brimming over

A boy's view of the world

Parker just came to me with his camera and asked me to upload his pictures to the computer. 

I thought it would be fun to share with you some of his pictures.  They give a little insight into his world, what he thinks is important, and our family life in general. 

Plus some of them are pretty good, I think.  :)

Remember I said we had a garden?  Proof...

We're still getting a bountiful crop from those pepper plants! 

Is there any wonder I'm always hearing screams coming from downstairs?

Craig breakfasting in his regular spot.

School stuff...

Headed to Fall Festival at church...a wizard and a spy.

 

There you have it: a boy's life in pictures.   

 

Games with Parker

Parker has been playing middle school team tennis this fall.  He really loves it a lot. 

I haven't gotten any great pictures of him playing.  I need a better camera lens for sports action photography.  Too bad that's about number 211 on our list of 220 things we need to purchase.  Sigh.

Anyway, here is one picture just to prove that I tried and that he has been playing:

That was his first singles match this season and he'd really been looking forward to it.  Unfortunately, I think he's so accustomed to playing doubles that it threw him for a loop.  He really struggled to cover the whole court and made mistakes that he doesn't usually make.  It was a heart-breaking defeat.  For me.  Parker seemed to take the whole thing in stride after a couple of minutes to compose himself.

And best of all, he made us so proud because he displayed good sportsmanship throughout the entire match.  Even when I could tell all he wanted to do was get off that court, he was still kind and generous and did not act angry or frustrated.  I was really impressed.

Now, on to a game where he apparently had the upper hand...Bananagrams!  I've been wanting to get this game for quite a while and finally threw it into an order I was placing at Rainbow Resource.  Wesley was too caught up in the last chapters of Harry Potter book 3 to play with us, so Parker and I played one on one. 

I was sailing through the entire time, creating my puzzle with ease, and he was struggling.  And then he pulled out a victory with the last tiles!  Turkey!

Just four tiles left and I couldn't figure out how to rearrange and make them fit!  Argh!!

We give Bananagrams two thumbs up!  It took us a while to get the hang of it but it was great fun.  And we think it will move a lot faster with multiple players. 
  
 
 

Not quite

Craig's idea of taking it easy with a broken elbow...

 

 

 

Humph.  I do not approve. 

Running guy

Parker ran his very first race today.  A one mile fun run. 

And he came in FOURTH!!!

Fourth out of all the runners in the race, not just in his age group.  Wow!  We are so proud and excited for him! 

Parker has been mentioning running off and on for a while so when we heard about this event we asked if he'd like to try it.  He immediately said yes but he wasn't sure if he could really run a mile.  So he and Craig began practicing running near our house about a week and a half ago. 

The race was to raise money for building and maintaining lower income housing in an older area of our city and was sponsored by one of the Methodist churches here.  There was a 5K as well as the fun run. 

We prepared Parker for the fact that he probably would not win and told him that it would be a great accomplishment just to run the whole race.  After all, it was his first one!

Just a few seconds to go (sorry, I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone)...

 

He started off in a flash and we were very worried he was going to run out of steam quickly.  When the first runner showed up headed toward the finish line (an older gentleman), we figured it might still be a bit before Parker arrived.

Suddenly, Craig said, "Look!  Parker's right there behind him!"  And there he was, only about 30 seconds behind the winner!  There were two older kids that crossed 2nd and 3rd and then Parker. 

 

Amazing!  What an emotional high for our whole family! 

He was wiped out.  He said he ran pretty much the whole way, stopping to walk just a couple of times for a few seconds, but he was in 3rd or 4th place the entire race.

 

Congratulations, Parker!  I hope it's your first big victory of many.

Isn't it grand?

The Junior Cotillion Grand Spring Ball, that is!

After months of attending those torturous monthly meetings, the final event arrived last night...The Grand Spring Ball. 

It was all girls in white gloves and pretty pastel dresses.  Boys in tuxedos with daisy boutonnieres.  And the country club ball room filled with dancing the foxtrot and the waltz.

Getting Parker dressed in his tux got me a bit squirmy thinking that probably the other times I'll be helping him into a tux will be for the prom and for his wedding.  Eek.  Let's just not go there, okay? 

He looked rather dashing, I think.

 

 

And every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man.  :)

 

Not that he agreed.  His opinion of the comfort of the tuxedo...

 

But I managed to get one genuine smile.

  

The mothers of boys and the fathers of girls were invited to come for the final dance of the night and dance with their children.  So I got dressed up in my Sunday clothes and went down to the country club around 8:30 p.m. for our waltz.  :)  I have to say, Parker's not half-bad at this dancing stuff!

At the end of the evening, prizes were given out for the dance contests but no one we know won any of them.  There were also door prizes. And Parker won a fish.  Ack!  A betta (Chinese fighting fish).  

He named it Skittles at his friend Leigh's suggestion.  You can tell he was over-the-moon excited about it.  Me, not so much.

 

We made plans to buy Skittles a larger habitat today and left him in his little home overnight.

  

Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, the beautiful little idiot died overnight!  Dang it! 

So, after being a fish owner for less than 24 hours, Parker was rather sad.  And we agreed to split the cost of a new fish and habitat with him.

Tonight we purchased Caesar.  Stupid rascal better live or I'll flush him.  Welcome to the zoo.

And there ends Cotillion.  Long may the manners and lessons learned there last!  

Three more years until we get to torture Wesley.  *evil laugh* 

And what happened here?

I was making my way through a clean up of Amy Grace's room this week while she was at gymnastics.  You know I can't clean while she's home!  Everything I want to throw out or give away would be fought over, cried about, and hysterics would ensue. 

As I got to the rather GIANT toy box of stuffed animals, I came across this little lady...

 

At first it might appear that she's fine.  Just out of place since she actually belongs with the dolls, under the bed in a basket.  But wait!  Something strange...

  

Gasp!  She only has one leg!  Maybe it's just tucked up oddly into her skirt?

 

Argh!  No!  Amputated!!  But how?  And why?  Who did this?  Oh well, I'll keep moving through the stuffed animals and ask Amy Grace about it when she gets home.  

Nnnnoooo!!  What's this??  Red has apparently been joined by her two one-legged friends Blondie and Whats-her-name.  

  

Three one-legged dolls?  Hey, girls, why so smiley?  Don't you know that you've been dismembered?

Off to question the assembled crowd of suspects!  Who did this and why?  I demand to know!  Confess!  Maybe we can arrange a plea bargain for those who cooperate.  (And by the way, where are the severed limbs?)

Aha!  Boys!  Something about Amy Grace sticking the dolls under the door to their room when they were trying to keep her out and they were pulling the dolls from the other side.  But my question is this:  why did you continue to do it after the first one came apart?  Uh-huh.  Answer that one! 

And obviously, you knew it was a BIG mistake since you hid the amputated legs in your room to avoid prosecution! 

 

And your sister hid the dolls at the bottom of the stuffed animal box as well.  Sigh.  All guilty as charged.  Sentencing will occur after the judge cools down.

For now, think about these poor girls, and how you'd feel if someone ripped your leg off!  I bet you wouldn't be smiling like that!

More catching up!

Whew!  Continuing on with my picture catch up! 

My uncle gave Wesley this t-rex model for Christmas.  One evening after we got home, the boys called Craig down, extreme frustration in their voices.  Apparently, the three of them worked on it a while and got in over their heads until Craig called me in to save them!  (Yes, I normally hide my cape under my regular clothing.) 

It took the 4 of us a LONG time to get this sucker together!  The pieces are numbered but the numbers are tiny and hard to see.  They also didn't seem to fit together well.  And the instructions were just a printed diagram that was pictured as a mirror image of the real deal.  Geez!  So I "read" the instructions, Parker & Wesley put the small sections together, and Craig put them all together into the big model.  Teamwork saves the day!

So here you have a realistic t-rex skeleton in all his gory glory...

 

  

Amy Grace stayed in Birmingham after Christmas at my parents' house to play with my nephews and hang out with her grandparents for several days.  On New Year's Eve, the boys and I met all of them in Montgomery at the zoo to reclaim Amy Grace and bring her home.  We all had a lot of fun at the zoo as it's one of our favorite places to visit.  It's just the right size...big enough to have some great animals but small enough that you can see it all in just a couple of hours.  Just about the time you're getting tired of being at the zoo, you're done!

Four co-operative clowns and one grumpy clown peeking through from behind...

 

ah-ha!  Caught the grumpy guy and brought him into the picture!  Still not happy but at least sitting still.  :)  My parents and their grandkids...

 

We got to PET a ZEBRA!!  That was SO cool!!  It's just something that I never imagined doing.  Of course, it was just like petting a horse.  Except that it was a lot more psychedelic due to the black and white stripes.  LOL!  Pictorial proof that all 3 kids petted him...

  

  

Monkeys watching giraffes...

 

Riding the train...

  

And speaking of monkeys...not so flattering, huh?

  

On New Year's Eve, we did sparklers in the driveway.  It was bitterly cold and windy so they were hard to get going.  And the cold made us not very willing to stick with it!  Amy Grace was afraid of them and retreated inside to color so she didn't make it into the picture...

Pictures from the past

Well, I'm finally, finally getting around to updating things here.  We got a new computer around Christmas time and I have had quite a struggle getting my pictures downloaded from my camera to the computer.  And the longer I go without blogging, the easier it is to put it off.  Sorry. 

We've had a busy month & a half!  Wesley and Amy Grace both had their choir Christmas plays at church.  Parker was in a choir Christmas play at church as well as in a performance at the Family Theatre in December and January that was the culmination of a class he did all fall.  All three kids have been playing Upward Basketball.  And, of course, we celebrated Christmas and New Year's! 

We're back to our studies and trying to get in a groove.  Things are going well although we've been hibernating much of this week due to the cold! 

I thought I'd share some pictures from December and a bit of January to catch up...

Amy Grace painting a piggy bank that we've been meaning to paint for way too long...

 

  

First day of Upward Basketball...Craig took these pics with my camera...they were all fuzzy.  Sorry. 

 

Another interesting puzzle that Parker & I did (with a bit of help from MeeMaw and Amy Grace) that came from Grandmother.  Those curved sides were weird to work!

  

Amy Grace heading out for her choir performance.  I'm not sure why the only picture I have is of her gazing sideways.  I didn't manage to get any pictures of Parker for some reason!

  

And Wesley before his choir performance.  Isn't he handsome?!  He chose on his own to dress up this much!  His brother could certainly learn some lessons from this example based on all his whining about Cotillion!  That Wesley cleans up nicely.  :)

  

Some Christmas decorations...the kids' tree:

  

The mantle...

 

Our main tree...

  

The foyer...

  

We spent Christmas in Birmingham with my parents.  A few pictures from Christmas morning:

Santa brought Legos to the boys...

  

and a customized "art cart" to Amy Grace...

  

Opening stockings...

  

  

Amy Grace models a bride costume that she received.  Sorry for the darkness of the pic but this one had the best grin.  :)

 

Another cool puzzle

Since we did that first jigsaw puzzle back on Pajama Day, we've pretty much had one going on the dining room table constantly.  Some of them go a lot faster than others!  We did one that was so challenging that we got sick of doing it and had to force ourselves to finish it just so that we could put it away.  Ugh!

After that, Parker asked to *please* get out this shell puzzle he'd been wanting to do so we started on it.  It was a ton of fun!  Very challenging but in the sort of way that it kept us interested.  There were plenty of small victories, which was nice.  Plus, it did have an educational factor since all the shells were named and labeled with the area they're found.

My grandmother is our main puzzle supplier.  She has been doing jigsaw puzzles for as long as I can remember and always has one going on a card table at her house.  Of course, she is MUCH faster than Parker and I are together!  We've got some things to learn if we ever want to be in the same category she is.

Puzzles are hard to photograph and my natural light situation was baaddd.  But here's our seashell puzzle.

 

  

And I apologize that this pic is blurry but I just had to show you Wesley's opinion of Parker and me working on puzzles! Grroooaaan.

 

Growing crystals, part 1

Parker received a growing crystals kit for his birthday from Aunt Caren and Uncle Jefferson and cousins, and then Gran, Doc, and Wesley brought a much smaller set home for him from their trip to the mountains recently. 

So we figured it was time to grow some crystals!  And it will be a cool experiment to see how each one grows and what type of crystals form.  The bigger set (purple) has several more crystal experiments to do and we'll be doing them over the next couple of weeks.

The set up...

 

Gently stirring carefully measured warm water and crystal powder, NH₄H₂PO₄ (that's monoammonium phosphate for those of you who flunked chemistry!)...

 

And now the purple crystals, same stuff...

  

Sitting very, very still-do not bump!

  

They are now growing peacefuly on the mantle.  The green ones seem to be growing nicely.  The purple ones are harder to see because the container is more opaque.

Update to follow shortly!