Happy birthday, Christopher. Here's your cake!

Ok, so the main reason for this post is the awesome cake I made!
Tony took most of the pictures on his camera, so he'll have to do the official birthday party post.
Christopher is doing great, and we are so excited that we're moving into big kid-land!

Thanks to our babysitter, Nielly who had the right cake frosting tip to make grass!

We give you toothless John in response to toothless Pa.

We definitely get our money's worth out of Halloween costumes...

Hey Tooth Fairy!

The other top front one is loose too. The tooth fairy is saving her quarters!

Christopher and his friend Lillian taking the bike out for a spin

Fly flies

John and I took fly out to a baseball field the other day so he could run off leash.  Here it is.  I hope it plays right side up because it looks upside down on my computer.

My new toy

 My new paddleboard finally arrived on Saturday afternoon! We got it out and inflated it in the afternoon. I wanted to make sure we had everything we needed before we headed out to the lake.

We packed up a breakfast picnic and headed to the Y beach around 9:30 the next morning. Tony was very sweet to come along and take pictures, wrangle the boys, and be my support team.

 John helped me pump it up. The pump gauge doesn't work, so I'll have to just guess until I can get a new one.

 The boys each took a turn pumping, but that didn't last long.

 It took about 7 minutes to pump up, and then another couple minutes to attach the keel and leash.

 It's big, but probably weighs only 30 pounds or so when it's inflated, and the carry handle makes it easy to manage.

 John told me "Remember the basics" as I started. This board is noticeably less stable than the $1000 board I rented. Partly because it is slightly narrower, but also, possibly because it has one large keel instead of three small ones.

 I got used to it quickly and didn't fall.

 John did well quickly also, but only spent a little time on his own.

 Christopher spent some time getting used to the life jacket and the water.

 After I took a spin getting used to it, I started adding riders.

I eventually stood up with John, but Christopher kept a firm grip on my life jacket and wouldn't even let me get up on my knees.










It is also pretty comfortable to paddle just sitting on it cross-legged, so I might eventually get a kayak paddle too. It took about 10 minutes to deflate, dry off with a towel and roll back up. We unrolled it in the garage when we got home to make sure that it dries thoroughly.

I'm happy I got it and am excited about spending a lot of time on the water this summer! Come on over and try it out!

It's Wednesday! Let's go to the lake!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love where we live!

I was feeling the need to run away today. So I threw some towels and the kids' swimsuits in the back of the car and we went to the lake after I picked them up from school.

April is great this year. It's starting to warm up, but it's clear and not humid. The bugs haven't arrived yet and the pollen is starting to abate a little. Spring and fall are the best time to be outside in the South!

The kids played in the water then moved up to the playground. I sat in my folding lawn chair. Now that I keep one in my car all the time, I'm always happy to go anywhere I can just sit outside while the kids play!

SUP

That's Stand-Up Paddleboarding to you!

John and I went to Saluda Landing on Lake Saluda last weekend and took paddleboard lessons. Our instructor Jan of Upstate Paddleboard was great. He went over the basics of the board and paddle and then taught us how to get on and off the board, get up and down, and how to paddle correctly. It is pretty easy. It took about 5 minutes of paddling on my knees before I was ready to stand up.

We tooled around the lake for an hour and a half or so. It was a gorgeous day, but about 70 degrees so I wasn't interested in getting in the water, but John was and did get in. He said it was cold but not too bad.

After he got bored with rowing around, he got on the paddleboard with me. I paddled him and then he paddled me.

It's a lot of fun and now I'm saving up for my own. Especially since the weather is turning beautiful here and we have so many lakes around!

Even more artwork from Christopher

These are drawings that he has created while trying to keep up with John's homework and drawing and writing.

More Artwork from Christopher

These he has done at his "New School" with Mrs. Nash, who also has a lot of creative art projects for the kids.

Something I've been meaning to do for years

The kids come home with so much creative artwork at school, it's impossible to keep all of it. So I keep the "best" pieces, but I've wanted to photograph them and put them on the blog for "posterity."
Finally, today was a rainy day and I was motivated to learn how to batch resize on IrfanView to make uploading to the blog faster (Thanks, Pa!).

Here are a bunch from Christopher's hands and brain.
These are my favorites. Miss Susan at his "Old School" had a great system in place for painting to minimize the clean up and cost of the painting process, so she let them paint often. They of course loved it, and it gave at least one of the kids a quiet activity and a powerful incentive.