Sam's Rites of Passage

Sam has had quite a busy month, and has enjoyed a couple of "rites of passage".

First off was the first day of Kindergarten. Doesn't he look ready to face the world? Because we live right down the sidewalk from the school, the boys get to walk home and I can watch them the whole way, very convenient. Well, on the first day of Kindergarten, I walked down to the door of the school thinking that Sam would want to see me there as he came out the door on his first big day. I was obviously wrong about that assumption and was corrected the next day on the way to school. He informed me that he did not want me to walk down and meet them after school, he wanted to walk just with Tyler. I said to him, "I thought you might like me to walk home with you on your first few days of school." To which he replied, "No, I can see you when I get home. I want to walk with Tyler, then I can talk to him alone." I am not sure what great secrets they are sharing on the way home from school, but it is fun to see him so independent, Sam was definitely ready to start school.

Next came Sam's birthday! Six years old! He was looking forward to this for weeks! (of course, what kid doesn't?)

Sam decided to decorate his own birthday cake this year. Seeing as my boys are extremely engrossed in Lego's these days, it was no surprise that he wanted a Lego cake. First I was to bake a cake that was round and frost it with red frosting so it would look like Mars. (Red frosting is really hard to do, ours ended up more pink, but oh well.) Then Sam designed the scene on top! Here are the good guys capturing the aliens on Mars. If you look carefully you will see one little alien is in his containment unit...

And then, to top it all off, two days ago Sam lost his first tooth! He has been wiggling it for weeks now, and has been very excited about his first loose tooth. I feel like we are a little tooth factory right now, with all three boys wiggling and losing teeth in the last couple of weeks. Well, Sydney could not be left out and has been randomly proclaiming, "I have a loose tooth, see?"
So, here's our little toothless boy and his tiny little tooth...

Tyler helped him set up a little table in his room and then they wrote this note for the Tooth Fairy. It says, (in case you need help deciphering) "What cand (kind) of tooth did I lose?" And, as you can see, we now have proof that the Tooth Fairy is real, as she actually answered...
The little smiley face was Sydney's addition.