Corban's 8th Birthday

His second Lego Ninjago themed birthday party

The Monday after school started was Corban's 8th birthday.  We had booked a pavilion at a new park near us for the Saturday before, but the park ended up not opening before the date approached.  I asked him what he'd like to do instead, and he was adamant that we go somewhere with an arcade.  That's easier said than done around here.  We settled on the bowling alley.  

At a restaurant and proud of his creamer stacking skills

He invited some kids from church, a friend from Scouts, and a couple friends from school.  They had fun eating pizza and cupcakes, bowling, playing a game of laser tag, and then having some time in the arcade. 

He was very excited that he had some tickets "pre-loaded"
onto his arcade card since he had his birthday party there.  He used
them to buy three ninja swords, two for him and one for Gabriel.

He has gotten very into Ninja Turtles lately and got excited
when a friend gave him his first action figure at his party.

A Lego set that he's been wanting for a long time.  Another Lego Bot,
this one being another Ninjago one.  Corban loves Lego Bots.

He can never have enough Legos

His actual birthday was on the first Monday of school (which started the previous Thursday).  He wanted Outback for dinner because he loves Bloomin' Onions, and even more than that he loves steak (actually we had his birthday dinner Sunday night since our power went out and we needed dinner.  This worked out well because after school on Monday we could just be home and he could play with new toys and build new Lego sets)

There is so much that I could say about Corban.  He is independent, but loves a good hug, snuggle, or especially to wrap himself up in a fuzzy blanket (we got him a Sonic one for this birthday).  He's quite the engineer and spends time looking at things to figure out how they are put together.  Legos are his absolute favorite thing and I don't think he likes anything better than sitting at the Lego table in their room pretending. He has some very dramatic storylines going on in there, with lots of sound effects to go along with it. 

He told me the other day that he didn't need to go to school.  I asked him why and he said "because I already have my life figured out.  I'm going to live in an apartment in Foxridge with Gabriel and work at a restaurant, maybe Panda Express."  I asked him what would happen if one of them met a girl and wanted to get married and he said "well I know that I never will get married.  If Gabriel does then she can live with us. Or maybe we can get her an apartment next door."

Watching some TV with his sleep sack and his tiny
red panda keychain that he likes to sleep with

He was watching a cartoon with cats in it, so he decided
some of his cat stuffed animals should watch as well.

Corban enjoys Scouts and was excited to be in the Bear Den this year.  He's done a great job pushing himself out of his comfort zone to sell Scout popcorn before some VT football games. He still takes piano every week and thought it was really fun that his teacher let him get a Harry Potter piano book and learn a few things from that.

We've realized over the past months that Corban is more of an introvert.  He loves to play with friends, but when he gets home he needs some quiet.  And after we've been out doing things he often wants to go in his room and play alone.  I'm glad that he's recognized that he needs some independent time to recharge himself.  He also still remains very sensitive to others' feelings.  When someone is sad it really stops him from what he's doing and catches his attention.  When someone is unkind to someone or is he sees this displayed in something he's watching he often says "why would someone do that to someone?' (but that's not to say that he and Gabriel don't start getting on each other's nerves and start calling each other names or acting out in an angry way).

His first grade teacher took him out to lunch and Barnes and
Noble the week before school started.  He felt so special.

Like most kids his age he loves video games, right now especially Donkey Kong and Sonic.  He likes to read graphic novels, but struggles to find chapter books that he likes (though we have started to find more lately).  To him, his free time is best spent pretending or swinging in the backyard, though he does enjoy playing games and he even asked me to teach him to sew a little bit this past month.

Reading Gabriel his reading assignment from school

Corban is growing up too fast and I want him to stay my snuggly little guy forever, but he's developing more and more his own distinct likes, dislikes, and opinions on various things.  It's fun to see him learning new things and getting excited about independent things that he finds interesting or fun.  I am so proud of how hard he works at school (even though he doesn't love it), his kind and sensitive heart, and I am so thankful that he's our son.

Start of School

3rd and 5th grade are off and running.  Corban is in Mrs. Martin's class and has the same group of 6 kids from last year.  Gabriel is in Mrs. Heller's class and they lost a few of the girls from last year so now they are a pack of 8.  Each of the boys has 2 girls in their class and the rest are energetic boys.  Gabriel is excited that this year he leaves his classroom first thing in the morning and heads over the middle school building for math.

 

Summer

In spite of the unexpected start to the summer we still found things to do, both outside and inside.  We frequented the $2 summer movie each week and there are some pictures below of some other things that we did.

At the creek with Aela (before 5/27)

Aquatic Center Summer Bash (before 5/27)

The Friday after we got home from the hospital Gabriel's violin teacher did an outdoor performance.  It was the perfect, calm thing to do outside.  And they got to push Dad on a big swing.

Camping trip with Dad where they saw wild horses

Corban went to swim camp and brought a friend from school, Jordan, to fill Gabriel's spot.  They had fun each day swimming, having swimming lessons, playing outside, doing group activities, and watching a movie at the end of the day.

This year brought the return of Summer Bible Camp at church.  Taylor did the teaching and I did the snacks.  Lot of other people volunteered to make it a fun few days for all the kids.

The week of July 4th Taylor was out of town at a youth camp.  He dropped the boys off at his parents before he left and they had a good time with Pop Pop, Gammer, Aunt Tracy, and Drew.  I drove down on July 4th after I had worked the day prior and we went to a festival and parade in downtown Braselton.  Honestly, I think their favorite part of the outing was finding a store called "Art of the Nerd" full of Pokemon cards and action figures.

We spent a day at a science museum with the Spears and then had fun the next day playing at their house after we spent the night with Grandma Cheryl

The week after we came home the boys went to a 3 day free camp at VT run by the chemistry department.  The grad students include the kids in learning about their research and doing experiments both outside and in the lab on campus.  Both boys got to go this year and had a really good time

Duck Pond

Minor League Red Sox game with friends from church

Chilling in the backyard with their drinks on boogie boards

Corban swinging wrapped up in his towel

Bowling with friends.  Corban was so excited to win!

At Chilis for Daddy's birthday (they finally opened one in Roanoke). 
The boys thought the staff singing to Taylor was hilarious.

One Saturday I drove the boys out to the Green Valley Book Fair.  It's quite a drive, but Corban's class had gone there on a field trip and had talked it up to Gabriel.  I have a hard time saying "no" to discount books and there is a very yummy ice cream place down the street.

Pulaski River Turtles Baseball courtesy of Carilion

We went to the beach the first week in August.  The boys loved playing in the sand and drifting over waves (actually Corban liked diving into them).  It was nice to just have a week of no set time to get up (we let the boys watch cartoons on the TV in their room in the morning, which they thought was great), simple meals, introducing them to tacky beach gift shops, and playing mini golf.

This kid was fearless and all about the waves

We let them pick out one thing in the giftshop.  They both went with pirate
weapons and masks (we had recently watched Pirates of the Caribbean )

Gabriel spent a long time collecting these little sand creatures.  He had them in a bucket with some water and sand.  As he found each one he added it to the bucket and watched in burrow itself down into the sand.  He even named a couple of them.  He was so gentle with them and when we were done for the day he placed them each back in a wet and sandy place and watched them burrow down to safety

We went to Touch a Truck at the mall.  We've gone to this every year that it has happened since they were little.  The boys don't want to wait in the long times to climb on most of the trucks, but they like walking by the vendors (getting free candy) and looking at things.  They especially loved the SWAT truck and asked the officers there all kinds of good questions.

Lunch at Panda after Touch a Truck.  I guess it's kind of a tradition
because they remember doing it and want to do it again each time. 
Gabriel is reading a book to Corban on the Kindle.

 And before we knew it, it was time for school to start and Corban's 8th birthday. . .