Celebrating our Birthday Boy!

Our big boy is 10 - is this when we start to call him a Tween?  I'm just having a hard time with him being so old!  It just seems like yesterday that we brought him home or that we realized he was joining our family even!  Parker is turning into such a great young man though.  He is just amazing with his little brother and sister (most of the time:).  i.e.: This morning he started a water fight with his brother then deserted him but left the water with our little man.  This ended up with one of Parker's art pieces being destroyed by water and his devastated reaction followed by Carter holding him and saying "I sowwy Pawkew" and patting his back!  From 'tragedy', such sweetness.  :)  They are always a joy!

It really is fun to see how they grow up - I know he's only 10 but yesterday, I mean, a year and a half ago we celebrated with him that he was half way to leaving us for college.  Although he says he will be at home forever.  :)  Parker had some struggles staying focused at school this past year and we have had a fear that he would loose his love of learning.  Looking at this after 3 months of prayer and investigation, we have discovered that it was just God's way of getting our attention to get on track for where He wanted us to be with Parker and as a family.  We are 'holding our nose and jumping' into homeschooling for 2012/13 school year which feels like a fast moving train coming toward us.  The thing I'm reminded that I can do at this point besides read, read, read to get prepared is to just trust in the Lord with all my heart and know that He will direct our path.  It's all very overwhelming but we are taking one bite at a time to learn.  We are all very excited about what the end of summer brings us this year!

So at 10 years old, Parker loves, loves playing with his siblings and prays every night for another sister.  He is still into legos and anything creative and is enjoying playing LAX.  Most of the time, Parker is very giving and thinking of others.  He is full of joy!  This year's celebration included a trip to the new LegoLand Creativity Center at Phipps Plaza with his friend Andrew.  They had a blast!  A couple of weeks ago at the homeschool conference, Parker discovered Duct Tape Armor.  Since then, he has been completely into making it and planning wars with his friends (below PVC pipe for making swords).  He also got a new kitten a few weeks before his birthday and has been having so much fun with her.  We all are actually - she is just supper playful and keeps us laughing.  So this is what 10 is like!  We love it!