After building up for weeks Jude finally turned 6 on Friday this past week, the day after Thanksgiving this year. As has become a tradition in our house we all headed out bright and early for breakfast at “Berries and Cream” – that is what the kids call the Original Pancake House because they serve that for breakfast. Jude ordered the kids serving of pancakes and we all sang Happy Birthday.

We told Jude that he was the boss on his birthday and of course he was thrilled about that. We gave his some options of things to do and he decided he wanted to go climbing. Marcy and I had checked out a climbing place where they had indoor walls and would accept kids. We had to learn how to belay the kids but they were both able to do it. Jude had a great time and was really good at it – reaching the ceiling on one of his climbs.

After that it was lunch time. Jude had been saying all week that he wanted Chipotle for lunch but at the last minute he changed his mind to Noodles which was great by us. We visit Chipotle once a week as it is and I wasn’t looking forward to a second visit. Then it was back home for dessert where Jude had a birthday cupcake – his actual birthday cake was happening at his birthday party the next day.

For the last few weeks Jude kept on saying that he wanted to invite some of his school friends to his birthday party. We had never done a party for him before but this year it became clear that it is what he wanted. So we invited all the kids in his class as well as Anna and Isabella Ferguson – good friends of ours who Jude loves to play with.

On the day of the party Jude was really excited. Marcy decorated the house and had lots of fun games planned. Jude had a blast. His two best friends from his class came and he was running around with them as well as playing all the games. What was great is that there were lots of boys there – all of our friends and family have girls so he doesn’t get to play with a group of boys that much. We were so glad it worked out well because we could see this was a big deal to Jude. He is already talking about his 7th birthday party.

Jude dressed up in a knight costume for Halloween. Here he is all decked out about to head to school on Halloween. That night, though, he decided to just wear his pumpkin shirt as he was out trick or treating. Anna went as a princess – they made quite the cute couple.

This past week was haircut time so they headed to the local kid’s hairdresser that both Jude and Anna love. They get to sit in airplanes or cars and best of all they get a lollipop afterwards.

This week we received Jude’s school photo that was taken a couple of weeks ago. He is quite the handsome fellow don’t you think.

Speaking of school we had the parent conference with Jude’s teacher a couple of weeks ago and it was great to hear he is doing well in school. We often wondered because he can be very impatient and mean to Anna on occasion at home. But apparently in school Jude is on his best behavior most of the time. And he loves it. He said this weekend that Monday is one of his favorite days of the week because he gets to go to school to see his friends. That was great to hear.

We had some big news this weekend. We have been renting here in Park Hill since returning to Denver in August but we have been quietly looking for a house to buy the last few weeks. We found a place we both loved a couple of weeks ago but someone beat us in putting an offer in. We put in a backup offer but we had pretty much given up on the place when we get a call from our friend and realtor, Melissa, on Saturday night. The first contract fell through so we are under contract now. Now, we know not to count our chickens before they are hatched but if all goes well we will be closing on the new house on Christmas Eve.