It was 9pm, just two nights before my son’s tenth birthday when he said, “I’m so excited about my Revolutionary War cake!”

Pause the world. What was he talking about??? I had not plans for a Revolutionary War cake! But as he talked about it, I began to vaguely recall him mentioning wanting one. The thing is he seemed to want something different every two days, so I had not married myself to any one particular plan. I did not want this to be a total failure, though. He was already not having a party. I could not mess up his cake too!!

So I took to Pinterest. I found very little there. Apparently, this is not a popular cake to bake.

Fellow parents of history buffs, teachers of Revolutionary War, or whoever else may want an American Independence themed cake, allow me to present my creation.

I made this as easily as I could think to make it. And yes, I took several short-cuts, and I’m going to explain exactly how I did it.

Step 1: Bake any two layer round cake from a boxed cake mix.

I don’t even remember which one I used. He wanted chocolate, so I used whatever moist boxed cake mix was a good deal at the store that week.

Step 2: Cool your cake.

Step 3: Make buttercream frosting, or used canned frosting.

I actually covered the cake in chocolate ganache, per Daniel’s request, but that is not required. You can frost the cake in a layer of whichever kind of frosting you like because you are just going to cover it up with fondant anyway.

If you want to make chocolate ganache like I did, this is a delicious and easy recipe on Sally’s Baking Addiction.

HOWEVER, you do have to have white icing also on hand for the decorating part. I made buttercream frosting from a family recipe. It is delicious. You will use it to make the stars and the white stripes and any writing you want to do on the cake.

Now y’all, I know people knock canned icing all the time, but it is also a huge time saver, and my family loves it too. Feel free to also use that shortcut.

Here’s my buttercream frosting recipe, courtesy of my aunt, Pat Smith:

Buttercream Frosting:

1/2 C butter 3 T Milk

1/2 C coconut oil 1 t vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt 1 box confectioner’s sugar

Cream butter and oil in mixer. Add vanilla and salt. Beat in 1 cup sugar at a time. Add milk and beat at high speed until light and fluffy. Makes 3 cups.

Pat Smith. (Original recipe uses Crisco instead of coconut oil.)

Step 4: Ice your cake with whatever you chose to make or buy.

Step 5: Prepare your fondant. I totally used boxed fondant. You need both red and blue.

This was my very FIRST time using fondant, but Daniel had requested it, so I decided to take the plunge.

No, I did not make my fondant from scratch. No way was I about to add that to this long process. Instead, I went to partycity.com, and I bought both red and blue fondants. Then I selected curbside pick-up and picked it up without ever having to get out of my car. This all took less than an hour. Our store was so quick, but give yourself more time than that, of course.

You can also order it on Amazon.

(I do collect advertising fees when you order through my Amazon links.)

Step 6: Knead your fondant, and then roll it out.

Basically, just follow the fondant box directions. If you have extra time and want to make your own, go for it.

I do not own a “fondant roller” like the box directions said, so I just used a good old fashioned roller.

Yeah, I made a mess. For the blue one, I used way too much powdered sugar, so my fondant was all blue/white by the time I was done. Thankfully, I realized by accident that if you rub tiny drops of water on it, the white comes off. I just used a slightly damp paper towel to remove white smudges that were too obvious, but be careful about it.

I did a much better job on the second try, with the red fondant.

Step 7: Ever so carefully, cover the cake in the blue fondant like a sheet.

You may want to watch a tutorial on how to do this. Roll the blue fondant over the rolling pin loosely. Have your cake like right next to where you’re working so you don’t have to go far. I made my fondant way bigger than my cake. That way I could just trim off the excess rather than be horrified by its not meeting the bottom of the cake. That worked well.

Step 8: Trim and Smooth the Blue Fondant

Yes, my fondant had a few wrinkles on the sides. It was my first time. I did smooth over it, but I let a few wrinkles be honestly. The boxed directions said to use some special fondant tool I don’t own, so I just rubbed the cake all over with a large spoon. Ha! Basically you want to make sure it’s all stuck to the icing good. It really did not require too much smoothing.

Here’s a video presentation of covering the cake with fondant for my fellow newbies.

Step 9: Cut and apply the red fondant trim.

Your buttercream frosting is your glue. Put it under all your fondant decorations and little Risk soldiers to hold them in place.

I just made long rectangles of the red fondant. Then I piped my buttercream frosting on top of the blue fondant in all the places I wanted to stick the red stripes. It was a lot like making a gingerbread house, where the white icing is your glue.

I did a long strip of red around the bottom of the cake. Then I cut another long strip that I tuck folded near the ends to lay on top of the cake like a ribbon. See the picture:

I put buttercream frosting under the strip on top of the cake too, to hold it in place.

Step 10: Trim cake in white buttercream frosting in a piping bag.

I did icing on the bottom and then a thick stripe of icing around the middle, to give it the red, white, and blue look.

Then I used that same icing to make the circle of stars on top of the cake and to write Daniel’s name.

I also used the white frosting to hold down all the Risk soldiers.

Step 11: Place on the little Risk soldiers.

I guess if you don’t already own a game of Risk, this would be the most expensive part. It just worked so perfectly because it is the right time period. Most toy soldiers have more of a World War II helmet/ green uniform vibe. These Risk soldiers come in different colors, are tinier, and have cannons and horses. They are just so perfect for the 1776 theme! Plus, red for the British and blue for the Americans! So perfect!

This cake might work well for a Hamilton fan as well, come to think of it….

The post How to Make a Revolutionary War Cake appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Do you have anyone in your house with a quarantine birthday?

It feels ironic that I wrote a post only two weeks ago where I talked about how my birthday party was postponed when I turned eight years old. That was due to chicken pox. Remember chicken pox? Then here I am thirty-one years later “postponing” my son’s ninth birthday party while we all hunker down to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. I told him we will do his party in April, but I have no idea if that will actually happen.

Poor Daniel. He was all kinds of pumped for this party too. It was going to be at a trampoline park, you know, where germs go to exchange hosts. haha!

I still want Daniel’s birthday to be special though, even if he will only see our same ol’ faces on that day. His birthday is on a Sunday, and church is cancelled. It may sound bad, but as a wiggly nine-year-old boy, he will assure you that this is a win.

So here are a few things we are doing to save the quarantine birthday:

#1. Dunkin Donuts for breakfast

As long as they keep that drive thru running, this may be a first at our house. We rarely buy donuts, and if we do it’s usually later in the day. I am not a morning person, out running about town before breakfast!

I told Daniel he could pick anything he wants for breakfast, and that is what he chose. Many of you are wondering why in the world he didn’t choose Krispy Kreme donuts. We live in Maryland. The nearest Krispy Kreme is an hour away, so Dunkin’ it is.

#2. NERF gun war!

Everyone is basically running around with Nerf guns, setting up forts, etc., and it is quite chaotic, but they love it.

#3. Sweet potato casserole and yeast rolls for lunch

Isn’t he cute?

#4. Grocery Store Bakery cake– I am picking this up today, two days ahead, just in case the bakery folds.

Vanilla cake with chocolate icing, per his instructions. He first requested ganache filling with a fondant icing, Haha! He’s my little chef. The thing is I have not found a place like that here yet, and I have not even attempted making fondant icing. He agreed to settle for the standard grocery store bakery cake. By next year we will be more established here, and then I will go buy him the fancy cake he desires.

Don’t worry. We’ve already ordered the cake. It was the only one they were making today, and they said it would be ready by 4:30.

#5. Fortnite Piñata!!!

Shhh! Don’t tell Daniel. This is a surprise. I found it on clearance at Walmart at Christmas time. These were selling for $70 everywhere else because the piñata is filled with Fortnite toys, but I found it for only $40. However, when Christmas time came I realized I had over bought for the little boys. You know, you have to make all the presents fair and even, so I stashed it away, and they have forgotten that this was even a thing they asked for.

#6. Extra Presents

Alan went to Target a few nights ago. He said it was so empty of people and essentials that it was eerie. Toys were still fully stocked though, so Alan went a little overboard. After all, there won’t be any friends bringing toys to a nonexistent party, so a few extra won’t hurt.

#7. He gets to pick a family movie to watch.

This is another thing he requested. I asked him for all the birthday ideas he could think of. He hasn’t decided on which movie yet, but he does love movies.

#8. Extra video game time

Boys tend to be really simple in this way. Things like extra video game time make them quite the happy campers.

#9. Festive decor

No one is coming over, but I will still hang the “Happy birthday” sign, put out festive decor, and maybe even make punch. I firmly believe boys enjoy a festively decorated party every bit as much as girls do. They especially appreciate balloons, not just hanging balloons, but balloons that they are allowed to throw around and eventually destroy. Boys do love to destroy things.

#10 FaceTime & Phone calls to family

All the grandparents will want to wish him a happy birthday, I’m sure.

And last but not least…#11. Hugs, attention, and Mint Ice cream

….because Daniel likes ice cream that tastes like toothpaste. Of course, this is only if I find a grocery store that still has mint ice cream. I had no luck with that at the grocery store today, so picked up some mint Little Debbie snacks instead.

9 is fine.

Just like us. We’re fine. Right? Everything is fine. My neighbor and I were talking about how much cleaning we are getting done.

Keep in touch, y’all! I am getting cabin fever already.

Follow this blog on my Facebook page. That’s where I’m hangin’ these days.

Also, check out my recently published book where I take you on a tour through the Holy Land with 280 beautiful full color photos. It’s FREE today and tomorrow only on Amazon!

The post 10 Ideas for Making a Quarantine Birthday Fun appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Our family has never been known for our stellar thank-you note etiquette. Instead, thank you notes typically make my boys want to actually return their presents.

“Skylanders, YES!!!!!”

“THANK YOU NOTES??? Oh, um, oh, uh. Moaaaannnnnn….Groannnnn….”

Look, it’s not that they are ungrateful. They SAID thank-you 100 times, jumped up and down, and gave the giver a hug. We are thankful, okay. But sitting down in an actual chair and WRITING out thank you notes??? Apparently some people don’t love that idea.

And many of you know that even after they write them their mother may lose them, forget to mail them, or stick them into a drawer and find and mail them a year later.

Not me, of course. Ahem. Never, no. I’m just so organized and careful. That would never happen to me…. (Ha!!!!! Right.)

But we do want to do the right thing and teach our children to show gratitude to others. We’ve been blessed so much.

The Solution

So Lil’ Miss Gratitude, over at….well…..Lilmissgratitude.com invented something that’s pretty awesome. This is what I used for my son’s birthday this year. He took one look at how it was basically already written and all he has to do is fill in the blanks, and he calmed down.

“Oh. I just fill in these blanks?
“Yep. So easy.”

“OKay. Sure. Do you have more of these? Because I got a LOT of presents.”

“No, but I have some “Hello” cards with blanks too. You could make those work for thank you notes.”
“Let me see. Yeah, okay, I got it. THANKS, MOM! Thank you so much. Phew.”

And look how cute:

I actually colored this one myself. It was fun.

a filled in “thank you” note

He’s too cool to color them, of course, so we sent some out uncolored, and I colored some of the others.

My son also decided that his friends don’t want thank-you notes, so he only delivered them to his grandparents and aunts and uncles. Well, all right, this is me we are talking about. He wrote them 2 weeks ago, and they are sitting right beside me because I can’t remember anyone’s exact address, and I haven’t found the time to look them all up.  Hey, I may be a slacker mail handler, but at least I got him to write the notes! Right?

I love Laura’s slogan for these cards: “We said thank you notes; they heard root canal.”

So if this sounds like a story you can relate to, here’s where you can order your own. I can’t recommend these highly enough:

Go here to order them.

Click here to learn more or place an order.

Believe it or not, this is not a sponsored post, but these fabulous products were provided by Lil’ Miss Gratitude.  Check them out! 

The post Do your kids love writing thank you notes???…..So here’s a solution. appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

I have got to order this mini-chef his own apron!

Today Daniel turned four. I asked him what kind of cake he’d like for his birthday. In the very early years of parenting, I always bought the boys grocery store cakes with characters on them. There were a couple of years I even tried to make super pretty cakes–Caleb had a really impressive train cake two years in a row.

But decorating cakes is a giant weakness for me. I’m just not good at it, so I resorted to buying grocery store cakes again and just sticking some toys on top of it.

This past year the boys became disillusioned with the grocery store cakes and started asking me to make their cakes. I make cakes all the time, but they are very simple and undecorated. I make the little round cakes. That’s what we like.

So I was expecting Daniel to ask for that too. Wrong.

“Me make my cake myself!”

“Oh! OKay, sure, Daniel.”

Alan took him to the store to pick the ingredients. St. Patrick’s Day stuff lurked everywhere, so Daniel gleefully chose GREEN cake, white icing. Pretty fun, huh?

He really likes to pour all the ingredients into the bowl and stir, so I let him do all of that. He normally helps crack eggs, but this recipe called for egg whites only, so I had to just let him watch that part.

He seemed very happy with it, so we were too. It actually turned out to be quite delicious!

The birthday boy was so happy tonight that it took him forever to go to sleep. Do you know what Daniel said to me tonight, as I tucked him into bed for the second time?

“Mom, what’s your name?”

“April.”

“Like on the Ninja Turtles. You’re April. You know the Ninja Turtles,” he giggled, “Donnie. Ralph! You know Ralph, Mom! What’s he say, Mom? All the Ninja Turtles…”

He was so sleepy he was practically delirious, so I only understood every other word or so, but he was quite happy and excited to discover that his mother is none other than the famous April O’Neil.  I just smiled and told him good-night, as he went on and on and on about April and the turtles.

He had a great day. We all did. This morning I woke up to the sorts of sounds that send mothers straight into euphoria:

Caleb asked me, while I was still in bed, “Mom, would you like some coffee?”

“I would.”

Then I heard him asking Alan, down the hall, “Dad, can you show me how to make coffee? Mom wants some.”

I heard Joshua shout out, “I started a load of blacks!” (Laundry. I’ve told him they’re called darks and lights, but for some reason he says blacks. It’s sort of like when I tell him to say his times tables. Instead of saying “4 times 8”, he says “4 ‘x’ 8”. Try explaining it. I’ve given up.)

“Did you use laundry detergent?” Alan shouted back.

“What? Oops! Oh yeah!” he said as he ran back down. Hey, that’s okay. The boy is doing laundry.

It was not so hard to get out of bed this morning, thanks to these wonderful sounds.

Here are a few photos from our day:

Who wouldn’t love a giant stuffed sea otter?

Watching Caleb read to JD makes me so happy I just can’t even begin to express it!

more because I’m obsessed

This is as good as it gets here. Dan was very happy.

Alan found these number gummies to decorate Dan’s cake. Daniel is obsessed with writing numbers and letters everywhere right now, so he was delighted.

I have got to remember to take a picture of all of his little writings. He does really well with the letters we’ve worked on. A lot of the others look sort of like Hebrew or Arabic. It’s so adorable.

I love it when he has this look!

Success.

I’d better go. Donatello needs me to help him fight the Krang.

Yep. That’s me all right. 😉

The post Daniel thinks that I am April O’Neil. appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

It was bad because I was so sleep deprived that I could barely function.

It was also amazing. One boy worked on my birthday present all week. He made me four different Super Mom comic books. Then he set up a scavenger hunt for me to find them all. Wow. The other boys also drew me sweet pictures, and Daniel worked so hard to write his name for me.

Daniel noticed how much praise everyone received for their cards and pictures, so he spent the next hour cranking out about 20 more pictures.

And Alan made me a cake!

This was the first cake that Alan has ever baked. Love it!

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture until after I cut it. Whoops.

2 humorous stories from this week, and then I’d better let JD out of his room and feed him. He’s fine. He woke up from his nap, and now he’s playing just fine in his room.

The bunk bed story:

I told Dan that Nonna and DaddyO are coming to visit, so he will be sleeping in the guest room so they can have the big bed in his room. He was none too excited about this plan.

I suggested that we set up the bunk beds in Daniel’s room and transfer the double bed to the guest room. That way no one will be displaced when we have company.

Daniel got so excited at the mention of bunk beds, that he quickly ran to tell Caleb. Caleb said, “Let’s go build the bunk bed then.”

“Sure, go ahead,” I joked.

Twenty minutes later, I went upstairs. Work was well underway. Caleb had rearranged some of the furniture in his room, pulled the extra twin mattress out from under Joshua’s bed, torn off the clear plastic cover (to protect it during the cross-country move), stood it up on end, and moved it down the hall into Daniel’s room!

When I arrived upstairs, Caleb was under Daniel’s bed, “cleaning it out and figuring out how it works.”

That boy. That is one tough 7-year-old.

I put their work on pause until Dad could get home to help them. Perhaps I shouldn’t have. Maybe I should have seen just how much Caleb could do.

Caleb, the preschool teacher

Other things Caleb accomplished this week:

1. My home school mom friends mentioned that they let their kids quiz each other on their school work. WHY had this idea never occurred to me? I’ve been doing ALL the quizzing around here. No more. Now I am trying to remember to let them help each other a little more.

2. We learned about Pearl Harbor last week. I got online and found old film footage of the bombing. All you can see is lots of black smoke, really.  Then we saw interviews where this Japanese lady was recalling that day. She had been a school child, and they had announced that Japan declared war on Great Britain and the United States and she talked about how they had all cheered for joy.

Caleb looked very serious, and he said, “They did this on purpose!!?” and he scrunched his eyebrows, narrowed his eyes, and hit his fist into his palm, looking quite ready to join the WWII war efforts.

Perhaps we should go back and make sure that he knows that particular war is over, and the Japanese are our friends now…

Chaotic photos from my birthday week:

What’s more fun than helping Mom in the kitchen?

Every child should like chores as much as this one.

I love how straight Caleb can make lines, when drawing, without even using a ruler. I still can’t do that.

the day I let him play with a bowl of water in the floor

Painting!

JD, in his backyard playpen. He likes that big pile of dirt.

This is JD’s school work. Ha!

“Look!” he says, constantly.

JD has been working so hard on learning how to talk, that it can give one a headache. He talked my ear off this week, and I understood almost none of it. I did get, “cookie,” “no more milk,” and lots of “Mama,” “Daddy,” “Jawa,” and “Caleb,” oh! and “dog.” He loves dogs. All of the boys loved dogs until Joshua taught them otherwise. Joshua loved them until about age 3.

Daniel was very happy to have Caleb as his teacher.

Caleb just marched into the living room, holding the stack of blend ladders, and said, “I’m going to teach Daniel these.”

“If I mash these buttons enough, this t.v. WILL turn on.”

I love Paw Patrol. This little fellow battled a cold this week.

teaching the patterns in the numbers. Did you ever notice that when you multiply by 4s, the endings go 0,4,8,2,6,0,4,8,2,6?

high fives

“I love this.”

Daddy did a great job on this cake.

our Latin song John 1:1-7

Thank you, Jess!!!!

After an exhausting birthday, my friend bringing me this surprise cupcake was such a special gift.

Hope you all have a great week!

The post One Tough Seven-year-old appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Of course, before he was the greatest granddaddy, he was the greatest dad, and he still is.

My dad did a lot of saving the day this year. He went to Virginia and picked up my van when every other plan had failed us. He helped my mom maintain order and take care of the children on my 2 week vacation with Alan out West. You don’t find too many folks that can take on a baby, a preschooler, and 2 ‘big’ boys for 2 whole weeks. Ya’ll did a great job. THANK YOU!!!!!

Dad and Alan got totally overlooked on Father’s Day, since we were traveling that day. This week is my dad’s birthday, and I just can’t overlook him this time!!!

There was this one day, while we were staying at my parents’ house, that Joshua walked outside, after having gotten in trouble for his attitude, and I saw that Dad was already out there. I told Mom, “Good. I hope Dad gives Joshua one of those lectures about life.” 🙂 I used to hate those!!!  But I’m so thankful you gave them to us, Dad!

I’m thankful for so many things that you did. I’m thankful you knew how to do that whole “tough love” thing. Of course, we learned early on that your bark was much worse than your bite (there was no bite). My dad just has this air of authority. You can’t fake that. When Dad enters the room, he’s in charge, and everyone knows it, but I can’t explain it at all. When he says ‘go,’ you go, and that’s all there is to it. Of course, I pushed and prodded and tested him anyway. I can’t imagine where Joshua gets it from…..

There are so many things I learned from my dad. My favorite? I love that you taught me to love boating, Dad. You let me ride on your ski boat to my heart’s content, and you never made me fish. I just liked to ride. Alan and I once took one of these “marriage surveys” to see what activities we both enjoy. We had a grand total of ONE activity in common: boating!

That’s me driving a pontoon boat, Spring Break, my senior year of high school.

….And you prepared me for my life as an Army wife. Saying ‘good-bye’ and “welcome home” were not foreign concepts to me. I made this sign for my dad when I was a child. He was coming home from the Panama Conflict.

Dad has always been fun too. This is me getting tickled, I’m sure. We used to have a running game of “last lick”, and I just can’t explain how much fun that was.

I’m amazed at how much we’ve all changed over the years, and we had the greatest joy when Dad accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior about six years ago.

I think it’s important to not wish your life away, and that’s been really hard not to do this particular summer!! Even though things have dragged out much, much longer than we had hoped, at least my children got to go spend time with the people that matter the most to us. I hope some Granddaddy wisdom and leadership rubbed off on them. I hope some Nana sweetness and affection got poured in there too–and perhaps some Nonna industriousness and stick-to-it-iveness and a little DaddyO calm and humor.

Happy Birthday, Dad!!  I love you so much, and I hope you get to come and visit very very very soon!!

The post My Dad appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

🙂 I’m so thankful for this life. This is an abundant life. If you ever have to make the decision: 2 kids or 3…3 kids or 4…. I have to tell you GO FOR IT. This has been the hardest, most rewarding, most fun year of my life.  Okay. Yes. I sort of remember. The first 9 months were actually so overwhelming I was borderline depressed the whole time. The arrival of spring was such a turning point for me!  I am loving this ‘big family’ thing so much more, now that I’m not stuck indoors!

While we are somewhere in the middle of this move, somewhere between the old house in the east and the new house in the west, Caleb will turn SEVEN. We’ve already celebrated with Caleb, but I still feel the need to pause and take a minute to talk about the sweet and imaginative little fellow that is our darling Caleb.

Of all my children, Caleb had the shakiest entry into this world. At 9lb 9 oz, the doctor decided to go ahead and induce labor 10 days before my due date. We were worried I wouldn’t be able to push him out, and I almost didn’t. For more on that story click here: Caleb’s birth story.

Caleb is more than just a sweet heart. He has this can-do attitude that I have always just adored. Through each deployment, I always knew that if I found a bug, I could count on Caleb. If I needed the kids to open their own snacks, Caleb could open everyone’s for me. Caleb could drive a power wheel better than some people can drive a car. He just does things.

Now, if he thinks he can’t do a thing, he throws up his hands in despair and doesn’t even make an attempt. In recent years, I have found it important to only let Caleb see a part of the picture at a time. As long as he isn’t over-tired, you can depend on Caleb.

One of my favorite Caleb memories was when Joshua was 4, and Caleb was 3. We were headed home from Pre-school, and I had stopped at a fast food restaurant. Joshua was just throwing a fit because he could not get this toy to pop open. It looked like it should be a two-piece toy. Caleb calmly said, “Here, Joshua, let me see,” and Joshua handed it over. Caleb carefully examined it for a few minutes and tried several things. Finding it to truly be a one-piece toy, Caleb handed it back to Joshua and said very sweetly, “I’m sorry, sweetheart. It just does not open.”

Do you remember when Caleb used to refer to Joshua as ‘sweetheart’? Oh, I loved it. He’d say in his prayers, “Thank you for Mommy, Daddy, and thank you for sweetheart.” BAAAAAHAHAHAAH  Oh, they were the most PRECIOUS little boys!

Well, fast forward a few years. The new thing for Caleb is, of course, Skylanders. I’m not just referring to the game of Skylanders, I’m talking about the little statues.

I am a little embarrassed to admit that between the two of them, Caleb and Joshua have at least 25 Skylanders. Caleb just got 5 or 6 new ones for his birthday, and he is ALL about it. He has this small rubbermaid bin that he keeps all of them in, and at least two Skylanders go everywhere he goes.

I had to draw the line at taking them to school the other day. (You are welcome, Caleb’s teacher.) Unfortunately, I never have been able to catch all the little Lego men, to keep those from going to school with him. The boys in his class totally have a Black Market trading ring going with the little Lego men and Soar cards (which the kids collect for good behavior). Word on the street is that some of these little boys trade each other cards for Lego men.

Now you know Joshua has been into Skylanders for a while now. They just handle it differently. When Joshua has a new obsession, he spends lots of time researching everything he can find on the topic. He has read everything he can get his hands on about his interest. Then he draws it about a billion times. He can tell you the exact date of when this year’s new Skylander game will be released. Actually, so can I. October 5th. I see it written on little scraps of paper all over the house. Thank you, Joshua.

Caleb doesn’t do the research. He has Joshua for that. Instead, Caleb has to play it out. Always has. When it was Toy Story, we had every single toy the stores have made from that movie, and Woody went on vacation with us for 5 years. When it was superheroes, Caleb lived in costume. When it was trains, he had the best train birthday cake ever, two years in a row. To this day, he can build a train track faster than I can.

Joshua used to have way more Skylanders than Caleb, but things are evening out since Caleb’s birthday. Caleb used to have to ask Joshua to play with any of his Skylanders. Nowadays, Caleb carries them all around in a bin, and if Joshua has a friend over, and they are trying to actually play the Skylander video game, they have to beg Caleb for the little statues, which you have to have to play the game.

I heard this from the basement the other day:

Xavier: Caleb, come on! We can’t beat this world without a water element.

Caleb: You can’t have any of the Swap Force. They are going into battle.

(Caleb and Lincoln had every little Skylander arranged into armies, which were too busy with battle to be bothered with the “Portal of Power” –the portal transports the Skylanders into the video game.) Is this confusing? I’m sorry.

Xavier: Please, Caleb!

Caleb: Okay, I guess you can have this one.

A few minutes later, the second grade boys all ran upstairs.

“What are ya’ll doing?” I asked.

“We have to go outside. We can’t play our game because Caleb won’t let us have any of the Skylanders,” Joshua told me, as he followed his friends outside to the trampoline.

When Caleb goes to bed at night, he lines every single one of those little creatures up: across his headboard, across his desk, and if he migrates to my bed in the middle of the night, I will wake up in the morning snuggling one of the things.

Happy Birthday, Caleb! We love you so much!!

Joshua (2) and Caleb (4 months)

10 months

18 months

age 2, chasing pigeons at the Smithsonian

age 3, becoming a big brother

4 years old

5 year old Caleb, welcoming another little brother

6 year old Caleb

and now…..

I just love my Caleb: middle child, Skylander lovin’, imaginative, Elephant & Piggy fan, devoted brother, loyal friend, friendly to everyone, mechanically gifted, self-reliant, home-body, and hilarious little boy!

Caleb is always wanting to change his name to one thing or another.  This week he said, “I want to officially change my name to Chaos.” Chaos is the villain of Skylanders.

***Oh, and one more thing***

John David is so sick right now that his eyes are just little, puffy slits. He is sleeping most of the day as well as most of the night. He gets up just often enough that Alan and I never quite feel rested, even though we are taking turns. For three nights now, we have both spent hours in the recliner with our baby, holding him up while he sleeps. It is the most pitiful thing. I think this is the sickest baby I’ve ever had. His fever peaked the other night at 103. He’s been on antibiotics for two days now, but it hasn’t made much difference. Do you think he could have the flu?

Guess who else is sick? Me. If we do have the same thing, then it isn’t the flu. While I’m pretty miserable at night, I am still functioning. I’ve had the flu before, and it is 1000 times worse, but John David is much, much worse off than I am. If only 11 month olds could take Sudafed! It’s a powerful medicine.

I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t plan to send JD to Alabama because he would not have been able to go anyway.

Meanwhile, how excited am I about the boys’ impending vacation!!?? The three oldest are taking off tomorrow. Many thanks to both of our families for all this babysitting. How would we ever do this without you?

Really, how? I haven’t been able to get too much done this week, but I have BIG plans for this weekend. I’m sure my miserably sick little sidekick won’t slow me down at all……right…..

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