ethan's 7th birthday

it has been a while since ethan turned 7 (july 2), but i can't let august arrive without sharing our little celebration for ethan's birthday!

we started off the day with his birthday muffin... i think the days of waking up our kids on their birthdays are over, though. when i walked down the hall a few minutes before we went in his room, i could hear him exclaiming, "iiiiii'm seven! iiiiiii'm seven!" he was just a little excited...


this boy is surrounded by sisters! ethan opened his presents from us that morning.


he was so thrilled to get his very own Bible!


and he was just a little bit excited to open this...


the lego master builder academy teaches building tips from the master builders... the books are full of ideas, and each kit is a 3-in-1 build. after building the first two spaceships, ethan used what he had learned and built his own creation.


after spending all morning learning from the master builders, ethan was visited by gram around lunchtime. she gave him a really cool "book of sevens", where each page had a 7 made out of pennies, dimes, nickels, quarters, and then dollar coins. cha-ching!


that evening, we had a little family party for ethan out at a go-cart/mini golf place on the beach. but first things first... cake! ethan requested a mint cake, so gram made a chocolate 7 with mint buttercream icing. yummm yum! here's karina and ethan hanging out before we lit the candles.


blowin' out the candles...


i got my corner piece. :) and kristie's leftover icing!


ethan was so excited to open this card! gram ordered the next set of master builder academy kits! so ethan will get a kit in the mail every other month for the next 8 months!


i had to laugh when i saw ethan's present from brian's parents...


pappy is known for writing out explanations on the outside of gifts to us. there's usually a printout of the gift he has ordered for us that is in an envelope covered with disclaimers and directions. i tease him unmercifully about this... so when i saw his handwriting on the wrapping of ethan's gift, i laughed out loud!

ethan could not believe his eyes when he unwrapped his very own bb gun!!!


caroline reminds hallie, "this is not a toy!" ha!


pappy was so proud to give ethan this gun!


we had been talking about what they were going to give ethan, and i guess i missed the minor detail of "this thing looks like a machine gun." i was picturing more of the classic-red-ryder-bb-gun look, so my momma's heart sank a little when i saw my baby boy unwrap this mean-looking machine! ethan tried out his new gun with pappy and daddy just a couple of days later and was on top of the world.

next, we packed up the party and headed out to the go-carts.

i love caroline's face in this one after going down the big hill!


all smiles!


nana drove slow for amelia (you can see the other cars almost lapped nana in the background).


daddy with his birthday boy


we also played in the arcade for a little while... ethan loved this little bowling game.


brian having a little quality time with his girls...


amelia was just a little giddy about her ticketttts!


it's been awhile since i've hung out in an arcade-- this ticket machine is quite a smart invention! it may as well have been another game to amelia.


gotta love the junk you end up spending over $10 for... but it's the fun that counts, right!?


caroline picked out these mini handcuffs for her dolls. niiiiice. and they were broken less than 24 hrs. later.


after the arcade, we continued the party at the black-light mini golf course.


what is so special about this, you ask? one word: indoors. which is the only way i want to play mini golf in july. plus, the black lights gave us some really rockin' teeth...


and look at my glowing baby!!


i spent most of the golf time either holding hallie or taking pictures... so brian had the honors of helping all of our children play golf. :) i think he needs a few more putters in his hand, don't you??


pappy and caroline both made a hole in one on the last hole! this was amazing, considering the fact that pappy could not see the hole to save his life. way to go!!


the birthday boy got to go on one last go-cart ride by himself... hope it was worth the 30 minute wait, kiddo!!!


we had so much fun celebrating ethan's birthday with our family! happy birthday, buddy!