Lucky 7

Austin has loved the number 7 for a while now. However, now that he's 7, he says his new favorite number is 17, which is his student number in school. I think 17 will come faster than I would hope for, but I will try to make the most of these precious years with my boy Austin.

 He is really into Minecraft lately and it is hard to get him off, once he's on, but when he wants to get on I tell him his big list of things to do first and he does them all without complaint! He decided that the dishes weren't his favorite job to do, so he added vacuuming and organizing the shoe rack in place of the the dishes. Whenever I see something needing to be done in one of those areas, I remind him that he's doing those instead of the dishes, and he'll do it without much complaint.

He really looks up to his sisters and plays well with both of them. He also plays well with Erik. They are boys, obviously, and do more physical play (like wrestling) than I'm used to and of course have more violent disagreements, but I guess that's the way it is with boys. Poor Austin usually gets the raw end of the deal because Erik likes to have the final say or hit, scratch, punch, or kick. We're working on that.

Austin has a great sense of humor, is doing really well in school, loves to play with legos, ride his bike, and jump on the trampoline. He likes my undivided attention when I put him to bed so he can talk my ears off!

He still loves his breakfasts. Most of the time, he eats about three times as much as Victoria at breakfast, but she definitely out-eats him the rest of the day! He suddenly decided this past year that he doesn't like pizza. That's in addition to not liking hot dogs, mac and cheese, marshmallows, or cake- he's kind of  a rare kid. I remind him when he goes to his friends' birthday parties that all the foods he doesn't like are what is usually served at birthday parties. He never eats at parties anymore, except the candy.

He played ice hockey most of this school year and is now playing soccer. In the fall he gets to start piano lessons! Here's a long-ish video of him playing ice hockey. It wasn't his best day, but it was the best video I got of him.

His soccer team this season. He's on the second row, second from the right. 

Getting ready for warm-ups.

We had a Minecraft birthday party at the park for him. The weather was perfect! They went in the splash pad, played "creeper" tag, toss the bean bag, pinata, soccer, and ate chicken nuggets and strawberries (there's chicken in Minecraft, so it's a good thing he likes it!) we had a giant cookie for his cake. For his birthday dinner at home, we had breakfast!

Birthday morning with his new shirt.

The girls both got him some fun books for his birthday and really treated him well. 

Blonde brownies at home for his "cake".

Focused on one of his gifts.

Creeper tag at birthday party.

Creeper pinata.

The cookie was easier to serve than cake.

This is at his field day yesterday. I got to volunteer at the frisbee station. He's in the green shirt running back.

At field day with some of his classmates. I recognize that stance... looks like something my brother did as a kid...;)

This boy makes me smile! I love him!