El Mayor Turns 8!

Sammy's birthday is a bit of a blur.  We celebrated a few days early with his friends at a near-by pool where the boys played, ate salchipapas and returned home for homemade ice cream cake.  On he day of his actual birthday we werein Quito picking up a team from our church.  He had cinnamon buns with a candle at the Guesthouse in Quito and lemon cake as requested with the team after our pizza for dinner, but most of the day was spent driving.  Surprisingly, he thought it was all pretty cool and enjoyed riding on the bus with the team back to Shell.  Eventually he got his presents when the team's luggage arrived 2 days later.  He was very excited about the Star Wars lego, science of space kit and the model airplane that he can put together with Dad.

We love seeing Sammy learn and grow and all his stages are new to us.  He still loves to read and has recently been reading The Hardy Boys.  He loves playing Wii and has made it through the levels in Star Wars this summer.  He enjoyed the special bonus of having a friend his age on our church's mission team this summer and did VBS in Spanish every day, translating for his friend.  He is a huge help with Isaac - gets him dressed and reads to him and he taught Isaac to say "Luv you, Be-Mul."  He keeps up in his daily children's Bible, sometime catching up during the sermon in Spanish!  He is always willing and exctied to try new things, but is also content to be a homebody as well.  He is reliably an optimist and sets a tone of enthusiasm for our family adventures.  We are so thankful that God answered our prayers 10 years ago with Samuel Paul Barton!