Introducing...storage-bot!

Nathaniel's latest Lego creations is one of my favorites so far. I also love its name - storage-bot.

With storage areas open

The creator with his creation

Just goofing off the other day

And just one more picture - this time of just Nathaniel taken last weekend. I love close ups.

We went to the snow!

It was supposed to snow here in Spotsylvania, but it didn't, so went to where it did! Not really...we had planned to go see my parents this past weekend and it was the same weekend when the snow happened (and didn't here!)

Ahhh -  fresh snow. It was so pretty.

Nathaniel had a blast playing in the snow!

We also had a good time visiting my parents. It was good to be in the house I grew up in again.


My mom decided to try her hand (literally) at cutting my dad's hair. While she used to be a beautician before she was a nurse, she didn't have any experience with men's hair. Steve has cut his hair and Nathaniel's for many years, so he showed my mom how to do it.

First, Steve cut Nathaniel's hair. He was a very cooperative for this show and tell (and do).

Next, my mom cut my dad's hair - while Nathaniel watched. She did a good job (I knew she would!)

And finally, it was Steve's turn. I cut his hair (with only one oops!) and then my mom helped finish.

Whew, that was a lot of hair cutting!

There was also lots of snuggling. My mom took the first snuggling picture - she couldn't get over both Nathaniel and I on our computers at the same time. Some of my favorite times with Nathaniel are early in the morning and right before bed when we snuggle (usually without either of us having computers!)

Nathaniel also discovered one of my favorite things to do growing up - being over the air vent when it was blowing warm air!

This special time was Nathaniel showing Grandma his legos. I loved this interaction - so special and sweet.










We all had a great time. As my dad says, lots of memories were made.

A day at the battlefield

We went to visit another battlefield today (one of the perks of living in our historic area!), the Spotsylvania Battlefield just down the road from us. This is where General Grant changed the course of the Civil War by moving forward to Spotsylvania.You can read more about the Spotsylvania Battlefield by going to this website:   http://www.nps.gov/frsp/spot.htm

We started out at the pavilion, where Nathaniel loved hearing the echo of his shoes pounding the pavement. He is looking at the brochures there, where among them is one for Todd's Tavern, one of Steve and Nathaniel's place to shop. No, its not an actual Tavern (anymore), but is a little store where they like to stop and get Milky Way Darks, Nerds and ice cream.

Nathaniel posing beside one of the "reading tablets"

Steve giving Nathaniel a history lesson. He was teaching him about the trenches.
















This has no Civil War history value, but it was a really BIG tree that had fallen over a couple of years ago.

Another really cool tree. Heeellllooooooo!

An action shot, he loved running!

We had a great time visiting the battlefield today. We enjoyed learning about the battle and Nathaniel enjoyed looking at the acorns and playing with the sticks.

7th birthday party - Lego style!

Happy 7th birthday Nathaniel! Since he loves Legos, we decided to have a Lego themed birthday party. Also, since I've discovered Pinterest, it was very easy to pull a few neat ideas together. This was the first year I hadn't done the "buy the party stuff at a party store" thing, so it was fun doing it myself (with some help from family, of course!)

The cake was made by Steve's mom - I take no credit for doing it whatsoever. She did a super fantastic job. The "maxi-fig" as she called him was made from rice krispy treats with fondant over him. The blocks were cake with marshmallows cut in half on top.

These are supposed to be candy Legos, but looking at the picture, it looks more like a game of "Hungry, hungry Hippo"! I took 3 Musketeers bars, cut them into pieces, put mini-marshmallows on top and then dipped (or rolled, rather) in melted candy dots.

These are the treat bags I made for the kids. Easy, peasy! Just took a bag and cut circles out of construction paper and glued them on there. I also cut out a mini-fig from construction paper and had them coming out. I also put some candy Legos (aka hungry hippos) in the bags with actual Legos.

The balloons were fun. I put candy in some, then had the kids pop one. In hindsight, I would have not filled them with Helium (they didn't float anyway because of the candy, and they shrunk really fast) and would have had at least two for each kid to pop. This was one of the highlights of the party.

I also filled some balloons with confetti which made a neat sound when you shook them. Those I did fill with Helium and sent one home with each kid.

Nathaniel with the mess after we filled the balloons with confetti.

Jello Jigglers made with mega-blocks. Not a big hit at the party, but I liked them.

Lego Bingo!  Again, not a big hit, but I sure did have fun making it. I just took pictures of Nathaniel's Legos and printed them. Then, I made a grid with word, taped the pictures on and color copied them, mixing them up each time.

The food table! I also put Legos in a container and had the guests, young and old(er) guess how many were in them. 

You can see some other Pinterest ideas on the picture as well, the Saltines made with ranch dressing and red pepper flakes and the canvas quote in the background "A morning without coffee is like sleep". We love our coffee!

Happy birthday Nathaniel! I can't believe you are 7 now. You are the sweetest little boy a mom could ask for. I love you!

Yup, he likes Legos...