hayden michael turns 7

i know i say it every year, but seven?! really, SEVEN?! that sounds so old. it sounds far more like an actual kids age than a little kid or baby. seven. it's crazy. i really cannot believe our mad rush to the hospital happened seven years ago today.
this year for hayden's birthday he requested a mario theme since he LOVES playing mario kart on wii. i found some sample mario cakes online and realized this was the year that i would have to take up fondant in order to decorate his cake. i put a few ideas from online together with some of my own and came up with a creation that i hoped would work out.
i was getting pretty nervous about making the cake since i had never even touched fondant let alone made a cake with it! so i started bright and early, just a little before 8am, and by 11am i was done! and actually a little impressed with myself! i think the cake turned out really well and hayden loved it, so that was all that really mattered!
i ran out to pick up the balloons and buy hayden's last but main gift...super mario brothers, and then headed back home to start decorating the basement.
hours fly by pretty quickly when you're trying to get so much done, but we got it done just in time for the guests to arrive at 7pm.
mom, dad, jenn and rainah came as did jack and caroline skiver, chadd, ashton and lorelei howard (melanie was working and we really missed her!), and our friend shawn stopped in from california! unfortunately, jessica and justin had to leave for tour early in the morning so they weren't able to celebrate with us. we sure missed them! and will for the next 3 months!
everyone ate snacks and watched while hayden played some wii until he realized everyone was there and asked if he could open presents.
hayden got several games...board games, leapster games and wii games, some hot wheels tracks from jessica and justin, and the monsters vs. aliens movie which he FLIPPED out about getting saying how badly he wanted to see it. he said something like "this is just what i've wanted to see all of my life, again!" because we did see it in the theater. good work, jenn, don and rainah! he also got an amazon gift card which he doesn't really get but i know he'll LOVE when we go online to pick something out, order it, and then have it come shipped right to him! and he got lots of money. he was also quite confused about the checks and what they were. i tried explaining that it's money that we will take to the bank but i still don't think he really understands that!
after the presents we sang happy birthday and dove into the cake and ice cream. all of that work only to peel the fondant off and throw it away. oh well, it looked good and that's all i cared about! and hayden ate one of the fondant turtle shells and said he liked it...so hey, some people really do like it i guess.
the kids all played, hayden playing wii...of course, and then people started leaving. shawn, dave and hayden all played wii for awhile before shawn left and the boys headed for bed. the whole time hayden was complaining "but i don't want my birthday to be over yet!" he was so excited all day long and just kept saying "i'm seven years old today!!!" to which talan would reply "i'm two years old!!!"
so another great birthday for hayden and another year magically disappeared. i know it won't, but i sure hope this year passes a lot more quickly than the last seven!
happy seventh birthday, hayden michael. we love you so much!!!


the cake:
from all angles:





the setup:





talan entertained the guests as they arrived:

present time!:


because i always have to get a gift that matched the theme:
here is where hayden was opening jessica and justin's gift. he stood up with the card to show everyone, put on a sad, serious face and said "jessica and justin REALLY wanted to be here but they can't be. they are so sad they can't come. and i'm sad too. i'm really going to miss them.":

justica's gift of hot wheels:

he was very excited:

cake time:
hayden picked these candles out and i thought they would match with the cake. when i was opening them i saw that they were trick candles...something hayden knows nothing about. as i was telling people that fact, and as he was blowing them out, the immediately blew out and never came back. some trick:



asthon and talan:

missing: 1 bottom tooth

so on thanksgiving i believe it was, we noticed that hayden had his first loose tooth. it wasn't super loose, and he was having a hard time even figuring out which one it was. when i would see him wiggling it, he would be trying to move it from side to side instead of front to back.
i kept meaning to check on it and then suddenly last nite he came running into the living room saying "mom! talan just jumped on my face and my tooth fell out! and it didn't even hurt!"
i was a little hesitant to tell him to come to the bathroom with me to wash up as there was some blood...he tends to freak out about blood. but when i told him he simply said, "yeah, i know." and went and put a washcloth on it.
we were checking it out in the mirror and i was thinking i didn't remember that being the tooth that was loose. i tried another one and sure enough, the one right next to the missing one was also loose.
hayden was SO excited and couldn't wait to call grandma and grandpa. while he was on the phone, talan looked in the mirror and came running out of the bathroom yelling "i have teeth!!" and he couldn't wait to tell grandma his big news!
last nite the tooth fairies debated on $2 or $3 and decided that $2 would be just fine. this morning when hayden woke up he was SO excited to find 8 quarters in his tooth pillow. then he mentioned "last time the tooth fairy gave me 3 dollar bills and this time i got $2 in quarters!" #1...i don't have any idea how he remembered what he got the last time (when he had his tooth pulled out back in january) i didn't even remember that it had happened. #2...thankfully he seemed excited and not bummed out.
and now the tooth fairy is wondering if the next tooth should be $2 or $3......

hayden's first school project

hayden and the rest of the first graders have been learning about native american's. they each needed to build a 3-d model of a native american home. either a tee-pee, wigwam or a longhouse. they were able to use anything they wanted and could get plenty of help from anyone and everyone at home.
hayden decided he wanted to make a longhouse, so i picked up the supplies on saturday and on sunday (while he was still getting over some kind of stomach virus) he and dave built it.
it turned out great and hayden was really proud.

wild thing

i really wanted talan to be max from where the wild things are this year for halloween, but i couldn't find any costumes. any i did find were over $70.
i ran out to the store today and ended up finding a max sleeper and fell in love with it. unfortunately they only had it in hayden's size, but i decided to get it for him as he probably makes a better max than talan does anyway.
the pj's were super soft and had a hood on it, which was a little weird but fitting for the max get up. i brought them home and showed hayden and he was really standoffish about the whole thing. it took a lot of convincing to even make him try them on for me.
i eventually did get him to put them on for a few pictures and then we brought them to mom and dad's for him to wear after trick-or-treating when he got ready for bed. he once again had another fit about wearing them so i decided i'd just return them. but at least i got a few pictures of it.

first grade halloween party

hayden only had a half day of school the day before halloween but they had a full day planned. each class had a halloween party planned and the whole school was supposed to walk around the neighborhood for their halloween parade. talan and i had planned on going to watch, and of course take pictures, but unfortunately it was raining all morning so they had to cancel the parade.
hayden still got dressed up and took a baggie of treats in for each of his classmates.
he came home and said he had a great time, despite not being able to walk in the parade.

hayden's second trip to the big house

hayden was able to go to another u of m football game with dave this year and he seemed to really enjoy it once again. he apparently really liked running up and rolling down a big hill...shocker.
it was pretty cold out, but hayden stayed nice and warm in his brand new michigan sweatshirt he had picked out a few days earlier just for the occasion.
hayden had such a great time, he wrote a story about it several weeks later at school. he was able to read it out loud to his class and then it was put into a book for the parents to look at at conferences. his story went like this:

hayden's second day of watching football

i went to a football game with my daddy. we had a good time there. i like watching football with my dad. but not on tv. he says "yes." i say "no. not on tv. no, no no noooooooo." the end.

what could be better than a michigan football game?! running up a hill....
and then rolling down it:

it's that soccer time of year

last fall we signed hayden up for a little soccer league in livonia and he loved it. we ended up missing the spring league but signed him up again this fall.
hayden has a great time and has great control of the ball. he also will run as far as he has to to get the ball and get it in the net! he has scored several times this season, and his team hasn't lost a game (there has been 1 or 2 where there hasn't been any score though).
unfortunately, this saturday is the last soccer game of the season and the pizza party but hayden will have to miss it. dave is taking him to a u of m football game that day instead. he is a bit bummed and a little worried that he won't get his trophy but i was assured that it will be hand delivered to our house some time next week.
hayden seems to really have grown this past year. if someone has taken the ball from him, he'll start to get upset but then he lets it go. ahhh, progress.
he still seems to love it and does really well. we may need to start looking into a more formal kind of league for him.



hayden practicing as goalie:

the orange team. i totally forgot to take his sweatshirt off for the team photo:
i realized after coming home that hayden was covering his soccer ball with grass:
and talan must have been watching him:

team huddle:
hayden ready to stop anything that comes his way:


hayden actually almost got kicked out of this game for sliding too much:

throwing the ball in: