Cameron is 9!

Cameron was up early and excited for his birthday!  I told him about his birthday donut waiting for him, and he replied, "I know!  I already ate it!"  He headed off to school with a box of Hello Panda cookies to share with his class.

After school, he got right to present time.  I got a kick out of Kenzie and Parker both playing on their phones while Cameron opened presents.

Super excited for a Minecraft stuffed panda.  While looking at his presents all week, he said over and over he hoped there was a panda stuffed animal in there!

Parker put his phone down and stood right up when the lightsabers came out!  That made me laugh.

Our sweet boy.

Still our sweet boy!  Gotta love the outfits he comes up with, too!

Chris is a good sport about sharing his birthday.  His present was a very fancy office chair, which he assembled and then sat in while he helped open all of Cameron's toys!

Blowing out the candles on his birthday brownies, and then I had made two batches of ice cream - chocolate Oreo and Rocky Road.   Cameron's good friend, Ethan, and his little brother, Ben, came by to give him a present and eat dessert.  Cameron was thrilled to show them his presents and then they ran around all afternoon playing.

Then later we picked up McDonald's (Cameron said he wanted to play there, but sadly all the fast food play areas are still closed due to Covid.  He is such an easygoing kid that he immediately said, "That's okay.  We can have a picnic in the front room!")  He sat in his new chair, ate his McNuggets, and said it was a great birthday!  

First Day of 11th, 8th, and 4th Grades

Monday Kenzie started 11th grade!  She is happy to have Astronomy, Ceramics, and Sign Language as some of her classes this year.  

This morning, about an hour before he even needed to wake up, Cameron already had his new backpack on, ready to go!  (Here he was brushing his teeth with his backpack still on, which made me chuckle).

The boys both started this morning!  Parker thought he was funny wearing his "There's a 99% chance I don't care" shirt.  Cameron had picked out this alligator shirt because it was green.  He also had put on red shorts and bright blue striped socks.  I made him take off the socks because he had worn them the day before (!) and then just for the first day of school's sake I had him change into shorts that matched.  He was a good sport about it as long as I promised to wash the socks for tomorrow!

Parker is sporting Men's 8 1/2 size shoes this year!  

Cameron was so excited about his Minecraft backpack that he wanted to hold it for the picture.  

Parker's good buddy Colton, who just lives a few houses down the street, is starting 7th grade.  Parker was happy to have somebody to walk with this year!  They both claimed not to be excited at all, but they were all smiles as they walked off.

Cameron heading into class with his good friend, Kylee.  He gave me a hug and then off he went, no looking back!  He has several friends in his class this year, so he was really looking forward to starting 4th grade!

Here's to another school year!

End of Summer Vacation

Parker got to go on Deacons Camp last week, and he had a great time.  

Chris went with him, so he was able to take a few pictures.  Parker had fun with the archery, and hatchet throwing, and hiking, and everything else they did - 

- but he really enjoyed helping make hamburgers!  Chris said even when he could have let someone else take over, Parker stayed and finished cooking all of them (Parker proudly told me, "I got to have two hamburgers!"  As always, he ate a lot at camp!)

It's been nasty outside!  Smoke from all over settled in and made the sky all eerie.  

I've started insisting the kids help more with dinners, just so they learn a bit of kitchen skills.  They love prepping for taco night, though.  This time Parker assembled the jalapeno poppers and Cameron cooked the taco meat.

Doesn't get more snazzy than this!

Last night we stopped by Kenzie's band rehearsal as they were finishing up.  She's in the very middle here, with the longer shorts, dark shoes, and a hat.  It's a small marching band, but they have fun together and Kenzie's been enjoying band camp the past few weeks.

Today was officially the last day of summer vacation since Kenzie starts Monday (and the boys start Tuesday) so we kept to tradition and walked around Wheeler Farm a bit.

This was the first year Parker said, "I'm good," and didn't try to climb on a tractor (so sad!) but Cameron still had enough fun for the both of them!

Cameron thought he was funny commenting on the delightful odor.

I say it every year, but I'm not sure where the summer went, or how these kiddos have gotten so darn grown up!