Now for the lost camera bit. I would love to show you all the cool pictures I took with our camera of Sam’s birthday party, but I have no idea where the camera went. Sam says I left it on my desk and someone must have knocked it off into the garbage and now it is sitting in a landfill somewhere. The last time I saw it, it was on the kitchen island by the fruit bowl. I hope it is not in the trash and that it is sitting somewhere in the house hiding out.

Emily played Petite Russian Rhapsody by John Thompson and I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables by Claude-Michel Schönberg:

Anne played the Raindrop Prelude by Chopin and the Minute Waltz by Chopin:

Caroline played Hogwarts Hymn by Patrick Doyle and Can You Feel The Love Tonight by Elton John:

Samuel played Chocolate Cake by Bastien:

Prep work...

Over the years, the kids have become used to concept of me pulling their teeth out. I’ve talked to a few kids Buddy’s age and they all recoil in horror at the idea of their dad pulling out their teeth. Of course, I recoil in disgust at the idea of kids wiggling their tooth for weeks on end until the tooth is finally just hanging by a thread just begging to be yanked out.

Ready, Aim, Fire!

We don’t use fancy methods at our house – no string and hot coal, no string tied to the door – just plain old dental floss tied around the tooth and Dad gives it a firm yank. I would estimate that our success rate is above 90% and only very rarely do we have to use the method of last resort: needle nose pliers.

Success!

Fortunately for Buddy, we were successful this night and he is now the proud owner of a gap-toothed smile. About a week or so later we pulled out two of his bottom teeth within two days. He’s got another one that’s loose on top so we could really turn him into a hillbilly if we wanted to but I think we’ll give that one a few more days of wiggling before we yank it out.

Last night was Samuel’s last game and I finally remembered to bring my camera. I wish BYUFan could have been there because I am not very good at taking pictures that turn out. Maybe next time we sign Samuel up for football BYUFan will be around to take the pictures.

The first two pictures are of Samuel attempting to kick off at the beginning of the game. He was not too successful so another boy had to do it after buddy had his chance.

getting ready to kick

Good Try Samuel!!

Usually Samuel is in the front line trying to keep the other guys away from his guy who has the ball. This time Samuel got to be the one with the ball. I think he did a great job.

Here comes the ball!

GO BUDDY GO!!!!!!!!!!

Sam had a lot more fun in flag football than he did in soccer. I am sure he wants to sign up again soon.

Within the past two weeks Sam has lost two bottom front teeth. He was so happy to have money from the tooth fairy because he wanted to be like his big sisters and buy a soda from the soda machine in front of the grocery store. First he wanted to take all his money and spend it, but I reminded him that he had given the lesson in Family Home Evening on Monday about Tithing and that we needed to put ten percent of his money into tithing. At first he was not happy but then he realized that ten percent didn’t mean all of it. So yesterday while the girls were at piano lessons I took him to the store and he went and bought himself a sprite.

This is a picture of Sam after he lost his first tooth.

Caroline learns to ride a bike

Now that they’ve learned how to ride their bikes we can’t get them to stop. It’s funny how one day they’re whining and moping along with one foot on the curb and one on the pedal and the next day they’re zooming around the neighborhood and doing “jumps” off the curb.

When I run with him down the sidewalk and hold his back he does better, but as soon as I let go, down goes the foot. I think he just needs to learn to have the confidence to ride without help and without fear of falling. I think this will happen with practice-practice-practice.