Sam's 9th birthday

Sam's 9th birthday was a great day for him. Kyle and Jacob were gone on an overnight campout with the young men Friday night into Saturday(but that doesn't contribute to why Sam's day was great) so I took him and Analee out to breakfast at IHOP. Yummy!! (sorry, no camera)

Saturday is our day to do the major house cleaning so instead of assigning chores as usual, I let Sam pick which two chores he wanted to do. If your thinking he picked something easy, you will be just as surprised as I was. He picked cleaning the kitchen sink and the downstairs baththroom. What a good boy! He was in a good mood. He had to take off his shirt because he got cleaner with bleach all over it and had to throw it away. Doing chores topless is okay only for some of us.











Analee had the camera for a while and took several pictures of Sam. He was hiding from her but his trusty PVC pipe periscope let him know where she was.

Sam wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Analee and I decided to get a bit creative with the taste so we put some mint in the frosting between the layers and had milk chocolate frosting covering everything. It turned out very yummy. After Jacob lit the candles, we had to sit and wait for several minutes for Analee who was upstairs in her room getting Sam's present ready. We waited so long that the candles burned down to almost nothing and cooked the frosting on top of the cake. But is a little burnt frosting going to stop anyone from eating the cake? Of course not! I just scooped off the puddles of wax and the cake didn't last long.

And according to Jacob, Sam will have no girlfriends this year because he blew out all the candles. Great big Phew! Dodged that bullet!


Sam got many Star Wars presents. Jacob gave Sam his entire Pokemon card collection with collection binder. Analee gave Sam a Star Wars poster that he had crumpled up a while ago when he was mad about something. She had saved it and taken care of it to give back to him because she knew he didn't really mean to destroy it. I didn't even know she had done this. He has it hung on the outside of his bedroom door now. Both gave very sweet and thoughtful gifts and I was proud of them.

Sam, surrounded by his favorite things.

And isn't it so nice to share your new toys with your brother and sister? This was a "must get" picture. He had such a good day with many smiles. He had to endure one hour of torture when Analee and I wanted to go to an Arts and Craft show at the Plano Centre. But when the day is all about him, giving up one hour doesn't seem so bad.

We love you, Sam!!