SEVEN.

Loves:  Star Wars, Legos (Hero Factory and Ninjago), snuggling, Kraft macaroni and cheese, drawing (mostly R2D2), the DIY and History channels and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, throwing the football in the backyard, playing with babies (Emmy and Thatcher), Angry Birds, using "facetime" on Ben's phone (and anything else electronic), reading, sausage patties, stuffed animals

Eats like a bottomless pit.

Remembers EVERYTHING.

Very scheduled/structured.  Not a big fan of plans changing.

Extremely responsible and trustworthy.  Never lies or tries to hide anything.

Great sense of humor.  Can be sarcastic and somewhat of a smart alec but comes by it very honestly.  Learning to purposely push Babe's buttons.  In fact, really only gets in trouble for trying to tease/frustrate/upset her at times.

Very smart.  Always wanting to "google" things.

Drink of choice:  lemonade.  Hates milk but willingly follows our "at least one glass a day" rule.

Interested in money:  making and spending it. :)

Becoming more and more confident and outgoing every day.  Still gets nervous/anxious in new situations but makes friends easily and handles social situations well.

FINALLY learning to ride a bike without training wheels.  (It's just not something we do a ton around here.)

Family-oriented.  Loves doing things with our "whole family."

Started to say things like "duh," "darn it," "I know what I'm doing," and even "shyster."

Always complimented, though, on manners.

Still can't believe he's seven...

Harry's Party.

Harris chose to have a "Laser Tag" party for his birthday this year.  He's played laser tag once:  last summer, with Tyler.  And they literally played one game.  He was pretty adamant, though, and so I googled "cheap laser tag" and found the perfect place for he and his friends to have a great time shooting each other! :)

Aside from the fact that it was a little on the stuffy side, we had such fun spending the afternoon with our friends.  I even think the adults (at least the men) enjoyed the games more than the kids!!!!

And I promise Ben wasn't the only adult to play.  Somehow, DB, Carter, and Cody managed to sneaky snake their way out of these pics. :)

If you're looking for a place to play, I highly recommend Laser Tag of Buford.  It was well priced and very laid back (all the mamas ended up walking around the course while our kiddos were playing--even Emmy walked around without a vest!) and the course itself was, according to Cody, one of the best ones around.

Our group played their first game (bonus:  our kids were the only ones on the course!) and then we headed to the "party room" for gifts and cake.

Harris chose to have Star Wars cupcakes.  Ben and I chose to pick up a double decker cookie cake.  Of course, the cookie cake was more of a spur-of-the-moment buy (they are sooooo hard to resist!) and the only one left had a huge "man cave" decoration in the middle of it!  It still tasted fantastic, though.  We devoured that thing. :)

Once we finished with cake and presents, the kids (big and little!) got to play their second game.  Babe didn't play the first time around but couldn't wait to get her gear on for the second trip in.  She LOVED it and has since declared that she'd like to have a laser tag birthday as well.

I don't think Ben would mind that one bit!  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if another laser tag outing was in our near future!

We finished off the afternoon with drink refills and popcorn (laser tag is a sweaty sport!) and then said goodbye to our friends.

For the last time this year, Happy Birthday, Harris!  We are so crazy in love with you!!!

Harry's Birthday.

We celebrated Harry's seventh birthday the same way we celebrate every other birthday in our family:  with powdered donuts and the birthday balloons. :)

My boy was so excited to get downstairs!  He (mostly) patiently waited for Daddy to get ready for work first, though.

He went straight for the gifts:  two Lego Hero factory "men," a small pack of GI Joe squinkies, and a Lego Star Wars t-shirt.  That pretty much sums up this stage of life for him. :)

The girls went straight for the donuts. :)

This goofy kid holds my heart.  Without a doubt, his birth began the best seven years of my life!

We spent the morning at the library, had "cheesy noodles" for lunch (his choice), and headed to Menchie's (with Poppa!) for snack after room time.  Dinner was also his choice:  Luigi's.  Harry was lucky enough to have Mimi and Poppa in town, along with Aunt Sally, Little Ben, and Baby Emily, to join us for dinner.

I still can't believe he's seven.  What an honor is to be his mama. :)

Pre-Birthday Party.

Harris' birthday is tomorrow.  Tomorrow.  I will be the mother of a seven-year-old tomorrow.   SEVEN.

 Best seven years of my life. :)

We always celebrate birthdays with the fam at (where else?) Chick-fil-a with a homemade (thank you, Betty Crocker!), Daddy-decorated, birthday cake.  We typically just pick the Tuesday night closest to the actual birthday we're celebrating, but because Ben will be at school next week, Harry got to celebrate a little early. He didn't mind one bit!

Harris had some pretty specific requests for his cake this year:  it needed to be a "haunting" color, include a tunnel, and feature Obi Won and R2D2 battling a haunted dinosaur.  Oh, to be inside his brain for a day.  Or an hour.

Anyway, he and Ben worked hard on Monday night getting it just right:

Babe and I worked hard at cleaning up all the icing:

The end result was this:

We loaded that puppy up on Tuesday night to share with our peeps (both family and Chick-fil-a staff).  The kids were ready to dig in!  Especially Raven...

We didn't open any presents at Chick-fil-a but we did make a family trip to Target after dinner and Harris picked out a couple of small toys he'd like to receive from Ben and me.  Granti also bought him a Nijago Lego set for his big day AND let him take it home straight from Target.  He was pretty pumped.

I still can't believe he's getting so big...

He makes me laugh every. single. day.  He also makes me step back and take a deep breath every now and then.

Man, I love that kid.  Can't wait to continue his celebration this weekend!

Kindergarten Graduation.

Harris has been bringing home information about a "Kindergarten Awards" ceremony in his Friday folder for the last couple of weeks.  To be honest, I really didn't think much about it.  We've been super busy and Babe's formal graduation (which was on a Friday night) pretty much overshadowed Harris' middle-of-the-day school program.

Of course, Ben and I adjusted our schedules to attend (we try our best to attend everything) but I really didn't expect it to be that big of a deal.  I was honestly quite surprised to show up and realize it was, in fact, a type of "graduation" ceremony.  The place was packed.

The kids started off by singing a few songs as an entire grade level.  I'd already had the privilege of watching the Kindergarteners perform the songs at the Kindergarten Roundup, but it was still fun to watch my crazy boy sing his little heart out from the stage.

After the singing, the six Kindergarten kiddos with perfect attendance this school year were recognized with a certificate.  Harris was one of them!  I love this picture of Ms. Conoley holding his hand as he waited for his name to be called. :)  Ms. Conoley has been the perfect teacher for Harris this year...we will miss her like crazy over the summer!

The Perfect Attendance certificate was the only "real" award that was handed out.  Each Kindergarten teacher called the names of the students in her class and each individual child was presented a "graduation" certificate by the Principal and Kindergarten Administrator.  It was simple and quick and pretty perfect.

After all the students were recognized, the classes hosted a small gathering back in their rooms.  They served cookies and juice and Ben and me had a few minutes to hang with Harry before we had to head back to work.

I couldn't be more proud of this kid and his accomplishments this year.  I still can't believe that after tomorrow, he'll officially be a first grader...I know I'll blink and he'll be in high school.

It really is true:  time flies when you're having fun.

How 'Bout Those Rangers?!?!?!

Not only did Harris' T-ball team walk away as regular season champions, they also had the opportunity to play in the inaugural season tournament championship game last Thursday night.  Actually, because of the way the double-elimination tournament worked out, his team ended up playing a double header and WINNING both games!

While we ended up spending a very late night at the ballpark, it was tons of fun and very exciting...especially because Harris continued to hit off the coach pitch and slide into home plate every chance he got!  

Even Pop made the trip up for the big night!  Hadley was thrilled.

We started playing at 6:00.  Because both games were technically "championship" games, there was no time limit, which meant we played five full innings...twice.  The last game ended around 9:30 (waaaay past weekday bedtimes), but we still managed to stick around and celebrate for just a few minutes.

Even Sam and Emmy got in on the celebration action!

While Harris isn't completely in love with baseball, he did fall in love with his team and said he'd love to play another season if he could "stay with his same team."  I'm thankful for the friends he made and the fantastic coaches who poured into his life this season.

I'm pretty sure the Rangers will always hold a special place in our hearts.  This boy definitely will:

Can't wait to see what extracurricular activity he picks next!

Ranger Retirement.

Harris has officially announced his retirement from baseball.  He's had a good time playing with the Rangers this spring (and has even made a few new friends!) but is just about ready for the season to be over.  His team is playing for the t-ball championship tomorrow night and I think it's safe to say Harry isn't going to miss baseball  too much once it's finally over.

Although, for the record, he's hit off the coach pitch quite a bit lately.  We've hit up Dairy Queen in celebration after each game.  I'm always looking for a reason to inhale a Peanut Buster Parfait. :)

Last weekend, we were able to spend an evening at the park with his teammates and their families in celebration of the season.  Although it started to POUR down rain after about 45 minutes, we were still able to get in a little playing, eat some pizza and cake, and pass out trophies before everyone made a quick escape for home.

Emmy rocked a ponytail for the first time at the party.  She's always a big hit at the games...she's had such fun cheering for Harris this year!

Hadley's had a good time cheering for her boyfriend, Aaron, who just so happens to play on Harris' team.  Babe and Aaron are in school together and literally hug, blow kisses, and walk hand in hand whenever they see each other.  They were thrilled to spend time together at the party. :)

While the trophies were the hit of the night for Harry, the rest of our family was stoked about the double decker cookie cake from Sam's.

You can't go wrong with extra icing. :)

Or with these cheeks.

We've been so blessed this season with the best rec league coach I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.  He's positive, upbeat, professional, and is able to keep his perspective no matter what.  I loved hearing him talk about each boy as he handed out the trophies.  I also loved what he said about Harris:  no matter what the coach asked him to do this season, Harris always responded with, "I'll try."

Coach Keith was 100% accurate with that statement.

T-ball has been such a great experience for us this season and I am so thankful Harris had the opportunity to have fun and make new friends.  I can't imagine what we'll do with all of our free evenings after tomorrow night but I'm not too worried about it.  Summer of Fun is right around the corner. :)

Go Rangers!