Our Family: Week of 6/9-6/15

On Monday, my once-tiny-baby-boy-whose-feet-now-are-almost-the-size-of-my-own turned 11!

In our family, each person gets to choose all of the meals on their birthday (breakfast, lunch, and dinner).  That tradition was all fine and dandy back when these guys requested things like boxed mac 'n cheese and their favorite cold cereal.

Now they are older and wiser and want real food, darnit!

He had requested homemade orange rolls for breakfast.

Luckily, Smith's makes a decent canned version.

;)

Next year when I don't have a baby, bud!

Grace had her first sewing class, so we rushed to that.  I had planned on taking them to the dollar theatre to see The Lego Movie, but chickened out.

I was pretty sure Sam wouldn't have been thrilled with it.

For lunch, he had homemade pizza-filled Hot Pockets.

Which, are actually super simple, so this meal actually WAS homemade.

Mike had to work both jobs on Monday, which meant he only had about 4 hours at home before he had to head back to the hotel, and he needed sleep, so as soon as he got home from work, we got our birthday celebrating on!

We sent him to his room and hid his gifts, and he came out and searched for them (another tradition of ours).

Adam got cards, a book about the pilgrims and early American history, money, a basketball, and his very first MP3 player.

Man, I wish I had got his reaction to the MP3 player on video.  It's not easy to surprise this kid, but his mouth hung open, and he kept asking, "Is this for real?  Is this all mine?"

He got a gift card for some music, too, so he was pretty excited to fill it up.

After dinner (caramel apple pork chops with mashed potatoes and peas), we had cake.

I'm giving myself some serious props on this cake.

Adam wanted it to taste good (he went with Pioneer Woman's white sheet cake recipe and it was amazing), but look cool, too.

He gave me a picture of a Pokemon, and I free-handed it (and attempted to write his name using the Pokemon font... meh.)

And he was (almost) as excited about seeing that thing as he was his MP3 player.

This guy is so funny, witty, sarcastic, smart, a hard-worker, and insanely stubborn.  I love how curious he is about everything.  He can give a random fact on any topic, and loves to talk.  He most especially loves public speaking... he is always begging to be able to give talks in church.  :)  He loves, loves reading (still), playing sports, having fun, and his little brothers.  He is so extremely patient and kind with them.  (Now, we gotta work on having that same attitude toward Grace).  ;)  I am so thankful every day that he is ours.

***

On Tuesday, Adam did a whole lotta this:

He has been having too much fun ripping songs off of our old disc jockey CDs and recording them off the radio.

We've never really been into "baby products" like swings and bouncers and stuff.  But, when we picked Mike up at D.I. a few weeks ago, someone had just dropped off a bouncer that looked brand-new (and D.I. can't sell baby stuff like that), so I asked Mike to snatch it up quick.

Sam loves that thing.

That evening, Adam's birthday money was burning a hole in his pocket, and Josh's "sock purse" filled with quarters was burning a hole in his, so I took the kiddos to Target in the evening, while Mike slept.

In pajamas, of course.

Adam bought a paintball Wii game, a yo-yo and Sprees, Josh bought some sour straws, and Grace bought 2 packs of gum.

***

On Wednesday, Grace finished her project at her sewing class.

My super-talented friend, Carla, holds sewing and cake decorating classes each summer for kids ages 7 and up.  Grace was so excited to finally be old enough to participate, and decided to try her hand at the swimsuit cover-up.

She sewed it all on the machine and it turned out DARLING:

That afternoon, we went over to the library to sign up for the summer reading program and check out a bunch of books.

You could say that Sam wasn't too into the library.

***

On Thursday, Adam went to his first 11-year-old Scout meeting.

He loved it and is pretty over-the-moon about the fact that they will be going on their first campout in July.

***

On Friday, we baby-sat for some good friends.

They brought us pizza + cupcakes for dinner as a thank you.

The kids had too much fun playing together.

***

On Saturday, we went to Adam's very last basketball game.

He scored 2 points.

This season has been such a good experience for him to learn about basketball, teamwork, and get some great exercise.

That evening, we went to our ward "water party + bbq."

We had an amazing time talking with friends, watching the kids play, and eating yummy food.

***

On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day.

And late Saturday night, I remembered the birthday gift that my mom had brought up from Kayty for Adam months ago, and brought it out.

Adam was insanely excited to have his first suit.

The men had brownies + ice cream at church.

Afterward, Mike came home and napped, and then grilled us dinner.

Hey, he loves to grill!  It's a privilege!

;)

I am so thankful for the sacrifices that this guy makes for us.  He is the best dad!

And I'm thankful for my wonderful Dad and father-in-law.

We are so blessed to have such great men in our family!