Sam with Nana and Cousin (Zachary). They refer to each other as "Cousin". Usually with Zach saying "Cousin did it"!
Max, Russell and Jake before they gorged themselves.
Sam with Aunt Kate.
All the Grandkids (minus the two Colorado boys) with Nana and Pa before brunch.
We had such a great time last year at Easter, we decided to make it a ritual. We met the AZ family in Palm Springs!
Jake and Max had watched a haunted house special on the History Channel last Halloween. The boys had become very curious about the Winchester Mansion. Jake had read quite a bit about this place on the internet. We had decided to include San Jose as a stop on our Spring Break trek this year. Sam was convinced he saw a "ghosssst!"
Our Spring Break started this year at Yosemite. The scenery was beautiful and we had a great time in our tent cabin (with bears and all)!
The big boys participated in the Pinewood Derby with their Cub Scout Pack. I was not very familiar with what this was exactly when we first heard about it. The get a "kit" with a block of wood and some wheels and have to turn it into a car to race. We took the kits with us to Arizona over Christmas because we know an excellent woodworking Guru there...Pa! So Jason and Ed helped the boys pick out their designs, and Ed cut them out with his super cool tools. He then showed Jake and Max how to sand them (and we all know how he likes to sand!).
The above picture are the cars from Max's den of Tiger Cubs. His is the blue truck with the snake on the hood. The back has pennies and nickles in it, so he named it Max's Bank Truck. The cars need to be max five ounces. So, if you want to win...they need to be five ounces on the nose. We had to take the cars in to be weighed and impounded a few days before the race. We kept putting coins in the back of Max's truck until we hit the five ounces mark and then we superglued them down.
Jake's den is in this box. His is the green formula one. We are so proud of what a great job they did painting them. Jake's was really lightweight because of the design he chose. I went to the sporting goods store and bought fishing weights to glue on the back to get it up to weight. So now you know why I had super glue residue on my fingers for two days!
Jake's car "Jake's STP Champion" is getting ready for his first heat.
We love the look on his face. You can totally see that he won and is trying to play it cool. He even had a couple of groupies cheering him on.
Max's Bank Truck is at the top of the track. It was very exciting. We went into the evening feeling like novices (some of these parents were expert racers and hardcore about it!). I was prepping the boys beforehand. "Hey guys, you had a lot of fun building the cars with Pa and Daddy. It was fun painting them...this is our first time, so it's okay if we don't win...we still had fun, yada, yada, yada." Then...
Jake took SECOND place in his Den!!! He got a medal and was so excited. It was a really close race too. They had tied, and then his friend Timmy won the tie breaker (with his really cool Shamu car) . We were so excited for Jake!
Then Max's Den was the last to go. And he took FIRST place!!! He had to race off with the other Tiger Den champion, and he won! Now he will race in the Divisional Championships in April. We have the car safely tucked on the very top shelf of the bookcase, lest it be tampered with before the race. So we survived our first Pinewood Derby, and kicked its butt!
Here is the Birthday Boy! We can't believe he is SEVEN already! He had such a great birthday. Jason put little packages of peanuts from Southwest (Max's favorite) all over his bed while he was asleep. There were about a hundred packs. Max woke up and came into our room and said "There are peanuts all over my bed?" He got the biggest kick out of it, and talked about it all day. Sam and I met him after school with some balloons and he said he had a "nutty day".
Max specifically requested a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. "And I want candy on the top" Jake and I designed a Candyland motif. As anyone who knows Max can attest; He can put away the candy! (Really, Candyland reminds me of the two hundred games of it I played with Jake one year. Max was visiting Nana and Pa's during the early summer a couple of years ago, and Jake missed him terribly. He constantly wanted me to play Candyland or Pokemon card battles...boy did I miss Max those two weeks)
Close up of our masterpiece, before it was hacked to pieces by hungry boys!
We got a big tray of nuggets from Chick-fil-a. All the Spear boys are big fans of Chick-fil-a, so we had a sauce tasting. Everyone had to try out all the sauces. (Isn't our new camera cool? It takes such great pictures!) If there was a nugget eating contest...I think Jake won. We lost count of how many nuggets he ate. Sam was walking around like a chipmunk with a nugget in each cheek for about twenty minutes. Ahhh, good times!
Sam, Jake and Olivia were helping Max with his presents. He was chomping at the bit for Jason to get home so he could open them. I don't think the door had quite swung shut behind him before they were all in the dining room party zone, ready to go!
I was just looking at the scrapbook pages from his first birthday party the other day. He was such a cute little chubby chunk. Now he is getting tall and skinny with the cutest freckles on his nose. He is just my little sweetheart. He tells me at least everyday "you're the best mommy". And I tell him "you're the best Max"!
