It's Connor's 8th Birthday!

I can hardly believe my son is eight years old today. Time flies.

He is such a joy and it's so fun to see how he loves the Lord at such a young age...

Yesterday we had a very informal party for him. Connor invited four of his friends from school (and one sister of a friend) over to play for a couple hours. Then we had them all help decorate the chocolate cake. It was supposed to end up looking like a coral reef according to Connor's plans (water, seaweed, fish, other sea creatures), but the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders just had fun making squiggly lines all over.

The kids played around outside for a while, even though it was quite cold. This is "D" (Demetrios), Connor, and Rodney hanging out in some trees.

This is Titus using a "bat" Rob has made out of wood to hit a tennis ball for Cinder to chase.

After his friends left and we had some dinner, then it was time to open family presents! Connor was excited to receive a rock tumbler and grit (and some rocks from Samantha that we found at the edge of the Jack River just down the road from our house). He is ready to learn about the process and start his first load with Dad tomorrow.

Connor didn't waste any time getting started on a Pirate Maze book from Grandma White.

The Birthday Party

Samantha invited Amelia and Reid (and their parents, Lance and Dana Williams) to help celebrate her birthday! So Sunday afternoon we had a really fun time. The kids played indoors and outside and we adults finally got a chance to sit down and talk. This summer has been really busy; hard to coordinate a time to get together. It was wonderful to get to know them better.

Samantha requested chocolate cupcakes for her cake, so one of the things we did was decorate our own cupcakes by squeezing frosting out of baggies.

Even the adults got into it!

The Williams ladies are very crafty (artistic, not sneaky!), so they gave Samantha her own set of perler beads. Now she can create pictures and designs on a pegboard with the beads and iron to melt them together. Amelia also gave Samantha a pretty bottlecap magnet she made and Reid gave her a perler bead magnet. Now we have something to hold up her schoolwork on the refrigerator!

The kids also had fun playing outside floating "boats" (wood scraps from Rob's shop) in the large puddle in front of the house.

Rob and I designed and created this cross necklace for Samantha. I drew the shape and Rob fashioned a piece of shell that we found on the Oregon Coast last month and a washer into this beautiful piece of jewelry with the tools in his shop. He used a belt grinder to shape and smooth the shell, a drill for the hole in the washer, and grinder to shape the attachment piece. Then I super-glued them together. It was so fun to see the finished product!

Summer Reading Program Party

A week or so ago we had the end of the Cantwell Library summer reading program party! Connor and Samantha enjoyed getting new books every week, and they both fulfilled the requirements to complete the program (earning a Barnes and Noble gift card). Samantha and I read 45 books together, and Connor read over 675 total pages by himself! The program was also a great way to meet a few people in town and be involved in the Cantwell community.