

one move at a time

no turning back now

tackling the bouldering room

evie making his way up the mountain

go evie, go!

can't wait for our next visit to this place

i lost my first tooth! literally...

posted by owen

on sunday, we were all playing outside when mommy noticed that my tooth was gone! it had been loose for a couple weeks and had finally come out; i didn't even know it!! mommy took all the sheets off my bed and looked all over my room in the hopes I had just lost it in the night. unfortunately she couldn't find it. we're pretty sure i somehow swallowed it while eating our baked french toast breakfast. oh well! i still got a dollar under my pillow. thanks mom and dad!

sharks and minnows

posted by owen and everett

owen has been taking lessons for awhile now and this year everett got to take his very first lesson. we have both come to really love the water. owen is now a shark, on his way up to orca and everett is a minnow on his way up to sea turtle. our lessons combined with our weekly trip to the neighborhood pool has really helped us get comfortable in the water.

eloise walking

posted by eloise

mommy and daddy help me practice my walking every night before bedtime and it's starting to pay off.

happy 4th of july 2016!

posted by owen, eloise and everett

we had a fabulous 4th of july as a family. we participated in the neighborhood parade led by a fire truck and finished the parade off with a few yummy shaved ice treats. rather than go to a firework show, we decided to make one of our own (the safe kind of course). daddy had actually never done fireworks himself so he was hesitant with all the news of accidents. but he went and got some fancy fireworks including bang snaps, spinners, sparklers, a few bomb looking things and some rather large ones that gave us an entertaining show.

ready to celebrate in our red, white and blue

siblings ready to ride

eloise decked out in her patriotic colors

evie got to ride his two wheel bike at the parade

ready to light these things. daddy took advantage of the buy 1 get
1 so we had double these fireworks

starting off light, with a few bang snaps

moving on to the sparklers

of course sparklers require a steady base

being a firework newbie, daddy caught on quick

of course daddy took all precautions by using a grabber to
drop the big fireworks in a bucket of water. he said the
fireworks instructions said they could go off when you
think they are done. 

we loved the colorful show these fireworks displayed

front row seat at our own firework show. and we're happy
to report that daddy was unharmed. i'm sure next year he'll
go crazy with the fireworks