Alyson's Birthday

It seems impossible that Alyson is twelve!  It feels like she should still be a baby.  She's very excited about this birthday.  She's excited to be out of primary and in YW with me.  She wanted Mickey Mouse stuff for her birthday.  She has been a collector since our first trip to Disneyland.  So for her birthday cake she wanted Mickey Mouse.  She's turning into an awesome young lady and I'm excited to watch her grow through the exciting teen years.

She also wanted art supplies.

Rylee kept trying to claim one of the bags as "hers." She was devastated to discover they were all for Alyson.  Alyson took pity on her and let her help with the last one.

Alyson and her Mickey stuff.  If you look at her forehead you'll see a goose egg that she got from playing tag with her eyes closed.
 L. O. L !

Here is a close up of her necklaces.  The gold one is her recently earned "Faith in God" award.  The silver is a Mickey necklace to add to her collection.

Mickey Mouse cake.  Not my worst work. She wanted a Mickey Mouse on a purple cake.  The box of food coloring didn't have a recipe for purple.  I made one up but it turned out kind of weirdly gray.

Alyson is a wonderful daughter and we love her a lot.  Happy Birthday Alyson!

Ethan's Piano Recital

Ethan has been taking piano lessons since January.  He had his first recital last night.  He played "Ode to Joy" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."  I recorded one of the songs he played.

  I thought he did awesome!  Way to go Ethan.

Ethan's Birthday

Ethan's birthday was yesterday.  He turned nine.  He wanted a new bike but suggested that I might consider giving him a bike and The Flash and an Oz book.  At least he knows what he wants and made an attempt at not sounding too greedy.   I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he told me he wanted a "Steamboat Willie" cake.  That's right, no simple Mickey Mouse for him.   Apparently, he thinks I'm Paula Deen or Ace of cakes or something.  I think I made it work.  For you Steel Magnolia fans, I even made gray icing!

Steamboat Willie cake

Blowing out the candles

Bike, green; CHECK!

The Flash, CHECK!

Oz book, CHECK!

  Ethan has a thing with green lately.  He wanted a green bike, a green cake, green shorts, green Oz, and I'm making green mint brownies for him to take to school today.  Happy Birthday, buddy!

STEM Expo

Alyson recently attended the STEM Expo.  It's basically a huge science fair for all of Great Falls. She has been working with her ECS (extended curriculum services) group on programming robots.  They programmed a robot to cut down trees.  She and her two other teammates dressed up like lumberjacks for their presentation.  

Here is Alyson at the STEM Expo.  STEM = science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.  Notice her flannel?

She and her teammates programmed this robot to do the job of a lumberjack. They were hoping to save some lumberjack lives.

Here is their display.  They worked really hard.  They got a score of 24 out of 25.  They got gold medals.  AWESOME!