Owen is 7!

Owen's special birthday--7 on the 7th--has come and gone and I am amazed that he is this old! Because his actual day was a school day, we celebrated on Friday. He invited friends over and we had a "sports" birthday party. He helped me set up an obstacle course in the basement which included: a somersault on sofa cushions, as many pullups as you wanted to do on the jumparoo bars, weaving a hockey puck through 3 orange cones, crawling through a "tunnel" (box) while holding the stick and puck, and then shooting it into the hockey net through another "tunnel" made of blocks. That was station 1. Well, I guess we did have a balloon volleyball game going for when kids first arrived, but because Owen knew that wasn't a true station he didn't want to play it for long. Station 2 was basketball in the living room. I am sure that basketball has never been played under that chandelier before, but it went fine. We used really soft balls and laundry baskets. I think the kids had fun--one of the girls kept wandering away from the game to check out the fish tank. :-) After that, we stopped for cake and ice cream before continuing on to our third station. Grandma Spencer made a really fun hockey cake using an upside-down bundt cake. She put a round mirror in the middle (for a lake effect) and iced the whole cake white. Then she decorated it with little hockey players and balls. It was a big hit with the kids! Our last station was "knee football" in our big family room. Owen had a fun time helping me put down masking tape markers for the downs and the fifty yard line. It was a fun and pretty simple party--just like we like them--and we were glad we fit it in to the busy moving week so Owen could have some closure with his friends.
Owen's new teacher at his new school asked me to write down some adjectives that describe Owen, so I thought I would include some of them here.
Friendly/Caring: I love walking down the halls of the school or church with Owen. He says hi to everyone and knows many kids names--of all ages--and hi-fives people or asks them questions. He is very aware of others and he cares about what they want. At his party there were two "teams"--very loose term--the #6's and the #7's. He kept switching back and forth between the two teams so one team wouldn't feel left out without the birthday boy. This was his own idea and he kept coming to me for more masking tape so we could stick on his new number. At dinner on the last day of school in Raymond, the boys were telling about how they said good bye to their classmates. Owen said, "Dallin was crying when I said goodbye to him." And then he made a really sad face while he thought about that. Incidentally, I had never heard of Dallin from Owen before this. That night, Owen started to sob and cry. When I asked him what was wrong--expecting him to say he was nervous or scared about the new school--he said, "I miss my friends! Especially Dallin!" I asked, "Are you thinking about how he was sad today?" Owen nodded. It was pretty sweet. So we invited Dallin to the party and that helped give some closure I think for both of them.

Hard-Working and Diligent: Owen focuses on what he does in a way that astounds me. He is able to tune out a lot of background noise and activity when he wants to. He is able, for instance, to sit still in the eye of a storm or violin teaching, boys wrestling, Georgie crying or climbing on him, and Tommy begging for him to play, and work on a craft or read a book or color a picture. At the same time, he gets tired out pretty quickly when we practice the piano of violin together, so he is a normal boy!

Creative: I think Owen sometimes misses the carefree days of having lots of time to do what he wants. He is often jealous of the things Tommy does in Joy school or the crafts he and I do at home. So Owen makes his own when he gets home from school. For a few weeks we had a dinosaur craft book at our house and he made a different one every day, and then made up his own. He hung all the dinosaurs above his bed from string. He helped Tommy too, which I appreciated. He makes wonderful, interesting pictures for people. I asked him to make a picture for his primary teacher and it turned out to be about swimming. He sat down one day and drew his own version of the solar system and gave it to Grandma. I love watching him create things out of lego.

Pack-Rat-ish: How hygienic is it to wear the same silly bands day in and day out for 3-4 months? He's pretty cute, ain't he? We love our O. Happy birthday buddy!