Sam turned 12 ..... wow

Wowee your turn your head for a second and your baby turns 12.  I do not know who told him he could get so big but he went and did.  He is now almost my hieght, his shoulders are getting so broad.  Guess I better get use to it. 

 His birthday went really well.  He had a lot of fun.  Whad his gifts in the morning for him.  Gabe gave him the new Serpents Shadow book.  The really special thing was the horse that he made for Sam out of peg beads.  It was completly his design and he did it all by himself.  Sam recieved a few different books.  His favorite item though was the calligraphy set and his new legos.

For his outing we went to the movies.  The Avengers opened that weekend so we went and saw that.  He even had a new Avengers shirt (made by is dad) that he got to wear.

Tomorrow I am going to start sharing the photos from our trip to St. Augustine.  Great trip!



Gabe is now 9!!!!!

Well his birthday was on February 12th (slacker mom as usual)  Where does the time go though.  It really does seem like yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital.  I will say this that time might have flown fast but he has made every day fun and exciting.  He is the most energetic, imaginative boy that I know. 

This was the first gift that he opened.  It was from his brother.  Sam designed his own Tony Stark doll for him.  He even made an Iron Man outfit that he can put on the doll.  Very cool and as you can see Gabe loved it.

I made a felt airport mat for him (we included a set of airplanes for it too). Like I said this boy is extremly imaginative so he loves gifts that he can use his imagination on.

He got lots of goodies for his birthday.

One of Gabe's favorite apps on the iPad is Monster Mouth DDS  so when we found this play-doh dentist set we had to get it for him.  I have to admit it is pretty cool.  It even has a battery operated drill so the kids can drill the teeth.

This is probably my favorite picture of the day, look how happy he is.  Gabe always wanted a pillow pet (loves any type of stuffed animal) so we found a monkey one in the smaller sizes.  The castle in the front is something that we got from Micheal's.  It was unfinished so his dad painted it up for him.  It is a really nice castle.  It can close up for easier storage and has a draw bridge that opens and closes.  I will try and do a post on it soon.

Now for his birthday cake.  Oh the troubles, he really wanted an Iron Man cake which normally would not be a problem, except that we could not find an Iron Man pan anywhere.  He really wanted a shaped cake because I asked if he just wanted a basic cake with Iron man drawn on.   So we decided to get creative and the closest thing we could find was a Spider man cake pan.  This is what I came up with.  I was actually pleased with the outcome and Gabe loved it too so that was great.  The cake flavor was great, he wanted Strawberry/blueberry flavored.  I used this recipe here and just added in blueberries.  It was really good.  Rob actually commented that it was nice to eat something that was healthier on a birthday, now if we could just do something about the frosting, LOL.

Happy Birthday Uncle Alan!

The boys made this short little video to wish their Uncle Alan a Happy Birthday.  Gabe is dressed as a monkey because he says that his uncle is a monkeys uncle, LOL.  He also chose Sam's costume.

Sam's 11th Birthday!!!

So My Little guy is not so little anymore, He turns 11 today.  How come they can keep growing up.  I really do not like it.  Oh well, guess that I just have to give in and go with it.  This year his presents were a little more grown up.  To start with last weekend we took him to Micheal's and gave him him $50.  He was allowed to buy whatever he wanted.  Among the many things he got his first glue gun.  Also some wood so that he could start practicing wood burning designs.  O.K.  now on to his 2 gifts that we gave him this morning.  Well as much as Sam loves crafting he loves to read more, So we got him a

Kindle.  As you can see he is pretty happy about that.  We loaded two new books, Kingdom Keepers 4 and Throne of Fire.

He found out that Throne of Fire was from his little brother. 

Now on to the biggest of all the gifts.  Hmm what is this in here, a bunch of papers?

This is starting to look like some good papers.  Could it be?

Yes it is Tickets to Disney World!!!!!

Finding out that we leave on Monday morning.  Now time to fill Gabe in on what is happening.

Yup now he knows.  Needless to say they are pretty excited.  This is their first trip to Disney and they can not wait.

Normally when his Birthday Cards come in I let them have them right away, but this year I had to hold them.  That was because so many people were in on the secret.  His mimi sent him a gift card to Disney world., so the secret would have been out.

Ok we leave in a couple of days so expect a few (ok a lot more than a few) pictures when we get back.

February 12, 2003

Someone Turned 8!!!

Needless to say he was pretty excited about it all.  He kept saying all day that it was the "BEST DAY EVER!!!"  LOL

One of his first gifts that he got to open was from his Aunt and Uncle in New Jersey.  He was to funny and told me I better get the camera.  Always the little ham!  They did such a great job.  They got him a little handheld game from the movie Cars 

This was his really large big gift from us.  He saw this monkey at Toys R Us and loved it.  The thing is though that he saw it at christmas after we had already finished all of his shopping.  So we really surprised him on his birthday.  We even bought a couple shirts for him to dress up in.  My husband thought that the Donkey Kong shirt on him was to perfect.

Look at the size compared to him this thing is huge.

He is really into music and wanting to be a singer.  Sam got him a new guitar for his birthday to help along that dream.  Such a good brother.  ;)

Gabe even wanted to have his monkey Sam (yes he named him after his brother) play the guitar too.  He actually took this picture of him.

My two monkeys eating banana monkey pancakes.  We got an adorable pan at Target for the monkey pancakes. 

Gabe is really into the movie Cars.  His dad made this play set of radiator springs for him.  then to go with it we picked up some extra cars to go with it.

His cake.  O.k.  first go easy on me they were really hard to take pictures of  because of all the different angles.  Of course it is not the best job on the decorating either, but that is a whole nother story.  It was of this really cool ice cream and cake pan that I got at target.  Unfortunetly I did not take a picture of the pan to share with you and I can not find a link for you to see it.    The animals on it were a monkey (of course), an elephant, a lion, a gator, and a hippo.

We had a really nice lunch with family.  Gram and Harriet made a 4 hour drive just to have lunch with him.  I think he is pretty loved.

Getting a little sugar high from the cake. 

What always comes after the sugar high...the sugar low of course.  This monkey is so comfy to snuggle with...  seriuosly comfy.

even Rob got a snuggle in.  LOL

Later that night we had some friends stop by.  Which it is always fun to watch this little guy play.  He really loved Gabe's car that he got for christmas.

Sam used his uDraw to make brother a birthday card

Gabe's 7th Birthday

I am little late on posting this (ok you can stop laughing I know I am always late on my post). Well a few weeks ago it was Gabes birthday. (Feb. 12th that is) He wanted to have a monkey party for his birthday. So for my little monkey that it is what I tried to do.
This the monkey cake that I made this year. I am actually pretty pleased with the way that it turned out. I do think that it is my best one yet.

Of course the monkey came out during a play with big brother.

Of course he needed a new monkey for his collection. Daddy made him this one, I think that he was pleased with the turn out.

Sorry for the blurry picture but when the little monkey wanted to move, he moved. LOL

A new webkinz from his big brother. I believe the sound that came out at this point, was the howler monkey.

Some new monkey toys to play with.

Proudly showing off the new t-shirt that his dad made for him.

This is a onsie that Dh painted to go on the new monkey that he made for him.

This is the same monkey that he is holding in the picture above. His dad made it and he loves it.

These are the pajama pants that I made for him. Sorry aabout the bad picture. It is a combination of poor lighting and a child that never stays still. I actually made these out of one of his old top sheets. He loves them. He spends most of his days in them.

Well as you can see from the pictures he had a pretty good birthday. I am just pleased that i got this posted before the month ended. :0)

A Birthday Gift....

My nephew is turning 3 this weekend and I was trying to figure out what to give him. I have to admit that I was a little stumped until I came across this great idea. The family was doing an activity about butterflies. It looked like so much fun that I had to make it. Of course I tend to go overboard and make alot of things. I made a bag for him to keep all of the pieces in, including a pocket on the front for the book. I fell in love with the fabric it is covered with little caterpillars and flowers.

Here is the stages of the butterfly for him to play with. To start with I attached a little white egg to the leaf. Second is a puppet to represent the caterpillar stage (a puppet so that he can eat through all the food). Then of course we have a cocoon. Finally a butterfly puppet to complete the stages.

Here is everything that he eats through the first week in the book. Everything is made from felt, I just made slits in the middle for him to put the puppet through.

Then last but not least is the food that he eats on the last day before entering the cocoon.

I made this with some help from Gabe. I thanked him at the end for the help and we had a nice little conversation about it.

me: thanks so much for your help. I could not have not done it with out you.

Gabe: I know, you helped a little too.

me: Just a little?

Gabe: yeah in the begining

Me: In the begining (scratching my head at this point)

Gabe: Yup you gave birth to me.

Me: Just a little help hah!

This kid is a riot. The boys loved the gift so much they have already picked out stories that I can make play sets for. Should be fun!

May 6, 2000

My beautiful boy, my first born, Happy 9th Birthday! My life changed for the better the day you entered it.
Wow, you have changed so much over the years but one thing has stayed the same, your heart. You are one of the sweetest kind hearted people that I have ever known. I love how you think about things in the world. Keep the way that you are, I love you so much my little book worm.