Hudson is SEVEN!

This sweet little ball of joy turned seven last week! He had very specific ideas about how he wanted his birthday to go down- that's Hudson- always knowing just what he wants! He wanted me to make blueberry muffins for breakfast and for our lunch date he wanted us to go to Old Grist Mill. So that's exactly what we did. When I checked him out of school, he was thrilled to tell me that their class had FINALLY won the spirit dragon- ON HIS BIRTHDAY! What could make the day better!

 We were babysitting the Joseph boys that night anyway, so our normal pizza and movie night became a little more of a party. When Megan and Jesse got back they had cake with us and helped us sing to Hudson. He wanted a blueberry cake, so I made this yummy lemon cake with blueberry filling and it turned out delicious and he gave it 10 out of 5 stars. He had the best day putting together his new legos and as always, loved being the center of attention.

The next day he got to go on his birthday date with Nana and Papa. He chose Blaze pizza and absolutely loved it, and then they went back to Nana and Papa's house to put together the new lego set they got him. He spent the rest of the afternoon playing with this fun lego set (it's Hagrid's hut from Harry Potter and has lots of cool features). He's getting a little date with Papa Ray and Grandma this week. I love that the grandparents want to do these little birthday dates with the boys- they love the time and attention for just them!

Some things about 7 year old Hudson:

• He has such a sweet, compassionate side. There is a little boy, Brodyn, in his class who has had a rough year and missed A LOT of school and is consequently very, very far behind.  Hudson likes Brodyn a lot and has befriended him, so when he started coming back to school in January Hudson was thrilled. His teacher (who is my friend Megan) told me that it's been challenging because Brodyn is so far behind the other kids- but he sits next to Hudson and Hudson is so willing to help him. They were working on a writing assignment and this poor boy doesn't know how to write most of his letter! Hudson was helping him sound out words, and then when he was really struggling made dotted outlines of the letters for Brodyn to trace! Megan helped him a little and then said, "Hudson, I need to go help other kids, can you keep helping Brodyn?" Hudson quickly said, "I got this!" and continued to be a helper. 
• He's so creative. He will play in his pretend world for hours and hours. He loves to create things with legos, build things out of cardboard, and invent imaginary games. He tells me elaborate games they play at recess. At one point last week he said the boys in the class are "the resistance of Texas" and the girls are Mexico, although Zayden (random boy from the class) recently crossed lines to become the girls "Supreme Leader"- Santa Anna! I love the combo of the Alamo and Star Wars!
• He's becoming quite the reader. He got his first own Dog Man book this week and read the whole thing in one night. He's complaining much less about reading time with me as well.
• Still has quite a temper and struggles with forgiveness- unless it involves Davis. He has always had the sweetest soft spot in his heart for Davis that is so endearing. Davis doesn't understand quite yet how good he has it!
• This year has been so great for him socially! He's made so many new friends and is so happy at school. His best buddies are Hyrum and Richie- who are both just darling little boys who also like to imagine and play Star Wars/Avengers/whatever else Hudson comes up with. He also plays with Nora Bacciocco all the time, although I've heard at school they mostly do their own thing even though they are in the same class.
• His newest thing is creating science experiments. And then he narrates the experiments for me like his filming some kind of documentary or something. I tell ya, this kid is going places!