Thomas is 7

And what a good 7 year old he is! I get a lot of compliments on this little guy. He is so quick to obey and is a very smart little boy. I find him reading chapter books on his own many times each day. He still loves tickling and playing rough. He eats more than me these days at most meals, but doesn't reflect it in the scale. I can see how hard he tries to do what is right. He's still pretty tender hearted about a lot of things. He can't wait for a brother, he's pretty sweet to his sisters who I have told him he has to take care of.
Doesn't 7 sound old? Since Thomas is the oldest each birthday is especially painful for me because it's the first time I am celebrating my kids at that age. Since Grace had such a fun filled birthday week, we couldn't let Thomas be disappointed.

 We started the celebration on Sunday with family because his real birthday, Monday, would have been too hard to get with everyone because beet harvest keeps them so busy.

 We opened all of his gifts. He got just what he wanted, a remote control car, a rody horse, CLUE, and Legos. Two of Nolan's siblings and their families, and his parents came over and we had waffles and ice cream.  He had a blast getting to choose the games we would all play as a group.  That night we watched amazing race together. He love that show and it's a fun Sunday tradition to watch together and have smoothies and popcorn. A perfect day.

On his actual birthday he woke up and was greeted with his cake I'd made the night before. He wanted to have friends over, so 7 boys rode the bus home with him and we had a little party after school. I thought it would be pretty low key, but it turns out 7 year old boys are very wild and very loud! They all seemed to have fun. We had a treasure hunt that ended in the sandbox right when they got there.

Then we opened presents, and had cake and ice cream.

He wanted it to be pirate theme, and so we played pin the mustache on the pirate and then they all wanted to wear them.

I also threw cannonballs (Grapes) at them from the top of the tree house and they tried catching them. There were a few other non pirate games we played. After they went home we got in the car and went to Pizza Hut for dinner. Nolan couldn't make it, but Tayna and her kids and Holly and Kent and family came with us. We ended the celebration by watching Monsters University in the theater. I think we got home at 9:30, and we kept the tradition of letting the birthday person stay up as late as they want. So far I've really enjoyed this tradition. It gives Nolan and I a chance to play one on one with the birthday kid. We played 4 games of CLUE, put together his LEGGO's and ate more cake. I know it's a crazy thing to allow kids to do on a school night, so we may move it to the weekend after their birthday, but it was a great night!