Time yet again marches on without my permission and my baby gets older. James is now 7 which is hard for me to wrap my head around.
We started the morning off right with presents and pancakes.
He got the Mario Movie, Plus Plus building blocks, one of his favorite books, a plush Harry Potter and lots of snacks.
He asked for pancakes for breakfast. No eggs, no bacon, just pancakes and chocolate milk. James doesn't even put syrup on them. Justin made him a big J shaped one and it made his day right there.
Then one by one the kids left for school and Justin went to work. I cleaned up the house and got things ready for his party. First up, I made his cake. He asked for a chocolate chocolate cake like at the Magleby's restaurant.
He was pretty excited to see it when he got home so I think I did alright.
His classmates made him cards. Nearly all were unsigned. These were his favorites:
He has no idea who Spas is.
I think it's a depiction of strangulation every single time I look at it.
We had just a few minutes before his friends began arriving for his party to take a picture together. We only do friend parties at ages 7, 10, 13 and 16. And by that I mean that they can invite as many as they want and I do my best to accommodate all their activity and theme requests. (The other years they usually have a friend come along to dinner or have a couple of friends over for a movie night so don't think I'm a birthday scrooge or something.) What I didn't think about is that they all turn 7, 10, 13, and 16 in the same years they being nearly 3 years apart. Everyone's birthday is a friend party this year. Whoops. Jokes on me.
He invited 10 kids and 5 came. That sounds kind of sad but I can't imagine the level of chaos 11 first graders would have been. And all the friends that he really liked were the ones that came anyway so he was perfectly happy. Here's our party plan:
First they made their own cookies. I gave them balls of plain cookie dough and bowls of chips and sprinkles and marshmallows and such and they squished the toppings in to make their own creations.
While that baked they played pin the tail on the fox.
Those two activities lasted 20 minutes and I had it in my head it would be more like 40 so I shooed them out back while Erica and Henry set up the treasure hunt.
They ran around the house and outside again following the clues from one location to the next until they found the treasure box of animal stickers. They played with these for a long time while we waited for Justin to arrive with the pizza.
After pizza came presents. It took 8 minutes. I barely had a chance to take any pictures
There was a lot of me saying "wait, who was that from?" and "What is it? I didn't even see it," as they handed him present after present saying "Me next! Open mine next!"
They are not holding still for this photo. This was the least blurry one.
And then Sarah saved the day and led them downstairs to play musical chairs for the last 15 minutes until parents arrived. They are cute kids and so sweet and have lots of energy.
After everyone but Calvin left, grandparents came over for cake.
I think he likes it.
He got a stuffed Hedwig from Justin's parents and money from my parents. I don't know why I have no pictures of that.
Here's his birthday interview.
Here are a few things about James.
He unloads all the random stuff out of his backpack on the counter right before we leave for school so I get to look at it all day before he comes home and cleans it up. This is a good day. Usually there's a pile of crumpled papers.
He says he doesn't like to take a bath and it's a little bit of a struggle to get him in. But it's also a struggle to get him to come out so I think he actually enjoys it.
He's been taking piano lessons since Erica dropped out in September. While she was complaining to me she didn't want to go, he was in the background saying, "I want to go. I want to learn piano." I told Erica if she wanted to quit she had to talk to her teacher (I had a couple of discussions with their teacher prior to this so she wasn't blindsided). I wanted Erica to tell her for 2 reasons: 1. To make sure Erica really meant it. It would be hard for her to have this conversation so it was my test to see if she really wanted to quit. 2. Quitting is a life skill. She needs to learn how to have these tough conversations. Anyways, James took her spot the very next week and has been such a good sport about going to lessons and practicing. I asked him if he feels like he's learning and he said yes. He never says that about school.
His teacher got him some curriculum from the second grade teachers so he's not so bored during math.
There is another James in his class so he was James D and the other is James E. He would get confused because sometimes I call him Jamesy at home which sounds exactly like James E. We asked his teacher if he could go by Jamers instead. James thought his name was Jamers until he was 3 because that's what we mostly called him back then. She loved the idea so he's Jamers at school. He writes Jamers on his papers or James D.
He's my homebody buddy. He used to play with Calvin nearly every day after kindergarten but now that he's in school all day he doesn't feel like he has enough time to chillax after school and play with friends. I have to really encourage him to invite friends over or accept invitations because he just wants to be home and eat popcorn and play legos until dinner.
He let's me snuggle him at bedtime but he doesn't like kisses. I've discovered if I kiss his hair he doesn't get mad.
He loves Harry Potter. I keep thinking the books are going to get too dark for him but he's on book 4 and hasn't been scared of anything yet.
He's the sweetest kid and I never would have guessed that from the grump he was as a baby. He still gets grumpy but only with Henry. And since I don't make him go to the store with me much he doesn't really complain about much either.
Some mornings he really drags his feet getting ready for school. He doesn't like to be in a hurry and he likes to be early. Quite the combo, right?
He's usually pretty worn out at bedtime and goes right to bed instead of wandering back out to ask some random question like other children of mine. Getting him to eat is a struggle. He says no to nearly every suggestion I have for his lunch box so I've learned to just pack it without asking and hope he's hungry enough by lunchtime and hope for the best. He eats cereal and oatmeal for breakfast but doesn't like eggs unless it's an egg sandwich. He doesn't eat much at dinner because he doesn't like it and then says he's hungry at bedtime. I'm mean and don't let him get his own dinner but sometimes I'll let him have a little something before bed because I am worried he doesn't weigh enough. I sure hope this is just a phase and he'll learn to eat more foods.
Happy birthday James! We love you!
We all came out to watch the ceremonious lowering of the turkey but it wasn't dramatic at all like on youtube. No splatter. No flames. Justin knows what he's doing.
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