Well it has been a long time since I posted here.

 Spencer is 9 now and just started back at school. 4th Grade this year (wow). He is also doing the scout thing and is a 1st year Webelo. 

ttyl

I cannot beleive our car won. The competition was really good this year and I did not think we had much of a chance. As it turned out our car ran really well.

 Here is a video of the races that lead to the win. Special thanks to Mark, Pack 334, and Booney & Kelly. 

Going to make a bunch of posts today and catch up on all that I been missing. Here is a little video of Spencer's 8th Birthday. Starts with him in the morning opening presents, then at Chucky Cheese, then playing some Wii.

Enjoy

Happy 7th Birthday Allie.

Went to the Rays game on 8/1 and watched them beat the Tigers. During the 6th Inning Spencer predicts their win. He was just being silly.

How some dangerous products get in the hands of kids is normally neglect from some parent or merely an accident. Well yesterday on the 4th of July I unknowingly handed my 7 year old a dangerous item, a chocolate milk bottle. Yeah he has had many milks before, everything from bottles, glasses, and even paper cartons. At 7 he is very capable of drinking from a container.

For lunch on the 4th we decided to go healthy and get some Subway. I love eating there. I like that you watch someone prepare your food and the ingredients always seem fresh. I got my son a kids combo with a ham sandwich, apples, and the chocolate milk. I came home and handed him the bag with everything in it. He likes me to just hand him the bag so he can go through it like a Christmas stocking. He always checks out the prize first and then begins eating.

He was eating in the family room while watching some cartoons. Shortly after eating he came to the living room and asked if there was something on his tooth. To my wife and my amazement there was blood. I closely inspected the tooth and I could see a hanging piece of gum on his front tooth. The bottom of the gum was bleeding. At first I was upset with him a little and I was sure he had put something in his mouth he was not supposed too. I thought there is no way he could have injured himself on a ham sandwich or apple slices. I did not even think about the milk. My son sensed he might be in trouble and started with the "I don't know" routine that I am sure many parents are familiar with. 

I walked back to the table where he was eating and closely surveyed the items. Then I saw it...a small amount of blood on the edge of the milk bottle. I picked up the bottle and touched the edge. Honestly I have felt knives which were a lot less sharp. This was very sharp. I still have the bottle here. This bottle sliced his gum open during normal use. As he drank from the bottle the top of the edge sliced his gum taking a small peice of it off.

I am letting other parents know to watch out for these bottles from Subway. I bought mine from the Subway on 2004 66th St. N St Petersburg FL 33710.  They are from a company called Shamrock Farms. Their website is http://www.shamrockfarms.net/. I do not know where else you could find this brand of milk but I would watch out for it. (see pic) Of course I am sending this link to Subway and Shamrock and I will let you know what happens with it, if anything. Shamrock should at a minimum reconsider the design of their bottle and Subway should not distribute something like this.

More Images

This year Spencer had no problems with the swim test. In fact after passing the swim test at camp he went on to go down the slide and the jump off the high dive! This is something he has not done the past 2 years at camp so it was a big deal for him. He wanted me to come watch him so I snapped this video of it!

I know Father's Day is coming but Spencer did a poem at church for me a week early. This was mainly because Rev. Zemke is going to be out of town next week and he wanted to help Spencer with the reading.

This is the 2nd time Spencer did a reading at church. They did not put him on a stool this time but lucky for me I was off to the side to take the video. The sound is a little rough but you should be able to hear the poem.

Each year the Cub Scout pack has a fishing trip to the Ft. Desoto Pier. This year went well. Spencer actually was grabbing his own shrimp out of the bucket. He did not do much fishing but Dad caught a few small fish for him. The fish were fun to catch with his little Zebco reel.

 Here is a video snippet from the day: