Aidans 6th Beyblade/Science birthday blowout!

Aidan is known to start planning his birthday parties 6 months in advance. He decides the theme, where he wants to have it, and the guest list. This year he decided on a Beyblade theme and to also do some Science experiments! I had my work cut out for me but I LOVE planning parties so it was a fun challenge for me. His teacher Jennifer does entertainment at birthday parties as a side business so of course we had to have her there! I told her my ideas and she did a great job entertaining the kids. They all just love her.

 

 

This was the day before his birthday and the last day of Vacation Bible School. I let him open his presents early. He is REALLY into Monopoly these days and was wanting Monopoly Millionaire. He also ended up purchasing 2 other Monopoly games with the money he got for his birthday.

 

 His first Super Soaker Water gun...

 We had his birthday party at a park. Here is the cupcake tower I made.

 and the Beyblade Fast Fuel also know as water.

 Here are the Battle Rules I came up with. Each child was given a VIP Pass for " Aidans Beyblade Birthday". Each time the kids battled best out of 3 and the winner got a sticker on the back of their lanyard. The person with the most stickers at the end of the party was the "Beyblade Champion"

 Aidans personalized birthday shirt. It has a beyblade on it. He is 6 and I STILL can't get away from the personalized shirts. I can't help it. I think they are so cute!

 For those of you who don't know.... These are Beyblades. They are basically spinning tops that come with a launcher. The last one to stop spinning wins the battle.

 Jennifer was the referee during the party...

 I had 3 practice arenas set up where kids could play and practice at anytime and 2 official "battle arenas" where they could battle and win stickers.

 Next the mad scientist made an appearance for some mad science

 I believe this was the exploding soda bottle...

 Yep. Exploding Soda. Everywhere!

 More Science....

 Look how engaged the kids are..... Is it any wonder I love our school and teachers so much.

 back to battling. Even the littlist guests were into it

 Making goop...

 Time to sing....

 Blue icing!

 Boys are so gross. lol

 Beyblade Pinata. It was kind of a dud....

 It was the kind that the kids take turns pulling the strings to pull it open. Aidan went first, and then 2 year old Avery went next and the piñata opened right up!

I

 The Official Beyblade Champion! He was so proud of that tiny trophy! :)

 Aidan and Jennifer. What a great party!

 Aidan and his best buddy Connor.

Kindergarten Graduation

 

I am now back to blogging! My computer has been on and off for the past year making it very difficult and frustrating to blog. I have been using my iPad for the internet, facebook, etc... but it is not great for blogging.  My sweet husband just purchased me a new one so now I am back online! Yay! I am going to play catch up in the next few posts but this one will be about kindergarten graduation. Back in June Aidan graduated from Kindergarten. I couldn't have been more thrilled how his school year went for him. I( of course) love the Montessori philosophy and love love love his school. It is such a nurturing place with such loving and nurturing teachers. I know that my boy is well looked after there. They use just the right amount of love and encouragement as well as setting high expectations for the students. I know I could always go talk to his teachers if I was feeling uneasy about any situation.

 

For graduation each student had to give a little speech. They had to say what they wanted to be when they grew up. Most of the kiddos said they wanted to be doctors but not my kid. When he grows up he wants to be a Movie Director!  They then each got called up to shake all the teachers and the Directors hands and receive their little diploma and a rose.  Afterwards we went to their classrooms for refreshments and we got to receive their Kindergarten binders as well as see their power point presentations they each created. Power Point in Kindergarten. Who would have ever guessed? As a treat we decided to take Aidan out early and his dad and I took him to the County Fair. It was a great day.

 

 

 

 

Aidan giving his speech. I promise I had him all straightened out when I left him. When he walked onto stage his tie was out and his hat was all askew. Oh well. The whole outfit kind of went with the  "Movie Director" theme and this is typical Aidan. lol.

Shaking his teachers hands.. Anne Margaret was not there that day. She was attending her own son's middle school graduation.

 Shaking the directors hand

 smelling his rose

 These were the kindergarten binders. You can see Aidan's at the bottom. We were so blessed that Anne Margaret is such a gifted photographer. She took so many awesome pictures of the kids. She always took them from across the room so she was able to catch their "authentic selves" and not some cheesy posed smile. Each 8x10 black and white photo was framed and on the wall the entire year. The first time I saw them I thought they were just professional photographs of random kids. I then realized I recognized those kids! Then I recognized my own kid!

 Here is the front of the binder. This will be a treasured keepsake for the rest of my life. :)

Erika is Aidan's other teacher. He LOVES her and always asks if we can have play dates with her. lol. She was the one I can credit Aidan's love of Math. She was always working with him on it and pushing him to do more difficult work. :)

 Aidan and his buddy Dylan

 Jennifer the Teachers Assistant. What can I say about Jennifer?? Well she is amazing and you will be seeing more pictures of her when I do Aidan's birthday party post as she ran the event. I credit her with Aidan's love of Science that he has developed over the past year. She was constantly doing fun Science Experiments with the kids.

 

My next post will be about Aidan's Science/Beyblade birthday bash and then I will do one about the first day of first grade. Oh My!

 

He just wants to be grown....

It seems lately that Aidan Kai just wants to be grown up and it is killing me. His wish list for his birthday consists of a " real toolbox" with "real tools" NOT toy tools, Monopoly Millionaire ( I don't know any other soon to be 6 year old that loves Monopoly like me kid does, Beyblades and a new bike. He has grown so much that his bike looks like a toddler bike on him now.

 He LOVES money. He loves to hold money, count money, and figure out how he is going to spend his money. He is NOT happy doing chores to earn money because he feels he doesn't earn enough. lol. He worries about things like paying bills. He is 5! We had this conversation the other day....
Aidan- " Mommy I don't have to pay my own bills until I am 19 right?"
Me- " Daddy and I will pay your bills until you graduate college and then you pay your own bills"
Aidan- "First I go to college, then I get married, and then I pay my own bills?"
Me-" Yes thats right"
Aidan-" and when I'm 16 I can have my own car"
Me- "When you're 16 you will be able to drive but if you want a car you are going to have to work and pay for it yourself"
Aidan- " Oh ok, maybe I will get a job at the dealership and get a super deal for you too"
Me- "Yes that would be nice"
He makes me laugh. I swear he is like a little adult at times. If I told the kid today that he could go out and get a job I think he would be estatic!

He is also becoming very independent. He had a big day yesterday when I gave him some money at Target and let him go to the snack bar by himself  for the first time and buy a pretzel and icee while I was checking out.( dont worry he was within eye sight the entire time). He thought this was a BIG deal and couldn't stop smiling. When we got home from Target I was in his room talking with him and noticed his wallet laying there. I noticed there were some gift card looking cards in it. There were 3 and each was worth $50.00. When I asked him about them he said " I randomly found them while I was going through my dad's suitcase". lol! Im glad he "randomly" found them while he was doing something he was NOT supposed to be doing. I asked if daddy knew he had them and he said "No", so I made him ask his dad if it was ok if he had them and had a discussion  with him about not going through other people's belongings. It turns out the cards were some type of discount cards and were basically worthless as they were from Australia so his dad let him keep them. Aidan was so happy when he said yes and immediately asked to go to Target to spend them. I explained that they weren't real gift cards and they weren't really worth any money. The child had a total meltdown and was laying in the floor crying saying that he wanted his own credit cards and money. I couldn't do anything but stiffle a giggle ( and of course make a facebook post) and console him saying it was tough being 5 sometimes and not having your own money. He did something similar to this when we were at Legoland last month. He went "Mining for Gold" ( which I think was really scrap metal). He got a few pieces and then wanted to go to the gift shop to trade his gold for something in the store. LOL. You have to give the kid credit for being creative. I only pray that he ends up being a entrepreneur and comes up with a creative way to earn money at a young age.

In a few weeks it will be Kindergarten graduation. I can NOT believe how FAST this year has flown by and that I will have a kid in 1st grade next year!

Catchup (again)

So it is time to catchup again on the goings on at the Swaine Casa since February! Let's see.... In February Aidan had a week off school so we took that opportunity to have a day at Disney, The Wild Animal Park, play with friends and just hang around the house. Just lots of living everyday life!

In March we made a last minute trip to London! Clinton was going there for work and he has like a bajillion frequent flyer miles so we made the trip with him! It was great to see old friends and to meet new ones. Aidan and I did a lot of sight seeing while daddy was working. Aidan's favorite thing on this trip was riding the tube. He loved looking at the tube map to figure out how to get to our destination, which trains to take and where to transfer. I have to say this was a GREAT life skill for him to learn. I let him pick out a tshirt before we left and he picked one out that said UNDERGROUND and then had all the stations listed. lol. What is it about getting older and disliking crowds? I was fine with taking public transportation and riding the tube, but by about the 3rd day I was OVER IT! People are like little ants running around the Underground, people bump into you, most of them are walking briskly or running in a hurry, and I just think it is stressful. I honestly don't know how people live without cars and take public transport everywhere. On this trip I fell in LOVE with my car even more. I love being able to hop in it and drive wherever I need to go. I guess I am not a big city gal. :)

The weather was cold and snowy while we were there which was pleasant at times and a pain in the butt at times. Overall, Aidan loved the snow!

Easter also happened while we were in London. I was a little sad that we weren't able to go to church but we did take a guided tour that day and found ourselves at Westminister Abbey AND St.Paul's. They both just took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes.

I love the culture, people, and history of the UK. I LOVE to visit there but can't say that I would ever want to live there.

In May Aidan had his Spring Fling for school. It is like their Spring concert and was a big deal. They have music once a week and have been practicing for months now! This year had a motown theme and Aidan's class sang "Rockin Robin" and "The Way You Do the Things You Do". I have to say that Aidan and his friend Tyler stole they show. They were on stage having the best time! Everyone was laughing. I will see if I can post a video.

Also in May Aidan finished AWANA's at church. In case you don't know AWANA's stands for Approved Workman are Not Ashamed. AWANA's is for kids K-3. Aidan was able to finish the Kindergarten and 1st grade curriculum! Each week they have to memorize bible versus and learn about the bible. Aidan has such a great memory that it was a breeze for him. He was able to memorize all the books of the old and new testament.

Aidan is still doing great in school and he loves it! His reading is doing great- so much so that they have to go to the grades 1-3 class to find books for him to read. :) He also loves math. He loves figuring out math problems in his head and does this for FUN. Crazy Kid. I always HATED math. He also loves learning about geography and studying maps. We have been working hard on his hand writing and I can see a big improvement since the beginning of the school year. Everyday we work on writing 3 sentences to form a paragraph. I can't wait to see what he ends up doing when he grows up. :)

We go to see the new Radiator Springs section of Disney. One word. AWESOME!

 riding Towmater's Tractor Ride. This was Aidan's favorite.

 His Agent P Mickey Ears he insisted on having. I didn't know who Agent P even was and don't know how Aidan does either since I don't allow him to watch Phineus and Ferb.

 At the Wild Animal Park. This is Johnny, Aidan's little charge for the day. They were so cute together!

Taking time to rest and look at the park map. Look at those legs! This picture cracks me up because I think he looks like a little old man.

 Crazy Hair day at school.

 London

 Aww... Aidan and Meg ( his UK friend) The last time they saw each other he was 3 and she was 10. Now he is 5 and she is 13! How time flies!

 Eventhough we weren't at home I still wanted to have an Easter Egg hunt for him. :) It was a bootleg one but an Easter Egg hunt nonetheless.

 This was the typical weather while we were there. It was nice as long as you didn't have to get out in it and walk for miles.

 Aidan singing Rockin Robin in his Spring Fling.

 Aidan also sang in the opening and final acts.

 Pajama Day at school

 We went to a wedding earlier this month. Look how handsome!

 AWANA'S awards night.