Six!

Orson is now a big six year old! To confirm the fact, he lost his second front tooth on his birthday. I feel like once kids permanent front teeth grow in they look so much older. 

First up, a few things about Orson, by Orson: 
What's your favorite color? Green 

What do you want to be when you grow up? Hmmm, a builder guy

What's your favorite thing to do? Dig up clay

What's your favorite fruit? Pears

What's your favorite vegetable? Carrot

What's your favorite story from the scriptures? When Nephi broke his bow 

What's your favorite Primary song? I Love to See the Temple

Everyone who knows Orson, knows he's such a tenderheart and give the BEST hugs! 

This summer Orson really fell in love with helping me in the garden. He dug up rocks, helped plant, weeded, and helped harvest. I LOVED having this little garden helper all summer. 

Orson started a parkour class and is loving it! He's being doing obstacle courses on the playground for years, so parkour is right up his alley. This summer he mastered the art of climbing to the top of poles and couldn't be more proud of himself. 

Orson is also rocking kindergarten! Everyday he begs me to work with him first. He's flying through is math and language arts. Since the beginning of the year, he's moved from just knowing letter sounds to already reading sight words and sounding out simple words. 

He's also keeps school interesting. One day we were working on letter identification when we got to the letter V. "V..... v-hicular!" he shouted. Grandpa Ballard is always giving things odd names, and vehicular is his silly name for a car. I about died laughing when Orson said it. Of course then he thought it was the funniest thing ever, and for the rest of that week he added -hicular to the end of every letter and letter sound we worked on. Lessons took a bit longer that week - thanks Grandpa! 

Video Caption: "/u/-hicular, Up! /t/-hicular, /w/-hicular, /m/-hicular, /n/-hicular, /n/-hicular, /z/-hicular, /x/-hicular, /r/-hicular."

Orson has been my earliest riser lately, so every morning while he waits for his other siblings to wake up, he crawls in our bed to cuddle. 

And every evening when I tuck him in for the night, he has to ask me his questions. What is for breakfast? and What are we doing tomorrow? are asked daily. Sometimes he'll throw other questions in there too. If we forget this tradition, I'll here his cute little voice calling downstairs. "Mom, can you finish tucking me in? I forgot to ask my questions!" 

Orson still loves all things outside, especially fishing! 

Recently he also became really excited about making paper countdown chains. The first chain he made was 55 links long counting down to his birthday. After that he made a huge chain counting down to Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas with different colors for each holiday. Each night, he dutifully removed one chain and never forgets. 

Orson requested letter pancakes and a race car cake for his birthday. Hazel wanted to make his cake, and it turned out really cute! 

He rounded out his fun day with presents - real cowboy boots from Mom and Dad, a huge toy firetruck from Grandma and Grandpa, and an amazing train date with Gram and Grandpa to pick a Build-a-Bear.