six

and just like that.....

my baby turned six.

he celebrated with a cubs themed baseball party, complete with a pickup baseball game.  this kid is seriously the most energetic and enthusiastic person i know.  he makes life so much fun (and keeps me thoroughly exhausted!)  cheers to six.  but don't you be getting any ideas about how old that makes me.......lol!

and just because everyone loves a good progression.....here is h with his best gal pal, flora at every. single. birthday. party.

six years and counting.....

he. is. five.

hendrix james baumgartner

my five year old son.  

wow, that sure went fast!

(photo credit to: LE Photo|Design)

  

he is a handsome fella, and i am incredibly proud of him!

Check out this progression collage of he and his longest pal, Flora, at his party over the years!  :)

three. years. old.

tomorrow is my baby boy's birthday. 

he turns three. 

does this mean that i need to stop referring to him as my baby boy?

we had a really fun birthday party for him over the weekend, and i actually took my camera this time, so there will be plenty of photos to follow of the fun...

for now, i just wanted to leave a little progression post.

first birthday

second birthday

this is hendrix with his favorite gal pal flora over the years in our annual birthday party pose.  won't be long before these kids will be too big for us to be holding in the shot!

happy birthday dear boy.  

you mean the world to me.  

the dino-mite birthday boy

i had a terribly difficult time picking a theme for hendrix's birthday party this year as his interests seem to change so quickly and i could hardly develop an idea before he was moving on to the next thing.  :)  my original plan was to go cowboy and maybe even have the party at a farm.  then i wanted to do dr. seuss as he loves the cat in the hat and i adore the turquoise and red color-theme. 

but our final decision was to go dinosaur, as he took a recent interest, bordering on obsession with them, and loves to watch the dinosaur train!  he knows more different dinosaur names than me, and likes to pretend he is one. 

also his big birthday present from mom and dad this year was a sandbox, and i saw some fun ideas about how we could incorporate that into his party activites by doing a "dinosaur dig" with his friends ;)

  

the food was pretty low key, as i just served some of his favorite snacks and cupcakes.

i really LOVE how this personalized shirt i ordered turned out, and he has worn it at least a dozen times already.  i bought it a size too big on purpose and imagine that it will be a favorite for a while ;)

we prepped a craft project of dino mask making for his friends to work on as they arrived, and hoped that they would want to have a dino dance party later with their fun masks on!  

we buried a couple dozen little dinosaurs inside easter eggs, so the kids could dig for them, and let them hatch.  hendrix was a big helper here, and i think that he dug and re-dug for the same dinos at least 7 or 8 times during the party!  lol

he was really excited to share with his friends!

the sandbox is something that daddy built for hendrix, and it has handy built-in benches for kiddos to sit on, that also close up to be a cover to protect the sandbox.  it looks real nifty and is super functional.  daddy did a great job!

surprisingly hendrix spent a ton of time helping daddy create a cool mask, and was even willing to wear it for a while!  he loves craft projects, but i didn't think he would sit still enough to do it with all the kids at his house!

because he had already had a few birthday celebrations, he sang along to the birthday song, and blew out his candles like a pro!  he was very proud of himself ;)

then we had a little dino storytime, which didn't keep the kids' attention for very long; but hendrix does love this book about the ten little dinosaurs.

present opening kind of went by in a blur, as hendrix opened his first present and then just wanted to play with it.  then all the other kids took turns helping him, and i tried to just keep straight what he got from whom ;)  he got tons of fun new games, dinos, and books.  we have had lots of fun putting things away in his playroom!

this is hendrix's favorite gal pal, flora.  he goes to play at her house when mommy has to work, and it has been fun to watch these two grow up together.  they are really close in age (only about 6 weeks apart), and their mommy's are very good friends too!

we had a fabulous party, and now mommy is ready to shift the focus off making her big boy feel special and onto getting ready for her little girl to arrive ;)

the family party

better late than never, huh?  

hendrix got to drag out the fun festivities of his second birthday as we split the celebrations up into two separate weekends this year.  we celebrated with all our family the weekend before (labor day weekend), and all his friends the weekend after; and then of course we did some special things ON his birthday which fell in the middle of the week ;)

while it was fun to have a huge backyard party for him last year, this prego mama was really thankful that nana offered to host and prepare for the family party this year, which took a good deal of stress and planning off my plate.  

while dinosaurs was the theme to his party and a huge passion of his right now, he was equally interested in every kind of art that he could work on.  he likes to 'practice his letters' and is becoming very adequate with a pencil.  he was happy to show off his skills to his great-grandma ;)

he loves all of us uncles (he has four of them, the lucky lil' guy), and pretty much jumps around to each one trying to act big and keep up with them.  fortunately they all seem to like him just as much, and are willing to follow him around and do whatever he wants.....

one of the first presents he opened had some colors in it, and became a huge distraction for him to want to open anymore presents.  his aunts and mom had to take over for a while, while he enjoyed his new dino coloring books!

he does really like opening presents though, and he did a pretty good job telling each person thank-you (with a little prompting from mom and dad).  i think christmas is going to be a blast this year!

he got some dino slippers that he has enjoyed wearing these last couple days since it has gotten chilly.....

and one of his favorite gifts was this umbrella.  he has used it at least a dozen times since he got it (and i think we have only had one rainy day........so yes, we do like to use it even when it is sunny!)

and it was perfect, as it started to drizzle towards the end of the present opening, and he got to try it out right then and there!  

he was a very happy little boy (which is surprising since he didn't take a nap. at all.  all day.)

he had dino shaped rosettes, and while he was a pro at blowing out his own candles, he was more interested in the m & m's that were to be a topping for the ice cream than he was in any of the other parts of the dessert. 

he has a serious sweet tooth like mama.....

it was fun to see the newlyweds, back from their honeymoon and looking as adorable as ever!

he got this little pillow/bed from his nana and he loved it so much he had to try it out with a movie that afternoon.  it has since been a bed, a sleeping bag, a chair, and even a climbing tower.  what a cool gift!

here he is hamming it up with the big boys, after a nice big game of climb on everyone's backs.

oh, and hannah and i got a few 'bump' pics together.  gotta make sure the cousins get photographed together right from the start!  can't wait for blaire and annalise to meet, and bond and have girl time ;)

  

the day was wrapped up with a bath, jammies, and a little family game time before we headed home.  what a perfect day!

hendrix is a very independent, fiesty, energetic, and well-loved little two-year-old. ;)