The Ferstle Family of Four: Happy 6th Birthday, Sean!!

Last Saturday, on October 1st, Sean turned 6 years old! I'm sure I say this every year, with every birthday, but 6 just seems like such a big kid age. And I'm noticing this school year that he just seems more "mature" than ever. Asking grown-up questions on big topics, like his question today when he asked me if the sun moved or if the Earth moved. It's amazing to see his mind working and making sense of things around him.

I find that he's capable of doing more things for himself too. And with that, comes chores and responsibilities at home this school year. He's in charge of getting the mail every day from the mailbox, emptying his backpack and lunch box, hanging up his coat and putting his shoes away, washing his hands and picking out his snack. He's also been very helpful with Evan and asks to do various chores to earn some money from time to time. Mr. Independent.

At school, he's stayed on "green" every day, but one so far this year. Which is amazing! He's usually willing to share some details on his days and has been telling us about some of his classmates "poor choices". I'm so glad that it's not Sean making those bad choices. They're working on their handwriting skills, practicing numbers and letters daily, learning sight words, talking about the present versus the past, and going to five different specials throughout the week. He attended an assembly with "Basketball Jones", ran in a Color Run, and is going on his first field trip the end of October to a pumpkin patch. He's having an absolute blast at school!

At home, we're encouraging him to read a book to us each night. We have to help him on many words, but the more he sees them, the more he'll learn. We just started using a chart to track how many books he reads and we'll give him rewards and prizes as he reads more. He's coloring all the time at home and using my Disney adult coloring book. Hey, whatever works! He likes drawing in his Learning to Draw book from Usborne Books. We've started working on some addition math problems using apps on the iPad like Math Bingo (which is still a little tough for him) and Splash Math.

He's still big into soccer. He draws about it at school and loves to practice in the front yard after dinner. We had a family scrimmage one night last week and it was so much fun! I got some exercise in and the boys got to work on their soccer skills. While soccer is on his brain right now, swimming is there too. He chose to swim on his birthday. We went to the Livonia Rec Center with my parents to do some swimming and go down the water slide. He'll start back up at Aqua Tots in November. His big accomplishment this summer was learning how to ride his 2-wheel bike! He's a pro now, riding super fast in front of us to get to the park. And he's taken up rollerblading. It's a work in progress...

Other interests for Sean include Legos (shocking), Star Wars, Jurassic World toys, Disney, and Scooby Doo! He'll have his class birthday party at the bowling alley next weekend and it's a Scooby Doo themed party. We just re-did his bedding and decor in his room to be Star Wars. And the kid can really build Legos now. He did sets for 5-12 year olds completely on his own. We don't even need to sit at the table with him. He's a master builder!

His favorite foods right now are mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, and pizza. Is the boy American or what?! But, he's a great eater. He eats tons of different fruits and veggies and will always make an effort to eat everything on his plate. We got lucky with him! Now his brother on the other hand...

He's wearing a size 5 pants and a size 6 shirt right now with shoes in an 11.5. Although he somehow jammed his feet into a 10.5 old pair of gym shoes on Friday for the Color Run. I'll be interested to see his exact stats at his well visit the end of the month, but I know he's at least 45 inches tall and around 40 lbs. Because of that, we made the decision in the summer to switch him to a highback booster car seat. He was so excited for the change! Funny how something like that can be exciting.

We are so incredibly blessed to have Sean as a son. He's such a passionate little guy! He thinks and feels things so deeply. I really hope that he finds something in life to be really passionate about as he gets older and becomes an adult. He's bright, funny, and charming too!

So to celebrate his birthday we started the morning off with a trip to the farmers market to get a birthday donut. The scarecrows were all decorated downtown and the market was full of fall findings like pumpkins, corn stalks, hay, squash and gourds, and cider. It was such a fun fall morning as we met up with Nana, Pops, and the girls.

The night before he celebrated his birthday officially with Nana, Pops, the girls, Aunt Mindy and her boyfriend, Matt at our house. We did a carryout dinner, had ice cream and cookies, and the kids all had a pajama movie party. I swear these kids have it so good!

After the market, he chose to go swimming at the Livonia Rec Center with us and my parents. Everyone had a great time, especially going down the slide!

We got a carryout from Buddy's, had cake and ice cream, and let him open his gifts. I'm pretty sure he had the best birthday ever! I'm just glad it was on a Saturday this year so that we could celebrate with him at home! Although, he did wear a birthday shirt to school on Friday and got to bring his favorite book to school to be read in class. I think he was more excited about the crown his teacher gave him, the pencil and rubber duck from before care, than anything!