Birthday Celebrating- Part One

Poor Fuller, he spent his entire last week as a 12 year old sick as a dog! Due to his being so sick we decided to postpone his main friend birthday celebration until next weekend. But, we couldn't let his entry into the teen years go completely uncelebrated.


This weekend Grandma and Grandpa came over for a birthday lunch and some banana splits to celebrate. They brought him two of his favorite things, Celtics gear and money.

Since they were coming out we also did a little early celebrating of Rowan's birthday. His wildest birthday dreams came true! He now has his own DS.

And we all had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa!

Up next, middle school boy sleep over party for Fuller (Heaven help me) on Friday, and mini golfing for Rowan on Saturday.

It's official....

he's a teenager!

It's hard to believe that it's been 13 years since this guy entered our lives. What a special guy he is! Fuller is a good student and always well liked by his teachers. He loves sports and takes them quite seriously. And he's just an all around cool kid to be with! That's not to say he's perfect, he is after all a normal middle-schooler! But we sure love him a lot!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FULLER!

A few facts about Fuller at 13:

Favorite food: Lumpia and potstickers
Favorite movie: Lord of the Rings, Napoleon Dynamite
Favorite restaurant: La Sirenita
Favorite TV show: NBA games- especially if the Celtics are playing
Favorite game: NBA 2K10 (for Wii)
Favorite music: Linkin Park, Metro Station
Favorite thing to do: play sports
Favorite toy: I-pod touch ("Precious")
Best friends: Mitchell, Talon, Tyler, Daniel
Most important thing you learned this year: How to be a cool middle school student.

Making

The other day someone asked me if I still "make things". The answer was "of course!" Here's a little bit of what's been going on around here:

bread making- but not yet perfecting



knitting- simple knit cotton wash cloths


felted wool ipod cozy



And a very colorful cub scout cake- baked by me, designed and decorated by Grayson

What have you been making?

Future Engineer

Recently Paul was looking online for some ideas for an upcoming youth activity at church. One of the ideas that he found some fun videos of was an egg drop contest. Grayson thought it was really cool. He just knew he could build something as good as the high school students in the videos. He's got a lot of confidence for a 3rd grader. This morning he grabbed some straws and some duct tape and set to work. He was very pleased with his contraption, and was positive that it would work.


First he tried dropping it from just a few feet off of the ground.


Since it survived that, he carried it up the ladder and dropped it from there.


The egg was still intact, so for the final test Paul took it up the ladder and dropped it from as high as he could reach.

After a thorough check for damage we declared Grayson's contraption a success!

What a smart little bugger!

Let there be light!

After living with a dark,cave like living room for five years, we finally did something about it. Having a skilled electrician on hand sure helped.

And his trusty Jr. apprentice was a big help. Being an apprentice can be hard work. I had to be Paul's apprentice on this job when Grayson was at school, and I didn't like it one little bit. Who knew electricians could be so bossy?

When he started drilling out the big holes in the living room ceiling I had a momentary panic. There was no going back after that.

I learned two things on this job. Can lights take big holes. And sheet rock dust goes everywhere.

I think Grayson will make a good electrician. He likes being on a ladder and thinks tools are cool.

For awhile the living room looked kind of interesting.

But it was SO worth it! The lights have made a huge difference, and Paul did an awesome job.

Signs of Life

Deep in their roots,
All flowers keep the light.

Theodore Roethke

A little Valentine craft

When it comes to holiday decorating, Valentines Day usually comes up short. So I decided it was time to make the house look a little more love filled this month. I found a cute felt heart garland on a crafty blog (unfortunately I can't remember which one) and decided I needed to make it. For a couple dollars worth of felt and a few hours of my time, the house looks so much more festive.

You start with assorted colors of craft felt.


Cut your felt into about 100 hearts. I made a variety of sizes and wasn't too particular about having a uniform shape.


Then randomly feed the hearts through your sewing machine until your garland is as long as you want it to be.


Then drape it across your mantle,


or a door way.

Then stand back and feel the love!