Ben and Will's Birthday

I am catching up- this is Ben and Will's birthday celebration with Grandma and Grandpa Archibald.

Wonder and astonishment

Posing

Nick inside the present's box

The boys are thrilled with their present- a ramp

Ben rides his bike over the ramp

Nick has to have his share of the fun!!!

The box.

Will was the first- and so far only- one to master the art of riding the Ripstick on the ramp. I keep getting stuck at the top...

Pictures of me on the unicycle are not very good. I can ride it half-way up the ramp- but I haven't been able to get onto the flat top of it.

This is just too cute- Marcus found Grandma's empty beer bottle and started gnawing on it.

Really Quick Post

Hi everyone! Sorry that I have not updated very much. I will (hopefully) be able to do it properly later. I have pictures of Marcus' first birthday, birthday celebrations with Grandma and Papa (we combine two of us per visit!), Grandma's pictures of Will's week that he spent at their house, stuff to talk about drama camp, and so much more. My aunt Trish has been begging me to update the blog, but what with drama camp, volleyball, preparing for school, going to St. Louis to visit our grandparents, new furniture moved into the TV room, etc., I have had no time!!!
Maybe this afternoon or tomorrow I will have time to post!

Quick Post

Quick post for now. Drama camp is going great. Our showcase will be featuring songs from Wicked. I had to learn how to do a backwards somersault over my shoulder for one of the dances. Today we learned about singing auditioning. The guy (I forgot his name) had everyone sing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" in groups of threes to begin. When my group went to sing it, we squeaked. I said that it was too high for me. It turns out that all three of us were altos! Um... I am saying whatever comes to my head. We have been playing lots of really, really fun improv games at camp. This evening we did a Praise and Worship singing thingamajig at St. James' Immaculate Conception church. They sang songs from the Steubensville (spelling?) retreat. Only four or five people came, but it was FUN! (Word did not get around) Fr. Dave plays the guitar really well. What else to say... Obama came to Rolla today. Yesterday we saw people lining up to get tickets to see him. Ellen told us that the PRC was going to have a pro-life march in front of the Democratic headquarters. I couldn't do it because I was at camp. This post turns out to be not so quick. It's bedtime now!!!

Drama Camp!

Hi! I'm sorry but I won't be able to post much this week. I have drama camp (YAY! I am loving it!) and several things in the evenings. Um... what to say right now... I made blackberry cobbler this evening but it didn't turn out so well. Well! That is all I have to say for now! (In case you can't tell, I am a "wee bit" goofy this evening!)

Paintings, and other stuff

Dad had me re-paint the prints hanging on the wall in our living room that got all faded. It took me about a month to do it, because I am so lazy and only paint once or twice a week. I will be doing the next one soon, and I should not be so lazy with that one!!! (These were done in acrylic, the only paint I have a clue what to do with!)

The finished product.

On the wall. It's so weird to see it hanging there... And next to it is the other unpainted on. It was great painting this, because the picture was already there (so I didn't have to worry about "does this look right?") and the main areas of shading were there. I got to concentrate the most on shading.

I like to take pictures at odd angles.

It looks alot different from upside-down, doesn't it?

I copied Ben and decorated my VBS bag on Wednesday. (P.S. Sharpies don't stay so well on fabric if you get it wet.)

Our neighbors put up their fence. At least it is really nice-looking.

William's 10th Birthday

Will's present. He also has a booklight now, and has been sleeping on his beanbag in his reading cubby underneath his desk. Mom and Dad made a coupon book for him- things like a family bowling night, a book he is wanting when it is released, and "a family game of Monopoly at Mom and Dad's convenience".

The birthday boy had to show off his favorite pocketknife. At least, I think it is his pocketknife. Maybe it is Ben's.

Marcus is clapping for his big brother. He was so cute! This is one of the rare in-focus pictures of Marcus- he is usually moving too fast!

An interesting view

The sweet ice cream scooper girl

William conducted the singing of "Happy Birthday"

Posing for an out of focus picture.

Lighting candles in pajamas- he was ready for the movie!

The Stamping Up bag doubles as spur-of-the-moment wrapping paper

Drinking his Mountain Dew icy while staring at his all-chocolate cake

Blowing out the candles

A small example of Will's estaticness (spelling? I just sounded it out)

Ben's VBS Bag

This picture was supposed to go in with my other post, but I forgot it. Ben was a VBS crew leader for the first time this year. He got a leader bag to keep all the "leader stuff" in. He decorated it with Sharpies. It was pretty cool. Not the best picture, though.

This Weeks' Doings

Today is Will's birthday; however, I will wait to post about that until his birthday is over and I have all the stuff put together.
So, this is what we have been doing:
Ben was at Arrowhead (a Boy Scout camp) for a week. He had tons of fun. We went there on Friday for family night. The weather turned out to be pretty nasty- thunderstorms. The family campsite was kind of lame- in full view of both the lodge and the parking lot... but the rest of the camp was great. I was (and am) so jealous. Archery, BB guns, swimming, canoeing, stuff like basketry and first aid...
So we got back on Saturday. Dad said we made record time in packing up camp. We reached Rolla (from Arrowhead which is right next to Springfield) by ten o'clock in the morning.
That same day we went blackberry picking at the Strongs'. Well, we only berry picked for twenty minutes because Ben's allergies were bothering him, Dad was having some sort of reaction, and Marcus was a bit crabby. We got half a bucketful of berry and I am going to make blackberry crumble pie sometime this week.
We played in the Strongs' creek for quite a while, and I got tons of pictures. I wish we lived by a creek (well, we do live near the one next to the second-busiest street around... but I don't think that counts). It is so calm and peaceful...

Rocks

Nick trying to get onto a hammock

So peaceful and uplifting...

Wading

Searching for crawdads

Another nature scene. I bet this creek gets really bad flash flooding, though.

Going back

Um... this picture is of the fence that our new neighbors are setting up. One thing good about it that I can see- the boys won't be climbing up those pine trees again. Our next door neighbors planted a little garden with three or four saplings right up against the side of the hill and the guys who are building the fence just plowed right through their garden. You can't really see it properly from this picture.

Will set up some dominoes the other day. Watch the movie to see them fall |
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Ohh... I just watched that. Sorry that you only get to see half of it fall. My camera has a bit of a delay.
Yesterday Erin Hamacher had her piano concert. Wow. She really knows how to play! She will be majoring in music in collage, and no wonder. She is great. It was neat to see so many of our friends from the play there.
Today was Vacation Bible School. I was crew leader. It was good. We are learning about the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary this year, and today was about the first one, The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordon. Will didn't go to VBS today. He said he didn't want to on his birthday.

Contests

Check out these:
Art (1st):
http://www.catholickingdom.com/Castle/Hall%20of%20Fame/2nd_08/art_08/art_12.html
It looks like the background has a pale, large angel on it. It doesn't. That picture was taken after it was in the frame (I did that picture for the parish auction) and that was a reflection of me, the photographer. Just ask my mom- I am most certainly not an angel most days. Someday I will post my other picture I made for the auction.
Writing (2nd):
http://www.catholickingdom.com/Castle/Hall%20of%20Fame/2nd_08/write_08/write_winners_08.html
They do not have the writing entries on yet. I think the 1st place wrote a story. There were more entrants last year. Last year they had separate sections for poetry and stories with several entries per section/age group, but this year they had to combine it all in one and there were only three or so in my age group. So... this is a wonderful, wonderful site, be sure and view it. They update every two weeks with some wonderful stuff. They don't have that many people who look at it (or at least do their activities) so I really want to have you all look at it because they are doing an awesome job and I want them to keep it up.
Here is the link to the main page of the website:
http://www.catholickingdom.com/

Pizza!

Tonight, while Mom and Dad were at Nick's game, Will and I made stuffed-crust, Rackers-specialty pizza with Mom's specialty dough. Since I could not find the roller, I decided to toss the dough. Hint: never toss the dough after putting the cornmeal on. So, I wound up with a messy kitchen, an oblong oval of dough, and a search for the roller. Will and I forgot the peppers. :( But we did remember tomatoes, even though we were out of them. We discovered that since people can never make up their minds as to whether a tomato is a fruit or not, they compromise. They call it a vegetable and put it in the fruit bowl.

I present the super onion chopper WILLiam RACKers!

He also cuts up his nemesis: the mushroom.

Some of the spices decided to give us some trouble and stick to the top.

And someone always has to have way too much fun.

Cheese-alicous art.

And... the FINISHED RESULT (minus the peppers)

Mom's Pizza Dough

1 package of yeast
1c warm water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp olive (or vegetable) oil
2 1/2m - 3 1/2 c flour
Dissolve yeast in bowl, add salt and oil and 2 1/2 c flour. mix speed: 2 for 1 minute. Add flour 1/2 c at a time, mix until dough clings to hook? cleans sides (about 2 min) knead on 2 for 2 more minutes. Placed in greased bowl let rise 1 hr. Roll out, top, take at 450 for 15-20 minutes. (8 minutes, switch racks, another 8 min.)

I hope you can understand it. Mom write her recipes in such a way that it is hard for any but herself to understand easily.

We have a family name for pizza: zzzzzzzip. I will work it from the beginning: When I was little, Mom and Dad would spell out the word to each other so that I would not go screaming around the house because we were getting pizza. When I learned to read, that no longer worked. For some time they would spell it backwards. A few years later, we suddenly began to say p-i-z-z-a rather than pizza. Then we turned it around: a-z-z-i-p (if you ask me to spell pizza, this will always be the first spelling to come into my mind. We used it for years.) William, I think, was the first to realise that this said "a zipper". Which got shortened to "a zip". Which gets blurred to "zzzzzip". And that is why we call pizza a zipper.

And here I found a video on my camera of the Fourth's fireworks. You can easily see the streetlight in the way. :)