Ty's Jokes, part II

Welcome to session two of Ty's jokes.

Today's joke is:
What is the difference between a rabbit and a gorilla?










Give up?
Answer:
A rabbit looks nothing like a gorilla!

Ha, ha.
That's all for today!

Happy Birthday Ben!

Today my first-born turned 12. Almost a teenager. Almost as tall as me. Almost able to wear my shoes with no slipping at all. Where has the time gone?

Here he is, a few months old, in one of my all-time favorite pictures.

And here he is tonight, snuggling in his new down comforter. I realized he really is getting older when I noted that none of his gifts from Steve and I were toys. He was thrilled to get a queen-size down comforter (even though he sleeps in a twin-size bed!)


He (as usual) chose a birthday pie as opposed to a traditional cake, and blew very gently so as not to get germs from his cold on the pie!






He got a set of hand weights from Colby... what do you suppose the dog had in mind?

Ty rescued him from an entirely Lego-free birthday (phew!) with this gift, the Exo-Force Sonic Phantom.

He spent the day playing computer games (about 8 hours' worth!) and never even saw the sun. It is his birthday, afterall.

Birthday Cake!

Each year for the boys' birthdays I make a Checkerboard Cake. Even though I have done it many times, I still get a kick out of how it works! You need two complete cake mixes (or recipes if you go the completely homemade route) and then you make three layers, using a slick plastic insert to keep the flavors from spreading into one another.You remove the plastic insert and pop the layers in to the oven ...When they come out the rings are still there! That's the magic part for me! Put 'em all together with frosting, and when you cut in to the cake each piece is a checkerboad pattern.
Awe-inspiring (and delicious!) every time, if I do say so myself.

Today we went to see Happy Feet. Each boy got to invite two friends (we had to all be able to fit in the van, so they were limited!)

I have to admit it wasn't as good as I had expected it to be. And I realized as I was sitting there in the dark that a big part of why I didn't like it as much as I wanted to was becuase of the music! It was almost all music that was just, well, umm, too young for me! I didn't recognize nor find myself tapping my feet to many of the songs those cute little critters were singing. I felt quite ancient.

The thing I did find interesting, though, is that the story line of this movie is the penguins figure out (well, Mumble figures out) if they can get the aliens (aka humans) to realize they are there, the humans will care more about them and not hurt them by taking all their fish. In the movie, the penguins were shown doing what it is they do and people all over the world watched, entranced.

Hmm.

Kinda like "March of the Penguins." In fact, it was as if "March of the Penguins" inspired this film, to show the "background" of that documentary, from "the penguin's point of view."

Cynical me, of course, during the movie when Mumble is off trying to find the humans so he can dance for them, sat there thinking "in reality if it was discovered that Emporer Penguins danced like that, they would be whisked away from their homeland and placed in every zoo in the world, without regard to what was best for them."

But this is movie-land, so all ended happily! But it won't be on our "must buy" list when it comes out on DVD.

Birthday Party Boys!

Last night we had our Family Birthday Party for both Ben & Ty. All the grandparents, aunt, uncles and cousins came, except Katie who couldn't leave college for the night.

Instead of Birthday Cake, Ty had a Birthday Oreo Pie, and Ben chose a Birthday Banana Cream Pie, plus we had a Birthday Pumpkin Pie for those who wanted a taste of fall. I had every intention of taking pictures of the food, like Calandria does, but as usual I forgot until everything was half-eaten. Oh well, trust me, everything was good!

Here's Ben opening a card from the missing Cousin Katie, and then, lower, is Ty reading his new Pirateology book which he received from Uncle Dave. A good time was had by all.

Halloween Costumes

Well, this must be my lucky moment ... the pics aren't great but I have been trying for 2 days to get them to upload ... so here you are, B & T in costume.

Happy Birthday Ty!

Today Ty turns 9. Yes, my baby is nine years old! Here he is with his presents ... he was so excited to open everything! Posting these pics made me think about his early years, so I thought I would put some from his past on here, too.



Here are the two of us just hours after his birth.

He was born at Abbott Northwestern, on a beautiful day - the weather was similar that year to this. My parents were staying with Ben and they rushed Steve & I out the door even though we knew it was not nearly time to go ... so instead of heading to the hospital, we went to Minnehaha Falls and had a lovely walk, stopping every so often for contractions! Finally it was time to go in, and after a couple more hours it was decided Ty was not ready to come out - so our wonderful doctor, John Nadeau, ended up doing an unexpected C-Section. All went well, and we had our boy.

Here he is a bit older ... discovering the joys to be had using simple items found around the house ... He was always such a happy child! Here are two of my favorites, one where he is helping out in the kitchen and one where he has discovered the fun to be had in the bathroom!

Happy Birthday, Sweet Boy!

Ben's October Campout

Last weekend, I went on a Boy Scout Camp out at the St. Croix River. There were 12 boys and 5 adult chaperones. Some of the campers slept in a building, but I personally slept in a tent - it was cold, but my sleeping bag kept me warm.

Here is a picture of me and Luke, eating some instant oatmeal and drinking hot chocolate. I had apples & cinnamon flavored oatmeal, but I'm not sure what flavor Luke had. This was the first time I had oatmeal that I liked it.
Here, I am learning from Mr. Waters how to use a camp stove. We were working on earning our Cooking Merit Badges. Mr. Waters showed us how to refuel and operate different types of camp stoves. Before the camp out, we had to plan all our meals, do the grocery shopping, and then at the camp out we had to do all of our own cooking. We also learned about healthy eating, and different diseases associated with food that you can catch (not all of them are 'in' the food.)

In this picture, I am trying to eat some "yummy" stuff (it actually was quite burnt.) It was supposed to be foil cooked potato stew but the people wrapping up the packets did it pretty flimsily and so we couldn't flip it in the fire. One side got barely cooked and one side got very, very burnt. The adults felt sorry for us and shared their dinner with us. I learned not to let someone else cook my supper for me! (except my Mom or Dad!)

Here we are around the camp fire, using "Pudgy Pie Makers" (my mom calls them Hobo Pie makers) to make grilled cheese sandwiches, and mini apple pies. I made a min apple pie, but then someone bumped into me and all the apple filling slipped out, so I threw the rest away. What I got to eat was actually pretty good! (I usually don't like apple pie very much)
On Saturday afternoon, we went hiking and climbing. This is me, climbing through a large hole in a rock outcrop. At first I thought it was a deep cave, but it came out on the other side, about 2 or 3 yards long.
This one shows me and two other campers climbing below a large rock, on the edge of a cliff. The drop was about 6 feet, then there was a gentle hill after that. It was kind of freaky, but I liked it a lot!
When we began to descend the bluffs, there were two ways. You could either climb down a rocky part, or you could slide down a dry creek bed. I chose to slide down!

In this last picture, I am half-way down the slope waving to Mr. Behnen. In the background, you can see Chris and another kid climbing down. I got very thirsty and drank a lot of water when we got back. We had a great time!

School Photos

Here are Ben & Ty's 2006 Fall School Photos. Can you tell they are brothers or what? As alike as they are, I see so much Holt (my side) in Ben, and so much Peterson in Ty ... I need to find a picture of Steve from that age so you can see the similarities.

It's been interesting this fall learning more about the company of LifeTouch, since Steve has been working there as a consultant for over a year now. When I hear about the individual attention given to orders, and the special perks the company offers to customers, my heart is warmed. In this day and age it is so nice to learn about a family-run company that truly believes in doing the RIGHT thing even if it is not the most profitable thing. It's a good company.

Ty earns his White Belt

Ty has started Tae Kwon Do this year. It's something he has talked about for a while, and this fall everything lined up properly so that he could start lessons. After less than a month of being a "no-belt" he was able to successfully complete the very first level Tae Kwon Do exam and earn his white belt. I know he was proud of himself, but he didn't come anywhere near the level of pride his mother felt for him!Part of the test for white belt is breaking his first board. Apparently you have to break boards at several levels, each time doing it in a more difficult manner.

The look on his face when he actually broke it in class (this is a re-creation at home!) was so wonderful - I wish there had been some way to capture it at the moment it happened. I hadn't even known he was testing that day, so of course didn't have the camera. It was actually lucky that I even was there watching, as his studio is right across the street from the grocery store, and a Caribou - so I often do other things while he practises!

Tonight when I took these pictures he said "You're gonna put them on the blog, right, Mom?" when I answered with an "of course" he replied with a small sigh, "yeah, that's what moms do when they're proud of their kids."

He's got that right!