Samantha's first blog

Posted By pamelamyers on May 13, 2017

Yesterday was Mark’s birthday and Samantha couldn’t wait to celebrate it. Unfortunately, she had to go to school (she begged me to let her stay home but I told her that if Daddy had to work, she certainly had to go to school!) Right away she decided she wanted to make a special project for Mark – an LED type project. She told me she needed some help and I wasn’t too sure how much help I would be. That’s Mark’s thing, not mine. Sam did tell me she thought she remembered how to do it, and she did! She wired an entire project together and drew a candle, then taped the wiring behind the candle so that the LED was the flame. She couldn’t wait to show her dad.

Poor Mark – she woke him out of a dead sleep, but I think he really appreciated how hard she worked for him – at 6:30 in the morning!

Later that day, after school and work and whatnot, it was time for some gifts. Sam helped Mark open everything, of course!

I had bought Mark a print of the Hubble extreme deep field photo. He really loved it when he first saw it online and I thought it would be a nice thing for him to gaze at from time to time. He was trying to explain to Sam what it was but I think it was almost more than she could comprehend.

After dinner (when Mark was clearly more awake than he was in the morning) we took some pictures with her special project.

Make a wish, Daddy!

The cats were apparently worn out from birthday festivities. 😉

We had Mark’s birthday dinner tonight with the family. Sam wanted to decorate his cake in the worst way. What a fiasco the cake making was! I swear I was half asleep while making it first thing in the morning. I neglected to add the water to the  mix (I only added eggs and oil) – not once, but twice! I couldn’t figure out why the cake mix was so thick and brownie-like. I finally noticed on the box that there was a significant amount of water to be added. I swear, that was never part of the recipe before. Anyway, the cake below is the third attempt! I did frost it myself, but Sam did all the decorating.

She wanted to draw an LED project. Clockwise from the top is an LED, a resistor, a battery and a switch, all connected by wires, of course.

Mark thought it was just perfect.

Dinner was great and the cake turned out pretty well. Sam added LOTS of candles.

Time for more presents! Sam and Ryder gave Mark this picture that they had just drawn together.

And Sam presented Mark with a dolphin sun catcher that she made. She knows he likes dolphins.

I wish Mark didn’t have to work on his birthday, and I also wish that Mother Nature would have cooperated and not had it pour rain on the day of his party. That is two years in a row that Mark has wanted to have a picnic type of dinner in a park, and we got rained out. We tried to give him a great day and a great party anyway. He deserves the best because he is the best. Sam always says she has the best dad in the world. She has no idea how lucky she is. I see so many kids whose dads couldn’t be bothered to interact with them in any significant way, and Mark is the total opposite. He truly loves doing things with her, teaching her things, and coming up with new experiences for them to share. Sam thinks her dad can do anything. I hope she always feels that way as she gets older – that her dad is her champion, invincible. And that he always has her back, because I know he always will.

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