Six Years Old!

A special little Lewis turned a whopping six years old on Sunday. Having recently gone away to Victoria, we opted to stay home this year and have a fun filled weekend centered around him and he ate it right up. I made a list of things we could do in advance and let him fill his weekend as he pleased. You can also read about what we did for five, four, and three too. I love looking back and reflecting on the new things he's accomplished and done each year. There is nothing more amazing than watching a kid grow.

His birthday weekend stated Friday after work/school. We got home, made some dinner, then headed straight for the gym. We've all gotten pretty hooked on a new sport, rock climbing. It's an awesome way for our family to get exercise together on a regular basis and the gym we go to is very family friendly and 5 minutes from our house. We take turns climbing or put Landon on auto-belay near us while we belay one another. Landon definitely has a natural ability and really enjoys it which makes it all the more fun for all of us too. He’s also really good about cheering us on and the motivation we give one another is really rewarding. If he keeps at it, I think by his seventh birthday he will have passed me up in ability. The only advantage I have is my height and I don't know how more years I will have that.

We stayed at the gym until almost 10pm and came home exhausted, but feeling great. We went to bed and all of us miraculously slept past 8:30am. Sometimes we motivate him with rewards for climbing new routes or trying and not giving up. For doing such a good job Friday night, he got to pick whatever he wanted for breakfast. No surprise it wasn’t eggs…

He enjoyed his yummy doughnuts and then we set off for our first activity of the weekend. Grandma had given him a gift certificate for his birthday to a nearby paint your own pottery store before she left. We had made one as a birthday gift a few months before and he’d been wanting to paint something for himself ever since. So after breakfast we walked over to Redmond Town Center and picked out a piece to paint. They were out of the dragon he really wanted to paint, but after a lot of looking and hard time deciding he finally settled on a football helmet piggy bank.

We were going to model it after his hat and paint the seahawk logo on the helmet, but it proved a little too much for the two of us. He settled instead on Seahawk colors and was really annoyed when a toddler came over and kept calling it purple. Although we don't watch football, the fan base here is so dedicated that it has rubbed off on him too. It doesn’t hurt that their logo is pretty cool!

Now we wait until Saturday and pick it up after it has been fired in the kiln. Leaving it for a week is always the hard part. Afterward, we stopped by Subway for some lunch. Of all the places he can go, he loves subway. We tried to go Go Karting afterwards, but they were completely booked for the day so we decided to go ahead and take him to pick out his big birthday present.

He got a scooter for Christmas 2015 and ever since has been asking for a skateboard. We kept telling him to keep practicing on his scooter and we'd get him one for his sixth birthday. Since he loves skating so much as we live only a few feet from a skatepark, we had to make good on our word. He picked out one his size and the guy at the store showed him the basics on how to "properly" ride. Then he got to add some spacers, tighten the wheels, and get it ready for the skatepark.

And now he's a proud skateboard owner, a VERY proud owner!

He would have preferred to spend the rest of the day riding is skateboard at the skatepark, but we had a cub scout outing to attend. It was their yearly Derby Car races and supposed to be one of the biggest, most fun events of the year. He had drawn his car the week before at the pack meeting and we had it cut out. 

Next he painted it, Adam added the wheels and some weight (in the form of nickels glued to the bottom) and we impounded it with the pack to be ready for race day. It was a completely different experience from what I expected and I’m not really sure what the point is, but the kids obviously enjoy it. That’s not to say some of the adults don’t enjoy it more, but not the adults in this family. Landon’s cub scout pack is the youngest and it was cute to see all their cars together with their different designs. Landon’s is the rainbow car second to the right. The name he gave it was “I don’t know” which he derived from them asking him what the cars name was upon impounding.

And the race is on....

He ended up getting third place for his pack. At first he was sure he wasn’t going to get a medal, but then when he did he really wanted first. Maybe next year!

Sunday was his official birthday! I told him he could wake me up whenever he woke up and so he got us all up at 6:30am. Luckily, we had decorated the night before, leaving balloons all over the house and putting out his gifts. Since we knew we’d be gone all day, we figured we could just do cake and presents first thing in the morning.

Shockingly, he didn't want to eat cake. He said, “Mom, cake is eaten at nighttime” so we saved the cake and went right to the gifts. He got a climbing harness from Grandma and some climbing shoes from us. He also got a really cool bey blade from his Aunt Katherine and cousin and some money from his Nana and Noni. I’m not sure anything lights up his face more than money, but I know he’ll use his climbing gear the most.

 His only regret was that he didn’t get his bey blade arena which happens to be coming from Grandpa/Nana just a few days late. Since it was really the only thing he asked for, it took a lot for me not to tell him. He was extra surprised when their gift came this week and he was so excited that Grandpa pulled through for him.

After opening gifts, we had to go pick something up an hour away and it had to be done that day so we loaded up into the car to tried to make it quick. Landon wasn’t too excited to do something not for him on his birthday, but we let him bring his skateboard and practice along the way and while we waited for to meet some people.

We picked up our new item an hour away, a new rooftop tent. We bought one in November, but saw this one online from a better company for a great price and had to jump on it. It was the best gift of the day, one for the whole family and we are going to have so much fun this year in it. Landon just couldn’t understand what the big deal was.

After we got it setup, we headed back towards our house for some fun Landon could appreciate. Back to go karts to make up for our lost try the day before.

We took him go karting when he turned 3 years old and he had been on a few kid go karts since then, but this was his first time in a real go kart driving himself. He barely fit the 48’ height requirement, but he had a blast running around the track for two races.

We had some time to kill before our next activity so we thought we'd go back home and skate at the skatepark for a bit. Landon was dying to get out on his new skateboard, but the weather just wasn’t cooperating. It was sprinkling off and on, cold and windy so Adam and Landon played bey blades for a bit while Mom took a quick nap. He also got his big birthday lunch, peanut butter and jelly sandwich...once again it was what he wanted. Before heading out we decided to pullout the new tent and show Landon. He thought it was really neat and got super excited once we got inside.

We packed it backup and headed over to a nearby trampoline park and laser tag facility. Unfortunately, the laser tag was sold out so we had an hour to kill before our jump session. We passed the time at their arcade playing foosball, pinball and a few other games. They happened to have Tekken which is the only game I’ve ever been good at or enjoyed playing. It was so fun getting to play it with my own kid and getting to watch him play it. Since he has no access to video games at home, going to an arcade is like striking gold for him.

Finally it was our turn to jump! It had been years since we went to a trampoline park and Adam had never been so we all had a blast running around and bouncing from place to place. I’m not sure who had the most fun, but boy was it tiring jumping constantly for an hour. We shot hoops, did flips into the foam pit, played dodge ball and bounced from wall to wall. 

We thought we would play a game of laser tag after our jump session, but looking at the small and boring setup they had for laser tag we decided to hold off and take him to a better facility in the near feature. Instead, we made our way to last stop of the day for dinner and a bit more fun.

I had been reluctant to take him to Chuck E Cheese and he only knew about because kids at school talk about it. There is one near our house and I was surprised a few months prior when he read the sign and talked all about how he wanted to go. It really wasn’t as bad as I thought, but it was a little crowded and the money for a card, to get a coin, to play the game, to get tickets, to get a prize drives me a bit crazy. Still, we managed through it and Landon had fun even though he isn’t good at any of the games. The food wasn’t bad and it felt like a real blast from the past seeing the characters on the stage looking exactly like they did when I was a kid. I remember having my brother’s birthday party there when I was about Landon’s age. It seems some things never change.

We got home just in time for some birthday cake and little bit of rest before bed. It was such a great day and a great weekend. We enjoyed celebrating Landon’s big sixth birthday with lots of fun and love. I know six will be another big year with lots of changes and new experiences. I hope he can enjoy every second, learn and grow every day and appreciate it all.

P.S. I have been looking for trick candles and wasn’t able to find them anywhere. My Mom recently came across some at her house and brought them to us last month. There’s no telling how old they are and I had high hopes for his reaction. Instead, I think we found out why they are no longer available. Below is a little video of our experience.