Happy Birthday, Justin!

Friday morning we woke up to some fine chalk art renditions on the driveway courtesy of some of Justin's friends from school wishing him a happy birthday.

They also decorated the tree. We were just glad it was a happy birthday sign and not a case lot of TP!

Later that night, Justin and a few of his friends met up at the park for some football, soccer, and capture the flag. He even had a girl (one of the same who decorated the yard) call to see if she could come to his all boy party. Nice. It has begun. Not sure if I am ready for it. (Did I happen to mention he is now officially old enough for proper documentation that allows him behind a wheel to drive?! Very scary!)

His real birthday was Sunday, so there wasn't a lot of major partying going on that day, but he did enjoy presents and two cakes...an ice cream cake by mom, and a yummy chocolate cake by another one of his friends.

Loser Mom forgot to make sure I had enough candles, so from the few we had kickin' around in the cupboard, he chose to be 1 again. Sorry buddy!

Some of the great things about Justin:

He is kind to everyone.
He has great integrity.
He is a good example to others.
He is a leader.
He knows what is right, and he isn't afraid to tell others.
He keeps us all honest!
He is a great student.
He is responsible.
He is quick to help those in need.
He is fun to be around.

Thanks for being who you are, Justin. We couldn't ask for a better son! We love you!

The Long Awaited Rematch!

Last spring, Justin and Crazygirl were dishing out some serious trash talk about who was the better soccer player. This, of course, led to a challenge game between families. After about an hour of "serious play" we ended the match tied--one game to one. All the old people decided we were too tired for a tie breaker and opted for ice cream instead. It also allowed us all to save face. Well, that may have been an error on our parts because ever since, Justin has been begging for a rematch! It has taken us over a year to arrange it, but it finally happened! The kids decided to make it just a kid rematch, which suited us just fine! Here are all the happy (and friendly) participants before all the fun began.

Stretching is critical! (At lease it is critical to making you look like you know what you are doing. I'm pretty sure the girls completely dominated in this pre-game skill!)

Here are the two "captains," playing nice and exchanging words before the game begins.

That didn't last long! The gloves came off pretty fast and the trash talk and fighting began!

A friendly kick here, a little shove there...it's all fair in a friendly little game of soccer!

Well, the girls started off with a bang, scoring 2 goals in the first few minutes! Justin was getting a little worried and was complaining about something. I believe Kim's comment was along the lines of "Give me a break! You're wearing shin guards!!" The boys were decked out in shin guards and cleats. The girls were wearing no socks and cute little tennies I believe! We'll unfortunately for the girls, those were their last two goals. The boys scored 5 of their own, and play continued until Dancingqueen declared game over! Just in time for us to get home for the REAL game of the day.....BYU vs. Oklahoma!

What an AWESOME game! We grabbed some pizzas and sat down to enjoy the first game of the season, in pretty high spirits, even though we were all sure of the beating about to come! So we were completely surprised and ecstatic with the winning outcome instead! There was a lot of cheering and yelling coming from our basement that day! It was great to enjoy the game with good friends and some good grub! Thanks for a fun day, Fosters!

Here are some happy, true blue fans!!

Ward Camp Out

The boys always look forward to going to the ward camp out. I personally think it is a whole lot of work for a very short trip, but I'm just the mom and the only girl in the family. What do I know? Luckily, once we got there, most of my work was done. I sat back and let the boys get busy putting to use all of their scouting skills.

For the last two years, our ward has gone to a campsite in Wallsburg. It is actually pretty nice. Very beautiful scenery and nice facilities, so once we get there, it's usually pretty fun! This year the camp out unfortunately landed on the same weekend as an activity for some good friends of ours. Their son has juvenile diabetes, and Saturday was a 5K walk and fundraiser for JD. Since Paul is over activities in the ward, we decided we needed to stay overnight at the camp out to support that. So to show support for Parker and his activity, we decided to wear our "Parker's Posse" shirts that everyone in his group had for the walk to the camp out. They were pretty sweet shirts, and it was easy to find all my kids since they had on matching shirts!

Once camp was set up, the boys got right around to having some fun with each other, friends, and playing some stick throwing game called Coob or Cube or something like that!

This was the nice little bridge and river that ran past our campsite. I could hear the gurgling river all night. On one hand, it was very peaceful and naturey sounding. On the other hand, that may have been one of the many contributing factors to me not getting any sleep!

We were up early to break camp and help with breakfast so we could make it back for a friend's baptism. Here are the boys cooking.

And for those of you who have patiently been waiting to see if Justin's second attempt at camp cooking went any better than the last....well, see for yourself...

He was very proud! And they tasted good!