Happy birthday to Sammy

Sammy turned 7 today. And just like his brother, he wanted a lightsaber for his birthday. He got a green Luke Skywalker Force FX lightsaber replica. So now he can duel Greg, who has a replica of the blue lightsaber that Anakin Skywalker uses. Both sabers make humming sound with every move.

The Skywalker brothers are now ready to duel. Preferably in the dark. It makes the glow of their lightsabers so much more realistic.

Birthday preparations

No birthday is complete without balloons flying from the mailbox. So yesterday, after Sammy's birthday party, Ina made sure to attach some balloons to our mailbox.

Just like Greg, Sammy wanted to invite his friends to bowling party. So we repeated the routine of a month ago. Lots of kids dumping bowling balls on the lanes as if they were bouncing balls. Plus pizza and birthday cake to keep the party going.

By the end of the day, Sammy was loaded with presents and his real birthday was yet to begin.

Roswell Fire

Greg is playing soccer for the Roswell Fire this year. Every Saturday he's playing a game at the Woodstock soccer park. Usually he is goalie for part of the game, and the rest of the game he plays defence. Goalie is the least popular position, so the boys that aren't scared of the ball have to take turns.

Today the Fire played the Roswell Flash. The Fire went down, but hey, everybody still got a snack and a drink after the game.

The hookah

First there was crazy bubble tea, and now there's the hookah. And who would think that the latest craze would be smoking related. Smoking! I thought that was virtually outlawed and extinct by now.

We had no idea of this latest trend until we walked into Darvish, our local Persian restaurant, over the weekend. The beds along the walls of the restaurant were filled with young people who were clearly not there for the Kashk-o-Bademjoon or the kabobs. Next thing we noticed was the huge number of hookahs in the restaurant.

It turns this is not the only hookah place. Hookah lounges are being opened all over the country, mostly catering to the young and trendy. There are hundreds of shisha flavors that people can smoke. Just like with bubble tea, most common are fruit flavors, but it does not stop there. A lot of the shishas are imported from the Middle East and are perfectly legal.

Hembree farm

Hembree Grove, the subdivision where we live, is built on land that used to belong to Hembree farm. Some of the old farm buildings are right next to the entrance of our subdivision on Hembree road. I love the rural touch that these farm buildings give to our neighborhood. Plans to turn the farm into a historical site fell through, but I hope these buildings will be here for a long time to come.

The other day, I took a couple of pictures of some of the farm buildings.