Early June

On an absolutely beautiful morning in early June, I took Eli down to the river to snap some pictures of him while he threw rocks in the river. He loves to throw rocks in water, so he was pretty distracted. I didn't quite get what I was going for, but here are a few.

Father's Day.

 The picture below reminds me of one we have of Candice with a ball flying mid-air right towards her head, but this time it's a stuffed bunny.

Dan took an epic trip to Oregon to do some mountain climbing. I'd guess he'd want to write his own post about that...

Firefly season came.

Dan and the big kids slept in the tent in the backyard before Dan's trip so he could test it out.

When Dan was trying to pick a week for his trip, we thought a particular week would be good because we had nothing going on. After he booked it, we learned that Sam won an award at school for being respectful (which took place before school),

 Sam and his amazing teacher.

Sam had a special event at a local high school where all of the gifted kids made products and sold them using fake money. Fortunately, Mom came that day to help out. Sam and his partners made stress balloons filled with cornstarch. Only one has exploded in my car, thankfully.

The same day, Afton won an award at her school for "commitment to quality."

I thought I would be smart and park in a small lot adjacent to the school with access to the middle school bus loop. Then I realized that it was time for their school to get out and I was stuck for 10 minutes.

That same night, Sam had his piano recital. Here's a clip of him practicing Harry Potter home.

The next day, our neighborhood had a community yard sale. We made a little money. Then the kids and I went to pick up Dan from his adventure! Hooray!

Sam's Birthday

Sam's birthday was on a Thursday this year. He went to school and like I mentioned in the last post, Dan met him for lunch and brought Burger King (chicken nuggets, fries, and a giant soda). Sam LOVES Sprite so he was in heaven.

For dinner he requested baked potatoes. Dessert was chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

 He was really excited about that watch and has worn it every day since his birthday.

 So many great presents!

We almost forgot to do our traditional picture, but we remembered right before bedtime.

For his birthday, Sam asked to do the ropes course at the Richmond Zoo. The Saturday after his birthday, I took Sam and Afton to do the course, and since Afton wasn't yet eight, I had to do it too. It was really fun and had lots of challenges that the kids liked, but my problem was that everything was built for a kid's height. So I thought it was really hard! The kids loved it, though, and it was fun to try something new and different.

Sam is such a sweet, sweet guy. He is so smart and thoughtful about things. He's also so innocent still, and we love it. At his dr's appointment, he was 75% for height and 50% for weight for his age. He loves soccer, reading, and the two games he's allowed to play on the computer. We love him so much! Happy 9th birthday, Sam!