Happy 9th birthday Joshua!!!!!

Dear Joshua and Luke,

Yes, Joshua turned nine this last week!  Nine years old - a fourth grader!  I can hardly believe it!  The strangest thought I had for the day was that in nine more years Joshua would be going off to college!  That is very difficult to imagine.  It really makes me want to slow the clock down.

Joshua's actual birthday was a very busy day, so we planned to celebrate a day ahead of time.  Joshua chose to take one of his best friends to eat at the Spaghetti Factory with him.  It has been a tradition since his first birthday that we eat at the Spaghetti Factory on his birthday.  Spaghetti is one of Joshua's favorite foods! The bread and Icee at the end is a special treat, too!

On Joshua's actual birthday, we went to the dollar show to see The Lego Movie.  Lunch was at Dairy Queen, and Joshua had library camp at the local library.  That evening was a double header with the best baseball team!   It was a special night.  Joshua got to pitch during the second game!  He loved having the opportunity!  He did well, too.  Then, to make it even more special, one of Joshua's best friends came to the game with his whole family.  This whole family is one of our favorite families as well so it turned out to be an awesome birthday.  To top it all off, Joshua has a birthday party to look forward to later this summer when most of his friends are not on vacation!

The Fourth of July was low key and fun, too.  We spent the day at home, playing basketball and swimming.  Dad grilled and we had yummy side dishes.  Dad even smoked some ribs which were a treat, too.  One of Luke's favorite friends joined us for dinner and the Fourth celebration.  As it got darker, the boys played more basketball and a little trampolining.  Dad had sparklers ready for the boys to write their names and draw shapes in the air.  It was fun watching the city fireworks right from our front yard! 

Happy birthday St. Louis!  

 The next day, Dad and you both went on a six mile hike with the Cub Scout families.  It was the longest hike yet!  You guys did great!  You had lunch on the way down the huge hills which seemed like mountains!  I met you later in the day and we camped out in a tent at the State Park with one of the other families.  It was a short time to camp, but lots of fun.  We learned how to play Mancala and a water balloon game. One team  threw the water balloons to the other team and we had to catch and throw with sheets!  It was fun, and we only got a little wet.  The sheets were a little wet, too.  I really hoped the sheets dried before our friends had to use them to sleep with later that night.  After dark, we watched more fireworks at the riverfront.  Beautiful and tons of fun!!!!!!

Luke's volcano

Finally, we made a volcano at home.  We mixed some concrete mix to make the volcano.  Then, used citric acid and food coloring to make our volcano erupt!  We watched some videos about how real volcanoes erupt, too.   We learned a lot about how volcanoes erupt, what  makes them erupt, warning signs, and where volcanoes are located in the world. It was a fun science lesson even if we are on summer vacation!







I love you both so much.

Love,
Mama