Andrew is 7 years old!

Today is Andrew's birthday and it's hard to believe that he is already 7!  He is growing up so fast.  I can't believe that he will be getting baptized in a year.

Andrew had a great birthday (I think!).  He woke up early and played video games with Seth and got to play for way too long.  He had some lunch and we played outside and then he and the boys went over to our neighbors to play on their bouncy house / water slide thing.  They had a blast and played for like 2 hours almost!  We came home and the boys played more video games (!) until I finally got a little bit of food in them and then we went to Andrew and Seth's joint birthday party.

We won a free party at a nearby party place / kid care place called Jump Fit.  I still can't believe we won, but it was a really great party.  They have a really fun bouncy house and a big indoor play ground and basketball and air hockey.  We invited several of Andrew's school friends, but there is no school directory or anything, so I have no idea how many of the invitations actually made it home.  Only one came, but he also had several friends there from church as well as our neighbors. We'll have to rethink how we do it next year.  Anyways, the kids had a blast just running around for an hour (there was only two girls there, so they spent a lot of time chasing the girls, go figure).  Then, we had cake - Andrew picked chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting and chips and lemonade and opened presents.  Andrew was excited about all of them - let's see:  he got a couple gift cards and a spiderman toy and a sling shot and some little toys and also from us he got binoculars and book light for reading at night and from his grandparents he got an airplane making kit.  It all looks really fun.  He has already played with the slingshot and has been looking at the moon with the binoculars.  Then, the boys all played some more.  It really was a fun party and I am so grateful we won it.  It sure made our life a little easier this summer.

Then, we made a fire in our fire pit and had hot dogs and eggs and chicken outside and now the boys are camping out in the backyard in the tent.  It should be a fun night - we'll see if anyone sleeps!

Other than his birthday, Andrew has been super busy reading.  Most days, he comes home and goes straight for his books.  He is finishing up the last Magic Tree House book today - boy, those 51 books sure went fast!  We'll have to see which series he gets caught in next.

He still loves to play.  He plays army and makes hideouts and elaborate structures all over the upstairs.  It is his favorite thing to do.  He also likes to play video games when we let him.  He likes to be sneaky and do tricky things.  He is starting to enjoy telling jokes.

Andrew learned to ride his bike, but he hasn't spent a lot of time doing that (Katsu needs to be around a little more to help because I can't launch him on the bike very well).  He likes to help around in the garden and is good at watering or harvesting plants.  He likes to play outside on the playset in the "fort".  He likes to run around and play with and tease his brothers.  And he loves to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk.

Fun Things in April:

- General Conference - the boys probably paid attention to all of one session but they still really enjoy this tradition.
- Soccer games - Andrew finished out the season and got a trophy.  I don't know if he got any goals this season, but he tries - he doesn't have a lot of innate athletic ability and isn't a great runner and doesn't have a lot of ambition, but he tries hard and doesn't get discouraged or give up.  Still, I think this season was a little frustrating for him.  I thought he didn't want to play again next season, but today he was asking me if he could still get a free Chic-fil-a sandwich on soccer day if he wore last year's shirt.  I told him that that wouldn't be honest.  After some thought, he told me he wanted to play again next fall.  We'll see.  Andrew likes the trophies, the snacks, and sitting and talking to the other boys on the sideline.  If only I could find an actual activity that he enjoys as well!
- Andrew had a field day at school.  He seemed mostly worn our and frustrated that he didn't get to do all the "fun" activities, but I bet he had fun, too.
- PIRATE FEST.  We went to a soccer game and then went to pirate fest.  We bought some tickets for bouncy houses, but didn't have time to do everything, so after another soccer game and some Sonic (with free coupons from Pirate Fest), we went back to Pirate Fest.  It was so fun - all the bouncy houses and the fun carnival games, and we watched a BMX bike show and I feel like we ran into everyone we know.  Greenville is really a small town in some ways.  The boys can't wait to go back next year.
- Easter Egg Hunt at school - they put words on the eggs and gave each kid a list and you had to find the words on your list.  Andrew was disappointed that he didn't win the prize by being first - he was really upset that it wasn't fair because one of the eggs he had, the word fell off.  He also was upset that he didn't get to bring in extra eggs, but I know he still had fun.  How lucky to celebrate Easter at school at all!
- Our traditional Easter activities.  We did a little more low key this year.  The boys' favorite for Palm Sunday was watching the Skit Guys skit on Palm Sunday on You Tube.  They thought it was the most hilarious thing ever!  We also had all our traditional food (passover dinner with real lamb this time, our Jesus dinner with traditional foods, hot cross buns, resurrection rolls, and the traditional ham dinner).  Andrew wanted to have EVERY single food on the list for our Jesus dinner, but it wasn't quite possible.  We also tried a symbolic dinner one evening while reading through a couple chapters in Mark where each food was symbolic of something in the story.  The kids really enjoyed it so we will have to do it again!
- Spring Break started on Good Friday, so Katsu took the day off and we went to the zoo - it's about 2.5 hours away, but the drive really didn't seem that bad.  Andrew and Logan LOVED it!  Andrew was a little sad we missed one of the animals, but it was such a long walk around the zoo (I think they had like 5 miles of walking within the zoo).  We brought a lunch and had it half way and thankfully there was lots of places to play for the kids near the end, too.  It was a nice zoo in a woody setting.  We all really enjoyed it.
- Easter - we had two egg hunts.  One at church on Saturday (I was so glad because the boys are so sad that most of the church or community egg hunts here are on Sunday right during church).  The boys got tons of eggs.  Then, we had an egg hunt at home on Sunday morning.  It was a lot of fun - if the weather was better, we might have had it outside, but it was a pretty wet and rainy weekend.
- Gardening - we spent a lot of time in April getting our garden ready.  The boys are always excited when new things grow - to watch the daffodils and tulips pop out or new strawberries to start growing.
- Spring Break - we all ended up getting sick with colds, so it was a pretty boring spring break.  We were going to go out and do things, but unfortunately, we mostly stayed home and watched way too many  movies.  Oh, well.  Next year, we'll do fun things!
- Family Fun Day - after the last soccer games, Katsu and the boys went to the ECU family fun day at a big recreational facility they have north of the city.  The boys had a blast - I won't get all the details right, but they played games, bounced in bouncy houses, and went canoeing and got quite wet.  They had lots of yummy snacks, too.  A great way to end the soccer season.

Fun Things So Far in May
- Jarvis Fun Day  - after going to Seth's T-ball practice, we went over to Jarvis (where Seth & Logan go to preschool) for their family fun day.  Wow - it was really a lot of fun.  It was pretty hot, but we still had loads of fun.  We all got some hot dogs and popcorn for lunch.  Then, the boys had snow cones and cotton candy for snacks.  They played all the games and got tickets - Andrew redeemed his for a candy bar.  Much to Katsu's chagrin, no one was convinced to pool their tickets to get a full size basketball.  They, the boys played in bouncy houses - I think they had 4 in the church's parking lot!  And it was all free!  They even got to see a firetruck.  It was really fun and boy were we worn out afterwards.
- Children's Day - to celebrate Japanese children's day, we put our special wind socks and then we went out for Japanese food for dinner.  The boys LOVED it and have been very motivated to use their chopsticks to eat even more at home.
- Second Grade Move Up Night - Andrew and I went to a presentation about going to second grade.  I have no concerns and know he will do great, but I was a little concerned that the teachers didn't have good suggestions about some new series for Andrew to read.  He loved being out with me and getting pizza, but found the presentation boring.
- Birthday!!!

A few other noteworthy events.  There was a lot of tornados nearby the last couple of weeks, which has been scaring Andrew half to death.  We also have been going on exploring walks int he neighborhood, which Andrrew loves.  We found out where the trail in the woods goes (to the neighboring neighborhood) and we saw over 10 deer one morning on a walk!  A fun month or two.