Summer Crafting

This summer has been filled with some crafting activities already.  This makes my momma heart proud because I can never say 'no' to a good craft myself and I love seeing the kids enjoying them too.  

One evening, it was just Jimmy and me at home -- the other kids were someplace with Steve -- so I lugged out our huge tote of sidewalk chalk and we set to work.  I would make a drawing and then he would try to mimic it ... all things summer-related!  I was amazed at how skilled he was just from looking at my drawings and then replicating them.  

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Sophia is such a patient teacher and loves crafts just as much as me.  One day, she set to work helping Jimmy turn wooden dinosaur skeletons into 3D structures and then covering them with clay.  Jimmy still has one of them on display in his room!

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One of our very favorite neighbors (and a babysitter for our kids when they were younger), graduated from high school this year and I chose to do something fun as our gift to her for graduation.  Instead of the traditional/standard gift of money, I turned it into a money cake and then decorated it in her school colors.  It made a great display at her Open House too.

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Sophia joined me across the street at a neighbor's house to work on a Pysanky egg.  It is a very tedious job that involves using blown-out eggs, beeswax and dyes to decorate the eggs with various patterns.  It involved several nights of working on it, but in the end, it turned out great!!

And I will now have it to put on display each year around Easter time:

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Jack found a several mailboxes out by the road at the end of our subdivision because a neighbor was apparently getting rid of them.    Multiple trips later, he lugged them all home and him and James set to work putting them together and have great plans to use them for random projects.  What kind of projects?  I'm not sure, but it definitely kept them busy for a few house one afternoon.

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Samantha's big project has been re-painting her room and updating it a bit.  This isn't the best picture, but she decided to change the beige-colored walls (leftover from when it was painted to be our baby nursery for Sophia) to a cooler gray color.  We also ordered some new curtains, moved her loft bed to a different area and painted all of the trim.

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Sidewalk chalk designs by Samantha!  Like her mom, once she has a picture in front of her, she is able to easily duplicate it.  Garfield and Odie graced our driveway for a full 24 hours before a big rainstorm moved in and sadly washed them away.

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Another fun project has been making bracelets out of paracord.  Sophia and Jack learned how to do this at a camp last year and now they are teaching Jimmy.  Note that he was not allowed to use the lighter.  It is there to be used by an adult to seal the end of the cord when the bracelet is complete.

Yes, Sophia received all of these colors of cord in her Easter basket this spring and she has been willing to share and/or make anyone a bracelet that asks for one.

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Sticker-by-number art: this is the perfect outdoor project -- so much light -- and the end results are always amazing!

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Mid-Week Randoms

One of the gifts that Jack received from his birthday was a complete Michigan State ensemble -- shorts, shirt and hat.  He loved it, of course, and then made sure that he had it ready to wear to school the next day.

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We brought the boat out of storage for the season in April and it will continue to reside in our garage until Fall.  I grabbed this quick picture of Steve and the girls and am amazed at how tall Sam is getting.  She's taller than me now and is approaching 5'4".

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Late Spring always means shoveling bark/mulch and putting it around the house in my flower beds.  Steve and I are pretty efficient at this task now, but I love it when I can snag one of the boys to help.

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This little boy graduated from kindergarten and it brought a couple of tears to my eyes -- partly because he's our last one ... and partly because he will graduate as the CLASS OF 2034!  Wow. 

Just for fun, here is a comparison pic of the three generations:

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This year, we opted to buy a new lawn mower.  We bought our 'main mower' used when we moved in 12 years ago and definitely got our money's worth out of it but it was time for an upgrade.  Jack had been using another used mower (a zero-turn, like this one) and we figured that he could start mowing lawns this summer to help with the cost.

Jack is in heaven:

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My sister hosted a joint birthday party for my niece and nephew and I love any opportunity to amp up the wrapping of the gifts.  It was a Mario-theme for Louie and a Pig theme for Zoe so I decorated their gifts accordingly.

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Steve recently painted Sophia's  old bike (it was pink camo) red and black for Jimmy and put new handle grips on it.  Jimmy is so pleased with it that I caught him outside giving it a rinse job in the front yard.  

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Strawberry season in Michigan means lots of strawberry shortcake and of course, homemade jam to put in the freezer.  There is nothing better than homemade jam all year long!

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We set up our stand at the end of the driveway during the annual neighborhood garage sale.  The food items that the girls sell (my two girls and their best friend/neighbor next door) changes a bit from year to year, but they always end up making quite a profit.  The weather held out -- much better than last year -- and they are already brainstorming ideas for 2023.

The next day, they begged me to take them shopping to Target and Ulta so that they could spend some of that hard-earned money.  I obliged.

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We don't know how much time we have left with our beloved Mia, but we are making sure that we don't take a single day for granted.  She is about 14 years old now and each of the kids treasures her ... especially Jack.

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Jack's Epic Video Game Party with Friends

Many months ago, when I talked to Jack about a 'theme' for his upcoming birthday party, I suggested video games.  He smiled but kind of shrugged his shoulders as I'm sure that he had a mental picture of a bunch of friends all sitting around our living room playing games.  It sounds fun, but that would be something that he could do any weekend of the year ... if he wanted.

But you see -- I had something else much bigger in mind.  I had already researched and looked into renting an actual video game trailer that we could have parked in our driveway for the kids to play in.  There would be lots of remotes, lots of seating and LOTS of games to choose from.

I purposely waited until the time got closer before telling Jack what my real plans were; I wanted to be sure that we were able to book the party and I wanted to be sure that most everyone that he wanted to invite was able to attend.

Using the lime green and black color scheme, I set up the event in the garage.  I chose to do drawstring bags for party favors (the boys use these all the time to haul things including their sports gear) and assembled tubes with green gum balls in them to give out.

A close-up of the bags and the gumballs:

Some fun tablecloths and backdrop ... and balloons too!

We blew this balloon up with regular air from our air compressor and it has lasted so long!

As soon as the guests began arriving, they all made a bee-line for the zipline in the backyard.

This is a main event at our house -- not just for parties.

Within a half-hour, the video game truck arrived in our driveway and began to get set up.  The kids went crazy!

We served pizza and gatorade and as soon as their hands were clean (!!), we turned them loose for 2 full hours of video game time!

Posing for a quick picture to appease me:

Later, everyone stood outside of the truck and allowed me to take a picture as the sun was beginning to set:

And then a funny one!

By then, it was time for dessert (Jack chose brownies), ice cream and a little more popcorn:

Such a great group of boys:

The next day, we celebrated with family at our house and of course, I decorated the picture in the dining room to match the theme and made a cake.  I even surprised Jack with a special shirt for the day.

The lighting wasn't the best, but the video game controller turned out pretty great and then I filled in with some leftover brownies and a few cupcakes (with extra green gumballs).

Happy birthday to my nine-year-old boy!

Jack's 9th Birthday

 As is traditional, we seem to celebrate birthdays in this family ALL week long. Typically, we begin the morning of one's birthday with cinnamon rolls and a candle with all of us singing 'happy birthday' to the guest of honor.

Jack's hair -- it is so thick and grows so fast.  And he likes to wear it a little on long side, as evidenced here.  Those chocolate-brown eyes could melt anyone's heart though.

Jack settled on a 'video games' theme this year and it was absolutely perfect for him!  I incorporated neon green and black colors and then wrapped a table of gifts from us that he was able to open later that day, after he arrived home from school.

Jimmy was just as interested as Jack to see what was inside each and every package.

I feel like sunglasses are a necessity when your birthday is in May.  And neon green ones to match the theme?  Yes, please.

The big gift from his dad was a ninja obstacle course for the front year.  And it was perfect timing because the plan was to get it all set up before his friends came over to celebrate with him later that weekend.

That weekend, we set up his birthday party with friends in the garage.  Lots more neon green and black with popcorn boxes ready to fill, plates set out for pizza and one of a few party favors -- plastic tubes that I printed stickers for and filled with neon green gumballs.

Each of the guests also received a drawstring bag, which are really useful for carrying all of the things back and forth to school and sports practices at this age.

Set up and waiting for guests:

That #9 balloon was filled up with regular air (from our compressor) and is STILL going strong!

The zipline in the backyard was a big attraction as the kids waited for their pizza and the biggest attraction of all ...

Yup, I rented a video game truck for 2 hours so that the kids could go inside and play as many video games as they wanted.  There were ALL kids of choices and it was a HUGE hit!

It was awesome.  I checked in with the kids every once in a while and they played until their hearts were content.  Even Steve played some 'old school tetris,' and earned a high score.

The sun was setting and I begged for a quick picture of everyone in front of the truck for prosperity.

And in return, I promised them that they could do a FUNNY picture too.  They nailed it.

Jack agreed to get a haircut before his friend party (and he looked so handsome)!

A random picture of the excited boys all gathered around, eating dessert, drinking gatorade and celebrating their friend on his special day!