"It's his birthday AGAIN?" -J

Colin's birthday fell in the middle of Thanksgiving this year, so we had a lineup of birthday dinners with family friends this week.

Justin just could not understand how it was "still his birthday?"

Our weekly dinners with Leela.

 They know Colin so well and got him his first "Creator" Lego set. Same set of pieces with three ways to build something. Colin loves it!

Colin is truly on board with keeping our Christmas magical spirit alive. Once he found out, he stopped telling Justin that Santa was not real and instead has helped Justin have fun with the elf and Santa. And Justin loves finding that elf every morning!

I told Colin that he could invite a small group of friends from his kindergarten class over for a playdate. 4 boys and 1 girl came and they had a blast playing legos, building stuff and doing some crafts. It was so much fun to watch them all play and talk.

 I asked if he wanted cake and he replied, "I don't like frosting. Can I have brownies?" He's certainly my child - I'm not a fan of frosting either. =)

 But we are both fans of ice cream toppings. Ooooh, the fun!

 Happy Birthday (again) my 6 year old!

 A friend gave him another Creator set. How did we not know about these? And Colin is getting so good at putting these together!

 Justin doesn't have the attention span for a whole set yet, so he runs off to play with remote control things. Justin is all about crashing and loud noises. He loved all of Colin's loud toys. =)

 Can you see this? I put the boys to bed and found this on the dining room table. The note says, "PLEASE DONT MESS WITH THIS."

 Lucky Colin got a Target gift card for his birthday and he used it on....more legos. I don't know how it happened, but we are officially a lego family. How bad would it be if you knew legos were our home decor in the dining room?

 Our family friends came over for lunch - Chloe and Colin started at the same daycare together since they were 18 months old! They are in different schools now, but they still have so much fun together. On our chalkboard, Chloe wrote, "Chloe loves Colin." And drew two people with heart eyes. =) She has such a fun spirit, we love having her around.

And Emily came over to help celebrate Colin's birthday too. I didn't realize how people so easily pick up on Colin's love for building things - they got him an architecture building kit. It came with its own drill gun and Colin put together a motorcycle and helicopter already! That boy loves it all.

 Other highlights:
Justin:

• He cannot wait for his birthday. Almost daily he asks me how many more days until his birthday. He actually had a breakdown in the car because too many "people think that I am 3 years old. I'm not. I'm three AND A HALF." tears, whining and more tears.
• At Colin's birthday party, he barely could keep up with the group of 6 year olds, but held his own as much as he could. Let's just say "feeling left out" was a first for J this weekend.
• During Colin's 6 year old doc appt, Justin took over. He answered all of the questions and Colin barely spoke. Justin told the doctor all about his itchy skin, belly aches and body questions. The doctor called Justin "precocious." Yes, Doc, that's one way to put it.

Colin:

• This time of the year, the kids get into the "I want" mode and I don't like it. Colin, especially, lists all of the toys and things the he wants as presents. To combat it, I was telling the boys about the "giving tree" at work. I told them that we could buy presents for kids who don't have many presents at Christmas time. Some kids get to write what they want on a piece of paper and we can choose one to buy presents for. When I asked Colin if he wanted to help buy a present, he answered, "ummm. How do we get on that list?" Umm, not the response I was hoping for.
• I asked Colin what after school classes/lessons he wanted to take, and he said "no" to all of the sports ones and said, "isn't there something where I can make something? build anything?" There was one pottery class he liked, but we can't make the time. Beachwood, please create more non-sports classes after school. Thank you. 
• A friend told me about code.org for kids who are always looking to create things. I'm definitely looking into this for Colin. Jack & I can't code, perhaps Colin will be the first in our family. I wouldn't doubt it.

Jamie & Jack:

• The key to a clean house is to always invite guests over. =) Jack LOVES not having anything on table tops.

• Over the last 7 days, Jack has worked over 75 hours at his work. We're talking multiple 12 hour shifts. Want to know what else? He surprised me and cleaned our stove one night when he got home at 3am!  For the record, I did NOT ask him to do it either. He saw it was on my list and it was truly amazing to wake up to that. =) Wow. Love him.
• Remember how I was eating clean and feeling good? Confession: I'm back to my sugar loving ways and will resume the clean eating in 2014.
• You know how homesick I can get. Well, having good people around me keep me going and I am so thankful!
• Oh, and summer camp schedules are out. Seriously. And I keep hearing to sign up early or they'll be booked. It's December and I'm signing up for summer camps.