Collin is 10!

Happy 10th birthday, Collin! 

For Collin's birthday activity this year, he picked taking his friend Jayden to Fly High (a trampoline park), out to lunch at Cafe Rio and to Coldstone for ice cream. They had a great time the Saturday before his big day.

His actual birthday was the first day off of school for Holiday Break, so we invited Jayden over to eat popcorn and watch Eragon, the movie Jayden had gotten him as his gift the weekend before. They also spent some time playing Minecraft.

That evening I made him steak, baked potatoes and steamed broccoli for his requested dinner. He opened his presents (origami paper & instructional book from Nana and taekwondo nun-chucks from us). For dessert, he wanted cheesecake. He ate four slices himself! Yum.

Collin is still such a joy to have in our home. I appreciate him and his peacemaker-attitude so much. When picking cheesecake for his birthday cake, he wanted the one with all the slices the same so there wouldn't be a fight. And when picking his birthday activity out-to-lunch restaurant, he wanted to check with Jayden first to make sure he liked Cafe Rio too. Sometimes we think he let's others walk all over him, but... Do you know me?

SCHOOL
As far as school, Collin really excels. Though he struggles to sit still, pay attention, and not fidget, I have worked with his teacher this year to help him. Too often he has more homework than I'd hope for, but he now sits in a rocking chair at his desk, which seems to be helping with his focus. He is in the gifted & talented math course (covering half 4th-grade math and half 5th-grade math) and the highest reading and spelling groups. I have the chance to give the spelling tests each Thursday, and I love getting the chance to be in his classroom so regularly.

Two days per week Collin goes early to school - with Brennan - and helps lead games and exercises for the other students to participate in before the bell rings. He loves being a leader and serving others. 

Here he is presenting his research on Silas Soule at the 4th Grade Wax Museum.

TAEKWONDO

Collin continues to love and work hard at taekwondo. He'll be eligible to test for his black belt at this time next year. He is super flexible and can do the splits. Unfortunately, he struggles with push-ups (again, do you know me?) and even told his friend the other day in class, "Look at my arms! They're twigs!" He is a slight guy, to say the least. In fact, they did a health screening at school this month, and the only asterisked-area was that his BMI is only in the 1st-percentile for his age-group.

PIANO

Despite having four different piano teachers in four years, Collin loves to play and is getting quite good. He worked really hard on a simplified-version of "Demons" by Imagine Dragons and got into the highly-competitive school talent show, which will be held the end of January. I never have to ask him to practice; I more often have to ask him not to!




















He has also been selected to participate in the elementary show choir. They practice twice per week before school and have a performance in May. He loves performing and is really excited about it!

LEGO LEAGUE
Collin has also gotten interested in computer programming. He loves playing with Scratch online, and Ryan bought us a MindStorm kit for them to work on together at home. At school, he was on the Lego League competitive team this past fall (meeting twice per week after school), and Ryan was the lead coach. Unfortunately, their team had a teammate who caused a lot of problems, and the competition the first week of Dec didn't go so well. Lego League also had a surprising amount of non-programming challenges, so that was frustrating too. All in all, I don't see Ryan coaching again. We'll see if Collin chooses to do it again.

CUB SCOUTS
Collin will start his last year of cub scouts in January. He should be able to finish his Arrow of Light right as the Church pulls out of the scouting program. He loves being with the other boys and doing the activities, and Ryan has always been his leader. He also loves all the stuff I hate - belt buckles and loops, pins and badges and matching shirts. I try to be supportive, but I'm looking forward to the new program in 2020.

As far as the new program, Collin will be done with Primary in Jan of next year. With the age changes and his late birthday, Collin will actually be eligible to receive the priesthood when he is barely 11. We have a big year ahead of us getting him prepared for that big responsibility.

We love Collin so much. He loves trying new activities (he just started knitting!), and he is a great example to his younger siblings. Happy birthday, man! You have made it to double digits!

Fireplace!

Before pic. This is our family room in the "for sale" pics of our house before we bought it. Ugly, builder-grade fireplace.

This is a shot from Spring of 2018. We'd already demo-ed the built-ins, built two custom entertainment centers, installed distressed hardwood throughout the main floor, painted the tile white and added barn wood ship-lap above the fireplace.

But we hated the "dry erase board" appearance of the painted tile, so we took six months selecting the perfect stacked stone.

Demo Day was the Saturday before Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving Day we got the new cement board installed. Ryan wanted it perfectly square and level so the install would go smoothly, so this was a long, precise day.

Let the fun begin - Friday morning we started with our GORGEOUS gray stacked stone.

By Friday evening, we were just waiting for all the glue to dry.

Getting closer... Early Saturday morning Ryan built the foundation for the new mantel.

Almost there... Saturday afternoon. Just a few finishing touches to go.

And... Ta-da!  The finished product. We are in love with our modern farmhouse fireplace. 

Halloween '18

Shark Family...
Doo, doo, doo

Collin (9) as Steve from Minecraft
Brennan (7) as Squirtle from Pokemon
Ethan (5) as The Hulk

Collin with his best friend Jayden as a Creeper from Minecraft

Kate with her best friend Calvin as a robot

Ethan is FIVE!

Happy 5th birthday, Ninja Ethan! 

On Ethan's actual birthday, he woke up to his requested cereal - peanut butter balls. After sending his brothers and sister off to school and a quick grocery pickup at Walmart, we met his best friend at Chick-fil-a for brunch. More than anything, Ethan wanted a kids' meal for his birthday. (Middle child syndrome has had him sharing an adult meal with at least one sibling most of his life, and he wanted the toy. You got it, man!)

His buddy Evan gave him a little pack of M&Ms wrapped in hand-colored paper and a homemade card too. It was cute. After eating, playing and then picking up Kate from school, Ethan got to go to school too.

This year - instead of bringing a treat or picking a favorite book to be read to the class - he got to help teach his class something he enjoys. Any guesses?

You got it: He wanted to give ninja lessons to his friends. So I grabbed Collin from school - because I don't have the first clue about being a ninja - and let him come with me.

I read them The Three Ninja Pigs (cute fractured fairy tale to kill some time), and Collin demonstrated a front kick and a jab/punch combination.

His taekwondo school let me borrow a board for breaking and hand pads for punching, so then we headed outside for the kids to all try it.

His buddy Evan - that went to brunch with us in the morning - is the one kicking in this pic.

Birthday boy ninja kick!

It was great fun! No one got hurt, and none of the equipment got broken, so I'd say it went well. Collin was a great instructor, and Ethan was super proud to be the little brother of someone so big and cool. ;-)

When he got home, I'd inflated a giant Ninjago character balloon as a surprise, and all the kids have fought over it ever since. For dinner, Ethan requested cheese quesadillas, queso and chips.

Then he opened his present (a Ninjago shirt to wear to his party on Friday, keepin it real over here) and we sang and did cake and ice cream.

He's so easy to please that even though the day was super simple, he was the happiest little man. The real FUN was Friday!

* * *

Ethan REALLY wanted to have a birthday party this year, and I was willing except... for the budget constraints. His first list of friends was over 15! So I convinced him to only invite boys and for the theme to be Ninjago. The final list of invitees was 6, but one boy had to go out of town and couldn't make it. Five kids plus my own 4, yikes!

Due to the aforementioned budget constraints, despite the large number of kids, we decided to do games, pizza and cupcakes/ice cream here at our little house.

When they each arrived, we tied on their ninja bandanna I'd made.

They did a craft while waiting for all the kids to arrive. The craft was "design yourself as a ninja."

After the craft, they got to pick between two games - "pin the eyes on the ninja" and a throwing game with ninja stars (provided by origami master Collin due to a mess-up by Amazon) into a Chinese take-out box pyramid.

We played a game of seek-n-find for hidden ninjas next. Little ninjas were hidden all around the house, and they placed the six they found into their gift bag.

Then, by birthday boy request, we had to have a pinata.

This pinata was a beast though. After all the preschoolers had their try...

...and then all the big brothers, Daddy had to take a few good wacks.

 Finally, Ryan ripped the thing open and dumped all the candy on the patio.

After the pinata, we let Ethan open his presents. He got a few Lego sets, a dancing robot and a Nerf bow-and-arrow. He was so excited! 

Next, we had kid-approved pizza for dinner.

After dinner, each boy got a foam sword to try to keep a balloon in the air the longest. We took them outside for this one.

Then we sang and did cupcakes and ice cream.

Last, Ryan ran Ninjago Bingo while I got the house ready for parent pick-up.

Inside each gift bag the boys took home were two sheets of Ninjago stickers, a ninja bracelet, and all their stuff from the party (bandanna, ninja star, sword, pinata candy, ninja figures, ninja art and a balloon).

For as many kids as we had in the house, I was expecting it to be CRAZY loud and insane, but really all the boys were so calm and respectful. He really does have a cute little group of friends. No one got hurt and everyone had fun, so I call that a win.

I love planning this kind of stuff, but it is definitely a lot of work. Ethan couldn't have been happier and that really was my goal. He gets ignored a lot - middle child between two difficult siblings - and I want him to know that we haven't forgotten about him and we love him too. He is super easy-going and flexible and generally happy and easy to get along with, and when you have a kid like that in the midst of two others who are none of those things, it's hard to remember he needs time and attention too. This party was my effort to show him he matters to me too. Love you, Eefie!

Happy birthday, my little ninja!

Family Pictures 2018

Family, standing

Collin, age 9

Brennan, age 7

Ethan, age 4

Katelyn, age 3

Family, seated

Us, heads

Us, bods ;-)

The Kids

A princess and her daddy

CANDIDS