celebrating 6

 sometimes you have a child that turns 6....

its monumental, just like every age.

so you celebrate BIG.

 we started the day off with balloons, singing, presents, and of course... 

mcdonalds for breakfast with the jackson's and yaya.

answer to an earlier post : decided to do it, and it's been 3 weeks and we have no regrets.(a big thank you to all the responses, i really really really thought long and hard about this.) we set up rules and limits and threats and so far we have not had to implement any of them, jude gets bored of it before too long and is playing something else. also, i myself have already mastered super mario bros and trevan has spent some QT with lego star wars. lol... we may need the monitoring.

 little cubbie ADORES jude, especially on his birthday.

 jude's leapster for 2 christmas's ago is officially greta's now and to ward off any birthday fighting we got her her very own game and she LOVES. she on the other hand has had her leapster taken away 2x already. who woulda thunk? oh yeah, i remember now.

p.s. her morning hair is amazing grace.

 this year we broke tradition of a mcdonalds birthday party with friends and hosted a pirate themed party at my house. it was a lot of work... but thanks to yaya it all came together.

i had 15 kids at my house, 15 kids under 6. 

yowza.

i've learned with the 6 and under crowd that activities keep the craziness at bay so we had lots of activities in our short 90 minutes together.

 

when our guest first arrived they decorated their "booty" bags because at every activity they received a treasure.

 

cutest little wench anyone's ever seen.

and yes, those pirate costumes came in real handy this year... reduce, reuse, recycle.

we played pin the sword on the pirate, followed by musical island hop (not pictured).

boys vs. girls in my toy world.

the party goers:

cohen, kayson, tage, max, JUDE, roen, milo (william where are you?)

lucy, poppy, gabi, greta, minie, grace, bella

 walking the plank over shark infested waters

 max & jude  

(can i tell you how much i love that jude finally has school friends?!?!?)

 pirate earring toss.

 pirate conecakes

 pirate reading of 'the jolly pirate, roger'

and did you notice yaya in full pirate garb? she is the best and totally in her element. she is an elementary school librarian after all.

we are a family of routine, and the only place we know to have a fantastic birthday party dinner is rock creek pizza (it was jude's request).  have you been yet? get.in.my.belly.

 dem guys.

 a really awful picture of the grandparents, but they were there and they are loved. 

p.s. dad, get a new look. xo

 pirate presents!!!

 EZ!

(note the pirate shirt... again, as per jude's request)

 my kids are the luckiest to have my mom and trevan's mom as their grandma's.

told you so.

my boy and me,

6 years together and forever to go.

give thanks.

"so each one gave thanks 

for love and for living

and they all had a happy thanksgiving."

 { my kids watching the macy's thanksgiving day parade 2011 }

halloweeing & halloween

 

 halloween is the #1 family favorite holiday here at the gregroy residence, we live and breathe it. so even though it has come and gone we still have to adequately document this year's halloween season because was nothing short of perfect.

 

thanks to my little mom, we have found the absolute perfectly perfect place to get pumpkins and it's just down the road from us in draper. don't even get me started on the adorable 85 year old man working the pumpkin patch who was all snuggled up in his coat and happy to help, or the prices that were beyond affordable (5 big pumpkins for $11), or the BOUNTIFUL selection, or the over all quaintness of it. it was perfect, and we will be going back there every year.

she's a dance dance dance dancin' machine.

jude is halloween.

 daddie and his cubbie 

(fyi... cubbie is all trevan calls ez)

 brotha's..... best picture ever.

 denim jacket cuties.

done.

 yaya and papa joined us and as you can tell, my kids are elated. we have the best family, really it's been scientifically proven.

onto the rest of halloween....

 we had the funnest murder mystery party hosted by brooke and dustin, we felt pretty special getting an invite into their elite townhome friend community. really, it was SO fun. visit here for a taste.

 this year marked my first time as a halloween party room mom. i had to bring schmez, and luckily greta was at school at the same time so we all partied together. oh and kindergartner's? adorable.

 lol.

 gaga in the preschool parade.

 ahoy ezzie!

the kindergarten parade.

this is the best picture i could get but i'm super glad he's reverent while parading.

the third annual jackson/gregory halloween adventure was upon us as soon as school was over... it seemed. nannie and grandpa mike joined us for our festivities. the kids trick or treated the streets of white city in all of their pirate glory for an hour and then we came home to salad, pizza, pumpkin bars and LOADS of our childrens loot. 

i like this tradition.

 since jude is mr. halloween we let him decide the fate of the kids costumes this year. he was big into themes this year (ie. harry, ron, and hermione - mario, baby mario, and princes peach - luke, yoda, and leia) but when after weeks of indecision minie and poptart set their mind to pirates and jude seemed to feel like that would be okay with him too and pirates it was. 

A VERY SPECIAL THANKS to nannie who whipped up this costumes in her spare time (which is non existent between taking her of her mom, working full time, and making costumes for all my other sisters). she is MAMAzing. 

a wench and her pirates.   

since i was a room mom, jude bossed me into dressing up too.

 damn he's cute.

 daddies who trick or treat.

the pirate crew.

 my birthday, halloween, my anti-depressants getting lost in the mail, jude's birthday, and our relief society super saturday that i was in charge of all in one week... it was WAY more than i could handle.

now i can breathe in the freezing cold air.

six

my jude.

my first born.

our little experiment.

he is 6 today.

and i can honestly say, he just keeps getting better and better.

happy birthday 

my ever so handsome, beautiful boy.

twenty-nine.

i did it!

on october 28th, i made it to 29, the age women claim to be for the rest of their lives.

we celebrated with our family's the night before and stuffed our faces with endless rolls from texas road house... umm, their rolls? manna from above. trevan took my actual birthday off and brought me donuts and flowers to start the day off. i spent the rest of the morning at instacare with greta who as it turned out had strep throat, saddest little girl ever. after we picked up her prescription we met da gregs for lunch at zuppas. we hung around home the rest of the day and then had a quick jaunt to the mall to pick me up my new shmoots that trevan gave me for my birthday. i opted for in-n-out for dinner because nothing ever tastes better. it was a good day.

surely, this year will be my best yet.

i just realized my whole birthday revolved around eating... i may be a stunning 400 lb women by the time i hit 30 if i keep this ( and eating every left over halloween miniature snickers in sight) up. yikes.

help... he wants a nintendo DS

jude is turning 6 next week... i know, i know unbelievable that he is 6, but that's not the reason for this post. the reason is, all first born wants for his birthday is a Nintendo DSi. jude's mind is made up, and that is what he wants. DONE and DONE. i am sick over it. i mean, duh, of course i bought him a special edition pokemon DSi 3 weeks ago when it was on sale at targ but now i am second guessing our my decisions. everyday i see it glaring down on me from the shelf it is hidden on (BTW it is so visible. i love that jude is so innocent still) taunting me. you see, i do not know what to do with that little box. i'm afraid of how that little box will change our lives forever. i am not ready to fight about time limits and video game ratings. most importantly, i don't want my imaginative jude to turn into a video game zombie.

jude has the best imagination i have ever seen. he loves to play make believe and he plays with his toys, different toys, all his toy, everyday. jude always has some world set up that he is playing in, he even invites greta and ez into his world. even when he is watching the tv or a movie, or playing on kidzui he is still playing side by side. he loves to color and draw, build forts, and he will make up games to play all day long. jude brings his toys or as trevan so gently puts it "crap" where ever we go. he always has a supply of "crap" on hand... really, you should see our car. we are always adding things to his collections. for instance, if we don't have a certain "guy" jude draws them, cuts them out, and then adds them to the collection and then into the rotation of things to be played with. we have to be real careful in these parts as to what we can throw away because everything has a place in jude's world.

jude is incredible
but
jude is also obsessive.

once jude is into something, jude is INTO something. the determination that kid has drives me insane, literally. i have gotten better about standing my ground, but he still knows how to get his way with me and trev. when jude gets into something, it takes over his life. he eats, sleeps, and breathes whatever the obsession is. do you see my dilemma... obsessive/strong willed kid & a hand held video game system? it sounds treacherous.


 i know from personal experience that video games are addicting and fun. freak, don't get me started on my years of mastering sonic, beating every super mario level, hours wasted beating aladdin on the sega, dominating mario kart as my alter ego wario, killing it on the original tony hawk, and of course my high school days of playing SIMS with my siblings.

so you see, i am not a video game hater, i love a little video gaming. it's just a lot different now, and i am not sure how i feel about my 6 year old becoming a gamer.


what am i to do?
i am asking you.


is 6 too young for a nintendo DS?
am i doing him a disservice by letting him have one?
am i doing a disservice by NOT letting him have one?
how do set boundaries, without fights?
 how do i tell him he can't get the only thing he wants for his birthday?
will i lose my jude forever?
am i worrying too much?
but all his friend/cousins already have them...
am i fighting the inevitable?
who? what? when? where? how?

i am confused and scared.

please, i am BEGGING you, what am i to do?
i have until next friday at 12am....

please!


for the record... trevan is already 100% anti-video games but he's a boring dad. what does he know?

fall soccer with jude.

have i told you that i love that jude likes playing sports?

 this year jude played t-ball in the spring and soccer in the fall and each were enjoyed thoroughly.

my 3 kids.

a boy after my own heart... a keeper!

baby.

best part about living near family? support systems at games. jude had a whole crowd cheering him on at every game.

one time we even got support of down south (ie. st. george)

ezzie & sully 

(8 months apart)

 go green dragons!!!!

 

i love my soccer jude.

p.s. next year, i will coach and you better watch out.