Austin's 7th Birthday!

Austin turned 7 on Saturday!

At 7 years old, Austin:

- is in first grade and is a smart boy! (now reading at a 3rd grade level)

- LOVES dinosaurs and sports.  He can tell you all about dozens of species of dinosaurs and can recall the score of just about any ND football game in the past few years.

- is a sweet boy full of hugs and smiles.  He still runs to me and gives me a huge hug at the bus stop when I'm there to meet the bus dropping him off in the afternoon!

- adores his baby brother. Loves playing with his sister (until they end up screaming at each other over something and need a little refereeing).  

- is very creative in his play.

- is very active (plays pretend games of soccer and football up in the playroom and loves to run around and be active).

- just moved up a level in swim class.

- has also played soccer and football and is showing a talent for both.

- has a habit of taking off his dirty socks and leaving them around the house.

- is very passionate and thus, very emotional at times.  He gets so excited about and invested in some things that he gets quite upset when it doesn't go well (ex. sobbing after an ND football loss, throwing a fit when he has to stop playing with something to get ready for bed or get dressed for school, etc).

- is a great eater and is growing so fast!  We'll measure him officially at his check up on Tuesday.

- is so precious to us!

The night Austin was born, we got a huge snow storm!  This year, it is chilly, but we haven't really had any significant snow yet.  Fall weather has arrived, but we've still enjoyed some outdoor play time now and then.

Trevor has discovered the cozy coupe.

We've had fun watching ND football with our little Irish fans!

Austin had his birthday social at school earlier in the week, then his celebration with his class on Thursday (no school Friday) with his classmate who shares the same birthday!  He got to wear a birthday crown and brought cupcakes to share with his classmates.

He kept his birthday crown to wear on his birthday on Saturday!

That morning, we got balloons blown up, decorations hung, and party preparations done...

Trevor and Sarah were particularly interested in the balloons!

We went out to Zuppa Cucina for lunch.

Sarah shared her chocolate cookie with Trevor and he was a total goofball with it!

Party time!  We had family over for a dinosaur themed birthday party.

Paleontologist Alexis

7 years old!

Our always thoughtful family brought Austin some wonderful gifts!

Some books from Mommy and Daddy...

Dino Football, Dino Soccer, Dino Baseball, Dino Basketball, Dino Hockey and Dino Wrestling books. 

Lots of dinosaurs!  And lots of other fun games and toys! Thanks everybody!

Brian trying out a baby belly (stuffed puppy under his jersey) and 40DD bra and comparing to Michelle's belly (17 weeks now).

And Brian became a horse named Max for much of evening and gave Sarah rides until he was ready to drop.

The kids showed off their knowledge of dinosaurs by reciting the dinosaur ABCs...

Then time for cake (and cupcakes and cookies).

We made dinosaur sugar cookies...

And a dinosaur dig cake with dinosaur bones baked into the cake and white chocolate molded bones on top.

Trevor enjoyed getting messy with the cake too!

After dessert, we turned on the Irish game (which didn't turn out very well, but was fun to watch with the kids.  Since Austin was up late, we got to take a photo with him on his birth minute!  He was born at 10:38pm.  Celebrating the minute this little guy made me a Mommy!

We love you to pieces Austin! Happy Birthday!