Birthday Boy - Another Post Way Over Due

So I have managed to get behind on the blog, surprise, surprise. 

But I really wanted to share the details from Nate's birthday and party,

because we had a lot of fun. 

 

 

Last September, Nate turned 7! 

It breaks my heart that he is growing up so fast. 

He has always been so sweet and huggable

His magical hugs are one of his many super powers.

They are very calming and one of my great joys.

I hope he never gets too old to hug his mom. 

But I love watching him grow from little boy into big kid.

 I love his funny personality and the sweet little man he is becoming. 

He has recently started doing impersonations,

his favorites are the characters from Studio C

and he can pull off a pretty good Scottish accent when he wants to.

 

 

For birthday traditions,

 the kids get to have a friends birthday party on the odd years,

and then we go out to dinner and spend time together as a family on the even years.

However, this year, Nate got lucky.  He wanted pizza for dinner

and Snappy Tomato just happened to have kids eat free that night,

so he got to go out to dinner for his birthday and have a party.

 

When we got home, Nate opened his presents

 Last summer when we were in Utah,
Grandma and Grandpa took Nate birthday shopping

and Nate picked out his presents. 

We brought them home and I put them away until his birthday.

But even though he already knew what he was getting,
the waiting was hard for him,
he was super excited to show us what he picked out

The Zibits he picked out

 

Nate also received an old Lone Ranger movie (not the new one)

and Lone Ranger Legos.

Nate has always loved old cowboy shows like the Classic Lone Ranger,
Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and Zorro. 

Even though most of the movies we have are in black and white,
he doesn't seem to care.  

Maybe his theme song should be

"I Should Have Been a Cowboy" (by Toby Keith)

 

For his birthday, he wanted to celebrate Lone Ranger style...

 

We went to Lake Shelby campground, where there was lots of space 

for energetic boys to run around.

We had a lot of rain the prior week, 

so even though we had beautiful weather for the party

things were muddy.

 

(There are a lot of pictures in this post,

but I couldn't choose which pictures I wanted to use).

 

The night before the party, we made the cake,

the goody bags and the piñata loot bag

 

That night we had a lot of rain.

While I was inside making the cake

Jeremy went out to the garage and happened to find a snake in there,

we think it was just because of the crazy amount of rain.

(but it was weeks before I could go out there again,

And I have yet to go out there at dark)

 

The next day was much nicer...

Nate's treasured antlers from his Great Grandpa

The food included popcorn, licorice, apples and beef jerky

(our cowboy's favorites)

 

 

Nate loved his special cowboy card made by his Nana

 

While we were setting up for the party,

Drew found a mud bath... 

I was so busy taking pictures of his cuteness,

that I forgot to get a picture of Daddy's face,

Dad loves mud about as much as I love snakes :)