Happy Birthday to Sammy

Yesterday (May 23) was was Sammy's 5th birthday. He has the same birthday as my (Blaine's) dad. The little guy pretty much never gets up any earlier than 7:45, but he was up around 6:30 and making all kinds of funny noises and comments about it being his birthday, and thankfully he kept himself occupied because I was zonked on Benedryl (allergies) only half understanding him. He waited patiently till 9:oo when mom was done with her work before opening his presents. The coolest was one of those little styrofoam remote control helicopters.

Later we braved the weather (snow and fog in late May) and drove down the mountain to a place called "John's Incredible Pizza" which is like Chuck E. Cheese's on steroids with an all you can eat buffet to satisfy any glutton. Elisa's parents brought Danni and Michelle, Sammy's cousins, and Elisa's cousin Sylvia and husband Ralph brought their kids Lexi and David, and Jeremy and Nichole Dismuke brought Jaden and Austin (and baby Jonathan).

Among other cool gifts, Sammy got a little practice casting pole. Now he can start planning that fishing trip with Ace Harrison (see the Harrison blog), although Vanderschuits don't seem to have as much naturally occurring omega-3 fish oil in their blood as the Harrison's apparently do. On the fishing topic, Aaron did catch 3 or 4 blue gill last summer with just the broken end of a fishing rod, and kissed one of the fish on the lips for the camera (where is that blasted pic?). We'll see how Sam's love affair with fish develops.