A new bowling alley just opened up in Park City. We decided it would be a fun place to have Ian’s birthday party. We had a small party, and he just invited some of his best friends. It was the first time any of my kids had been bowling and they really had a great time. It was a perfect place for a party!

Check out Ian’s bowling style. I love how he is totally off the ground in the last photo!

The kids had lots of fun bowling, eating chips and candy, and then we finished off with pizza and cake.

I can’t believe that Ian turned 6 this week!

His birthday was on a Friday this year, and he doesn’t have school on Friday’s. I decided to make him a nice breakfast for his birthday. A few months ago I painted a birthday plate at Color Me Mine. I wanted to start a new tradition of having a special plate for the birthday child to use. Ian was the first one to get to use it, and he was really excited about it.

One of our favorite things to do in Maui, is to go to the Gazebo for breakfast. They have the most amazing pancakes. This year we asked about their recipe and they actually told us. They said the delicious topping was Dream Whip, butterscotch, and maple syrup. We decided to try to make them to celebrate Ian’s birthday. I think we did a pretty good job. They turned out delicious.

I really don’t know where the time has gone, and I can’t believe that Ian is 6. As we put him to bed Scott and I told him the story of his birth, and how we almost didn’t make it to the birth center on time. He was really interested and he asked a lot of questions. He was pretty amazed!

Here are a few things about Ian as he turns six:
-He is in Kindergarten at Soaring Wings Montessori School. He has a wonderful teacher named Kim who we all adore.
-He is still a ball of energy.
-He is an orange belt in karate at Bobby Lawrence Karate.
-He loves to practice his karate moves…..all the time, even ones he makes up
-He started playing hockey this year and he loves it.
-He likes ski racing and he won a bronze medal in Nastar this week.
-He learned to really swim this year and he was totally self sufficient in the pool in Maui
-He is still a little sweetheart. He looks at me all the time and says “I love you, Mom” and gives me the best hugs! I hope that never changes.
-He loves to play Wii.
-He loves Legos and anything Star Wars.

We are so lucky to have such a smart, charming, sweet little boy. I am savoring these moments while he is still a little boy. He is turning into a big boy before my eyes. Happy birthday, big guy!

While we were in Maui, Ian had a few classic moments. I already wrote about the pajama incident, but there were so many more that I don’t want to forget. One particularly memorable one involved Ian at the pool with a few of his friends.

There was one family staying at our complex that Ian and Emma spent quite a bit of time with. They had two kids–a boy about 12 and a girl about 10. They were both really nice to our kids. Ian had a great time with Robert and Emma had lots of fun with Amanda. Robert was great with all the kids. He was like the entertainment director of the group and all the kids loved him. Some days I felt like I should be paying him because he spent so much time playing with the kids.

They were a really nice family and they happened to be a little bit overweight.

Ian once referred to Robert as “puffy”. But the grand daddy of them all was another day when Ian saw Robert’s mother.

All the kids were in the pool together. Robert’s mom came up from the beach and walked up to the fence around the pool. As she walked up Ian looked over at her and said “Oh great, a whole family of chubby people, just keeps on getting chubbier”. I almost died! Luckily the mom took it in stride and started laughing. I was mortified, but what could I say? I got Ian out of the pool and talked to him about it. Hopefully it sunk in a little bit.

It isn’t the first time he has embarrassed us, and I am sure it won’t be the last!

We have been coming to Maui for Christmas for about 15 years now. The only Christmas my kids know is one spent on the beach in Maui. All of our Christmas traditions are built around things we started doing here on vacation. One of the things we always do is go to mass on Christmas eve. This year was no exception. Then we come home and have a nice dinner and let the kids open one present.

Another thing I always do is get the kids matching Christmas pajamas. This year I decided to wrap them and give them to the kids. They were all so excited to open a present, but Ian was pissed when he opened his. He took one look at them and said “Pajamas?!? I didn’t want these!!” and then proceeded to throw them across the room. I wish I had a photo to capture the absolute look of disgust on his face. It was really priceless.

Scott and I both burst out laughing. I know we should have scolded him for not being gracious when he got a gift, but we just couldn’t help it. He was just so incredulous that his gift was pajamas! Once we stopped laughing we did explain to him that he needs to be kind to the gift giver and appreciate that they gave him a gift, even if it wasn’t one he wanted. But it was still funny!

He is the funniest kid and he always has us laughing!

For Halloween this year, my kids dressed up as Star Wars characters. Emma was Queen Amidala. Her costume looked OK on the hanger, but it was AWESOME on her. It came with a plastic mask that didn’t look like much. But when I painted her face and dressed her up, she looked great. She was the star of the show at Disneyland. Everywhere we went people commented on her great costume.

After I did Emma’s make-up, I wished that I had some green to paint Nora’s face for her Yoda costume. How convenient that there was a Sephora right at the entrance to our hotel! I went there on our way out to the park and picked up some great green make up. It was the perfect color and very pigmented. A little went a long way. Nora loved it! She loves make up and any kind of cream she can rub on herself.

I know I should have been more careful, knowing Nora’s history, but I wasn’t. When we got home Sunday night I started unpacking the suitcase, but I didn’t get it all done. I left it open on my bedroom floor and went to bed. The next morning was the usual mad Monday morning dash, compounded by the fact that we just returned home late the night before from a trip. As I was getting ready for the day and making lunches Nora and Ian were playing with the green make up in the bedroom. I yelled out to the kids that it was time to leave for school, but they didn’t answer. I walked into my bedroom to find two kids with the green make up all over their faces and all over my carpet. The nice heavily pigmented make up was great when I put it on for Halloween, but not so great on my carpet or on my kids faces on a school day.

I madly cleaned them up, but I know there was some left. I’m sure their teachers thought I was a negligent mom and that they hadn’t been bathed since Halloween. Oh well, I am sure it isn’t the last time Nora will get into make up or lotion!

I did a little photo shoot with my own kids tonight. I just haven’t been photographing my favorite (HA!) subjects lately. My kids are so sick of my camera and it always ends in frustration for all of us. But I have really been wanting to get a good one of the three of them together. Tonight I took them out onto the golf course behind my parents house. There were so many great spots to use! I was able to get a few good ones of them together. Yippee! I have lots of keepers and a bunch to edit, but here is one to tide you over.

Apparently Ian has been quite the ladies man at school this year. I posted a few days ago about his “kissing incident“. I guess he has 3 girlfriends, now

One of them, though, wants to concentrate on her school work instead of flirting with Ian. Look at what she wrote to him:

How cute is that?

So far none of the teachers has spoken to me about it. That usually means it isn’t too big of a problem yet. We have had a few talks with him about it. I didn’t expect to deal with this in Kindergarten already. If this is what it is like now, I can’t wait for the teenage years!

Last night I went to back to school night at Soaring Wings. Ian’s teacher told me that he has a crush on one of the new girls at school.

When I got home I asked him about it.

“So, Ian, tell me about Malia.”

“She’s a new girl in my class. She is my new girlfriend” he said smirking. “Now I have two girlfriends. Malia and Denali. And do you know what?”

“What Buddy?”

“I kissed Malia on the lips. So now I have to marry her!”

I just about fell out of my chair. I tried to be a good parent and explain that it isn’t OK to be kissing on the lips. But I had all I could do to not burst out laughing!

I didn’t take these photos of my kids. Unfortunately, they just don’t cooperate for me. I’d much rather photograph someone else’s kids–it is a lot more fun for everybody. These were taken by my awesome photographer friends, Katie and Dan, at Peekaboo Photos. I know I have put quite a few photos on this blog lately, I thought I better put some up of my own kids too.

Ian has been in the learn to skate program for the last couple of years. He started out on figure skates and then graduated to hockey skates this year. Little by little he has been getting better. After the last class, he was finally able to skate forward and stop on his own. Those were the requirements to start the Learn to Play Hockey program.

He has had a set of hockey equipment for quite a while. He still needed a few things to complete his uniform. I had to find him a cup and athletic supporter that would fit him. That was no easy feat. He is so skinny that most were too big. I finally found the smallest and cutest little cup I couldn’t wait to see him in all his equipment.

He was so excited when I told him that we had signed him up! Every day for weeks he asked if it was starting. I was worried that when the day finally came he wouldn’t like it as much as he thought he would. Luckily, he loved it.

Scott took him and got him all suited up. He was a little tentative at first, but he was thrilled to be on the ice for the first time in all his gear with his stick. He still needs practice skating, but he loved the program. He got to skate with the puck and practice shooting it into the net. He fell down quite a bit, but with all the equipment, it didn’t even bother him.

Ever since I was pregnant and found out we were having a boy, I thought about the days ahead and hoped he would want to play hockey. I can’t believe that the time has flown by and he is ready to start playing. He still needs lots of ice time and plenty of practicing, but the hockey days have begun.