Birthdays and other happenings

Happy birthday to our nine year old boy! Wow, it's been an amazing journey. He turned nine on Friday and had a great birthday which he celebrated all weekend with a birthday dinner, stellar swim meet and a big party. Friday I made homemade pizza, homemade ice cream and cherry chip cake. Grandma Mindy joined us for the festivities. When Sean told Benjamin it was Alex's birthday, Benjamin immediately said, "Blow out candles." Good thinking, little guy! Alex received some nice presents plus we are planning to get a guinea pig. That hasn't happened yet as we're still looking into it and Sean wants to handle one to see if he is allergic. We'll update more on that later.

Also, on Friday, we attended the kids' reader walk at school. Emma was a little hesitant at first, but burst into a radiant smile when she saw us in the hallway. We also saw her at the end of the parade and she was really getting into it. How fun to have the whole school cheering for reading achievements. The swim meet was awesome! Emma swam in a meet for the first time ever and did wonderfully. She was in the first heat of 6 and under girls and got second in her heat. It was so cute to watch her go...After going off the starting block (yeah, Emma!), she swam about half way before making a 90 degree turn and heading to the lane line. The girl in the next lane was also taking a breather on the line, so they stopped to look at each other for a few seconds. Then each girl would let go, swim a few strokes and grab the line again. After repeating this a few times, Emma finally swam the last few yards without stopping. She did great and she's all ready to go again next week! My mom commented that Emma received star treatment since she had a coach holding her hand at the beginning and the pit parent wrapped her up in a towel at the end.

Alex had his best meet ever. He swam in 2 relays and 3 individual races and got 1st place in each race. He got 5 heat ribbons and now has lots of blue ribbons as well. He also qualified for invitationals in backstroke. It was like getting another birthday present.

On Sunday, Alex had his rock climbing birthday. All the kids successfully made it to the top of the wall. Beforehand, I told Emma she needed to wear socks so she could climb. She informed me that she would NOT be climbing. I corrected that silliness since we knew she would love it. Sean gave her guidance on her first couple trys and then she was off like a rocket. My favorite part was watching her come back down with her hair bouncing and flying. Alex had a fun group of friends and enjoyed every moment.

Now, it's back to reality. Alex showed up after school yesterday with a 102 degree fever and an upset stomach. It appears he has what Emma and Benjamin had a few weeks ago. We're determined that he won't get dehydrated though. So far, his stomach hasn't seemed nearly as bad as Emma's was.

Tomorrow is the last day of school. Hopefully, Alex won't miss it. He wants to say good-bye to his friends and teachers. Yesterday, Emma brought her teacher a gift from the teacher store. Over the weekend, we went to get a gift certificate, but Emma wanted nothing to do with that. She wanted to get her something. Emma picked out a pretty beaded lanyard for her teacher's ID card and 2 dry erase markers. She insisted we get the markers since her teacher's were drying out. Very thoughtful of her.

Have a great day and thanks for following the Buckley family adventures.