Official Teenager

Spencer turned 13 on April 20th! It is such a weird feeling to have a child that old. Thankfully, Covid restrictions had lifted enough that we could have a small party for him this year. We took his two best buddies (Sawyer and Toby) bowling and then came back to our house for cupcakes and Pokemon trading. We bowled at Langer's for the first time and it was great. They just had us make a reservation for an hour time-slot. They gave us two lanes and we could bowl as many games as we wanted during that hour. The big boys bowled on one lane and Mason and I took the other. I think everyone had a really good time. 

I tried out a new vegan chocolate cupcake recipe to make them safe for Sawyer who has severe dairy and nut allergies. They turned our surprisingly yummy. The weather was beautiful so they boys ate and played in the backyard.

As per tradition, Spencer got to choose the menu for Sunday dinner. Since it was still nice, we had our first backyard bbq of the year. We missed Grandma and Grandpa though!

Spencer's actual birthday was on a Tuesday. He wanted breakfast burritos for his first meal as a teen.

Spencer had asynchronous school (just a couple of hours of school work on his own at home) that day so we decided to go to OMSI to check out their new dinosaur exhibit. Spencer has kind of out grown this sort of thing, but he couldn't think of anything better to do. Haha! Mason had more fun than Spencer did, but it was still nice to be out of the house for awhile.

Spencer chose Papa Murphy's pizza (pepperoni and Italian sausage) for dinner and then Alan started trying to put together the new basketball hoop he gave Spencer. It turned out to be pretty complicated and Alan didn't actually finish it until the next morning. They squeezed in a few minutes of hoops before the bus came. It's fun to watch them play together now that Spencer is big enough to really block and play.

Here's a snapshot of Spencer at 13:

5'8" (He shot up over the pandemic. I'm only 5'2" so he's way over my head now!)

100ish lbs. (still super skinny)

Likes: 

-running: Spencer's muscle mass has increased as he has grown this year and his running has greatly improved as a result. He enjoys it enough to go on his own 2-3 times/week now)

-pretty much any sport except for baseball

-reading: still mostly fantasy. He did OBOB again this year and had a lot of fun with that too.

-Harry Potter Legos

-Pokemon: he and Sawyer can spend hours talking about Pokemon. Sawyer moved to Camas last summer, but we take turns getting them to each other's houses once or twice a month. Hooray for good friends!!

-board games: Risk, Harry Potter Clue, Exploding Kittens, Quirkle, Skip Bo, Yahtzee, etc.

-piano: Spencer was impressively diligent with his piano practicing during the pandemic. We were SO grateful that he was able to continue taking lessons the entire time.

-shooting hoops in the over-the-door hoop in his room

Dislikes:

-Mason coming in his room and touching his stuff

-Zoom school

-tomatoes, squash, roasted veggies, quinoa

Spencer has been serving as his Deacon's Quorum President since January. It has been fun to watch him develop some leadership skills and to learn how to serve in a calling. The Youth programs in The Church are so different than they were when I last served there before Spencer was born. I have been so impressed with how Spencer's leaders give him responsibilities and really allow him to lead. He's in charge of conducting quorum meetings, planning activities with his presidency, assigning boys or leaders to teach every other week, and sending weekly email reminders about the activities. 

Spencer tries really hard to choose the right and reads his scriptures on his own every day. His teenager attitude is definitely coming out a little in his annoyance with Mason though. ;)

It's a little sad watching Spencer out grow some of our old favorite things like parks and splash pads, but it's also exciting to see what an awesome young man he is becoming. 💗

We love you Spence!