Sam turns 10!

On June 2, 2011, Sam turned ten! I can remember holding Sam as a newborn and saying, "When you are 10, I'll be 32, but don't worry that is a very, very long time from now". It seems like I was just saying that to him! I also remember as an infant lamenting to my Mom that I felt as though I was wishing his infancy away. Infants are so boring, and I couldn't wait for him to "do something". I thought he would never grow up, that he would never get bigger. It seemed to take forever for him to go to Kindergarten and now he is a fifth grader and next year my FOURTH baby will be a Kindergartner. How does time to do that?? I'm so glad I'm blogging again so that I can remember all of the precious time I have had with them!

For Sam's entry into double digits, we had his best buddy Sanjiv over and headed to the pool for pizza and playing! After a couple of hours we returned home for ice cream cake, a Spencer/Leppert tradition!! I've had this cake every year for my birthday for as long as I can remember. This year my sweet friend Connie even made this cake for me as a surprise! YUM! Sam's cake had strawberry ice cream. My absolute favorite! A child after my own heart.

The large sprinkles make this cake!

I got the "Mom of the Year" award when I forgot candles and had to use the 3 and the 2 from my party two weeks before. "I'd like to thank the committee....."

Blowing out candles and opening gifts! I just noticed the half naked boys in the background! HA!!

Now for ten things I love about my ten year old:

1. Sam is the most studious child I have ever seen. We started homeschooling this past year and I rarely have to remind him to get his school work done. When we started homeschooling I had to take him back a year in our math curriculum. This year we are trying to catch up, so he does math 7 days a week! He is learning a ton and only complains occasionally :)

2. Sam is such a helper, I don't know what I would do without him. He is always watching out for the other kids and almost never gets fussy when I ask him to vacuum our first floor or take out the garbage.

3. Sam loves his siblings. I asked him to take Joel to the bathroom at Wal-Mart this afternoon and he joyfully got up, put his arm around his little brother and escorted him exactly where he needed to be.

4. Sam is obsessively clean! While this quirk sometimes gets on my nerves and earned him the moniker of Mr. Clean at church, I also really appreciate this about him as I know he will never come to the table with dirty hands or try to pass germy hands off as clean ones!

5. Sam is very talented in so many ways. Specifically, recently Sam was casted in our church's Christmas musical. That kid learned his lines (a lot by the way) in no time flat and I NEVER had to ask him to work on them. He also has a singing part and my heart swelled with pride tonight at practice as he sang about God using "an ordinary Joe".

6. Sam is an excellent swimmer. You should see this kid do the butterfly. All I have to say is watch out Michael Phelps!!

7. Sam is very responsible with his money. He can save with the best of them. The boys get a weekly allowance, we make them save 40% for a car. I love hearing about his dreams of buying a Corvette when he is 16. He is totally not an impulse buyer. He saves the 50% of his allowance that he is allowed to spend for fabulous, well thought out things.

8. Sam is very handsome. I was just telling him yesterday that we are going to have to beat the ladies off with a stick! You should see his abs, swimming is good for abs!! Sam also has a great sense of humor. Handsome + Humor = watch out girls!

9. Sam loves to talk to me and I love to talk to him! He loves to come home from the Wednesday night youth program and tell me all about his night. He gets pretty upset if the other kids aren't in bed and he doesn't have his special time. I like that. I hope he always wants to talk to me!

AND FINALLY

10. Sam has a real heart for the Lord. He loves to work on his Community Bible Study Curriculum and can't get enough of church. I pray this part of his heart never changes.

We love you Sam! You make us unbelievably proud everyday and we are blessed to be your parents!!

Happy very belated birthday!!