Jacob recently went to the orthodontist.  A consultation with a new ortho in town.  More palate expanders in our future.  Because there is not much room, that could be part of why the teeth are not dropping in as they should be.  So, we will begin Jacob sometime in the next couple of months.  Looks like they have about 12 months worth of stuff to do and then we will just sit and wait to see how the teeth drop in.  Hopefully a phase 2 will not be needed.

Joseph has been so tired lately, although he is sleeping in. The other night I made sure he was down early.  He had gotten in trouble and refused to go get in bed.  I let him just stay upstairs, talking away.  Well, he ended up falling asleep on the stairs.  I made the mistake of not immediately checking on him.  After a few minutes of silence, we heard him tumble down the stairs.  He did not hit the bottom but he was so tired he did not fully wake up.  I carried him to bed and he did not remember it the next morning.

Thankfully, whenever the boys get money, I always put some back in savings.  It is a good thing this time around, because Joseph's birthday money is just burning a whole in his pocket ~ which drives me nuts.  Every time we pass the dollar store, he wants to stop and go buy something.  I am ready for this kid to learn the value of a dollar!  He loves to spend money because people give him money back.  He does not quite grasp that the change that is returned is less than the money he gives.

Benjamin had a great time at Scholarship camp.  He told me he does not want to miss a year going forward, which makes me so happy.  Here are a few pictures I took of the camp when I picked him up.

One of the cabins.

This was the chapel.  I like the mosquito netting as the walls.

The camp took over 1,000 pictures during the week.  Then they downloaded them to a USB and put the USB in a special plastic slap bracelet for the campers to wear home....really cool idea.  Anyway, all of these pictures came from the USB slap bracelet.  (Benjamin is not in some of these pictures, but it shows more of the camp and activities.)

Most of these people are from our local AWANA club.

This was a game called Sponge Bob, where each team had to pass a huge wet sponge down the line and then squeeze the water out.  The goal was to fill your bucket the fastest.  Benjamin is in the middle, with sky blue shirt on.  He loved this game.

One of the lenses on his glasses popped out and he could not find it.  He forgot I packed his spare pare.  He somehow functioned okay without them.

He was most excited about paintball.  They wore the masks and vests.  Turns out the paint is more of a powder and came out of clothes.  This is a weird shot...not sure if Benjamin is taking his gear off or on.  The guy standing next to him is a friend of his who is the same age, despite the huge height difference.  (It helps when your mom is 6 ft and dad is 6' 2" and his mother's brother is 6' 7.)

Not sure what he was looking at.

Another water game (sure is nice to see him in different clothes throughout the week)

He has the tongue thing going on in all his concentration pictures!

This was Israeli dodgeball ~ you had to hit them below the knees.

They had a human swing that Benjamin enjoyed.

They had about 100 campers and about 25 staff (all volunteers).

Benjamin was on the red team, front row, 3rd from the left ~ if you were looking.

Everyday they spent time in small groups doing bible study.  I guess Benjamin was more focused on the camera than studying.

Two pictures from mail call!

A great camp experience and he is already talking up next year.  I like that he is already telling Jacob how much he would enjoy it!!!  AWANA is such an amazing program and I am very thankful for the opportunity he had to go to one of their camps.