Sunday, January 27, 2013

Eight is Great!!!

Blake turned 8 on Thursday. I put the car on auto pilot and headed to Noblesville. PopPop Jim and Grandma Connie arrived and Blake opened a few presents. He loved the Eye Link Spy Set!

Spyware for Blake 8


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Blake loved the card I made for him even if there was a picture of him naked (from the backside). He thought it was quite embarrassing silly!!!


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            "This is soooo cool!!!"

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"I just love getting presents!" said Blake.

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Alexis thinks that her pretend birthday cake is even more fun!

After opening his presents, we headed to Red Robin for birthday supper. This is a favorite place to go for Smith birthday celebrations.

Friday morning, Blake headed to school early (taken by his daddy) to take a "before-school" enrichment class. We are so used to seeing the boys waiting together for the bus that Nicholas looked so lonely all alone, do I decided to go outside to wait with him. It had snowed the night before so I captured Nicholas and the snowflakes.

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      The snow just kept on coming.

Saturday was the beginning of an exciting weekend! Blake was excited that Uncle Brent, Jen, Layla and Marley, Aunt Paula and Uncle Ron and the Geyers  would be coming for his "family" birthday party. PopPop Tom had arrived on Friday. Before the party, we headed out to watch Nicholas play at his Upward Basketball game. He is one of two 3rd graders on his team. The rest of the boys are 4th graders but Nicky is scrappy. He is fun to watch as his confidence develops. They didn't win but it wasn't from lack of trying!

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You can see below one of the reasons that they didn't win...and Nicholas had to guard him!!! I can say, that while Nicholas was guarding this very tall boy, the boy made only one basket. While Nicholas was resting on the bench, the boy made a few more baskets! Way to guard, Nicholas!!!

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         It's rather humorous don't you think???


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The other kids may be bigger than Nicholas,
but he does his job!
 
The game is over and everyone heads home
for the party. Brent, Jen, Layla and Marley have
arrived and Aunt Conya, Uncle Mark and their
kidlets are due to arrive. Aunt Paula and Uncle Ron
are walking up the road. Blake is a happy boy!
 


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    Layla and Lexi have such a good time together!

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Marley and Blake decide that it's time to put on the pirate costumes!

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Here was a small part of the food served. I forgot to take a picture of the full buffet but, oh my, it was delicious!

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This is one happy girl...right where she likes to be...with her PopPop! After all, they hadn't seen each other in 2 months days!

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Blake reads his first birthday card and sees that it is from Uncle Brent, Jen, Layla and Marley soooo......

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                             ......group hug!!!

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"Thank you Aunt Conya, Uncle Mark, C1, C2, C3 & C4!!!"

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"I love all the Legos!" 
 
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   "Thank you sooo much, Aunt Paula and Uncle Ron!!!"

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               Alexis delivers the next present.

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      "More Legos!!! Yeah!!!!!!!"

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      .........and more!!!

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          " .....I LOVE it!!!"

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     "Thank you Grandma Connie & PopPop Jim!"

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    PopPop Tom plans how he should "help" Blake.


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                Blake can't wait to begin building as Caylee watches.

It's time to sing and blow out the candles but it is very hard for Blake to stop building even for a second. Notice his hands continue to "work" :

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                          "Blow, Blake, Blow!!!"

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  Blake gets a little help from C3 as Blake continues
         to "work" on his newest creation.

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                        "Now, where was I???"

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                C4 loves the cake!

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     "I had to stop for cake and ice cream!"


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         C2  is happy to be at Blake's party

The afternoon is about over. We sat around for a while and enjoyed each other's company. Jen and Kendra chat about the day.

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It was such a nice day! I headed home after dinner since I needed to be at Trinity on Sunday morning. What a great weekend!!!
                                   Happy 8th Birthday, Blake!

Friday, January 11, 2013

Goin' To The Fair...

Today was Layla's first science fair. We are so proud of her because she worked very hard and she learned a lot. Before Christmas, she sat down with Tom  PopPop to make a plan:

"What is  'density', PopPop???"
 

"I'm going to see which of these is the heaviest...
I mean...the densest."
 

The labeling begins.
 
More labels!
 
"I'll start with Dawn."
 
"Corn syrup will be good to measure."
 
"Perhaps a little Crisco would be good."
 
"These are my choices."
 
"Now comes the weighing."
 
"Would you explain this to me PopPop?"
 
"We will weigh each liquid in grams to see
which is the densest."
 
"I'll write down how many grams each weighs."
 
"Ta da!!!" They are in order from
lightest to heaviest!"
 
"This is sure fun but it takes a lot of time!!!
Now I have to decide on which of these to
use. I won't ask PopPop what colors look best
together. He's colorblind."
 
"Hmmm. This looks interesting.
It's fun to watch the densest liquid
as it goes through the other
liquids to the bottom."
 
"These are ok but I need a break.
I'll work on it some more during
Christmas vacation."
 
"I'm back at it. Now I have to remember what
I was doing."
 
"Oh yes...density. These look good but I need
a bigger container. Hey PopPop!!!"
 
"These colors might be good to help show
the different layers of liquids."
 
"I am nearly finished! There are so many pictures
of me pouring and checking liquids but I couldn't
get JoJo to put them all in the blog. I have to decide
what pictures and captions to put where before I
start to stick them on. Jen gave me a great board to
use for the background. Well...I'd better get this done!!!"
 
"This is it! This is lots of hours of work!
Tomorrow is the Science Fair and no matter
how I do, I had fun and I learned a lot!!!"
 
Science Fair Day!

 
Layla was in class when Tom and I
returned to school this afternoon to
take the project home. Several kids
asked me about her project. That was fun!
 
It was fun watching different classes of kids come
through the room, asking questions and looking
at the projects.

We are proud of Layla for wanting to do this project.
She and Tom spent several days (he loved every minute)
together. We learned today that there is a project booklet that
we should have had but felt that we covered most areas
without the booklet. Next year, we'll be a little smarter.