Nick the John Cena groupie turns seven and goes back to school!

The youngest of my three boys, Nicholas, turned seven today and started first grade! It seems like just yesterday when he joined our tribe. He was born just after the cut-off (Sept. 1), so he's always one of the oldest in his grade. 

Classic back-to-school photo of the boys
(Chris started his junior year of high school last week,
 but I didn't get a photo then)

In front of school
(Kieran is looking grumpy because he's
pretending he doesn't want to go back to school)

Seeing his friends put a smile on his face--he couldn't help it!

We walked Nick to his class--
his teacher had both Chris and Kieran too, and we love her!
(He's actually laughing rather than crying in this shot)

The smiley birthday boy
Next we walked the big fifth grader to his class (drowning out his protests with "this is the last year we'll be able to do this!"). Can't believe he'll be moving onto middle school in another year. I think he's going to enjoy being the oldest in the school this year.
With a friend
This evening we took Nicholas out to the Old Spaghetti Factory to celebrate his birthday. He is obsessed with WWE of late, and in particular, John Cena, so most of his gifts were on a wrestling theme. I abhor WWE, but Nick is so cute when he talks about all of the wrestlers (he's memorized all sorts of facts and trivia), does wrestling poses, or sings their theme songs. I would have never indulged Chris at this age in WWE (he got into it when he was in middle school, and it's because of his old wrestling DVDs that Nick became interested). I also enjoy seeing the oldest and youngest bond over wrestling.
Opening up a gift from his aunt and uncle in Australia--
a John Cena action figure

Loves being the center of attention, like all my boys!

With his new wrestling figures and Grandma and Grandpa

My parents with three of their grandsons

Family shots--first a silly one!

After Mom made them be serious!
I'm so delighted to have such a wonderful seven-year-old in our family. It's hard to imagine what our lives would have been like without him, our little bonus baby!

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