The Birthday Boy

Our Little Man turned 7!!! What an amazing seven years it has been! He brings so much life and laughter to our family! And a lot of non stop energy! He woke up so excited and ready to celebrate! He ripped through his presents and LOVED everything! Then a birthday donut and a quick round of happy birthday and he was off to school! (The only way I could get him to go to school on his birthday was by promising him that I would bring subway to him for lunch!) Here is the handsome lil devil showing us how old he is

After school it was party time! He invited all his buddies to go rock climbing!

They had so much fun racing to the top over and over again!

He has such a fun group of friends.

After we wore them all out with climbing we took a break for pizza, cake and ice cream.

We washed it all done with some more climbing, and then sent them home with some water bottles filled with rock climbing goodies. Easton said, "It was the best birthday ever!"

We love you bud! So glad you had the "Best Birthday Ever!"

#25

Our Little Athlete just finished his first season of Jr. jazz. He LOVED it. His team was made up of most of his baseball team. So they had a blast! Most of the kids including Easton were new to the sport, and since some of the kids are in second grade my little kindergartner had to play up. But don't you worry, they were amazing! They won every game but one. Not bad for a bunch of baseball players. :-) Here are a few of his 2011 Jr Jazz highlights! Blue powerade was always his drink of choice.

Here he is making one of his several baskets!

All of the baseball kids LOVED Travis and asked if he was going to coach Basketball too?! He laughed and said No, but I will be the assistant coach. :-) So here is Coach Travis blocking Easton in a warm up shot.

Action shot!

That's my boy...stealing the ball right out of his hands! Which is mild compared to the fact that on the way to his first game he asked, "So can I tackle in Basketball?"

Easton looks so small comapred to that ginormous kid but no worries, #25 is good. He scored over all three of them right there! SCORE!!!!

To say he had fun would be a total understatement! He loved every second of it. He was actually really good too! Making several baskets every game. He is so much fun to watch. So athletic. And like any true athlete now that basketball is done he has moved onto some baseball spring training. Gotta love my Boy!

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G B-E-E 2012

Our family has amazing spelling Genes. It started many years ago when I won the First grade Spelling Bee at Trabuco Elementary. I am sure my picture is still proudly mounted on the wall in the library. Fast forward a few years and Kennedy sailed through her Fifth grade class Spelling Bee, which meant she would be representing her class in the school Spelling Bee. For weeks we spent hours going over the 450 word list preparing her for her big day. Most of the words I could not pronounce. Many of the words we had to google to find a meaning. Needless to say these were not easy words. The day of the Spelling Bee was filled with excitement and nerves for all of us!

The spelling Bee started at 2:00. Word after word she was nailing. After about ten minutes into it the 36 students started to slowly dwindle down. At about 3:00 they were down to the top ten. I was sweating. The words were ridiculously hard. Another thirty minutes went by, and you could literally cut the tension in the room with a pencil! My little fifth grader continued to knock student after student out of the competition. She finished in FIFTH PLACE!!! We were so proud of her! I was in tears of joy as we ran up to congratulate her. As we were hugging, I noticed she was in tears too! Only her tears were due to the fact that she was disappointed. Just then Mikey, her friend who got out on the word before her, came into the hall to tell her what an awesome job she did. Which made her realize just how amazing she was. She wiped off the tears, clenched her award and proudly smiled to capture an incredible memory she will hold onto forever!

So I guess if the thunder thigh genes have to be passed down to me at least I was able to pass on the phenomenal spelling genes!

Boys Night = Girl's Night

Easton and Travis spent the night with his Jr. Jazz team at the home opener for the Jazz. Easton's baseball buddies are all on the same team so they are like brothers. And the Dad's all have fun hangng out together. So they were both so excited for their "Boy's Night"

So that means we get a "Girl's Night!" Dinner and pedicures.

Pefect night.

Ringing in 2012

We rang in the New Year with a house full of friends! It was a super fun night! Here is the Table all set up for the big night!

Blowers, hats, confetti, a mustache phot prop, and goodie bags with clocks on the front so the kids could keep themselves occupied with fun activites all night! They were a hit! They were filled with glow sticks, balloons, suckers, and my favorite one had stationary in it. The kids were supposed to draw or write their favorite memory from 2011. Kennedy: Double Digits. Thai: Being baptized. Easton: Taking 2nd at state in Baseball. London: my house. So fun to see their take on 2011. It is defiently one I was happy to see go. But through the tough times we were able to fill it with lasting memories! There was enough food and treats to keep us full all night! We played some hillarious games that kept us laughing all the way to midnight!

A tradition that has been in the Hartman family for over 40 years was introduced to our friends this year. At midnight we all run outside and throw a pancake on the roof! It symbolizes good luck for the coming year! It was so fun seeing 30 pancakes flying through the air! Pretty sure it's going to be a great year!

Happy New Year!! Bring it on 2012!