Colin is SIX!

With Colin's birthday being Halloween, we always have the issue of 'the party'.

Should we do one?

Will anyone come, with it being such a busy day?

We've already got a full day of activities....are cake/presents/all-that-commotion just too much?

The answer has been on most years "yes". Including this one.

But, even without 'the party', we still have a great celebration of the day, because that's what birthdays are really all about--not huge parties with too many children overloaded on vast amounts of sugar--but rather, having a special day that honors our special child! And that's what we set out each year to do, and what we try to focus on, official 'party' or not!

We started with a special breakfast, made by Daddy. Shane is the breakfast expert in our house, and cooked Colin and the boys up some of his specialty--chocolate chip banana pancakes (in the shape of Mickey Mouse, no less!) May sound a bit weird, but they are absolutely to die for! Col was one happy guy.

Mommy put the finishing touch on his plate--six birthday candles--so that, at 8:30, we were starting the day off already in celebration mode!

Love that smile--can't believe this guy came into the world six years ago!
(I blogged about his birth story here {day one} and here {day two},
if you would like to read it! Yes, it was a two day adventure to get him here....)

After the candles were lit of course comes the happy birthday song. I sang to Colin, and then looked at Ethan and said, "Say happy birthday to Col, Ethan!" I think he must have thought I said, "SING happy birthday to Col", because he jumped right in singing himself! {Not very clearly, a bit jumbled--as if he wasn't trying all that hard or was embarrassed by the camera or something--but it was Happy Birthday all the same!}

It was so cute to me how E confused the "happy birthday dear Colin" personalized version of the song with our generic church version, "happy birthday, God bless you". He actually sang, "happy birthday God bless Colin!" So, so cute. *grin*

I also loved it when Col said, "I got my own birthday!" "I got my own Mickey Mouse pancakes!" That just made me feel like he felt special, which was our whole goal for the day.

Here's some video....

Then, Colin actually left for a little while to go have some fun
with Grandma Jane, so the littler boys, Daddy, and I did some pumpkin painting!
Cam, starting on "Peanut's Pumpkin"

Ethan LOVED this!

I think what he actually loved was taking the brush, loading up the orange paint, and shoving as much of it as he could inside my belly button. I cleaned and cleaned but....I'm pretty sure that, here in a few weeks when my belly button "pops", there's going to be some orange-y remnants of paint in there....

Daddy and Cam, concentrating hard

Cameron helped a ton by blow drying each layer! Only a couple of *hot, hot!* moments where I had to remind him to keep that blow dryer moving....

The boys, with Peanut's finished 'costume'!

We thought, maybe, that Peanut looked a little scary for a girl....I wanted to go back and add a pink bow or something, but we ran out of time! Maybe we'll do a pink ornament at Christmas...

Then, it was already time for some trick-or-treating!

Dash (the really fast boy from the Incredibles--fits, don't you think?),
a 'fierce' frog, and a lovable lion

In the car, practicing their 'trick-or-treat' smiles!

Begging at doors for candy *grin*

By 6 p.m., this big-fat-momma everyone was pooped. We went around our neighborhood for a little more than an hour and came home with three plastic grocery bags full of candy! (Mommy was ecstatic at the thought of devouring that candy, and hoping and praying that glucose test she would take on Tuesday would come back negative...)

We had dinner, broke out ELF for the first time this season (one of our family favorites!) and had a picnic in the living room with some gourmet frozen pizza. It was a great night, and Colin had a great birthday!

(Colin with "his" pumpkin, painted all by himself at his class' Fall party)

We love you Colin!!
Happy Birthday bud--you are such a special little man,
and we are so thankful God gave you to US six years ago!!