Honoring Our Birthday Boy!

Didn't we do this last Monday?

    Wait, don't I say something like this just about every year?  Repeat parties a week apart.  Love those boys born on the 13th and 20th.

Today we celebrated an 11th birthday.  Eleven 11's hidden last night, for this mornings activities.

 Woods out back!  Pinks, lavenders, blues!

 Woods out front!  Yellows, peaches, lavenders!

 Green stars all over the table!

 We don't buy cake toppers!  We make them or use what we have.

Someone wanted a trooper for a cake, so he got several.

Yes, a piece of "grass" was out of place, so it got blasted!  What else are

you going to do with a gun that big?

 Different angle of troopers!

Birthday presents!

Yes, we ran out of paper while wrapping last night!

Smallest first (his choice), new pics for his guitar

from Christmas!

 Book he's "begged" for and finally got!

Love being able to figure out exactly what they want

without having to ask!!

Cake before dinner!  Why, yes please!

green frosting feet!

 Just because we took a photo like this last week!

 Chillin with friends at Laser Tag Event!
How convenient for older brother that there

were a couple teens there for him to hang with as well.

Great time honor our birthday boy!

Fourteen years in the making!

It's been a celebration of our oldest birth!  14 years ago he made his presence know.  Slow start to the day, a good breakfast, and the unfortunate task of school work.  Let the boys have a "clean pj day" again on this Monday (think it might become routine as this was the second Monday we've done this!  Next Monday maybe a repeat as well).

 The effects of home made cake.  Lots of dishes, lots of mess, all for a

chocolate cake.  Coco powder everywhere (not in the cake, but for dusting the pan.

No "white" flour marks even though cake was being frosted).

 Second 8"x8" pan ready for cake batter.  Making a "Grass Block" from

Minecraft and Vanilla Ice Cream for snow balls.

 Think I used to much coco powder to dust the 2 cake pans!

This is the leftover!

 Finished cake!

A few toppers and a couple extras,

made by a loving brother.

 Close up of the toppers I made!

 Steve and a creeper!

 A tradition born last year.  Their age, printed that many times.

Hidden around the main level for them to find.  It kept Simon

occupied while I slept in this morning!  Was surprised to find

that he even did a bit of school before I got up!

 Blue stars scattered on the table for a child

who has been known to like blue!

Joys of being oldest, folks dubbed him

the blue one and his younger brother

the green one!

 The presents, so hard to resist,

all day.  But he made it till his father

got home.

 Blue paracord, to add to his

red and black he got for Christmas.

 Three sizes of S hooks.

 Multi tool!

 The guys!

Someone wanted to pose for the camera!

This is fourteen years in the making!  Along with a brother 3 years and 1 week younger!  And yes, we did make it to Simon's favorite restaurant, CiCi's, we just went this past Saturday night!

Another Sunday! Another Birthday!

Another day to party! Another day to celebrate life!

     And that, my friend, is just what we did!

Our second son, known here as Thing Two, was born 10 years ago, today.  He's been a wonderful, high energy, very intense in all things, kid his whole life.  Here's our day in pictures!!!!

 The call of the wild is to great for 4 young boys.

 Will come together for a picture!

Per his request: a plan cake with chocolate icing (homemade) and

crunch bars on top!

 Ten green candles, handled with no spit!

 Yummy!  Slice of cake with homemade vanilla ice cream.

Thing Two remembered that his brother got "10 Things about 'Thing One'"

and wanted his own too!  On actual page, his IRL is printed on the page.
As of now, still not comfortable using their real names!

 Long awaited gift card to Itunes!  

 Our attempt at controlling some legos!  This is for all those mini figs laying around.

Thing One got a blue one too ~ a week late.

Guess who forgot to wrap the two mini figs that went with this?

Yup, that would be this mom.  He didn't care!

He ended up with two knights

(employees evidently figure out some of the mini figs and label them.

Those are left under the register counter.  I had mentioned something about

wanting to know and six were pulled out.  Of the four I bought, 3 were

correct.  Thing Two was hoping for Chicken man, but got a second knight)

He was quite happy with his day and we were thankful for that!
 

Birthdays

Kevin's birthday is today! Nothing to special had been planned.  School, dentist, life still needed to happen.

No surprises on presents either!  :(  Here's a look at his presents this year:

Although he was with us when these were bought,

it made for an easy, good breakfast that we don't buy

all that often.

A box from each boy.  Again, not a surprise!

We had catfish for dinner and for dessert - ghirardelli brownies; home made vanilla ice cream; and home made, hot fudge sauce.

 Now it's time to unwind from a long day of life and start all over again tomorrow!
 

Happy Birthday, Part Two

A birthday celebration!!

Frame for Kevin that says "me and the boys"
It still needs a photo though, of the three of them!

Round brownie instead of cake!  We had cake
on Saturday with his parents!

Yummy!  Brownie, homemade vanilla ice cream, and
homemade hot fudge sauce

Happy Labor Day!

and Happy Birthday to my husband, Kevin Brock!  He's enjoying a federal holiday coinciding with his birthday.  Nothing like sleeping in, morning nap, walk through the woods with the family, and vegging while watching baseball on your birthday.  At least for him, it seems like a good day!

For me, I've finally felt a bit productive around the house.  Yea!  Lots of little things are getting done.  So far:

• helped the boys through a worksheet (or 3) of math
• made templates for cork board and metal board to be hung
• alphabet is almost hung ~ stopped halfway through to take a walk with the family
• cleaned the kitchen some
• got laundry started later than I wanted, but finished earlier than usual ~ go figure.
• finally figured out that the washing machine takes about 50 minutes for the normal wash cycle; WILL use the microwave timer now to help me keep track

Still on tape, at least for me:

• hang the second half of the alphabet
• make brownies
• make corn bread
• hot glue some buttons on screws
• not sure what else
• make some school related things

Birthday Extravaganza!

Another Thursday, another birthday.  At least only in January do we have two birthdays 7 days apart.  It wasn't our intention to have our kids birthdays that close, but it just worked out that way.

This go around, Thing Two celebrated his 8th birthday.  As of right now, he's riding off with his day to worship rehearsal.  Kevin had practice last Thursday and took Thing One.  This week he's taking Thing Two.  It's suppose to be a treat hanging out with Dad and staying up late.  Glad that the boys seem to enjoy it.

Seems as though, he's had a great day.  He got Poke'man cards from his brother and a green nerf football from Kevin and me.  If you know our kid, both are a great fit for him.  When he's talking, the subject are either Pokeman or sports, so these were good for him.

Yes, there are photo highlights as well:

 Chocolate milk this morning with whipped cream!

 The cake that almost didn't happen (Ugh! again this week).

So I'd mixed the wet ingredients and was getting ready to alternate the flour (et al)

with milk into the wet ingredients.  I went to get a measuring cup and the crisco fell out of

the cabinet, knocking he flour bowl onto the floor.  Also in that process

something hit the oven temperature knob and it got turned up.

Wasn't to happy when all was said and done, but still able to create a

descent looking Poke' Ball.  And for what it's worth, we still have
flour in the grooves of the kitchen floor!  PSA ~ don't install hardwood floors
with "V" grooves in between planks; it catches all sorts of dirt or FLOUR!!!

 Just what every cake needs, bunny ears.

 Candles lite, singing "Happy Birthday".

Decorated birthday chair!  There are only eight 8's

on the banner, 9 by Thing Two's first count.  Had to

tell him that one 8 actually had a shadow.

So ends our crazy birthday week.  51 more weeks and we get to do it all over again.  Love you birthday dude.

Eleven years ago today

Thing One was born at 2:33 PM.  He sure has enjoyed telling everyone how old he is as well, "Hi stranger, I'm 11 now!"  Okay, maybe not much, but seems that way.

Here are some photo highlights of the day!

 A certain younger brother was not to happy.  He couldn't

win at the video games!  Not that the games are rigged, but odds

are not in your favor kido!

 Blowing out the candles!

 Yes, there are only 4 candles.  Yes, he turned 11.

A certain someone, who will remain nameless, did not grease

the pan well, so the top of the cake did not come out well.

 However, if the messiness of the kitchen indicates how

tasty the cake is, we have a winner!!

 Decorations done last night!

 Balloons added this morning, because there wasn't

enough around the house.

 Streamers near the top of the window

and "Happy Birthday" Streamers across the middle.

Ribbons and streamers from the chandler.

YES! Annual chair birthday banner has been

poorly photo shopped by me.  Thought

I'd keep the boys blog names going!

LAST TWO PHOTOS

These were taken with Thing One's new camera.  Not the

best available, but he's happy with his present.

So ends another birthday for our oldest and begins the one week where I can say that my boys are 4 years apart!