Gametes In Love

Sigh. Another major assignment for Griffin. Another day of high blood pressure on my end. But… occasionally there’s entrainment like these lovely exchanges.

(Background: Griffin has to do a presentation on the U.K. Part of it is to discuss history. I’m promoting him with some topics)

Question: Who is Queen Elizabeth the First?

Answer: The first queen

Question: why was she important?

Answer: because she lived for 50 years

Follow-up question: and what did she DO in those 50 years?

Answer: Not die.
Finish laughing. Then send wine.

7 years old. 7 guests. Still a mad-house 🙂
But I’m grateful for continuing to stumble across event places that get these kids excited for birthday celebrations. I kid you not, the whole day of his birthday party I kept answering the same question: how much longer until my birthday party. It was counted in hours, and minutes.

Griffin’s tournament changed the schedule of his second game, so it went into Storm’s party. It was a bummer, but they made it back in time for him to play a bit too.

A little story as retold by Shane…
When half the crew was ready to bail on ToT (it was getting late/they got tired), they turned back. On the way, Storm asked Shane to go ToTing on his behalf.
Shane: No way! You don’t ToT at my age
Storm: Why not?
Shane: Plus I don’t have a costume
Storm: Sure you do! You can go as a parent without a kid.

Nice one, kid! Nice one!

Meanwhile, our annual Arata Farms trips go on. It took us awhile to find our way out of the maze, and we did. I shouldn’t be surprised at all the traffic to HMB. I was hoping since it wasn’t Pumpkin Fest it wouldn’t be as bad, but, well… I think I just need to come to terms that if it’s Oct, it will be busy. Super warm day too — warm enough for the kids to want ice cream.

OH, and of course — my brothers photo w/ pumpkins 🙂

The age of 6 has left the building. Our littlest man is 7.

Today you are 47″ tall and weigh 46.2 lbs.

Storm-y, you are one super creative guy. Your Lego building still continues, but you have now expanded into some amazing paper creations (from origami to far-flying airplanes) and super cool comic book writings. Your imagination impresses me so much. It seems to have no limit.

I love that half of your projects you do for others in mind. You write your comic books for your friends. You make origami to give to others. Your desire to give people a little bit of joy [through your projects] makes me proud.

I admit, because of your creativity, I often overlook how book-smart you are too. You are blazing through the first grade curriculum. I’m sure that if your teacher allowed testing you today on the remainder of the 1st grade keywords and math-hats you’d have them all. You often surprise me when we’re out and about by reading the labels and signage around you, telling me about things

I didn’t think you’d pick up on. I’m struggling to stay one step ahead of you.

On the topic of surprises, you are one athletic kid. You don’t let us onto this, but you are good at sports as much as you hate to admit it. Your PE teacher calls out how competitive you are; you are a good runner, and from what I saw last night — a pretty competent basketball player. Now… can you stop grooming the out-field during your baseball games???

I’m really excited to see what this next year will bring you. Come on, 7!!!

Onto your favorites…

What is your favorite color? Blue
What is your favorite book? Captain Underpants
Who is your best friend? Owen, Lucas, Rob and Will
What is your favorite movie? Ninjago
What is your favorite song? I don’t have one
What is your favorite show? Phineas and Ferb
What is your favorite animal? Black Panther
What is your favorite toy? LEGO!!!!
What is your favorite food? Ribs. Really? Yah. Should I make them more often, then? I like Brandon’s ribs. The new kind. [note, here I was surprised and dissed all in one go! But Brandon get’s a shout out for getting my kid to like meat!]
What is your favorite shirt? Star wars
What do you want to be when you grow up? An engineer! What kind of engineer? A robot engineer.
What is your favorite thing to do? Go to the Kid’s Club at the gym. How come? Because I make ninja stars or I watch the X-bpx and the Wii. Until you play? Uhmn.. humn.

Here’s a quick view of your last 365 days (and you asked for this song yourself … even though your first choice was Gangam Style… and said “No way!”):