Samuel's 10

My baby boy is 10 years old!!  We love to tease Samuel that since he is my only boy, that makes him my baby boy too!!  He is such a neat person and I am so thankful to have him in our family.  He is so thoughtful of everyone, especially his sisters.  He will even paint their fingernails and toenails, try to fix their hair, and give them piggyback rides if they are too tired to walk.  When I was pregnant, he would push the stroller up the big hill by our house without being asked.  True, he loves to be a big brother and have "fun" with his sisters at times, but he is very caring and sets a great example for all of us. 

 

Samuel is loving to read right now.  He's gone through all the Magic Treehouse books, most of the boxcar children books, and is now loving Hank the Cowdog.  For school they have to earn Accelerated Reading points, where they read a book and take a test on it to see how well they comprehended the material read.  Last trimester, he had a goal of 12 points and ended up getting over 50!  Somewhere in there he found a love of reading.

 

Samuel is also learning to type right now.  We found a fun game to play online which helps him practice his typing.  It is called keyboard ninjas.  The fun thing is that you can practice just the home row, bottom row, top row, all letters, or the number pad.  We've started Jacque and Calista on it too.  They have so much fun and are quickly improving.

 

Samuel loved his presents, and can't wait for the one to come in the mail.  It was supposed to be here before his birthday, but somehow got lost in the mail.  It was in Washington at the end of November, but then decided to go all the way to New Jersey for his birthday.  It looks like it finally made it back to Washington yesterday, so hopefully he'll get it soon.  He doesn't know what it is, but is waiting very patiently.  We told him it was a book, "101 ways to paint your toenails!"  For some reason he's not buying that.

 

 Samuel is starting to experiment more with drawing and I thought this would be a fun book.

 Jacque made this for Activity Days the week before and decided to give it to Samuel for his bday.

 Samuel has always wanted a costume, but I never had a pattern that would fit him until a few weeks ago.  I'm not sure what he is, but he loves it anyway!!

 This is his candy monster cake!