Riley is Seven!

It just makes my heart hurt to write that. Seven. Wow.

We had a few celebrations for his birthday. First there was a family party. Because my side of the family has grown recently and our schedules are so very busy, we now celebrate birthdays and anniversaries in clusters. It just so happens that there are two other birthdays within a week of Riley's, so we had a big birthday bash, complete with birthday and unbirthday presents for everyone. Gigi (my mom) is really good about making everyone feel loved ... all twelve of us!

Ready to party!

I LOVE this picture. Riley was sick on Christmas day, so we missed out
on the grandeur enthusiasm he typically shows when opening presents.

On Riley's actual birthday, he wore a birthday button to school and a birthday hat and got to have cupcakes (store bought of course) for snack during school. However, I was informed that morning as we were walking out the door, that "so-and-so's mom brought juice boxes too." Ok ... fortunately I had just been to Walmart the day before and just so happened to have stocked up on juice boxes and had EXACTLY 19 of them. Phew.

I think he is making a number seven with his fingers.

Then, we had birthday cookies that night at Children's Choir complete with balloons, which were somehow used for music purposes. At this moment, I cannot recall how we managed that.

The last celebration of "birthday week," was spent at Medieval Times. It was pretty cool. I had never been. Riley really liked it, but Victoria LOVED it!! Who would have thought?! Riley and I were a bit tired. The show didn't start until 8:15 or so and we are not evening people. We are morning people. But the Pepsi helped. Yep, your only drinking options are tea or Pepsi. We ALL had Pepsi, even Victoria. I do believe she drank all hers. Oh well.




So Riley at age seven is alot like Riley at age four or five or six. He is exactly the same only taller and he eats more. He is still so tender hearted, full of joy, considerate of others and couldn't hurt a fly (this part makes it a bit hard to stand up to his younger sister).

He is also a really good student. He is naturally smart and doesn't even realize it ... alot like his Daddy. He doesn't put much effort into his school work and still brings home 100's on his papers. He does say that school is boring, so I am sure that he isn't being challenged enough. But he has a really great time (the social butterfly he is) and there is plenty of time to be challenged in school later. I mean this is only 1st grade.

He is a super goof ball and loves to try to make people laugh. He is into Phineas and Ferb, being a spy, inventing things, Legos (still), and making many things out of paper and the trash I have in the recycle bin (which I usually throw in the trash when he is at school the next day ... fortunately he hasn't missed any of it ... yet).

He is also into choosing what he wears to school everyday. I really wasn't prepared for this one. However, he must have a clean room the night before to be able to do this, which only happens about half the time. So at least he is wearing everything in his closet and not just his Phineas and Ferb shirts and Star Wars shirts.

At his check-up, he is in the 75% on height and 80% on weight. Still on the the growth road to being tall like Carey ... love that!

He enjoys our evening reading of his Bible and our daily devotional. He gets a bit bent out of shape if we don't do it every evening. Love that. I am noticing too that his prayers at night are more about what is going on in our lives than just the run-of-the-mill kid prayers. It is exiting to see him grow spiritually. We are just praying and waiting for him to start showing interest in accepting Christ. Oh happy day that will be!

Me and my guy.