Brick Fair

Last weekend I got to spend some real quality time with Christopher and a good friend of his.  For those of you who don't know, Christopher is an absolute Lego aficionado.  Not so much with the pre-packaged kits, but with his own designs.  We've bought countless sets or mini-sets just to get a certain head or certain piece.  It shouldn't have surprised me when he told me in the fall that he wanted to go to a Lego convention.

Now, I feel that I'm a pretty hip mom and I have the pulse of cool things to do, but it never dawned on me that there would be such things as Lego conventions.

The convention to end all conventions is in Chicago each year for 3 - 4 days.  Fortunately, Christopher is a pragmatist and decided that he might need to make sure that a convention was as fun as it looked before we launched ourselves on The Windy City for a multi-day convention.  He found one we could do in a day in Birmingham.  I love that child!

We didn't know really what to expect, but nevertheless we did form expectations.  There weren't as many exhibits as we hoped, but the ones that were there were pretty cool.  This one above is of Vietnam complete with US helicopters with rotating rotors.  It was very detailed.

While the number of exhibits was a little disappointing, the vendors with things for sale was not disappointing at all!  I have never seen so many minifigures.  They were everywhere.

I was also happy to see a few Bama fans.  This exhibit took marbles from this end to a far away end through all kind of mechanical tricks.  It was mesmerizing.  We also saw a guy who had created an Alabama "A" initial.  He was only charging $17.

   

We were in the market for minifigures and Lego-sized guns.  Christopher is working diligently on a scene from Utah beach during the Normandy invasion so we were quite focused on WWII guns.  Thankfully, those cost less than $17.  (There was also no background check required.)

It was a great day.  I had so much fun watching them check out these creations and carefully count their budgeted dollars.  I think they both spent to the exact dollar.

I was also amazed at the creativity and attention to detail.  This warship was manned and there was cargo in the hull.  Truly amazing to me.

And then last but not least, we had the Atlanta skyline.  I am partial to this display because my first job out of public accounting  I worked for a develop...the developer who built the tower with the green top.  Also, we stayed at the Westin Peachtree (the black round building) for a family outing in December.  I have a feeling we'll be making a trip to Chicago.

No Words

You always know your children are growing up.  Some days it's more obvious than others.

Some days it's not only more obvious, but you realize how far they've come in what seems like such a short period of time.

Homecoming at Providence was this past weekend and my elder child took a very good friend.

They met the first day of school in the first class, which they shared.

For a while, "she" was known mainly as James's texting buddy because of the frequency with which they communicate.

Then we knew her as Megan, the volleyball player, and then later still, Megan, the basketball player.

She is a very sweet girl and while they are not a couple, we do think they look very cute together.

I also say it was quite chilvarous when he gave he coat to wear when it got very cold during the mom's photo session of an hour and a half.

That really is all I have to say about it.

Our Annual Fall Trip

Keith and I met in 1994 at Amicalola Falls.  I won't bore you with the details - at least not with this post.  The day we got engaged, October 23rd, we drove back up to the Falls to celebrate.  Then, once we had kids we made it an annual tradition.

Taking pictures in the woods always almost always makes for good pictures.  We sometimes go to Burt's Farm while we're there so we have hundreds of pictures of cute kids with pumpkins.  Now that James is in school, we couldn't go during the week so we had to go on the weekend.  You never, ever go to Burt's on the weekend.  Amicalola isn't great on the weekends but it's not the pure misery that the pumpkin farm is.

This year I didn't want to lug around the big heavy camera so we went with just our phones.  I'm not great with a camera, but with a phone.  Well, let's just say I do well to capture the moment.

As you can see from the faces in this picture, this year relations were strained.  We were all looking forward to it, but somewhere things just broke down.

I don't even remember how it started, but it ended with two brothers picking at each other.  One maybe more than the other, but given our "innocent until proven guilty standard" here in these United States his name shall remain anonymous.

Time for the insertion of a lighter thought.  We walking down the trail toward the bottom of this foothill.  As we were walking we saw this truck (maybe from the 40s?) lodged in the trees.  I like to think it was from a moonshiner...maybe sampling his goods.

The Todds before meltdown at the top of the Falls.  Since we were engaged they have added steps all the way to the top.  I think it's around 425 steps.  I strongly advise you to start at the top and walk down unless, like my husband, you are in incredibly good shape.  Very often he walks back up the steps to get the car.  That's true love.

Learning the skill of self-portraits with our phones.  By the end of the trip, we had about mastered it.

One issue is that my arms just aren't long enough...helps when Keith is in the picture.

Or if a child is around.

The other thing I learned is to be sure you always save the original version of the photo if you add a filter.  Once you see the picture in a larger version and you realize it looks like something spilled on it, it's too late to go back.  Not that I did that at all.  Ever.  Especially in this picture.

Sadie Hawkins

I have an amazing amount of catching up to do with you all.  You would think that a 3-4 month hiatus just wouldn't be that big of a deal.  Alas, you would be wrong.  Remember when your kids were 5 or 6 months old?  That started a period that lasted years where it seemed there was something new every day.  First smile and from there they turned into little people saying the most adorable things.  From there a lull seemed to take over.  Don't get me wrong, not a boring or inactive lull....just the pace of change became much more moderate.

Well, welcome to the teenage years and high school.

We decided in the late (very late) spring that James would go to school.  He started 9th grade at Providence Christian Academy in August.  There was all the expected anxiety, but he was so excited.

About three weeks after school started, there was a Sadie Hawkins dance.  Talk about anxiety.  Fortunately for us, the students at the school were so open and welcoming.  James didn't have a "date", but it seemed everyone was a part of a group.  ("Date" is in quotes because, as he reminds me from time-to-time, he's not allowed to date.)  We all met at a church near the school so all the moms could take pictures and then they were carpooled off to dinner and the dance.

As you can tell from the pictures, Mr. Todd is quite particular about how he looks.  He has always cared about whether he had the matching shorts for his tractor or truck shirt.  Dress for Sadie Hawkins was no exception.

He made quite the fashion statement.  I understand he even had a dance or two.  I'm not really sure where the time goes, but assuming I stick to this one New Year's Resolution, you will see we've had quite a busy fall.

The best part of all, though, is that he will still give his mother a hug - even in front of brand new friends.

2nd Happy New Year!

Christopher got new tools for creation so I'm sharing a second Happy New Year's that he created.

Happy New Years!

Do you ever happen upon something that just brings back a flood of memories?  We have had an incredibly busy fall and I do intend to get you updated on everything that happened, but in the meantime I wanted to re-share some of these pictures of our trip to Chicago.  In 2006.  It's really hard to believe that it's been over six years since that trip.  It's hard to believe because the time has flown and hard to believe because I've gotten quite behind on my scrapbooking!

I have spent most of my days off so far for the holidays working on getting this trip in the scrapbook.  I'm not totally six years behind, but I had soooo many pictures of this trip that I simply dreaded sitting down to do something with them.  Finally, after all these years I just had to get them off my "to do" list so I started working on them.  A funny thing happened while I was working on them.  The dread turned into fun as I remembered how much fun those ages were.  Just look at CBT being amused at himself in that mirror.

And, how long has it been since James let Christopher hug him?  He still tries, but James usually successfully fends him off.  Maybe it was just something about standing in front of a sub...

And, how long since they worked together to wrestle a Komodo Dragon?  Ok, I know I'm getting too nostalgic and that they really didn't wrestle a Komodo Dragon.  You do have to agree that they were awfully cute then.

Yep, those were the days when they both were as toe-headed as they could be.  

It might have been this series at the baseball game that got me thinking about posting these pictures.  When we were in August, Chicago was having a heat wave...it was in the upper 90s the entire time we were there.  (Part of the allure of going to Chicago in August was to escape the Atlanta heat.  Got that wrong.)  It's supposed to get to 20s here tonight...I'm longing for the heat of the summer already and winter is just getting here.

Can't you just feel the summer heat?  Wrigley was a fun place to go, especially if you weren't a Cubs fan.  They lost that day (as my friend who is a Cubs fan predicted), but it was still really neat to be there.  Very different from going to a Braves game at Turner Field.

If you've never seen the "Bean" there, it's pretty cool.  It's just a huge metal bean in the middle of the park.  But, it's really cool because it reflects just like a mirror but with distortion.  I could have done an entire album of just our pictures looking at the bean and the reflections of ourselves looking at the bean.  Now that I think about it, that was a lot like an infant being  fascinated by looking at mirrors.  (Insert maturity joke here.)  

The original impetus for the trip was to go see King Tut.  The Field Museum was hosting the exhibition.  The Tut exhibition was cool, but so was the rest of the museum.  You could truly spend a week going through the various museums there.  

Here's to my wishing for spring already and for the boys of summer to show up.  I guess I wish winter away too quickly....we do have a little football game coming up.  For you college football fans, Roll Tide Roll!  

Maybe I'll blog about how our family watches an Alabama football game.....and then maybe not.

I wish you and yours a blessed, joyous and prosperous 2013.