Sammy turns eight!

Sammy turned eight today...how is that possible? I recently read an application for a kid whose birthday was December 18, 1998...exactly ten years before Sammy. It really drove it home for me...the last eight years have gone by so quickly, so I better savor the next ten!!

On Friday, I surprised Sammy at school as the "Mystery Reader" for his class. His teacher read five facts about me before I came in...and he had a hunch that it was me (have any other Maple Dale moms climbed Mt. Fuji twice??), but he was surprised, nonetheless. Together we read one of our favorite books: Sayonara, Mrs. Kackleman by Maira Kalman to the class. His classmates loved the silliness and spontaneity of the story, as well as the colorful illustrations.

Sammy has changed and grown so much in the last year...really taking ownership of his schoolwork, his possessions (like his glasses and Tooth Fairy money) and doing a few chores regularly without having to be asked. You can tell that he likes independence and wants more.

He's still naughty from time to time...we think it stems from his competitive nature. For example, here's Sam competing for more attention. ;-)

But he's also, as always, extremely sweet and loving. Remember this family photo of us from David and Cheryl's wedding?

Well, this was the shot right before it...Sammy kissing Sebastian's arm since he just couldn't help himself.

So how did we celebrate today?? First thing this morning, Sammy opened some family gifts and then we headed to First Watch for pancakes! He ordered his favorite chocolate chip pancakes, of course.

And the (other) cool thing about your birthday falling on a weekend (aside from getting to go out for breakfast!) is that we could plan Sam's party on his actual birthday. He wanted a Five Nights at Freddy's theme, but we persuaded him to choose something else, since F.N.A.F. is a bit scary. Pokemon Go is still very popular in our house these days, so we agreed that that could be a very fun theme. Here's the cake we made--the Pokemon Go Greatball! (Sam requested that for the design and cookies and cream for the inside = yum!)

Since it's winter, we figured the kids would need to get the wiggles out, so we headed straight to Pogo Play. They climbed, slid, danced...

And were very busy building things. A bunk bed, a fort, you name it.

 

 

Maya and Brie had a really good time together. They played and played and played...

and played some more!

A good-looking birthday crowd!

Then we went home and each kid colored a Pikachu tail...

So we could play "Pin the tail on Pikachu."

The game was fun...

But finding Pikachu's tush while wearing a blindfold is harder than it looks!

The kids also had to "catch 'em all" with a little Pokemon Go scavenger hunt that Tony and I set up in the basement. Look! There's Pinsir!

The kids ran around looking for all of the characters. At first, they yelled out when they found a Pokemon, so Tony reminded them this was not a team effort. Ha!

And then we ate pizza, cake and ice cream!

And opened some great gifts!

Sam said multiple times that it was, "The best birthday ever." You can't ask for much more than that. Tony and I threw in a few stories about his arrival and reminded Sam that he was the best first baby that any rookie parents could ask for. What fun to think back and see how far we've all come in eight short years!