Andrew's 7th Birthday

How is it that my second little baby is already 7 years old? Andrew is my funny, sensitive, inquisitive, lovable guy with a passion for all things dinosaur. He isn't really into a lot of "book" work as far as school goes, but he loves when he can do projects or science experiments or games, anything hands-on. He is pretty good when it comes to numbers and reads fairly well now, but it's dinosaurs that draw his attention from anything else academic. He can tell you the name of at least 30 different dinosaurs and tell you random facts about equally as many. He studies his Dinosaur Encyclopedia he got for Christmas and watches dino shows on TV regularly. He wants to be one of the few Christian paleontologists when he grows up-- already scoffing at those who say the earth is millions of years old.

 His second passion is video games. He loves the XBox and will lose himself in a game. When he puts his mind to accomplishing a goal on a game, he won't stop till he gets there. He loves a race car game we have, and a Disneyland game where you complete a variety of tasks around a virtual park. He is really pretty good at computer-related things.

He is still progressing in Taekwando, already up to green belt, which has taken a full year. He rarely practices outside of class, but enjoys going to class, and I think will eventually dedicate more time to the sport so he can work his way up to black belt. He enjoys sparring, as well. He likes to be outside, but only if there's something specific to do. He's usually good at imagining he's some sort of wild animal and will play to that extent, but often he gets bored just being in the backyard. He is always full of questions! He has to sit in the car where he can see the dashboard because he likes to see how fast we're going and see how all the things work. He is curious and imaginative.

This year of course he had to have a dinosaur themed birthday party. We invited a few of his friends from church (unfortunately there are only about 2 boys that are close to his age & they are not regular-attenders-- there are lots more girls!) the Saturday before and had cake and just played in the house. I think he had a great time and enjoyed being with his friends and opening his gifts.

I love putting time & effort into their cakes, and this is one of my favorites I've done. The volcano was definitely the most fun part! 

His gifts from his friends (Autumn, Beau & Colby) included a kite, a ball, and a couple trucks.

We bought him a Nature Explorer vest (which has pockets for binoculars, a compass, etc.-- it's similar to one worn by a character in his favorite show Dino Dan), a Sketch Pad (which quickly became a "Dino Field Guide"), and then on his actual birthday he opened a new Bible (not a storybook one) and a Dinosaur Science Kit.