Aubrey is Six!

On September 12th, my first baby turned 6 years old! I still can't believe that I have a child who is 6. Aubrey is such a sweet, wonderful little girl. I love her so much! She's a typical first child - bossy, rule follower, and very responsible. She is SUCH a huge help to me. I really don't know what I'd do without her some days. She's so helpful, in fact, that I sometimes have to remind myself that she's only 6 and I need to just let her be a little girl. She's not my nanny ;) Haha! I'm all about having high expectations for my children - more often than not, they rise to the challenge - but I also have to be careful that my expectations aren't unreasonable for her.

She is hilarious. She says the most funny things in such a sincere, serious way (not trying to be funny), that sometimes I can't help but laugh. She can just be so intense in the way she says things. I wish that I could capture her mannerisms on the blog because I love them. Even though she does have a very mature, somewhat serious side, she's also VERY silly and goofy. She will crack up over the craziest little things (quite often this involves potty humor) and run something into the ground like you wouldn't believe. She has a hard time turning the silly down a notch or two when it gets out of hand. This is probably the biggest challenge that we deal with with Aubrey at this stage. We talk about and pray for self-control a lot with her :)

She has a sweet little heart. A lot of times in the evenings, she'll remind us to have our family devotion. I love that the Lord uses little children to lead adults sometimes. It's both humbling and convicting.

She loves school. She's very good at memorization. It amazes me how quickly she can memorize something. Way faster than I can, that's for sure. It's true that her little mind is just a sponge right now. She's very creative. Her two absolute favorite things are Legos (she spends HOURS building things everyday) and art. Right now, she says that she wants to be an artist when she grows up, and her favorite thing at school is art. I can't wait to see what the Lord has planned for our Aubrey, and I am overwhelmed with thankfulness that He gave her to us!

On Aubrey's 6th birthday, we met our family for lunch. She chose Broadstreet :)

That night, we went to a going away party for some friends who are moving to Malawi. Aubrey got to play with a lot of little friends and eat junk food. Perfect birthday for a 6 year old ;)

 

 

 

The next day, we had Aubrey's birthday party! She had decided that she wanted an "art party." I knew that this was the perfect theme for her, but I also knew that it wouldn't be an easy theme for me to pull off. But I took one for the team and went with it :)

I actually found a website where you order patterns and transfer paper and draw a design onto a canvas to paint. I know real artists would probably cringe at this ;) but I thought it was perfect for 5 and 6 years olds. We had two different designs for them to choose from. David and I had done all of the transfers before the party.

The art party theme ended up working out well because it became the theme, activity, and take home gift all rolled into one! The kids painted outside on our screened porch. We had the PERFECT day for it. The weather was overcast and cool. I think the kids enjoyed painting!

And yes, I do realize that I missed an opportunity to have super cute paint smocks for all of the kids. But let me tell you, an art party is not an inexpensive theme to pull off and we had kind of reached our budget's limit ;) So we told the kids to wear old clothes and had ratty t-shirts on hand. Perfect! Haha.

We had some snacks set up inside. I didn't go too crazy with the decorations, but I thought everything turned out pretty cute, though.

Um, don't mind the random cup sitting there and the water drips on the butcher paper. Ha! The party was fun; it wasn't perfect.

I LOVED the cake. We got it at Whole Foods, and they did a great job! Every last crumb got eaten!

After cake and ice cream, it was time for presents. Aubrey got lots of fun stuff from her sweet friends and family.

My parents gave her a Felicity American Girl Doll, which I was really excited about. David has been reading the Felicity series to Aubrey before bed every night, and she loves Felicity. I knew they no longer make Felicity, but my mom found one that was in perfect condition. Aubrey was so excited when she opened Felicity!

After the party, Aubrey told me that it was better than she even hoped it would be. That made every bit of time put into it worth it! We love our sweet SIX year old!