Eleven Years Old

This handsome young man made me a mommy eleven years ago.  As I'm sure I say every year around this time...it has gone by way too fast.  Eleven!  That means we only get him for about seven more years.  That makes this momma sad.

We had a hard time figuring out how to celebrate his special day this year.  Is he too old for the traditional kids' party games?  He still enjoys playing them at his siblings' parties.  Should we just take him somewhere special? 

In the end, we decided on a very informal party with a few of his friends.  And it made him very happy. 

Chris (our family cake decorator) asked Christopher what kind of cake he wanted, and of course it had to do with Legos.  The Lego company has a line of "Lego Heroes" and the boys are so into them right now.  So a Lego Hero cake it was.

There was no "Pin the Tail on the Donkey", but the boys did play a lot of Legos and their Creationary Lego game.

The girls hung out around the house most of the party, which luckily, the boys are fine with (as long as they are not destroying Lego creations!)  And the girls wanted to be included in the party group picture.

But we managed to get one of just the boys too.  I'm so thankful that the older boys would never think of excluding their younger brother(s). 

Even though Christopher was thrilled to get new Lego Hero sets, this space set has been long awaited.

He wasted no time putting it together!

And of course he put together his new Lego Heroes in a hurry also.

And while I know that I am a bit biased, I really think that I have such a great son with Christopher.  I am so thankful with what God is doing in his life through (and in spite of!) our parenting.  He has such godly character traits and I am so proud of how he is living his life.  He is such a rule-follower, which means we can trust him with so many things.  He loves his brothers and sisters so much and while he does get grumpy sometimes, he's generally a fun kid to be around.  While I do think that he is growing up way too fast, I am excited to enjoy the ride with him.  I am so thankful for homeschooling so we can spend so much time together before his next season of life...in just seven short years.