Happy 6th!

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, Alex is in the September Friend magazine on pg. 19 for hiking Humphreys Peak last year. Andy wrote the article and sent it in without even telling us. Lo and behold the September Friend arrives and there's Alex! What a fun thing for Alex! His sweet Primary President highlighted him in Primary two weeks ago. :) It made him feel on top of the world! Thanks Julie!
Here is apicture of the "crew"at Alex's birthday party. Can we say heavy on the boys!!! Poor Lilee! (not pictured) :)
Eating yummy burgers and dogs... Thanks for grilling Daddy!
Some slip and slide fun on the black tarp with soap!




Water balloon fun on the trampoline.

Heard of the Bakugans? It is the latest RAGE that has TAKEN over our house. Alex wanted a Bakugan pinata but I couldn't find one (it's too new). So, I put my non-existent painting skills to work and painted the pinata that I made. Don't ask me what he had me paint on it! Some sort of Japenese something. Hey, we just bashed it in anyway. I figured it didn't matter how bad it looked!





Our Alex turned six back on August 12th, but we were finally able to have his party this past Saturday. He invited four friends: Alex B., Stan, Billy and Sylus. They had a great time slip and sliding with soap all over a large black tarp. I've never seen boys so giddy! I wanted to briefly mention some funny things about Alex that I'm sure I'll want to tell him about when he's older but won't remember unless I document it here!

About six months ago my brother, Nick, came home from his mission. Alex got to talking about how old you have to be to get married. I told him that after his mission he would get married. He was quiet for a moment and asked me if Nick was married yet. I replied that he wasn't and he questioned why. I told him that Nick was dating someone but that they weren't married. He inquired about the process of dating. I explained what it meant to "date" someone. He then replied, "That's a smart way to do it." I asked him what he meant and he said, "Well, I can see why it's important to date before you get married because what if the girl you just picked to marry turned out to be really mean. Then you'd already be married, and "just plain STUCK with her". The seriousness of his face made me just want to burst out laughing. Ah, the inner-workings of five year old brain are comical and smart...all rolled into one.

I'll never forget when Andy and I went for parent-teacher conferences back in December (Alex was in Kindergarten). This was the first time that we "officially" met with his teacher. She told us that she got such a kick out of him telling the other kids what needed to be done. She told us that no matter what he chose to do as a career later in life, she was positive it would involve management. I would have to agree. Alex thrives off of leadership positions! Now if we could just get him to stop trying to parent Aiden and Aaron and save that for his own children...

About a month ago we were at Peter Piper. Alex had earned approximately 70 tickets when he walked up to me and said, "C'mon Mom, I"m going to spend my tickets on that shooter gun." When we approached the ticket counter I realized that the shooter gum cost about 500 tickets. I explained to him that he didn't have enough to buy the gun. He informed me that it didn't matter. "Watch this", he says. He walks up to the girl behind the counter and says, "Listen, I hope you're going to be nice to me today and give me that shooter gun even though I don't have the tickets to buy it. I'll give you what I got." Then he just stared at her. I was dumbfounded at his confidence. She stared back at him for a second or two and seemed unsure of what to say. Then she seemed to snap out of her shock and said, "I'm sorry, you need more tickets for that." Alex looks at her and says, "I thought you were going to be nice." For a moment she looked as if she would change her mind because of his boldness. At this point I just wanted to crawl under a rock I was so embarrassed that he would even ask. He is SO LIKE his father in that they have no issue asking for anything, even if it's ridiculous. I can't tell you how many times I have been SHOCKED that Andy got what he wanted simply by asking for it. Anyway, she refused to give it to him and he was upset about it the rest of the day.

Our Alex is such a character. He keeps me laughing (and ready to flip my lid) all at the same time. We love him so much. I can't imagine our home without his "wisdom" to run it. :)