Sam's Special Day

Friday was Sam's Special Day at school. He got to be the "Star Helper" and the center of attention. Mick and I spent the morning at school with him and brought a poster full of pictures to show his class. They loved the picture of Sam in his little baby helmet. Sam proudly told them it helped make his "lucky bump" smaller. He's called it that ever since he saw Nemo. Do you remember when Marlin, the dad, refers to Nemo's damaged fin as lucky? Cracks me up.

The theme this year is Hedgie's Surprise based on Jan Brett's book. He got a birthday bag full of stuff with Hedgie's picture on everything. My special 5-year-old:

He was definitely a star helper. He loved every minute of it and made sure Mick and I knew that he was first in line for everything.
Sam's class. Notice Mick playing with play-dough in the background. He didn't care if it was Sam's special day. He thought he was pretty special for getting to come to school and play with all the fun stuff.
Picking the day and weather.
Everybody sang Happy Birthday to him while he held the birthday cake. Can you tell how happy he is? Then he got to make a wish and blow out the candles. I wonder what he wished for.
At one point I caught Sam and his friends building a tall tower. I decided to stay close in case Sam (or Mick) decided to make it crash. It was fun to spend time with Kennadee and Audrey again. They were in Sam's pre-school co-op last year.

The theme for the day was Gingerbread Men. They read stories, had a puppet show, and ate gingerbread for their snack. Sam got to eat his with a special birthday plate and cup.

Art time. Mick was in heaven.
He loved playing with these little ponies and the doll houses. Probably because they don't exist at our home.
I think he's gonna love going to Bethany next year.

I had to take a picture of this apple bell. My family had one of these (and one shaped like a pear) when I was growing up. When we got really sick we got to keep the bell next to our bed to "ring" mom when we needed her. Did we ever drive you crazy with that bell Mom?
I'm so glad yesterday was a special day for him because today wasn't so great. Today is his actual birthday and we spent it stuck inside. We were planning on going to dinner at his favorite restaurant, Noodles & Co., having friends over in the evening to play, and picking up his birthday cake from the store. Instead we cleaned the house, played games (while the electricity was out), got stuck in the road in front of the house, and watched movies. It has snowed all day and there has to be over a foot of snow out there. My neighbor has snowplowed twice and it needs it again. I had to manually open the garage door to get the car out of the garage. I was totally embarrassed when three neighbors (Thanks Blake!) had to push me back into the garage when I got stuck in the street outside my house. Guess Heavenly Father was telling me to stay put, which I knew already. Church is cancelled tomorrow. I'm praying that Jeff's flight is not. Yep, he's been in sunny Texas during all this. I love you Jeff and am grateful for your academic opportunities, but COME HOME! Sam wants you home too, and he really wants to open his presents from Mom and Dad! I'm not sure which he wants most.