Merry Miner Men, Boy's Birthday Bash and Big Bear

Super Catman "Catches Some Air"

Archer Helps Out "Bellenstein Bunny" - Aren't her training wheels cute?

See The Hill Archer Climbed and Crashed on ?!?

Sock Fashion Expert Tries Out Her Big Bro's Ride

A Happy Birthday Boy

" Octopus with Seaweed" for dinner

Then Cake and Ice CreamArt Dog Bagged this Bear Last Week - it was deep in the mountains feeding on a big ol' Buck!

It was an interesting way to watch a significant piece of history happen, working at the hospital, as every eye was on the rescue of miners in Chile. Each room, every television, all hearts were with them. Whether it was a few employees observing a clip from the waiting room t.v., or patients and families gathered together in private rooms, the world celebrated with tears of joy as each man cheated death. Being up all night working, I got to hear continual updates both from all the televisions, patients and co-workers. It was a day to remember and worthy of the world's celebration. That morning, I made sure my kids would research the event and write about it as part of their lesson plan.............
Here's a little about Super Catman's "motorcycle birthday party" from Sunday -
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I shouldn't be up at 1am blogging, but I am. To tell you the truth, I've kind of missed these impromptu meetings. You know, the kind where I feel my creative energies stirring, and I can actually gain access to the lap top without something else vying for my attention.
Today was Super Catman's "Motorcycle Birthday Party". It was a full day including church in the morning, motorcycle riding with friends in the afternoon and a dinner party of "Octopus on Seaweed" followed by cake and ice cream for dessert. I hope it was everything Super Catman hoped for and more :-)
He'd been planning on the riding party for a while, and didn't want to let "the girls" show him up, namely Elasta Woman's elder two. The kids enjoyed a wild day tooling around the nearby gravel pit. It was quite a sight. All of my kids, except for Moonbeam, Elasta Woman's, Our husbands all driving around climbing hills, doing jumps and trying out each others rides. Every where you looked somebody was doing some thing to watch. Of course Super Catman took center stage with his jumps and rightfully so. He wanted to make sure I saw him each time too. Elasta Woman's girls were pretty impressive as well. They sported their new rides proudly. "Bellenstein Bunny's" ride had training wheels on it making it especially cute to watch. "The Archer" and "Matthew" climbed a huge hill scaring us all. When Archer got to the top he was going so fast that he and the motorcycle both flew up and flipped over tumbling in circles. Archer got up throwing his arms in the air to show everybody he was okay, but my heart was in my throat. Later on, he admitted to hurting his wrist which I wrapped. My husband was pretty happy with playing around on our new 4-wheeler too. On a lark, Friday, after looking on Craigs list, we took a trip to a faraway city and came home with it and a hot tub! The whole riding event was a lot of fun and I felt sure that God was blessing it especially - Nobody got any serious injuries, Nobody had any major break ups or downs, and it was supposed to be a 90% chance of rain which God was gracious enough to hold back on the down pour till we got home. As far as I'm concerned, I call that God Smiling :-)
Part of me felt a little bad about not inviting every local boy around - Super Catman would have loved them all there - but I don't think any of us could have handled the stress. It was a nice group and I enjoyed it more than I would have moderating a passel of rambunctious lads. So after the riding part of the day, just one other family came by for dinner. As previously learned, I cut hot dogs lengthwise 2/3 of the way up into 8 "tentacles". When boiled, the strips curled up and octopuses emerged. Then I added green food coloring to Top Ramon - wha la! Octopus on seaweed for each party going kiddo. The adults had chili dogs (tentacles not included). Sock Fashion Expert baked a scrumptious chocolate and peanut butter cake along with a white ice cream cake. It was all decadent and delicious.
The craziest part of the day happened at the gravel pit. All these years, nobody has ever once encouraged me to drive a motorcycle. Here we are with friends around and out of the blue Sock Fashion Expert INSISTS I climb on her ride! I panicked. "Would I do something stupid?" I told her I hadn't driven one since I was 21, but she wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Awkwardly, and ever so gingerly I climbed on. It died. Then I had to start it. I was beginning to draw a crowd. The pressure was really on. I could feel beads of sweat forming on my brow. Kick starting a motorcycle with all eyes on me felt like I was up in front of a class room attempting to solve an algebraic equation. Anyway, though I was sweating bullets, it eventually started and I took off heading as far away from any attention as I possibly could. Then it dawned on me that if I went too far away they would come looking for me. I tried to turn it around. It died. Oh Moan. I got it started again. Sure enough, a search party was coming to check on me. Embarrassing. Well, anyway, getting over how embarrassed I am of being a lame rider, driving it was actually kinda, well, fun.
Since I was totally out of my comfort zone today, I was thinking maybe some of you could tell me what new and crazy things you've tried lately. Come on, I have a lot more humiliating stories to tell - throw me a bone ;-)