Samuel turns 12!

Samuel is now a dozen years old! Every year we're in disbelief, but the fact that he's on cusp of his teenage years makes this milestone all the more incredible. He's in 6th grade now--such a big year! And though he's spending it in virtual school, he's been quite a good sport. Samuel has made new friends and become even more organized...really owning his remote experience and schoolwork. But there's definitely a sense of a year lost--when he would have had his second and final year of intermediate school and been preparing for junior high. You always want your kids to have the best experience possible in life, let alone school...even when it's out of your control. We really applaud Samuel for keeping such a positive attitude despite this year's challenges.

Personality-wise, he's still Samuel--a creature of habit, a natural Buddhist--waking up every morning with abounding aspirations of making the day better than the last, and an enthusiastic eater. He's still on the stubborn side, but we see that giving way to slivers of flexibility more and more. He also can take a joke better lately and loves a good laugh. We admire Samuel's natural leadership qualities and drive to make creative games for him and his siblings to enjoy. He plays the piano and clarinet beautifully, but vacillates daily on whether he wants to practice. He's into online games like Among Us and Adopt Me and, every time I think he's going to move on to more mature TV shows and movies, he continues to gravitate toward classic animated series and less serious movies. I hope this lasts just a bit longer...

This has been a real year of togetherness and at first, it was tough for the kids. They get along well and play nicely with each other, but everyone has their limits. And the pandemic pretty much eliminated playdates, so there was a true adjustment period. For the most part, the kids have really risen to the occasion and gotten closer during all of this. We suspect that when our lives start to resume some normalcy, they will miss this time. (Maybe??) The best is when we see Samuel being very sweet and affectionate toward Sebastian when he doesn't know we're watching. We know deep down that they care very much about each other and that's hard to foster artificially. It will get better and better as they get older, right??

Here are the boys reading Captain Underpants recently. 

Remember six years ago??

We had our first snow the other day and they played beautifully together...no tears!

The boys have even been working on a brother handshake.

Samuel and Brie are still very tight...they always support each other and bring out the best in one another...maybe because their personalities are opposites in many ways, but they have fierce loyalty in common? We hope their bond lasts forever.

We typically celebrate Samuel's birthday a week or two early because we've been burned in the past (e.g. all of us catching a virus or bug at his party that travels with us for the holidays...how ironic, right??), so it felt natural this year to reach out to his best friend at the beginning of the month and ask, "Can you be flexible?" We were hoping for an unusually warm afternoon for Samuel and Braeden to celebrate outside! Lucky for us, last week was balmy!

Samuel requested the same brownie cake with cream cheese frosting that we made for him last year. Yum!!

He decorated it himself.

Then he and Braeden dug in picnic-style in the backyard and then went for a walk in Pioneer Park. It was great that they could get together and celebrate like that!

We celebrated as a family on his actual birthday. Samuel requested Blue Ash Chili for dinner and we surprised him with a Carvel ice cream cake. Both were really delicious and Samuel even let us sing "Happy Birthday" to him. In years past, he's asked to pass on the singing. 😉 

He got Legos and STEAM gift cards for his birthday...both were a big hit. It was a wonderful day and we're especially proud of Samuel this year. 💙💙

And we'll be in total denial when he turns 13 this time next year. 😲

P.S. Did I mention he looks older lately...increasingly persnickety about his appearance and wearing Invisalign now! He's also nearly 5'3"!