Cameron's 11th Birthday

Cameron is 11!  We are fully now into the tween and teen years in our household. It's been tricky at times, but mostly it's just so fun to watch these boys grow up, change, learn about themselves and become more of who God created them to be. 

We had a super fun celebration with all of Cam's closest friends at the Sky Zone trampoline park.  It was the perfect place to take a large group of active 5th graders. They had tons of trampolines, foam pits, this awesome slide that launched you into a foam pit, things to jump off of or areas to battle someone and throw them into a foam pit, etc. The kids played hard for an hour and then we had a pizza lunch. 

Cam's friends who came were Vander, Devin, Jackson, Warner, Keegan, Ellis, Torin, Isabella, Willa and Liam. Such a fun group!  

The big gift this year was an electric scooter that we gave to Cam earlier in the summer so he could enjoy it and ride around with friends all over Snoqualmie. 

Here are the aspects about Cam we want to remember from this age:

• Cameron is a really good friend. He has always had a pretty easy time making friends and he is close friend with a variety of people. He of course has his closest friends which would be Vander, Liam, and Jackson probably, but he is able to move between groups and hang out with multiple people.  Social stuff is getting trickier this year--you can see the middle school stuff start to creep in even early in 5th grade. So we're navigating that with him and trying to teach him how to navigate when friends are hurtful or clique-ish. But for the most part he has a really fun group of friends who hang out all over the Ridge and are always up for some adventure
• Cameron still continues to amaze us with his artistic skills. This year he's been very into drawing. He can look at a picture and replicate it almost perfectly or even better than the original. He draws lots of different subjects--cartoon characters, scary creatures, cars, animals, scenes, etc. And he'll stay up in his room for hours just drawing--it really is his happy place. He still likes to watercolor too and then this year he's gotten into building little models of houses/stores. It's so amazing to watch his creativity come alive in so many ways. 
• His soccer skills have grown a lot this year and he's even been asked to play on the Green team--the top team in his age group as a guest player in multiple games. Those more challenging games have really helped him improve his ball handling skills and he's much more aggressive and tough when going up against opponents.  And he's one of the younger ones on the team so he's really had to learn how to hold his own. Next year the soccer league shifts to being by grade level instead of year you're born so Cameron won't play with most of the boys he plays with now. But we're excited to see where he ends up and how he continues to grow in the sport. 
• Cameron really used to struggle with managing his big emotions and this year we've seen so much growth and progress in that area. We took him to see a counselor a couple times last summer which he really enjoyed and she was helpful for giving him some language and imagery to describe what he experiences when his emotions are high. We definitely see less major breakdowns or him struggling to control himself. Probably some of that is to do with age, but also I think Cameron has learned some good coping skills to help him. 
• Some of Cameron's favorite activities right now are: playing Lucky Rot on Fortnite with friends, playing Roblox and Rocket League video games, playing basketball or football outside, riding his e-scooter around Snoqualmie with friends, drawing or painting, playing with Ollie, watching shows like Stranger Things, doing Facetime with friends on his iPad, and reading funny mystery novels. 
• His 5th grade experience has been a little tougher than his 4th grade experience. His teacher, Ms. Weiss (who Nathan also had) has been a little more strict and tougher on the class. Cameron gets along well with Ms. Weiss but I think there's a lot of tension in the class and misbehaving and she gets grumpy often. I think she looks to Cameron to be a leader, but sometimes it's hard when a lot of the kids are struggling to connect or get along with Ms. Weiss. Cameron makes the most of it, but I wish it was a little more fun for his last year at elementary. Ms. Gjurasic from last year set a high bar!
• Cam is a fashionista much like his brother. In fact he's always sneaking into his brothers clothes hand-me-downs to get new sweatshirts or shoes even if they're too big for him. He loves to put outfits together and be intentional about looking cool. This year he also got his first cologne too! 
• Cameron is still our sweet boy with such a tender heart. He snuggles with us and is very caring and sensitive. If we get in a disagreement we are both quick to say sorry because it just doesn't feel right to not be in a good place with each other. I really enjoy our times in the morning together. We have great 1:1 time after Nathan and James have left for the day. We eat/make breakfast together, practice spelling words, play with Ollie and just talk about how life is going. Conversations before bed are always so special with Cameron as well. Just love those little connection times with him and getting to see more into his heart and mind. I hope his sensitive, empathetic personality always stays a part of him. 

So grateful for 11 years with amazing and special Cameron!