Elliot turns 7!

We were going to be out of town on Elliot's actual birthday like we are most years. We started out by giving him his present, which Aaron has been looking forward to all year. We got him a robot kit! It is lego compatible, has various sensor modules, and has a drag-and-drop interface to program it. Elliot named it Roby. So far they have programmed it to avoid obstacles and to follow a line drawn on the ground. Watching Aaron and Elliot tinker together is one of my favorite things.

The master at work!

A busy boy with his robotic buddy

Later that day, we took Elliot's best buddies to Wild Katz for his party!

The party group, minus Eva Mae and James who bolted into the playground immediately upon entry.

Elliot is getting braver! This thing lets you climb up to the top and jump off like spiderman with a rappelling harness. 

Playing "throw foam cubes at your cousins"

The three amigos racing down the slide

Nailed the landing

The whole group, now much more tired than before.

A week later, we were able to celebrate Elliot's actual birthday in McLean.

A happy birthday boy with his presents.

Behold, the minecraft creeper on lava cake!

7 year old Elliot is a very independent young guy. He has strong opinions about how he wants to spend his time, which is mostly playing his favorite video game (Minecraft, Chicken Horse, Code Spark- he picks one and gets obsessed with it for a month or so). We are pretty good about limiting his screen time, but he would happily play non-stop if we let him. He loves to read and has read pretty much every book on the children's graphic novel shelf at our library. It is becoming a problem because he reads so fast that he tears through his stack of books in just a few days. His favorites are Dogman and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I'm trying to persuade him to make the leap to chapter books so that he will have more content. He loves crafts and spends a considerable amount of time taping things together and delighting us with his various creations. He is great at picking up board games. We taught him how to play Dominion the other day, and he has beaten me 2 out of the 4 times we have played. He's a bright young boy and it is fun being his mom!