Six

Friday, November 7, 2014 marked Ryan's sixth birthday. While the days go by slowly, the years sure do fly!  He is six!! 

Ryan was very excited for his birthday.  They countdown has been on for a month and every day leading up to Friday he asked if that day was the day the second he woke up.  Finally, it was here.  Dan had flown in in the wee hours of the morning so I did my best to sneak the boys out of the house for our 2nd annual hotcake birthday breakfast.  Once again, it was a big hit.

But, first, he had to open this gift.  He knew he was getting it because we had found the video super spy watch on clearance a few weeks ago.  I think the anticipation was very difficult for him.  But, finally the day was here.  Check it out on his wrist in the above pic.  He was so excited... and then just as crushed when the battery wore out before he could get it to school.  Poor kid. 

That evening, Ryan was the center of attention as Aunt Donna, Uncle Tim, Aunt Debbie, Uncle Tom, Tori (and Nate) and Mia joined us for dinner, cake and Flubber. There is not much better than that when you are six!

Today was another day that Ryan has been looking forward to for a very long time.  When he was about two, Tyler was invited to a Chuck E Cheese birthday party and I brought Ryan.  He's been asking for a CEC party every since... and I have successfully avoided it.  Well, he asked for it again and he's getting older so I figured I'd better cave soon.

Yup, he was pretty pleased.

I did try to book the party for the least crowded time I could think of... just as the place opened on a Sunday morning.  What I didn't consider is that it was also in the same town as the Buffalo Bills stadium and there was a home game today... oops.

The place was empty which made for a decent party.  Ryan invited 8 friends, plus 2 older brothers for Tyler so it was a decent size.  Tyler was pleased and made himself scarce most of the time.  But I think everyone had a blast.

He was quite pleased.

CEC even does cake. I literally had nothing to do. Awesome.

Ryan still has a love of characters. He ate it all right up.  He danced and fully participated in the whole event. 

He was given the royal treatment... a crown and a medal!

Cake two... or should I say four since he celebrated at school and at scouts?

Finally it was time for the ticket blaster... unfortunately they let you take someone in with you.  All his friends wanted to be chosen.  I was proud of Ryan because he recognized that there was no good choice so he picked his brother.  Phew!

But, first a quick pic.  I'm concerned that I won't remember the names of all these kids in a few years so for my own reference, here they are from left to right.... Alyssa,  Colton, Claire, Cooper, Corinne, Ryan, Tristan, Ashton and Evan.  Tyler, Nathan and Dylan were too cool to hang for this part of the party.

Ryan has been asking for a piñata for a long time... I bought him one over the summer planning to have a party, but it never happened, so...

And, at CEC, the piñata is filled with tickets and tokens... perfect!

Finally, the moment was here, the reason for the party, the ticket blaster!! After sending out the search party for Tyler, the boys were geared up and ready to go.

Aaaaaahhhhhh!

Despite my avoidance of this particular party venue, it really was a great party.  The place was fairly empty, the kids were entertained the whole time and I didn't have to do much.  Yay!

I had to throw this in there.  Ryan got a lot of great presents this year, legos, a costume, comfy clothes, a pinball machine, all sorts of good stuff.  But, Colton picked out a very special gift...

What do you think this means?  Does my boy smell?  If he didn't before, I guarantee you that he does now!!

Picture Day

It was a beautiful fall day so I tried to get a decent family picture.

I wish I had sat down and looked in the mirror at my hair first!  Poor Tyler needs some new pants. 

This one is over edited.

Oh well, no luck with the family picture, but I think this one is pretty awesome.

My favorite 4th grader.

And, my favorite kindergartener.  He looks like a sweetie, doesn't he? 

Hopefully we'll have another nice weekend so I can try again.

Circus

We got a new computer!!  Hopefully that means I won't dread editing pictures so I'll blog more.  We'll see.

On Wednesday night we surprised the boys and took them to a real circus. It seemed like such a good idea when I bought the tickets over the summer.  But, this week it didn't seem all that bright.  It was a school night after a field trip for Ryan's class and the beginning of all the Halloween events.  Yeah... not such a good idea.

But off we went anyway to see the greatest show on earth!

We got there in time to see the pre-show on the floor.  It was pretty cool to be close up to the jugglers and acrobats. 

The coordination of the whole show was pretty amazing.  Everything came off perfectly so there was always something exciting going on every second.

Such beautiful creatures.



While the animals were very cool, I found the human tricks to be more impressive.

Check this out... how many people can you fit in one ring on unicycles?

How about walking upside down on the top of the arena?

This couple was incredible.  I'm not sure they were really human... there has to be robotics hidden in there somewhere.

 

 

I think I held my breath for much of the trapeze show.  Yikes!

The human cannon was clearly the boys favorite.  It was pretty awesome to see this woman shot across the arena at 60 some odd miles per hour.  Crazy!

The elephants were massive.

And, there were a lot of them!  They always look like they're smiling.  I hope they are happy.

The show ended with this crazy contraption that spun.  I don't understand how they don't get sick.

Ryan was asleep before the car left the parking lot.  I think we've all finally recovered from our crazy week. Hopefully I won't make that mistake again!

Panama Rocks

A trip to Panama Rocks has been on my list for a while and today was the last day of the season, so...

We dragged Grandma and Grandpa W out to the middle of nowhere and it was spectacular!

While there were huge rocks just like we saw at Rock City, this place was different.  Maybe it was the time of year?  The leaves were way past peak, but there was still enough to give us a great fall day.  Check out the crack in the rocks. One wrong step and you could be in serious trouble.

In a place as flat as it is here, to see rocks of this scale is pretty amazing.  They were huge!

The boys heard we were going on a hike and out came the walking sticks plus Tyler's water bottle.  They were prepared for quite a trek!  They are cub scouts after all!!

There he is... swagger boy.

Isn't this crazy?  It looks like it could topple at any minute!

There were all sorts of great places to explore.  This may have been where we lost grandpa... he went up a crevice and couldn't get back down!!

We heard him toward the middle of our hike so we knew he was ok and eventually found him here...

That picture doesn't do the height justice.  It was probably twice as high as it looks here.  Yikes!

This rock was really cool.  Do you see the lion?  Look for the fern mane.

They insisted on squeezing through here.  See Tyler's head back there?  He told me there wasn't enough room for him to turn his head for the pic. Yikes! The adults walked around.

Tread carefully.  These crevices went down really far... 25 feet maybe?  I was a bit concerned with two boys and slippery leaves, but we all made it through unscathed.  

I think I have to bring my tripod on our excursions more often.  Everyone in the same pictures is a beautiful thing.

What a great day!  Now I've got to come up with more outside adventures... that was the last on my list locally and that just won't do!