Simon's 8th Birthday

Simon was so excited to turn eight years old. It's hard to believe he will be baptized very soon. He is a great big brother to Levi and Naomi. He loves playing soccer. He got a FC Barcelona ball and soccer net for his birthday. He loves spaghetti carbonara, so of course that was his choice for his birthday dinner. He had yum yum brownies for dessert.

We love Simon very much and were so happy to celebrate his golden birthday with him.
He is going to do great things this year, I know it!

Simon's First Soccer Practice

We signed Simon up for his first season of soccer. He is so excited to play. We decided we would all go to his first day. They practice for the first 30 minutes and have a game the last 30 minutes. The field was a big mess from the rain. We all ended up with muddy feet.

Simon had a lot of fun doing all the soccer drills. He was such a good listener. He didn't really get to play a game. They just ran them around doing drills. He didn't seem to mind and said he had a great time.

UPDATE: What a disaster. Simon ended up only going to 2 of the 8 weeks of his soccer season. We have had so much rain this spring. Turns out we are not at all impressed with Old Dominion Soccer. They made no attempt to reschedule any of his sessions. We will be trying a new league in the fall.

Simon's 5th Birthday

After spending the day at Mount Vernon we headed back to our house to have pizza. Thank goodness Simon's favorite food is easy to feed a crowd.

After everyone had their fill of pizza Simon opened his presents. I think the pictures says it all. He is still into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He was so excited to add to his collection.

Then it was time for the cake and ice cream. Simon kept counting his candles to make sure there were five. He kept asking all day if he was really five. It was so cute.

Happy Birthday Simon!

Halloween Costumes

Primary Program

Miriam and Simon were excited to participate in the primary program at church last week. It was Simon's first program and Miriam's fourth. They both did an amazing job singing all the songs. They both remembered all of the words for their class parts. We love them and are so happy with all the great things they learn in primary.

we got Levi to stand still for one picture too

Swim Classes

This month we decided it was time for Miriam and Simon to learn how to swim. We are taking a family vacation to the beach this year, so we thought it would be good if they were both more comfortable in the water. We are happy with how well they have done.

First day of class:

After one month Miriam moved on to the next level:

A few pictures I took one month after they started:

Here is a combination of the video clips I have taken during their classes.

Summer Rain

Simon's Birthday

Simon wanted to go bowling for his birthday again this year. We picked up Miriam from the bus stop after school and met Michael over at the bowling alley. Simon and Miriam had a fun time bowling. Levi mostly watched, but pushed a couple of balls down the ramp. Simon even got his first strike. After bowling we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch.

Simon wanted hamburgers for dinner. After we ate Michael's parents came over for presents and cake. He had chocolate cake with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures. If you can't tell from the pictures there was quite the ninja turtle theme.

Here are some video clips from the day: