I don't want to know

I'm thinking I'm going to need to do a(nother) unit on nutrition this fall. If Micah's going to continue cooking as much as he is (which is fabulous), we're going to need to talk about how to make recipes healthier. ;)

But. For his birthday, I'm just living in intentional ignorance and not thinking about how many calories were consumed in the eggs benedict, chicken parmesan and butterbeer cake the boy made (plus we went out to lunch, though that was pretty healthy), lol.

Here's a quick shot of Micah and his cake and candles (they're supposed to make "11"): 

He used this recipe and it was DELICIOUS.

And now I must go start the dishwasher for the third time today and then fall into my sugar coma. ;)

Eleven

I wish I'd captured a picture of the pure delight on Micah's face this morning when I walked into his room to wish him a happy birthday. Happy sigh. This boy. :)

Here's my favorite of the pictures I caught of him today:

And here are some of the others:

That top middle one was just after the kid across the street started practicing his (what we can assume to be new) trumpet. From the volume, I'd say he'd been relegated to the garage to practice, lol. 

And here are the height comparisons:

Micah opted not to have a party this year (besides, he got to enjoy Asher's party and all the people there were friends of his also, lol). Instead, he chose to receive a "bigger" gift from us. (Our deal is that each boy can choose a party or a gift from us, not both.) 

Clockwise from the top left...here's Asher on Noah's back as Noah helped Micah open a package of HeroClix from Noah, Micah hugging Asher after opening the mandoline slicer from Asher (he was really happy about it), Micah posing with his new metallic silver KitchenAid stand mixer (that he's been eyeing for years and is over the moon happy with), and Micah admiring himself in the new over the door mirror that Noah got him (what can I say? the kid likes looking at his handsome self, lol).

So far today, per Micah's request, he's made eggs benedict for everyone...we've ridden bikes to Spoons for lunch...he opened gifts and has baked his birthday cake...and he's planning to make chicken parmesan for dinner. He's pretty happy. :)

Oh. And he was ridiculously thrilled to learn that he happens to share a birthday with one of his heroes, Alton Brown. Seriously, he did a little dance. :) (He has most of Alton Brown's cookbooks, has watched probably every episode ever of Good Eats, continues to watch shows with Alton Brown in them (especially Cutthroat Kitchen), and is waiting not so patiently for Alton Brown's live tour to come anywhere near us.)

Not long ago, he also learned that he shares a name with another of his culinary heroes, Justin (Micah) Warner, who happens to actually know one of Micah's karate heroes, MJ Steele (who used to be Micah and Asher's instructor at Karate West). Micah's taking these all as signs that he's on the right path and is delighted. :)

Last one

Cas, Charlie, Blaze and Case headed home this morning. :( Just a few last pictures from their visit...

I love this series of Noah playing with Blaze and dominoes. It became a great game for my boys to build towers and have Blaze & Case knock them down...with Blaze shouting "Timber!" every time. :) 

One of the other favorites in our house was playing the piano...

And one last picture this morning before they loaded up...

Yay! Such a sweet, fun visit! We really did have a fabulous time and are so thankful that they were able to come out here...happy, too, for the reminder of how much we appreciate being past the baby and toddler stage, lol. ;) Course, we're already missing those sweet baby snuggles... 

Splash pad

I'm almost done, promise. :) 

On Monday, we took Cas & Charlie and crew up to Old Town. We hit Ben & Jerry's (we have our priorities, lol) and the new splash pad there. Blaze was rather hesitant at first, keeping his distance and watching warily. After getting sprayed straight on in the face a couple times, though, he decided it was great fun and really got into it:

I simply LOVE how joyous Blaze was:

After a bit, Case got in on the action, too:

Those nephews of mine have no fear, I tell ya!

We got a picture of all five boys:

And more pictures...the last couple are from the Oak Street splash pad area. We'd journeyed that way after a bit (not as much fun but still good)...

After that, we put dry clothes on Blaze & Case and stopped at a few stores before heading home.

Happy sigh. :)

Union Reservoir - Part 2

Okay. I had to add more pictures...

Here are Asher, Nathan and Micah...

Blaze, just chillin'...

Marcy heading out...

Micah getting to his feet...

Quinn making his crazy eyes...

And, me in the junior kayak...

After the storm got us off the water, we headed back to Zach's to dry off and change. Then, we went out to dinner there in Longmont...choosing a restaurant with a nice outdoor patio area so that Blaze had plenty of room to explore while we waited.

And, Zach showed my boys his PokemonGo stuff. (For the record, we don't play PokemonGo. It looks like plenty of fun and I think it's great that it's something that parents and kids are doing together. Mine get enough exercise and are plenty familiar with Pokemon and weren't that interested, though, so we haven't done any of that.)

Much to Zach's chagrin, I had our server take a group picture...

We couldn't quite manage to get Blaze (sitting with Makenna) or Case to look at the camera, but I think it turned out pretty well. Happy three-fifths of our extended family!