SEVEN!

I will never get used to or really be happy about my boys getting older each year! Okay...I am happy to see Gunnar growing and being healthy, but I would still keep him little forever if I could, or I would take him back to one of these stages :)...

 But March 28th has come and gone again. This year we'd planned a fun trip to Texas to visit Grandma & Grandpa Demander and the way that worked out best for our plane tickets was to fly out on Saturday the 28th! Gunnar was actually really excited to be flying on his actual birthday. But we also wanted to have a little friend party for him as well so we decided to do that on Friday, the 27th...and believe it or not it was a sunny BEAUTIFUL day!!

But I will get back to that in a minute...

First off, all Gunnar talked about wanting for about a month before was an outdoor basketball hoop for our driveway, so that is what we planned to get him. Lars ordered it and it came a few days before and we actually gave it to him on Thursday and Lars spent about 3 hours putting it together that night!

I loved the look on Gunnar's face when he walked out of the garage and saw the big box! And it was cute to see Ashton trying to cover his eyes for him and lead him out :)

Needless to say he was really excited for his early gift! It was dark by the time it was all set up and ready to go, but he got to shoot a few hoops before bed as well as before school on Friday morning...

Happy kid :)

And I loved seeing him coming towards me after school wearing this...so cute!

Love this boy.

We planned his party for 3:30 on Friday after they got out early from school like they always do on Fridays at 2:10.

His invitation...

So many kids have their parties at the JumpZone trampoline place these days (and he didn't really want to do that)
 so I asked him if he would maybe want to have a soccer party at the park and have all of his friends come and play a soccer game. He loved the idea, so I got to work on his invitation and party favors etc...

He ADORES soccer!
And it is so fun to see. All winter he went once a week to an indoor soccer practice on the other end of town and he loved it and learned SO much.

Anyway I really was trying to keep it simple since we were flying out the next day, so I talked him into these cupcakes with bouncy soccer balls in the middle for the kids to take home...

...and he chose mint chocolate chip ice cream. His favorite lately. And as well as the balls, they got a soccer pencil, a green airhead candy and a bookmark...

The party was a lot of fun! I love this little group of friends of his and they all love soccer too, so it turned out great...

 All of his little friends are also taking French, so they just started singing Happy Birthday to him in French...it was so cute!

Yay for finally getting to blow out candles...no wind!

This picture...

Made me think of this picture...Oh my goodness he is cute!

Present time!

New scooter from Grandma and Grandpa Harry :)

And back to more soccer after presents...we pretty much had to drag them away!

So glad Grandma could come...

After his party, we went home and tried to talk him into picking a place to go out to eat, but he begged to just stay home and wanted us to go pick up pizza, so that's what we did.

Anyway such a fun day!

So many things I love about you Gunnar...

You have a huge personality! You entertain us every day, you are so funny!
You are still pretty quiet around other people at times though and always polite.

Your sweet smile and laugh.

You are so so smart! This doesn't say much (because I am terrible at it), but you can figure out math way faster than Mom can!

You are a good listener and a good student as well as a good friend.

Everyone likes you.

Sometimes you are so stubborn though!

Which reminds me of how much we love your cute red hair, you like to call it orange :)
How you still love for me to lay with you at night and beg me to not go.

And back to how smart you are, you love grammar as much as I do and really understand it and speak so well! Dad calls you the grammar police...haha.

And I can't forget how much you love to eat...you are pretty much always hungry, but still SO skinny! But you're always working on and showing me your muscles in your arms and legs.
How athletic you are and how good you are at anything you try!

I really do love seeing the amazing little person you are and am always so grateful I get to be your Mom :)

I love you my sweet 7 year old!

 Up next your real birthday spent traveling to Texas!