Andrew's birthday!

Michael observing the consistcy of our experiment

Our scientist in action

Jacob was a pro

A Happy Birthday hug

My little, teeny, tiny baby is now a big seven year old. He is on a soccer team, he takes spelling tests and does the monkey bars on the playground. He is still my sweet boy who gets excited every week when I volunteer in his classroom and holds my hand as he walks me to the gate when they go to recess. Next year he will be baptized. I can't believe how fast the time goes. But when I hear him read from the scriptures, I know that he is getting closer to making those choices.

We had a small party this year. He really wanted friends, but I wanted calm. So we compromised. He invited two friends and we went bowling. He was the winner of the kids and scored 100. We had a fun, relaxed day, especially since the government recognized how important his birthday is and let him have the day off school and Jeremy the day off work. His birthday is on Veteran's Day. :) We took cupcakes to soccer practice that night and to school the next day. On a side note, I found this cute idea of putting drops of black food coloring on white frosting and then using a toothpick to drag out a bit of the food coloring to make it look like a soccer ball. Well, the drops of food coloring were certainly not uniform and even when I did it exactly right, it only looked like a soccer ball if I told you. Oh, well. And remember how it was black food coloring? Stains come out, right?

Andrew loved his birthday and his presents. Kathie - he really loves the experiments. We made slime and bouncy balls. He wants to do one all the time. Thank you, thank you. He also got his first little piece lego set. Lynne came down on saturday and watched his soccer game and we celebrated his birthday again with her. He really loves his Grandma. We watched Ice Age : Dawn of the Dinosaurs twice that day, I think it was a hit. He had a wonderful birthday and thank you to everyone who sent something, called him and sang to him or even thought of him. I am so grateful he has all of you, he is a lucky little man.

Halloween

ewww, the inside of the pumpkin!

Jacob looks like he is going to take a bite

I can't resist this, a boy and his pumpkin

Working hard

Jacob the fire truck

staring at the bats we decorated our trunk with

The mask didn't stay on long, he loved trick or treating

The boys and I made bats and pumpkins for the trunk

love this

the mask, the inspiration for the costume

Andrew was most concerned about the tail

We had a great Halloween this year. We went and picked out pumpkins at a little pumpkin patch and carved them up and put them outside our front door. Andrew loved pulling the little wagon and hauling the pumpkins for us. Jacob did not love pulling the guts of the pumpkin out. :) But with a little convincing he worked hard on it. They designed their faces and I cut them out.

Jacob was a fire truck this year. We found this costume new at Savers and he had to have it. I think he looks so cute. Jacob had a dress up day at his preschool and they said he did not take his costume off all day long. Not even to eat. :) He really likes his preschool. And his fire truck. He added the fireman coat so he could be a fireman driving a fire truck at the ward party. He was a little nervous during the trunk or treating and wanted me holding his hand the whole time. He was having fun, just wanted a little extra support - I did have a fire chief hat on.

Andrew was a T-Rex this year thanks to Asia for the mask and some creative pattern making, someday I will learn to use a pattern. But he liked it and I am glad it turned out alright. He wore it to a friends on friday, they played in their costumes and then he wore it to the ward halloween party, the trunk or treat. It didn't survive. Next time I will have to reinforce the crotch somehow. He was playing tag and was acting like a real t-rex. He is a little dramatic. :)

Michael was our little frog and stayed at the car with Jeremy and handed out candy and finished up his dinner while I took the two older boys around. I think he had a couple pieces of candy that somehow made in into his mouth, instead of to the trick or treaters. He really liked the bats hanging and played with them. Jacob was done pretty quick and wanted to delve into the candy. Andrew ran around and played and hit a few extra cars for more candy.

It was a fun night.

It was also our first night in a house for Halloween. And our neighborhood is one of the few in central tucson that has sidewalks and is off major streets, so we had plenty of people who drove to our neighborhood to go trick or treating. The boys thought it was so fun to answer the door and hand out candy. Thankfully, we had some left from the church party. It was a fun day.

Soccer

Andrew is now playing soccer. His team is called the Red Lightening. They practice twice a week and then have a game on saturdays. He is having a great time. He really likes it. Halloween was their first game. They have 12 kids on the team. And in an effort to give them more game time, they have two games going at the same time. Which is a little confusing, but they all handled it well. I think it was the hardest for the coach. Andrew liked hanging back and defending the goal. They don't have a goalie, but he was almost acting like one. It was fun to see him spring to attention when the ball came near his goal. He saved several goals. He saved one goal with a big kick and everyone cheered and he was almost startled, but was so proud. He kept saying, wasn't that a good shot? When the game was over, he asked if we were proud of him. And said, Daddy, I didn't give up. I was proud of my little boy who is growing up and trying to find his way in school and friends. I feel lucky to be his mama.