Sam's Birthday

Now that the sun has returned (mostly), the days are slipping by at an alarming rate, and here it is already a couple of weeks since my last post!  

There's not much of excitement to report - lots of busy-ness, but not excitement - except for Sam's birthday.  

Sam turned eight on Monday.  Eight!

I always think of eight as a real turning point.  During this year, kids seem to grow up even faster than they have in previous years.  They really establish their own personality, more and more independently from mom and dad.

All this is right and good, of course.  But also a little sad for the mom who is watching her beloved baby take a giant leap toward manhood.

Well, maybe not such a giant leap.

Saturday, Sam got to celebrate his birthday with some friends at Chuck E. Cheese's.  We don't usually do parties like that (because I'm lazy) but Sam's friend has a birthday the day before Sam's, so his mom invited me to do a joint party.  Half the work and twice the fun...okay!

Monday, we just partied at home.

This tee shirt from my parents was one of Sam's favorite gifts.  It is a "doctor's note" which prescribes eating pizza, eating bacon, and playing video games every day: pretty much Sam's perfect day.

He even liked the new jeans.  Look at that smile.  

The "winning" present this year was this Lego set from us.  At least he's not yet too grown up to get excited about Legos!

You like the candle in the middle?  I discovered that I only had seven birthday candles and that would never do, so I improvised.

This was eight years ago.  *sniff*

Happy birthday, Sam!  You are loved more than you'll ever know!