Koen's 6th Birthday!

Our firstborn is six years old!!!  My, how time flies!  Here's a quick review of Koen Douglas over the last 6 years...

Koen Douglas Melder born April 10th, 2007.  What a sweetie!

Standing up in his crib on his first birthday morning, April 1oth, 2008!

Look at how much hair came in during year 2, here he is with his Daddy at the birthday party we had on his 2nd birthday, April 10th, 2009.

Baking his own cake with me on his third birthday on April 10th, 2010.

Days after Koen's 4th birthday, he, Tav and I visited Gramma and Grampa in NH.  Here we are at one of our favorite beaches.

And then last Easter (April 8th, just two days before his birthday, just like the year he was born) with his little sidekick.

So, of course, I have a few pictures from this year.  Birthday number 6.  Amazing Koen.  I can't believe you are such a big boy already!  Ok, so we had a nice family breakfast.  Pumpkin chocolate chip bread and cheese omelette.  Yum!  Then we let Koen open a few presents.  Here's he is unwrapping the surprise gift from sweet Miss Kylie.

And the happy birthday boy...Legos!  He can't even look at the camera he's so interested in the kit!

Then we had him open his gift from "Tavin" (in quotations because it's really from Doug and I of course on behalf of Tav).

Pretty excited that it's more Legos!

After that it was off to school.  Koen's teacher likes celebrating birthdays and invites a parent to bring in a special snack on their child's birthday.  Koen had requested pumpkin or banana chocolate chip muffins (hence our breakfast bread flavor).  I brought pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and at the right time Koen helped me distribute them to his friends.  He was all business and so serious, but also obviously pleased to have me there.  It was a really special moment to get to see him in his scholastic element.  Here he is with his classmates singing "Happy Birthday" to him. 

Koen came home from school in a great mood and we had a nice afternoon together.  It was an odd and eerie afternoon with thunderstorms passing through.  It was 80 degrees and humid, sticky and hot here.  I wasn't ready for the summer weather out of nowhere and it just put me ill at ease, but thankfully I had the happy go lucky birthday boy by my side and then the sun came out again after a thunderstorm and things were looking up.  After naptimes/resttime and feeding Penn his dinner our dear friends, Alex, Hilary, Delia and Huck joined us for Koen's birthday dinner/celebration.  Koen chose order-out pizza for his birthday dinner.  I have to say that I didn't mind this choice since it meant I was off the hook for cooking the meal. =)  The kids played until about 6pm and then we ate together, then the kids played again until 6:30pm when Koen got to open his other presents.  Here's a quick tour of the opening process.  We started with Gramma & Grampa's gift. 

 Pretty excited about...yep, more Legos (he figured it out by shaking it of course)!

The little brothers watching Koen were pretty adorable, so I had to snap a shot.  Tav was being his hammy self and Penn was just being cute as usual.  Here it looks like he's saying, "should I do what Tav's doing?"

Next Koen opened his gift from his godparents.  They always give books and I'm super excited about this year's book...easy science experiments.  Hello summer afternoon activities with Koen!!  Then he opened his gift from Delia and her family.  More Legos!  (This might be the best birthday yet.  This kid loves Legos!).

And then we gave Koen his gift from "Mommy and Daddy."  Yep, more Legos, but this was the big deal present.  This Lego City Police truck.  He's had his eye on it since Christmas.  We were super excited to get it for him.  He had quite the reaction.

Thankfully we had chocolate ice cream on hand for his birthday treat, otherwise I'm not sure we could've pried him away from his new Lego sets for quite some time.  We originally brought out his teacup of IC with one candle on it.  He had a mini-meltdown saying that he was supposed to have six, so Doug gave in and went and put on 6 candles.  His ice cream pretty much became a milkshake under the heat of the "bonfire."  Oh, Koen!

After the ice cream and "Happy Birthday" song our buddies had to leave and our boys had to get to bed.  Koen had done so well all day, but the birthday attention, over-tiredness and excitement about his gifts were pretty much doing him in, so it was time to get him to bed.  It was a great day and so exciting to celebrate this special life that we appreciate, love and are blessed by so much.  We love you, Koen.  Happy 6th Birthday!