Happy SIXth Birthday, Ian!

We started the morning with a Birthday picture. Ian generally wakes up in a bright and cheery mood.

His mattress is on the floor because he had graciously let us move his bed to the guest room for Grandma Ogden during her visit the week before. And yes, his walls were (and still are!) pink!

Breakfast in the Birthday Chair. 

Ian then spent the day at school, where he got to share cupcakes and wear a birthday crown. Fortunately it was also "long lunch Wednesday", so Scott picked Ian up for lunch at Mc Donalds. 

Birthday boy's dinner request: His own pizza. Which he only shared with Dad.

"Dude, don't blow out my candles."

Don't be deceived: Canadian "Smarties" are actually M and Ms. Either way, multicolored ice cream was sure to please the birthday boy.

Present Time!

A book light for reading in bed. Ian LOVES to read. He thinks his teacher Ms. Spurvey created the name "bookworm" just for him.

Knitted stegosaurus, made by our church friend Krista Hancock.

"A math book?! I LOVE math!"

A mini transformer, from Helen.

A Lego police set, from Joseph.

A surprise last gift was hidden away... Ian was thrilled!

The following Saturday, Ian had a combined birthday party with his buddy Jackson. It's common in St. John's to invite ones entire class to a birthday celebration, which makes it impractical to celebrate at home. So together our families planned a party at Axtion, an indoor play place. 

I enjoy designing the invitations and was ecstatic to find napkins that matched almost exactly. Even though that kind of detail is lost on 5 and 6 year olds, I'm confident my mother would appreciate it!

Climbing the rope and ladder, outside his favorite obstacle: the Spider Mountain climb.

This slide is more gigantic than it appears. My stomach dropped each time I went down it, and eventually I couldn't do it any more. 

Helen, however, went down 20 times. 

Joseph loved it when I chased him through these "macaroni noodles".

The party room was actually a semi-trailer attached to the front of the building. In a previous life, it evidently delivered dairy products. Now it is lined with diner-like tables and echos party noise like you wouldn't believe!

Good friends from church: Jude, Nash, Lincoln, Gray, Tony and Zach.

Ian and I looked at a million cakes on Pinterest and he favored the ones shaped like basketballs or with elaborate soccer fields drawn on them. I didn't think I could manage more than this one though, and in the end, he was OK with that. It helped that it had cotton candy flavored icing. 

The birthday boys eating a slice of both cakes.

A tired party girl.

Look at that haul! I am proud to say Ian delivered thank you notes to each classmate the following Monday. He was one lucky kid!

Ian continues to impress us with his phenomenal memory for life events. He is incredibly bright and has really taken an interest in math this year, easily adding two, three and four large two-digit numbers in his head. His understanding of time is also pretty impressive, though when we are running late and he reminds me, it can be a bit grating! It is wonderful to have a reader in the house, and when things get a little too rambunctious in the house we never have to ask twice for him to go settle down with a book. Ian is always willing to read to Helen and Joseph, and does a great job expressing the dialogue. Ian prefers to read the Friend Magazine over just about anything else. 

One night (when he should have been sleeping) Ian held up items in his room, shined a flashlight on them, and recorded whether or not he could see through them. He called this experiment "Bedroom Look", and recorded the results as follows: (Pillow, pillowcases, pants, shirt)

He was recently presented an award in front of the school, where the headmaster spoke about witnessing Ian's "exceptional reading abilities". Ian's competitive nature has tempered a bit... or at least he is learning to channel it. He really enjoys sports, especially playing soccer. We've really seen his athletic abilities blossom this year because of gym class at school, and feel especially lucky that his grade-5-buddy from church, Zach, has included him in recess games with the older grades. All-day kindergarten was a challenge for Ian for the first half of the year in that he aimed for perfection at school and then dissolved into a complete meltdown each and every afternoon once we got into the car (or sometimes in the parking lot!) Thankfully, after Christmas break that seemed to lessen, and Ian actually looked forward to going to school and being with his friends, and wasn't so exhausted afterwords. Ian was disciplined only occasionally at school, and this was always for wrestling Jackson during transition times in class. This year he describes his best buddies as Jackson B., Lucas, and Theo. Fortunately, everyone in his class of 18 kids are great friends, and they all will be together again in Grade 1. Ian remains incredibly determined and recently was awarded in school for his "Willingness to work hard and try new things", qualities that we are especially proud of in this house. Around the same time, I heard Ian was the only student willing to try Hawaiian pizza in the lunchroom the first time it was offered. I admit, I felt pretty great about that too. 

With Kindergarten teacher Ms. Spurvey on the last day of school. 

 Ian Boy, you are a joy to have in the family, and the older you grow, the more thankful I am that you were sent here to be our first child. In so many ways you are the best big brother on earth -- you have an endless supply of creative ideas and you always want Joseph to play along with you. You work really hard and are a great example of doing your best. You're blessed with a testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at a young age, and you know far more about the history and doctrine of the church than your peers, and than your parents have ever taught you. You aren't as overtly girl-crazy as you were once, but you still get a bit embarrassed when you talk about the girls in your class. (Especially when I interviewed you about the "spin the bottle -esque" game your class liked to play when the teacher stepped out during indoor recess.)

You are a critical thinker, and you want to talk about discrepancies you see around you. You always go a bit nutty at bedtime, but generally settle in quickly and would go straight to sleep if only Joseph would let you. I love that you really enjoy sharing a room with your brother. 

At the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City in July.

We love you, Ian Boy. Happy 6th Birthday!