His class has a party at the end of each month for all the kids whose birthdays were that month. Trey was the only one in August so it was his “special day.”

After we ate cupcakes the teacher ask me if I wanted to read them a story. It brought back a lot of fond memories of my years working at the Dandridge Christian Learning Center back in college.

Here is a short video clip from the party. I was experimenting a bit with color correction and wanted to give it the same look & feel of my birthday videos from the late 80s/early 90s. VHS baby!

Last weekend when Heidi’s family was in town Trey took his grandfather and uncle to our favorite hunting grounds behind our house. He had just received a new Batman mask so he became the masked crusader and was hunting for “bad guys” in general instead of squirrels.

Despite the heat, the kids had fun on the great playground at that park. After the festivities several of us headed over to Pho Saigon, Macon’s best (and only) Vietnamese restaurant. We’ve become friends with the owner/chef Bruce and his daughter Suri and Trey are buddies too. Suri, her dad, and baby sister even joined us earlier at the park.

Today while relieving myself in the wee hours of the morning (pun intended), I spotted a scorpion hanging above me with 6 babies on its back. That doubles our count and puts us up to 14 on the annual count. So much for the decreasing population.

One thing that we learned this year is that these wood scorpions don’t pack too much of a sting. I grew up in West Africa with the terrifying emperor scorpions – those suckers looked like lobsters. The region also had some smaller species that had incredibly strong venom – a sting from one of those would pack a whoppin’ 24 hours of excruciating pain.

How did we learn that our Georgia scorpions aren’t so bad? No, not from UGA’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences article on ”The Scorpion Myth” (I didn’t trust that).

One got in our bed and stung Heidi while we were sleeping. It pricked her on the knuckle and it was painful but she says it was no worse than a wasp sting. Nonetheless, I don’t want to see any more hanging over me in the bathroom.

The Favorite Gift:

The Piñata:

Afterwards I told him I’d take him wherever he wanted to eat for lunch. His choice? No lunch – “Let’s go to the World of Giant Insects!” It’s only the 513th time we’ve been, but that’s what he wanted so that’s what he got.

Here are some photos from the gathering as well as a video of the birthday cake & singing. You can totally see how excited Trey is – he’s just beaming as we sing to him. Makes me happy watching it.

Happy Birthday! Here you are when you first arrived in this world:

http://www.tbcmacon.com/2010/08/12/sunday-school-is-cool/

He also interrupted at one point to steal Casey from her boyfriend as they were walking along holding hands. “Let go of his hand,” he said as he took her hand in his own.

It’s fun to see things through Trey’s point of view for a change.

Book by Greg Stones

Each of us took a camera – even Trey. Here are some of Heidi and my photos from the walk. We’ll post Trey’s photos soon.

Trey: “Hi!”

Stranger: “Hi, what’s your name?”

Trey: “My name is Iron Man.”

Stranger: “Is that your real name?”

Trey: “Actually, no. My real name is Buzz.”

Stranger: “Buzz Lightyear?”

Daddy: “Trey,please tell them your real name.”

Trey: “Well, my real, real name is Trey. My other really, real name is Trey Haun.”

Last week we took Causey, Trey’s official “best buddy”, with us to the museum. Since Trey had already been a couple times, he took great pride being Causey’s tour guide.

Just like books though, you shouldn’t judge it by its cover – inside we found plenty of books, computers, and… ssshhh…. silence.

While I got a library card, Trey picked out his first two books (though the library’s limit is 50 books at a time, I limited him to just two). We came home with Dr. Seuss’ Yertle the Turtle & Other Short Stories, as well as slightly odd book about a family of bears singing “Jesus Loves Me” as they go about their day.

So I’ll leave you with a couple interesting facts I learned about Yertle the Turtle:

• It is #125 on the list of best-selling children’s books of all time
• It was written as “a reaction against the fascism of World War II” and Yertle represents Hitler
• It was controversial at the time for its use of the word “burp”. It became the first children’s book to feature the act of burping.
• Red Hot Chili Peppers wrote a TERRIBLE song called Yertle the Turtle that shortly follows the song “Sex Rap” on their explicit album “Freaky Styley”
• There is an animated version of the book narrated by John Lithgow – you can watch it on YouTube

Heidi isn’t a big fan of motorcycles (due to the motorcycle trauma cases she deals with on a regular basis at the hospital) but Trey sure did love them. He did get a little nervous and covered his eyes when they started doing backflips!

Once I got back he picked up on my actions while watching the games. Here he is imitating his father during the final World Cup game between the Netherlands and Spain.

Yesterday we had a summer storm that left mist lingering on the roads and waterways in our neighborhood. Heidi, Trey and I ran out to have some fun in the rain then as the mist slowly floated away I took all the photos below. I love these impromptu photoshoots because they give me a chance to experiment both in taking the photos and in post-production techniques.

For the camera geeks out there, all these were taken on a Canon 7D with a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens. All post-processing done in Adobe Lightroom 3.

In between repeat visits to the giant insect hall we also toured the mini-zoo, watched the planetarium presentation, and attended a hands-on animal demonstration. We had a good enough time that we bought an annual pass so that we can return with mommy soon.

At some friends’ house this 4th of July weekend Trey got a chance to try a 12″ bike out. We were all really impressed with how quickly he caught and mastered the pedaling, turning, and braking.

I’ve already started browsing our local Craig’s List for a used bike.

Several of the parents from our Sunday School class get together each week for a morning play date. It’s a great break for both the kids and the parents. Depending on whose house we are at, sometimes they play outside, swim, or hang out and play indoors. One thing is for sure – Trey is always thrilled to have a new slew of toys to play with (yesterday he had a dragon fighting with a girl’s sparkly unicorn).

Here are some photos from our get-together last week.

It’s been fun seeing him pretend to get into the games. He picks a team to cheer for based on color and if they score he assumes they won and the game is over.

When the US (white jerseys team) lost to Ghana (red team) I was quite devastated and asked him to turn off the TV. “It’s OK daddy. I’ll turn the TV back on and the white team will win!” he said. The following day he turned on the TV for us to see Germany (white team) play and when they scored he shouted excitedly “See! The white team did win!”

When I travel I usually try to bring Trey back a musical instrument from the country I visited. On this trip I brought him the infamous vuvuzela – a plastic horn blown by thousands of fans at South African soccer games. Here’s a clip of Trey blowing his vuvuzela during the USA v Algeria game.

We’re VERY grateful to the Jensens for keeping Trey these last 2 1/2 weeks!

We finally pulled together a few photos of some of what Trey is doing. He is getting lots of exercise in the neighbor’s pool. He swims with Kenny, with me, and with Pappy. We’ve also got a couple shots of him in his climbing tree. Much of last weekend centered around the wedding that I played for. One special feature for Trey was that the Maid of Honor was a friend he made acquaintance with during his February visit, when he joined us for a Missions Council trip. Erin is the youngest member of the council, and he declared her to be his friend. After the wedding Saturday, he invited her for a movie date at our house on Sunday. They watched “Jungle Book” together J.

This week we have had more time in the pool, and today we went to the beach with his friend Forrest. Unfortunately we did not have a camera for that event.

Trey had a blast on the playground, then we had a little picnic. The park’s not-so-wild-life was very interested in our little lunch. Trey was particularly fascinated by a very brave squirrel who was dead set on getting some crackers from us.

So when my parents saw a Maronite Catholic Church in Richmond advertising a food festival fund-raiser we knew we had to go!

We had a great meal of falafels, shawaramas, kibbeh, and hummus. After eating Trey had a great time playing on their church playground. I’m hoping that next year the timing works out that we’re up in Richmond again for this yummy event.

Over the next week, we’ll be posting some photos from Trey’s time with Granny Sarah and Grandaddy. Below is the first – eating a giant Virginia strawberry. Mmm, mmm.