Happy 40th!

Yesterday was Ron's 40th birthday. He kind of had a birthday weekend, though.



He's been doing some woodworking lately and has decided his midlife crisis should involve power tools. I can live with that. We added some birthday money to some he saved and he bought a very nice table saw from someone on Craigslist. He and a friend drove down to pick the saw up Friday evening. It took several friends to carry it down to the basement, and it was rather entertaining to watch them attempt it!






Ron planned to have some of the neighborhood guys over for poker Sunday night, so we did cake and presents Saturday evening. The kids decorated the cake. They decided to write "HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!" but Tyler didn't plan things out too well when he started. Instead it evolved into what you see here, which I think is much funnier. They thought it was pretty funny, too.







































It is hard to fit 40 candles on a cake, but it's even harder to light them all!! We didn't actually have 40 candles, so 37 had to be close enough. That cake generated a lot of heat!

























The kids gave Ron some workshop-related presents. One of the items Danielle gave him was some steel wool. Not one to miss a teachable moment (ha!), Ron showed the kids how to light steel wool with a battery.
















Danielle made 2 batches of brownies, almost entirely by herself, for poker night. Now that the kids are old enough (& tall enough) to take a more active role in cooking and baking, I find that I just don't think about asking them. Usually they are tired from school & homework and just want to do their own thing. Likewise, I just want to get dinner ready and on the table. It was fun to have her in the kitchen with me. She whipped up some brownies while I was making dinner. It's always amusing to watch her break the eggs. She's always worried she's going to make a mess. One day early last week when I was not feeling well, I was baking something and dropped an egg. Instinctively, I moved my hip in to catch it between the counter and myself (which was the exact WRONG thing to do) and ended up crushing it all down the front of the cupcoards, the floor, and myself. I don't think Danielle could have done any worse! Anyway, Danielle's brownies turned out great, and poker night went well, too.


I thought it was a good birthday weekend. Hopefully the birthday boy thought so, too.

Our Peaceful Dinner Out II

I had the best time with my kids tonight! I took them out to pick out birthday gifts for Ron and then out to dinner. The kids begged me to take them to Chipotle and to EAT IN! Usually when we eat out, especially when it's just the 3 of us, we'll pick something up to take home. It's cheaper that way, but it's also much easier. I gave in and agreed we could eat in at Chipotle for supper.

I can't say with certainty it was the last time, but one of the last times I was at this specific Chipotle with just the kids, we had less than a peaceful dinner. That was 4 1/2 years ago, but I remember it so well! So, I told the kids all about it while we ate tonight.

It's hard to believe such a frustrating evening then made us laugh so hard now. The kids loved hearing about it and the three of us had the best time giggling about their antics. We really had a special time reliving it. As I retold the evening's events, I couldn't help but think about how much they've grown up in 4 1/2 years. Hopefully I've grown up some, too. I was probably much more impatient that night than I should have been. I have such neat kids with such fun personalities. I hope they know how amazing they are and how much I love them.

While a lot has changed, I guess some things have remained the same. At one point tonight Danielle gave her quesadilla a nice, loud kiss. Why? "I was just giving it a welcome-to-my-stomach kiss, mom." Another time, as I was talking to Tyler, he shoved the last, oversized bite of his burrito into his mouth. His cheeks were puffed out, he had sour cream all over his mouth, and he was trying desperately to hold it all in while Danielle laughed and pointed. Without thinking I told him he was acting like an animal. He finished his bite, smiled, and said, "Really? What kind?"

Woodpecker Holes

Daisy Danielle

Tonight was Danielle's Daisy Investiture Ceremony. An investiture ceremony is basically a ceremony to welcome new girls into the troop. Since we have a new troop, all the girls were welcomed tonight. All the girls received their Daisy tunics and pins, said the Daisy promise, and learned the Daisy handshake. Most importantly, in Tyler's opinion, they ended the ceremony with cookies and punch.

They also sang a song - a nice, safe, wholesome song about making friends. :)

The tunic has a blue circle on the center, which will be the center piece of a daisy. The center circle stands for the Daisy promise. They earn daisy petals to go around the circle as they learn about various aspects of the Girl Scout law.

New Twist on an Old Favorite

Say a Prayer

There was a story on the local news tonight about a mom whose minivan slid on the ice this morning, crashing into another car. She and her four year old daughter were injured and taken to the hospital, but her 4 month old son was pronounced dead at the scene. This is the family of a man we had in our youth group several years ago.

They lost their baby today.

Please take a minute to say a prayer for them.

Photo Sundries

Game Night

A couple months ago we decided to have a Family Game Night and tried to commit to having it weekly. We did really well and decided a few weeks ago that we should have a family trophy to make it even more fun. The kids made a *** Family Game Night trophy over Christmas break. They worked on it together, and it turned out really great.

Tonight we played a new game called Hedbandz, which has gotten some pretty good reviews both online and from friends. It was rather amusing because I didn't realize how bad we were at deductive reasoning! Tyler especially had a hard time with it. Ron, on the other hand, did really well, which is a good thing since he spends so much of his work life trouble-shooting issues. So, Ron took the trophy tonight. We had a good time, but I don't think it's my favorite game night game.

Evening Entertainment

The kids and I entertained ourselves with Legos this evening. Here are our creations.

Tyler built a house with rooms (which you can't see because he insisted on putting on a roof) and a surrounding yard. He especially liked the electric fence, which connects to an electrical box. That's a giant squid resting of the roof, just because.

Danielle built a few people and a little car raceway. The guy has his hands in his pockets. The girl has a bow in her hair and is wearing gloves. Hopefully you can tell the yellow animal is a horse. The person with the umbrella is supposed to be Mary Poppins with her hair in a pony tail.

The kids seemed to have a ton of ideas and just kept building. I, on the other hand, must be getting less creative as I get older. It took me the same amount of time to come up with a boat, a few people playing in the water, a couple people fishing, and someone about to fall off the boat. Kind of pathetic. Even so, we had a very nice evening together.

This is totally unrelated, but worthy of sharing. As of tomorrow morning we will be puke free for 1 week! Tyler had been throwing up weekly (or more) for the past 6 weeks. We started him on some acid reflux medicine, and it seems to be doing the job! Hooray!

Photo Sundries

Birds!

My Angels

Enjoying an unexpectedly free afternoon after an early school release, courtesy of the over-hyped winter "storm".

Growing Up

I ran across this picture from Dec. 2006 while looking at some of my old posts yesterday.



















Amusingly, here is a picture I took just a couple weeks ago. (Dec. 2010)

Park Hike

Danielle, Uncle Ron, and I went on a "Raptor Hike" at the park this afternoon. Tyler spent his morning throwing up (he lost count after the 8th time), so he stayed home with Ron...just in case. (He seems fine now.)

We really didn't see many "raptors". On the way to the park Danielle saw a red tailed hawk land in a field. It spread it's tail wide before landing, which made it easier for her to see how it got its name. We also saw a kestrel perched on a wire on our way home. The only raptor we saw on the hike was a barred owl. It wasn't very close to the trail, but Danielle did a great job using binoculars and was able to see it. We saw a couple other birds on our tour, including a couple colorful woodpeckers.

It was very cold today (low 20s) but the sun made it tolerable. Well, the sun and LOTS of layers. We had a nice time, but I think I prefer our warm, summer evening frog-hunting walks.

Derby Time

Tonight was Tyler's Pinewood Derby. Tyler designed his car, and then he and Ron cut it out. They painted it and decorated it with stickers. No flashing lights this year, but Tyler was just as proud of his finished product.






Danielle brought her Awana derby car to race, too.





















Putting on the final touches.























Waiting for the race. The first row of cars are the ones he competed against (less one who came late). The 2nd row is a different pack. The car next to Tyler's is a Firebolt with Harry Potter as the driver. If you look closely, you'll see a couple cars are mostly Legos. One car is only a tiny sliver of wood as a base and the rest is Legos. There were definitely some interesting designs and the kids were all proud of their creations.


















Tyler won his first race but came in 2nd on his next two races. He was disappointed he didn't win a trophy again this year, but he handled it well and was a really good sport.




























After all the packs competed, they had an open division for siblings. Danielle came in 2nd in her first race. After that she raced Tyler and came in 2nd again.



The kids had a good time watching the other races and goofing off with their friends. With Tyler's basketball game in the morning and this lasting most of the afternoon/evening, it was a good, full day.

Birds!

There was a bird feeding frenzy in my backyard this morning. I was trying to get a picture of the tree sparrow, who just started visiting my feeders, when I took this picture. She brought her friends today, but they were down at the other feeder during this picture. There are 6 house finches, 1 house sparrow, 1 American tree sparrow, 1 Northern cardinal, and 1 mourning dove tail in this picture. :)