Ian's Study Buddy

Ian was doing his morning KONOS studies when Joule hopped up and snuggled in. She stayed for quite a while. She generally spends her morning curled up next to Ian on the floor, or in Evyn's arms at the classroom table.

This was taken a few days after the above photos. We came through the room and saw her sitting with her head on Ian's books. Ian has the photo on his laptop with the tagline : Homework Gets Me Down. I thought it looked like she had school work burnout!

Easter Sunday

Easter Bunny made a visit and left chocolates and some carrots. The egg carton in the center holds our Resurrection Eggs. We went through the eggs and the Easter story about 11:30 when we ate our Hot Cross Buns (see photo below).

Kids enter to discover their filled baskets.

Digging to the bottom of the basket.


They each received a container of colored bubbles with wand. It's supposed to be washable. There are green and blue dots on our deck still ... even after the rain. Hmmmmm .....

The hunt was on ... who could find the most eggs this year. Ian won ... he seemed to have a sixth sense about where they were hidden. This is what Ethan's discovered so far.

Amber scoured the classroom.

See Ian's hoard?

Evyn found his fair share.

Amber's egg hunting results.

Evyn found one in the laptop ... of all places! It's a wee bit squished, don't you think?

These are my fantastic Hot Cross Buns. They came out wonderfully! They are large and airy. I didn't have candied orange peel, so I used the candied fruit I purchased in December for fruit cake, which I never made.

They were as good as they look. Yes, there are currants in there, too. Yum!
Our beautiful ham. It was delicious!

Boy Meets Burger

Friday night we decided to make hamburgers for dinner (I had a turkey burger). We had set out quite early from the house for the waterfront park as I had a photo shoot. Ian did not have his dinner with him to take to dance. Dance started at 4 and he wouldn't be home until 7:45. He would have been starving. We asked if he could miss the ballroom dance class (it's an adult swing class and he only learns technique; there will be no dance for the recital). After his teacher gave her blessing, we had to stop by Fred Meyer to get some ground beef as Daryn has already assembled burgers for the other kids and himself and had no meat remaining. Ian came home and assembled a 1 pound juicy lucy burger for himself. (A juicy lucy is a burger with cheese in the middle.)

Here is the boy.

Here is the burger.

Here is the boy greeting his gigundo (that's a real word in our house!) burger, complete with tomato and lettuce and condiments.

Hellllooooo Burger! It was HUGE!

Boy did not open mouth wide enough for this bite. Need to try that again!

He was almost able to open wide enough. If he were part snake he could have unhinged his jaw to accomplish the feat.

In the end, Boy Demolished Burger ... his feat was complete. I think we are going to go broke feeding this boy! My measly little turkey burger was less than 1/4 inch thick ... so VERY thin. I had a piece of avocado on it, plus some tomato and lettuce, and that was nearly too much for me. I don't know where he put this. He has two hollow legs and is reed thin. Oh, to have his genes!

Ian's Tree of Life socks and Sweater Vest

Ian is so perpetually cold, and although these Tree of Life socks were initially intended for someone else (who shall remain nameless should I decide to make them again), I decided to give them to him. He liked the length (I think now he wishes they were a bit longer, as you may notice he has pulled them up and revealed the ribbing under the cuff) and the warmth of the wool.

I was actually a test knitter for this pattern from a designer on Ravelry. The name of the socks is actually in Irish, but as I cannot pronounce it, nor could I ever remember how to spell the words, I have renamed them the Tree of Life Socks. When I saw them on him I was reminded of older boy scout photos, so I decided to pose him that way.


The next few photos are Ian modeling his new sweater vest. Last month he was saying how cold he was and I instructed him to put on a sweater. His reply? "I don't have one!" Well, that was that, we set to looking through my books. He talked about a hooded sweater to which I said, "NO!" He was not interested in a pullover, so we knew it had to be a cardigan. We talked about vests, pull-on and button-up. We finally decided on this pattern. It has a zipper (two-way no less!), and pockets (a first for me!). Don't think I really want to ever do pockets again, but one never knows. If the pattern is well-written, then I might try again, but one never knows.

Mr. G-Q

The men's small would have been too big for Ian's measurements, so I adjusted by using smaller needles and giving it more length. He's so tall and thin! The vest makes him look taller and thinner than ever!
Here is the back of his sweater. I think I gave him enough length to last him for at least a year or two.
Close up up front and pockets.

Repaired Teeth

Dr. Katrina Hays from Dentistry for Children was able to work on Amber's teeth the next day. She was in the chair from 8:15 through 11:30 a.m. The teeth had sat in a small bowl of milk in the refrigerator through the night. We took them in with us and they were able to put her broken portions back where they belong. She had two pin-point pulp points, one in each tooth. The one Dr. Hays is most concerned about is the left tooth (on the right in the photos). It will take time to tell if the teeth will survive and if she will have to have one or two root canals and caps. Her gum is still quite tender (as of 3/30/11). She returns to see Dr. Hays again 4/5/11.

You can see where her upper lip bled.

Amber's broken teeth :(

It is now nearly 45 minutes since it happened (it's 5:15 our time) and still no call from a dentist!!!

6:24 p.m. ~
Dr. Becker has still not called us. We did hear from a Dr. Hays. He is in Seattle for something and unable to see her until tomorrow morning.

Amber was in lyrical class and they were learning a step and was doing two chanes and an attitude turn, two chasses, and a kick. She slipped on the floor and fell on her face. The floor is lynoleum and about a year ago had been waxed, by some idiot. One of the teachers fell last year and broke her arm. Amber's the only student who has ever been damaged, I think.

Needless to say, she's very unhappy. Who wouldn't be?

Evyn's 14th Birthday

Evyn only had a couple of requests for his birthday, the rest we had to figure out on our own. Sadly, his Betta, pet fish, of four years, passed away on March 16. Wurple was purchased for a pet care requirement for Webelos when he was in Cub Scouts. It was very difficult for him to lose his fish. We had a proper burial and he is in a small Altoids tin next to Huckleberry (Evyn's gerbil) and Cedar (Ian's gerbil) under the lilac bushes out front.

After discovering Ethan has purchased him a new Betta (a Crowntail Betta), Amber presented him with glass marbles for the bottom of his tank. Something he had been interested in getting for Wurple. Then he opened the card from Grandma Val and Grandpa John ... a check and a magazine subscription renewal. He REALLY enjoys Kids National Geographic and reads it cover to cover each time he gets one.
As we weren't really going to celebrate until Saturday, I felt he had to have something to open on the day of his birthday. I found a pair of flannel house pants with shamrocks on them. (Incidentally, he still hasn't worn them yet. Hmmm .... )
I also got him a book on Betta care and some drops to add to the water in the fish's tank.
I also snuck a gift with me to band practice. When we were at Epcot (in Florida in January) I found some drum sticks when we went to England. I bought them with the intention of giving them to him for his birthday. He has enjoyed playing with them. The design on them is the Celtic Welsh dragon.
Not it is Saturday ... and we are giving him the rest of his gifties. Ian made him chocolate chip pancakes and I gave him a variety of game cards to the game he enjoys the most, Magic.
He had also, off-handedly, mentioned he needed new slippers. I was unable to find anything I liked and since we were doing a felted clog knit-along at the yarn shop, I felt they would be the perfect slipper. So, here they are, prior to being felted. I have ordered suede soles, too, to be sewn on after felting.
This is the Dungeons and Dragons cake Daryn, Amber and I made for him. None of the photos came out very well. The camera focused either close, or far, but didn't take an overall focus :( We rolled out vanilla fondant and had intentions of making a playing grid with licorice laces, but they didn't work very well. So, when we pulled them up, we still had the cut-in marks we had made. I said the players' grid was a snow scene (that works!). I was also have to find several players over the previous weeks and we gave him the players and the dragon, too. The dragon is guarding its horde of gold (chocolate coins).
However, we didn't want to put the candles on the D&D cake, so we took the leftover pieces we didn't use on the cake, frosted them, and put on 14 candles and told him this was all that was left of our endeavor. I don't think he was really fooled!
Here is his D&D cake. I think the grin says it all.
Do I get all the figures, too? Yup!