Sam's "half birthday" celebration!

Sam got to go on his very first half birthday outing tonight. He hit the golden age of 4 1/2, which is when (in our family) the kids get to have a special night out with just mom and dad! We went to Chuck-E-Cheese and had lots of fun! Samuel also helped me make a cake earlier today (Daniel and Anna helped too!). For some reason Sam is quite excited about police cars and wanted me to put a police car on his cake, with us and him inside! I told him that I wasn't making a super fancy cake for a half birthday, so we settled for a picture stuck on top of the cake of all of us in a police car, hmmmmm . . . still not sure why we're all inside the police car!!, I'm not going to ask any questions! Nevertheless, we had a really fun night with our super silly boy! (Can you tell who took the picture of the three of us out front?!!)

My sweet Daniel!

I had a "mom's night out" over the weekend. The older kids were still awake when I got home and Daniel (6) rushed to greet me. I asked how the night was and this was his reply (complete with big sad puppy dog eyes)

"It wasn't that great of a night. We had ice cream for dessert and we finished the 'full house clean up' fast enough that we even got to choose 3 toppings for our ice cream . . . and we got to have a tailgate party in the driveway while we ate it! . . . and it was a beautiful night . . . there was a nice breeze blowing and it was all quiet and still, except for the crickets chirping . . . but it wasn't that good . . . because you weren't here"

aaaaaaawwwwwww! Can't they stay six for just a little longer?!

Silly camera fun!

Motor oil and mentoring

Levi and Kevin have spent quite a bit of time in the driveway lately, working on an old Chevy Suburban that we've acquired. Kevin is in the process of trading out his Navigator for an older Suburban with a "bigger engine" (as Samuel loves to say!) In spite of its many broken parts (some of them quite endearing ~ like a driver's seat that rocks back and forth as you drive . . . and some of them just down right funny ~ like having to roll the windows down to reach outside and open the doors!), it is better equipped to haul the travel trailer than the Navigator was. So, we upgraded our sleeping quarters and downgraded our driving digs . . . which probably means we came out even!

Nevertheless, one fun side benefit to this has been having some extra opportunities for Kevin to indulge Levi in his love of working alongside his dad and learning to fix things. Levi enjoys many free time activities, but he will drop WHATEVER he is doing (at any hour, in any weather!) when the opportunity arises to help Kevin with a repair project (in the house, on a car, in the yard, wherever). A few months ago, the lock was broken on our bathroom door (and people kept getting stuck inside accidentally!). Kevin bought a new locking doorknob and handed the package to Levi. Levi replaced it himself in a matter of minutes. We find ourselves frustrated from time to time with his lack of enthusiasm for schoolwork, but really appreciate his willingness and enthusiasm to learn and serve in so many other ways.

When Levi was about five years old, I noticed that he could fix things that I couldn't figure out (clocks, vacuum cleaners, fans, etc). We could see, even at that age, that God has uniquely gifted him to understand how things work and to take great delight in using his mind and hands together to get a job done.

There's a 10 year old in the house!

We had a fun weekend celebrating Emily's birthday. She had a mini-slumber party with two girlfriends Friday night and a "Monkey Madness" party on Saturday. We did a "monkey decathlon" (thanks to Kevin's creative genius!), ate monkey ice cream cake (I think the experiment worked) and generally monkeyed around! Sunday, Emily and I (and Auntie Penny) got to spend some "girl time" clothes shopping for her. It was a fun, busy weekend and we have an awesome ten year old! Emily is excited to start her first (sort of) "real job" today. She is taking care of the neighbor's plants and cats while they are out of town!