Leo's Been Here SIX years!

Six is big time: you go from being able to tell people your age by holding up one hand, to having to hold up TWO hands! 

So how is Leo at six years old? Funny, challenging, smart, stubborn, silly, quirky, curious, frustrating and creative. 

He's into Star Wars, pirates, Legos, science, "making up stories," knights/castles, art and DOGS! This is the kid who used to ask as we knocked on someone's door, "Do they have a dog?" And if they did, well, we didn't have a whole lotta fun at their house. Now he walks up to dogs he doesn't know and pets them. (I know that's not a great habit but it's such an improvement over the dog-terror we used to endure.) 

Anyway, Leo loves dogs so much that he agreed to give up his birthday presents from friends and have them donate to Canines for Disabled Kids. He was inspired by Ginger, the therapy dog who visits their school. In fact, I think it was Ginger who helped Leo get over his fear of dogs. So we arranged for Ginger to make an appearance at his birthday party! See photos and video below. 

I'm not saying this donation thing was all his idea. It DID take some arm twisting but once I read him the stories online of kids who need therapy and service dogs, he agreed. When people donated online, 50% went to the charity, 40% went to Leo and 10% went to the website that organized it. So don't feel too bad for the kid; he got presents from family and was able to pick out a Lego castle too. He got just the right amount of presents for a six year old. 

He had his birthday party at WOGA where he and Gus take gymnastics. The coaches let the kids do really cool things like swing from a giant rope into a foam cube pit, bounce on big trampolines and jump from a high platform. Leo also got to show off some of his gymnastics skills. See video of him doing "a candlestick" below. Both sets of grandparents, Tia and lots of friends came to his party. 

On his actual birthday (today), we kept it low key--candles in his pancakes, lunch and cupcakes at school with me and a small cake after dinner. We have learned that Leo does best when things aren't too over-the-top. (Oops, Disney World!)  

We haven't taken our annual "What a difference" photo yet but I will post that when we do. For now, here are about 100 pictures and videos from Leo's birthday weekend. (What was I saying about low key?) 

We were about to watch him open his presents when he suddenly decided to lead us in "Happy Birthday to Leo."