Happy Birthday, Sam!

9 Years old! I can't believe it! Geez! That's big. Sam's birthday was Monday. This was the first year he decided not to have a party. Instead, he wanted his best friend and his best cousin to spend the day with him just doing something fun. :) So to make it a bit more fun, we surprised him by having a little family party. The boys were upstairs playing. I had wrapped all of his presents from us and made him brownies ( he likes that better than cake). We called Avery downstairs, lit his candles, and then called Sam down. As soon as he got down we started singing "Happy Birthday!" He was so surprised and excited. It was funny. I couldn't get any good pictures because he was jumping around so much. LOL! Anyway, he blew out his candles, opened his presents (mostly all Transformers) and then we ate his "cake". He loved it! The next day Julie and her kids came up for a short, surprise visit, and Taylor had come over to play before that. He has had a good week. Today we went to a fun kids place that we have only been to one other time. Later this week will be his "party" with his 2 best friends. Here are some "party" pics.







Sam is such a sweet boy. I love seeing him get older and more responsible, but at the same time it makes me sad. How can my little boy be this big already? He is calm and quiet, and just has a sweet disposition. He loves using his imagination and acting things out. So far he is still a little boy. He wants to play with toys still, isn't in to all the techno gadgets, and is happy just being a kid. Whew! He is super smart. He loves to read and always has a book. He loves the magical, mystery books. He especially loves series and is always looking for a new group of books to read. He is ready for 4th grade, but is enjoying having this break. He is learning that things take practice and he won't just automatically be able to do something and get it perfect the first time. This is a harder concept for him to handle. He likes being right the first time. I wonder where he gets that from. ;) He loves Avery and can't imagine not having a brother. They play together well, although the fighting was getting a wee bit bad a few weeks ago. I fixed that quickly though. :) He loves Transformers and pretty much any action figure. He loves the computer and plays on it pretty often.

He learned to write in cursive this year. He learned multiplication (one of the things he has to practice) and he is swimming really well. He wishes he was better at sports, but is it hard for him with all of his breathing problems. Swimming is definitely his thing though! He is just really maturing and growing. He is one of the most responsible kids I know.

He is very compassionate, especially when it comes to animals and bugs. He loves going outside and catching bugs or finding hurt bugs and helping them. At recess he was always the one exploring, finding hurt creatures and rescuing them. He rarely gets in trouble and asks me frequently why people choose to do bad things. He doesn't get it. Good! We have been talking a lot lately about more grown up things like drugs, smoking, driving, etc. Being a teenager is one of our favorite subjects, and he swears he is still going to use his manners and not be rude. I hope so! He is a good listener and usually fixes himself after the first warning.

He is our quiet, caring, steady boy. We never have to worry about him, and always know he is doing the right thing. He loves his family and watches out for our well-being all the time. He is the peacemaker and wants everyone to be happy, although he does have a bit of a temper at times. We are working on that. We are always having people comment on how good and polite he is. Everyone knows his name and he is the popular kid that everyone knows. He is our calm and cool kiddo.

Happy Birthday, Sam Sweeney! We Love you Lots!!!