Being 10!

Do you remember being ten?

     I sure as heck don't!  It is a hazy memory at this point.

For our son, today totally seemed like a good 10 year old day.  It went something like this:

• no set time to wake up as I was having a marathon therapy session with the oldest.  Not sure if Kevin had him wake up at some set time
• being able to leisurely do his independent work
• almost a full afternoon free with the sun shining, t-shirt & blue jeans sort of day
• playing with chalk
• riding bike
• playing tug o war with the dog
• playing with the dog and a stick
• making a fort on the deck
• taking the dog for a walk through the woods
• time to read
• playing catch with his brother
• Tae Kwon Do (TKD)
• getting their blue belts at TKD

Not sure what else would make his list of cool things today, but that seems like a fairly descent list as I see it.  But what do I know, I am mom!

Want to take a look?

. . . finally updated the photo of how I came up with our boys blog names over on the right side of the screen.  The picture explains itself.  Here it is again, so you don't have to scroll down any!

In 2004, for Halloween, they went as Thing One and Thing Two.  I was really into making costumes with sweats as the base so that they could be used again.  The shirts for 2012 were just because.  Kevin and I have "Parent 1" and "Parent 2".

Parent 2

P.S. this is my 500th post since I started blogging! Some months I wrote a lot; some months were sparce. I am finding that I enjoying writing more, the more I do it! Wonder when I will hit 1,000?

Firsts on the first!

A couple firsts on the first for you!

Thing One was dropped off late morning for his third, week long summer camp.  The first for me is that I didn't feel nervous leaving him.  He's comfortable going, it's his third trip with a couple of the guys who've been together since Tigers as Cub Scouts and 2nd year with his Boy Scout troop.  He really enjoys scouting and I am thankful that it is a good experience for him.  That it is a safe troop to learn how "to be a man" in, to learn to be a man of God in.

Second first for the day ~  I have a cherry tomato finally starting to turn orange.  It is still a yellow/orange color (heavy on the yellow), but it's changing and not green anymore.  This one will probably be plucked off the vine and eaten warm!!  Yummy!  And if I ever find my camera cord, I'll upload a photo of it!
 

ETA a photo of tomatoes!  They are pretty good.

Goodbye October!

Last day of October ~ time is beginning to go at warp speed and seems to continue accelerating with each day.  Here's a brief photo journal of our day:

 A layer of frost on just about everything.  Had to scrape the windshield in

order take Thing One up to speech at the local public school.  Windows

had to be scrapped yesterday, too, for church, but Kevin did a bulk of that - on both

cars.  Thanks honey!!!

 We had a few extra Black Eyed Susan's grow, after the first round.

They're even pretty in the frost.

 Started taking pictures of the boys and Charlotte serious wanted her picture

taken.  She was a wee bit hyper through our legs and as soon as I said, "Okay,

Charlotte, I'll take your picture!", she sat down.  Go figure.

 Boys were happy to start their new math level today.  As Thing Two

pointed out, we've started to reuse some of the things we bought four years

ago.  When we switched to Math-U-See, Thing One was in third grade, now

Thing Two is in third and so we just need to buy the workbooks as we

have everything else.  Somewhere along the line, probably when they were in

1st and 4th, we got off track for finishing a book in one traditional school year.

This year, they are working hard to get caught up.

 Thing One volunteered at the Harvest Festival at

Burke Community Church.

 Mr. Ninja

A totally kid made costume out of things we already had.

Like that idea!

Is there a better game than eating Krispy Kreme

donut?  Ah, it smelled like the parking lot of Krispy Kreme, you

know the smell of sugar before you even get out of your car!

Only thing missing was the Hot Sign!

So, good night October, look forward to seeing you again next year.

St. Valentine

Do you know the origins of Saint Valentine?  I'll give you a hint ~ it doesn't have anything to do with cupid, pink, hearts, flowers, or chocolate.  Does that surprise you?

From Mystery of History, lesson 12, we learned that Saint Valentine was actually a man who lived in and around Rome in the third century.  He was martyred for being a Christian on February 14, A.D. 269.

In 495, February 14 was declared Saint Valentines Day to replace the pagan festival of Lupercalia on February 15.  This date was a pagan festival of love, cupid, and such we now associate with the 14th.

Well, one activity with this lesson was to research chocolate, which we did.  Of course, all internet roads lead to wikipedia ~ don't they?  We read up on chocolate there (you can to with this link).

To set the "mood" before the kids knew what was going on, we had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  Yummy!!!

cooking on the iron skillet

Yum! Chocolate Chip Pancakes, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream (home made even)

foil on the inside of the pan; it makes getting the brownies out easier

my helper, Thing One, stirring the batter

everyone needs a Robin side-kick

No cooked brownie pictures, sorry folks!  They're good and we still have some left!

School is underway . . .

The boys and Charlotte have settled into their favorite spots for when I pull out the books that I read to them.

Thing One seems to enjoy coloring, more than anything else, to keep his hand busy.  Today's art focused on a kids fort with a bunker, no less.  He was proud of his work and asked to take a

photo of it.  

Think it actually took him a couple days to finish it.  He really didn't want to draw or color during non school hours!  LOL funny how any kind of school and kids will avoid a bit of work if they can!

So anyhoot, Thing Two has taken lead from Charlotte and started crawling between the chairs and the wall to get to what he calls his little cave.  Guess he's learning about "man caves" early!  He enjoys this little area and brings all sorts of stuff in there to entertain himself.  The other day it was a deck of cards and he was playing Slap Jack against himself.  I just snickered and rolled my eyes at him.  He was reasonably quiet and listening well enough to answer the questions well.

 A certain somebody trying to be still and have a straight face!

And here is Charlotte's favorite spot, snug up against my legs when I have the Lazy Boy foot rest up.  Doesn't matter if it's stuffy warm or cold in the house she wants to be snug.  I will like this when it starts getting cooler!

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!

Tae Kwon Do

The boys tested for their Senior White belts on September 11th.  The were excited because both boy past.  The downfall of this particular belt is that their teacher has to order the belts from a place that takes longer to get the belts.  So, on September 22rd the boys received their senior white belts.

 No idea what I did to the html code, but managed to get both of

the above photos stuck together.  The top photo is of Thing Two belt

being put on.  So obviously, the second photo is of Thing One getting

his belt.

After the class that the boys received their belts.

10 years in the making

Today, our oldest son turns 10 years old (@ 2:33 PM to be exact). It sure has been an amazing time having him around. He asks millions of questions, loves to help out, wants to serve others, enjoys music, loves his Legos, loves his family, and loves God. What more can you ask for in a son?

THEN

NOW

Happy 10th birthday sweetheart.

Birthday Wishes

My birthday wishes go out to my now 9 year old. It seems hard to believe that, at this time in 2000, he was just over 5 hours old and hubby had finally gotten his dinner. So many milestones have been reached in those years. Sleeping through the night, eating regular food, walking, swimming, potty training, zippers, talking, tying shoes, t-ball, soccer, scouts, school. On and on it goes. Today was spent celebrating in many ways. It began with a note on the boys bathroom mirror wishing him a Happy 9th Birthday. We baked cup cakes to take to his class while I was in Ladies Bible Study. He got to open a couple presents before going to dinner. (One came early and their BIG presents will be given in between their birthdays).

To encourage more reading, we gave he a Star Wars Clone book. One in a series, I'm sure will get read a lot.



We try to take the boys out for dinner on their birthday's to a favorite restaurant. Thing One's choice, Silver Diner. We'd signed them up, a few years ago, for the birthday club and thankfully had gotten a post card coupon for the meal and a kid sized shake free. We used each of the boys coupons (Thing Two's b-day is in one week) and the overall bill wasn't to bad.


Tuesday nights at Silver Diner also happens to be kids night, which means there are balloons, face painting and all diners showing up with kids sit in the same section. Thing One had a fire engine and flames painted onto his face.













Thing Two, of course, had to have Star Wars and light sabors.




On the way home from dinner, we took time to tell Thing One what we liked about him. So, he heard that he's funny, fun to play lego's with, proud of how he likes to learn about the bible, the best brother in the WHOLE world, clever, and several variations of this. Thing one went to bed this evening feeling loved.