Daniel is one decade old!

Daniel had his birthday last week and turned 10!  We started off the weekend with one final visit to the oral surgeon for a checkup.  After Daniel's initial tooth trauma last month, he had to have three more teeth pulled, all on the top row.  Two were baby teeth that were pushing his remaining front tooth across his midline and preventing a permanent tooth from coming down.  One was an "extra tooth" that was mostly just a root, but it was also causing some problems.  So, he got them all out!  We've spent a lot of time at the oral surgeon's office lately.  Let me just say, if anyone needs a good oral surgeon around here, I've got a recommendation for you.

So, after the oral surgeon made sure that Daniel's remaining teeth looked fine (and they do, but he will be getting braces in a couple of months), I took Daniel to Deseret Book to let him pick out a birthday book.  He chose National Geographic Kids: Ultimate Weird But True.  After dinner, Daniel opened his other presents.  He was most excited about getting a Perplexus.  It reminds me of the old wooden labyrinth game we used to play at my grandma's house when I was a kid.

On Saturday, Daniel and Benjamin both performed for the judges at the duet piano festival.  We wanted to take Daniel out to eat somewhere special that night, and Daniel chose Taco Time.  Definitely not my first choice, but hey, he was the birthday boy.  I just hope Wayne chooses someplace else when it's his birthday in a few weeks. 

Daniel shares a birthday with two of his uncles, and we celebrated with one of them on Sunday.  Wayne's parents had us all over for ice cream cake.  Daniel got one of his favorite birthday wishes--he got to see his adorable baby cousin Ainsley again!

Here are the birthday boys!

Halloween

We always enjoy Halloween!  Here are some of the things we did:

We went to Rowley's Red Barn to get pumpkins.  We had never been there before, but we had heard it was fun. We went on a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to choose our pumpkins.  They also had an apple bin maze for the kids.  Just a warning: if you go after dark, take a flashlight.  We assumed there would be some sort of lighting at the pumpkin patch, but there isn't.  So, Benjamin was wandering around in this huge pumpkin patch and would exclaim every few minutes, "Hey, I found a pumpkin over here!"  He sounded like he was looking for Easter eggs.  Luckily, lots of other people there had flashlights, and we borrowed one so that we could choose some decent-looking pumpkins.

We carved the pumpkins a few days before Halloween.

And here we are on Halloween, all dressed up for trick or treating.  Last year, we probably only got about 60 trick or treaters because the weather was stormy. We had over 200 trick or treaters this year, and we nearly ran out of candy! 

Benjamin was a ninja.

Daniel refused to be anything "cute, gross, scary, or a profession."  So, we made him into I-15.

Wayne wasn't as excited about dressing up this year, so he pulled out his Perry the platypus shirt.

On the other hand, I like dressing up in elaborate costumes.  And all of the little girls oohing and ahhing over my costume when they came trick or treating made me happy.

A little loss

Daniel was playing soccer at school yesterday, and he bonked heads with another kid.  That might not have been so bad, except Daniel is a lot taller than the other 4th graders.  The top of the other kid's head hit him near his chin.  Daniel was in a lot of pain because his top front permanent tooth was knocked loose, so he called me.  We took him to the dentist who sent us over to an oral surgeon.  The tooth was more than just loose--it was broken up in the gums.  The dentist and the oral surgeon both said it was the worst way possible to break a tooth, and nothing could be done for it.  So, the oral surgeon extracted it for him.  Then he packed the hole to make a space for a false tooth, and Daniel got a bunch of stitches.  Daniel can't get an implant until he's an adult, but he will probably get a retainer with a tooth in a week or two.  Kinda rough, huh?  He was in a lot of pain, but he was pretty tough.  They didn't even have to put him to sleep during the surgery.  The dentist and the oral surgeon both like Daniel so much that they called us at home later to check up on him.  He says it still hurts a lot, but he's doing pretty well.

He's still smiling!

Daniel refused to give the tooth to the tooth fairy.  You can kind of see how it split up the middle.

Soccer kids

Daniel and Benjamin both had great soccer seasons.  Daniel's team won the league championship, with only one loss all season.  Congrats, guys!  Daniel loves playing mid-field because of the flexibility it gives him.  He runs fast, and he has the stamina to chase down the ball for the entire game.  Benjamin's favorite position is defense.

Daniel's coaches were 2 BYU students who volunteered to coach just because they love soccer.

Here's an action shot of Benjamin.

Benjamin's baptism

Here's a post from Ben's baptism.  He had such a great day, and he loved seeing all of his family members and friends that were able to come.  Here are some of the pictures we took, but I didn't get pictures of everyone who came--sorry!

Benjamin and Dad

Grandpa and Grandma

Great Grandma

Aunt Taryn, Ben, Daniel, Ainsley, and Great Grandma

The highlight of Daniel's day was getting to hold his cousin Ainsley.

Grandpa and Grandma

Benjamin's Birthday!

Benjamin is now 8!!!  Here's how he celebrated:

He ate breakfast in bed.

And he had a  Phineas and Ferb (his favorite Disney cartoon) party with some of his friends.  I say "some of them" because Benjamin has far more friends than would fit comfortably in my backyard.  So we tried to limit it to about a dozen boys.

Here's Benjamin sitting under a tree, contemplating what he is going to do with the next year, while waiting for the party to start.

We played a variety of Phineas and Ferb-related games.  One of them was crazy bowling, where you have to bowl a certain way each time, like backwards or with your eyes closed.  This was balancing on one foot.

We also played "Where's Perry," which is like hide the thimble, except Wayne hid a little cardboard Perry the Playtpus instead.  Perry is Phineas and Ferb's pet platypus.

We played Pin the Tail on Perry, which would have worked better if some of the kids hadn't kept taking off the blindfold.

We also had a guitar pinata and cake and treats.

I'm guessing that Benjamin might say it was his best day ever!  And yes, everything IS better with Perry.

There's 87 Days of Summer Vacation . . .

Then school comes along just to end it.  So the annual problem for my curious children is finding a good way to spend it.

Like maybe:

Building a sailboat

Or fighting with arrows

Or climbing up a Daddy tower

Discovering something that used to exist
 

Or watching a cool rain shower

Surfing the splash pad 

Creating memories

Or locating I-15 (It's over here! )

Finding tooth fairy cash

Painting our faces 

Or spinning 'til we go insane

As you can see
There was a whole lot of stuff to do
Before school started this fall.

Thanks for sticking with us 'cause Daniel and Benjamin
Pretty much did it all.
Yes, stick with us 'cause Daniel and Benjamin are
Gonna have a fabulous fall!
 
(Mom! Daniel is building a roller coaster!)

Cub Scout Day Camp

As one of our den's Wolf leaders,  I got to go Day Camp this year.  Daniel was there, too because the Wolves and Bears go together.  We did lots of fun activities, including:

Archery.  I'm not bad at archery myself, but I had trouble helping Daniel because he is left-handed.  Thankfully, the Boy Scouts there showed him how to do it.

We went rafting, and we got soaked.  And when I say "we," I mean me and the boys in the pack.  None of the other leaders were brave enough to join us in the water.

Daniel liked making the raingutter regatta boats.

The boys also shot BB guns, made foam swords, learned about compasses, practiced knots, played several games, and had lunch.  Everyone had a great time, though we were pretty tired when we went home.

Party for the USA!

Oh, the fabulous fourth of July!  We went to Stadium of Fire this year.  I had never actually been to it before.  When I was a BYU student, I watched the fireworks from campus once or twice.  And we took Daniel to see the fireworks from near the BYU library when he was 1 1/2.  But that's all.  I'm not a fan of big crowds, especially when packing kids along, so we are usually content with a family or neighborhood party for the 4th.  But we decided to go anyway this year, partly because we are all David Archuleta fans, and he was performing.  Brad Paisley also performed, but we're not really huge country music fans.  David Archuleta sang 5 songs, including "The Star Spangled Banner."  Apparently, he performed it for the Stadium of Fire back when he was about 12 years old, and so they started off the song with the clip of him singing way back then.

David Archuleta!

Daniel and Benjamin started to get tired while waiting for the concert to end and the fireworks to begin.

Since the Stadium of Fire was on Saturday, that was only the beginning of our party weekend.  On Sunday, we had a family dinner with my parents.

The cousins put on a patriotic parade in the basement, complete with floats that they made from toys.

Benjamin found my dad's old army jacket and thought it would be perfect for his patriotic costume.  It was nice for him to acknowledge the men and women who serve (or have served) our country in the military.

On the actual 4th of July, Wayne volunteered at the Freedom Festival Parade.  We met up with him afterward to go out for pizza and bowling.  Because what's more American than pizza and bowling?  Actually, the kids were just thrilled to have Dad around for a long weekend, and that's what sounded fun to them.