Never Underestimate What Your Kid Can Do

Stuart enjoys making things in the garage.  He is great with woodworking but also working with metal.  He volunteered to make two metal braces for a sleigh in our theater production of Narnia.  The project required welding and none of the other "builder dads" knew how to weld or had a welder.

Stuart let Nicholas watch him make the pieces.  It was the first time Nicholas had watched him use a welder.  Nicholas thought the welding helmets were really cool, especially the one that auto darkens when it "sees" the bright fire of the welder.

Once the braces were welded together, Stuart taught Nicholas how to use the drill press.  Nicholas then used it to drill the 6 holes in the metal braces they just made.  It was the first time he used a drill press. 

After the required work was done, Stuart let Nicholas do a little bit of welding himself.  There was a little bit more in-depth teaching time.

Then Nicholas made his first weld!

It is easy to underestimate our kids and their abilities.  But if we take the time to teach them the skills and especially the safety issues around using tools, they can do more than we imagined, even at 9 years old.

Nicholas is very proud of his new ability and I love that he is learning a unique skill that let him make his own creations with metal.

Eiffel Tower by Nic

Nicholas was playing with Keva blocks this morning.  He called us in the playroom to see the Eiffel Tower he built.  He didn't have a picture of the structure and was building it completely from memory.

He thought Grandmother C. would certainly like it because she loves everything about France.

The kids had been wanting to play video games earlier but we encouraged them to find something else to do instead of vegging out in front of a screen.  I love how their creativity comes out when they aren't using electronics!

Happy Birthday!

Today is Stuart's birthday!  He's turning 25 years old :)

The kids could barely stand waiting for him to get home this afternoon.  They hung out at our upstairs window watching for him to drive up the road.

As soon as they saw his truck they raced outside to greet him.  As they were coming back inside, they noticed a little baby bunny huddled up by our garage door.  

We have lots of bunnies around our neighborhood so it isn't unusual to see one every day in our yard but we've never seen a baby bunny.  We were all concerned because it is freezing tonight and we worried about him getting too cold.  We set up a box with a blanket in it so he could hop into it if he wanted.  Eventually he hopped away and scuttled off to the back yard.  As much as the kids wanted to keep him for a pet, it is best to leave him alone because the mom will come back and make a call to get him to follow her home.  Besides, they seem to have made a home under our back deck so we know he'll be fine now that he's in the back yard.

Earlier today, we went to Party City about got tons of helium balloons to surprise Stuart.  We just let them go in the living room.  The kids loved batting all the balloons around.  They also wrote messages on the balloons with Sharpies.  Rachel wrote "R {heart} D" on many of them. 

And smiley faces!

Nicholas wrote longer messages on his balloons.  The kids love to call us "the best parents in the whole entire universe" when they tell us goodnight.  Lately they have started trying to outdo that by calling us "Better than the best".  So Nicholas wrote a balloon message that says, "the better than the best dad in the universe is the birthday dad".

We had childcare lined up so Stuart and I went out for a birthday celebration. We went to dinner and a movie at the Grapevine AMC Fork and Screen.  They have a really good menu and you get to eat dinner while watching the movie.  It was great!

Afterwards, we came back home and sang "Happy Birthday" to Stuart and enjoyed some Chocolate Turtle bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes.  Yum!

Stuart got some RC tricopter stuff and a hydroponic AeroGarden for his birthday but unfortunately it was all mail ordered and nothing had arrived in time for him to open them.  But that's ok.  It just helps to stretch out the birthday fun for a few more days.

Then there was a little bit of birthday snuggling before the kids headed up for bed.

Happy Birthday to the "better than the best" Daddy and Husband in the whole entire universe!  We love you!

Snow Day!

We woke up to a beautiful dusting of snow on the ground.  We explored outside and found these tracks in the snow.  They traveled across the street and up our driveway.  Bunny?  Cat?

The kids decided to make their own tracks in the snow.  Nicholas made a path in the snow and Rachel followed it.

Stuart's old truck doesn't do well in really cold weather so he left it here and took the van to work.  We found this neat snow collection on the diamond plate around the bed of the truck.

We took a break to warm up inside with hot chocolate and marshmallows.

But before long the snow started falling again and the kids couldn't wait to get back outside!  Rachel didn't want to bother with putting her socks and shoes back on and just grabbed her flip flops!  Crazy girl!!

After proper shoes were found, the kids ran back outside.  They found the wheelbarrow and called it their chariot!

Rachel was in charge of shooting snow balls at me as they rode by in the chariot!

Here is my little snow monkey up in his favorite climbing tree.

He had fun looking over our 8 foot fence to monitor the conditions down the street.

I noticed that the snowflakes were large and not shaped like typical snow flakes.  They were more like little needles.  I think we'll have to do some research on snow flakes to find out more about their different shapes.

I tried to get a cool picture of Nicholas throwing a snow ball at the camera.  I was on burst mode so I could take lots of quick action pictures.  Unfortunately he was too fast and I was too close because this is the best action picture that I got before the snow splattered me in the face.  We didn't try for a second time.

My sweet little snow angel.  She fell out of her chair the other day and cut her lip.  Why can't my children sit in chairs without falling out of them?

I love that my boy still loves to play with sticks.  I can't tell you how many pictures I have of him with sticks.  

Time to head back in to defrost!  I'm a wimp in cold weather but I think the kids would stay out here all day if I let them.

Snow Candy

I found a cool recipe to try out in the snow - Maple Snow Taffy.  

All you need is a cup of maple syrup and a 1/4 cup of salted butter....and a prepared baking pan full of snow.

Melt the butter and pour the syrup in a pot on the stove.

Boil to 220-235 degrees on a candy thermometer.

I no longer have a candy thermometer.  I tried my meat thermometer but it only goes up to 220 degrees.  So I let it hit 220 and waited just a moment. 

It may have been a moment too long because suddenly the color started changing.   We rushed outside and poured rows of candy in the snow.  

This is the weirdest directions for a recipe I've ever done.

The candy firmed up quickly in the snow and Nicholas could lift a whole row.  Ours was not stretchy like taffy but it wasn't hard candy.  It was more like a brittle.

It's just YUM!