Brax's 7th Bday & Playing Chess at Last

My darling son, Braxton, turned 7 years old on October 5th!
In our home we have a tradition of waking up our kids with candle lit waffles and the birthday song. As you can tell he wasn't quite awake yet.

He is my gap-toothed, mischievous eyed, sprinkle nosed and disheveled hair boy. His obsessions include Star Wars, Harry Potter, dinosaurs and Mario Brothers. He spends his time playing with Star War figurines and dinosaurs while creating intricately detailed scenes with legos. Brax would willingly spend every moment of his life playing video games (Lego Harry Potter, Lego Star Wars, Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart) if I did not limit his time. This kid is hilarious (not just because he is mine and I adore him)  and can be incredibly witty. He takes after his dad in that department. Brax is also very analytical, mathematical and precise. He thrives on structure, organization and rules. These qualities he got from his mother. I see much of myself in him even some of the less desirable qualities like a quick temper and stubbornness.

He had a great birthday! We decided on a Mario Bros theme this year because it has resurfaced as one of his passions in the last few weeks. The girls gave him the cool black Mario Bros shirt to wear to his birthday surprise movie: Hotel Transylvania. Bummed me out that I had to stay at home because I have been really under the weather. He loved the movie.

Thanks Debbie for the duck card and gift card! (She works with Hotch and Brax calls her his sweetheart.) He can't wait to buy some more legos.

Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa Hotchkiss for the frog card and gift card to Walmart! He has plans for it already: legos or Star Wars. 

Thanks Sis. Aldridge for the birthday card! She is Braxton's Primary teacher at Church and he is blessed to be in her class. We love her! Brax noticed the shark tooth shaped cut out in the card.

The girls got him a really cool Darth Vader card, the black Super Mario Bros shirt and colored pictures for his bedroom wall.

Thanks Grandma Dene' and Fadder for the Star Wars Lego: Elite Clone Trooper & Commando Droid Battle Pack and all the candy. He thought he was so smart because he kept shaking it so he could guess what you got him. Brax was convinced there were legos inside. As he opened each layer of the wrapping he got more excited. Thanks for all the candy (he made a point to share it with his sisters) and the new addition to his growing lego collection.

For the last two years Braxton has been begging us for a chess board. The first time he was exposed to it was when we watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. He was mesmerized by Wizard's Chess and got so excited when he learned about the game chess. We decided to wait until he was older and finally found the perfect first chess set for him. We hit the jackpot this year with his birthday gift. Super Mario Chess has been a total hit! 

Look how cute he is as he checks out all the characters used in his chess game. The kids were so excited to start playing chess.

I printed up a few pictures so he could continue to adorn his walls with the things he loves. The picture below shows him explaining where on his wall his pictures would be placed. We also gave him two Mario shirts. 

I love my family and am so blessed to have them with me each day.

Another tradition the children created is that they pick out the birthday cake with Daddy the night before  someone's birthday. It began two years ago when I was sick and sent Hotch to go buy a cake for one of their birthdays. The birthday kid stayed home with me and the two other kids went with him to pick out a simple store bought cake. Well my children loved choosing the cake for their sibling. My kids get excited each year to have their siblings pick the cake for their birthday and they take the job very seriously.

This is the way they spent the rest of their evening. He picked up the rules swiftly and is incredibly good at the game. Braxton is meant to play chess. When I played him I was so impressed by his strategic mind. 

He is growing to swiftly for this mother's heart, but as he keeps reminding me I can't stop it. I am so pleased with the young man he is becoming.