Twenty-fifth Wedding Anniversary!

Yup, Gail & Jack are celebrating 25 years today! It was great! The kids made us breakfast in bed and we even got to go out to dinner by ourselves - just like it was in 1986...way before kids!

Jack & Gail, 1986

Colin's Eleventh Birthday

Today was Colin's eleventh birthday, and Mom and Dad had taken the liberty to plan out a day of fun to celebrate the occasion .

First, about just after noon, Colin was to embark on a ride to the mall, to do some shopping and to visit the main attraction or " Pièce de résistance" which was, (as some of you probably could have guessed,) The LEGO Store.

After which, was when Colin would come back home, triumphantly displaying his newest editions to his vast collection of toys, games, and gadgets for all to see.

Then, After taking a reinvigorating break from all that tiring playtime and shopping, the family decided that now was the time to present him with the our gifts. All ether hand picked or hand-made, new eye-catching mini-puzzles, yellow cardboard-paper cards colored in crayon, exciting novels, the works.

Afterwards when the excitement had died down, we sat down to a delicious meal of Teriyaki from a favorite take-out restaurant, with beef, sweet and sour chicken, rice with little dips of soy sauce, and a well sized salad. When we went to bed that night we all had high expectations of tomorrow, and could hardly wait for the big family party happening just this week.

But wait! that's not the whole story! There a very small problem that came to surface when I first woke up that morning... "I forgot to get Colin a present!" the realization hit me, "Aah! what do I do!?" ( I suddenly noticed a repeat of what happened on Mom's last birthday. But luckily, this time I didn't have to desperately hope that Papa Ray had sent something in the mail.)

Fortunately this time I came prepared, because this time, after taking some tutorials, I had the Adobe Flash software at my disposal, ready to use.

Quickly, for my time was short, I began to improvise. Thinking fast I hurriedly took an image of a star-field, that I had made in Photoshop from scratch by following a Scott Kelby lesson, and opened it in Flash.

Pausing a moment to reflect on what I should do with this image, an clever idea struck me. Yes! I could use the 3D text feature on top! Hmm... outer space and 3D text... now all it needed was some dramatic music.

After scrambling to finish the work on time, and finally turning to the help section as a last resort, I completed the work, synchronized the music, and set the animation in motion all just moments before Colin had to leave for the mall. I was then able to, after much hard work, present to him a gift which was truly unique.

-Caleb

An Afternoon Affair with Art

I was asked to take part in painting a picture of a horse at my art class at Northwest Art Center, an art studio in Duvall, for an silent auction to raise money for the art center. I painted a close -up of a green/blue horse's face with an orange/red backround. At the auction I watched as Mom was outbid by two ladies battling for my horse. One of them finally won by just paying the guaranteed buying price of $150.00.

JANUARY 31

January 31 was a full day! Let me tell you about it. First we watched Kenneth Copeland.Then, right after that, I got to go to a friend's house while the rest of the family (except for dad) played and decorated cookies with our friends, the Lobbs. At 3:00 my mom picked me up and headed to another friend's birthday party at Jump Sky High. It was a lot of fun. They had dodge ball, and there were trampolines everywhere--on the floor and the walls! The only thing I didn't like was that had so many birthday parties jumping at the same time. After we were done jumping at Sky High we headed to The Round Table Pizza Place and ate pizza. After our friend, Blake, had opened all his presents we went home.
You would think that was enough, but no! We kids got to go see "Tangled" with our cousins. When we got home we were exhausted. -- Colin

Toby Mac Winter Wonder Slam Concert 2011

On Friday January 28th Mom took me to go see Toby Mac in concert after gym. We arrived soon after the doors opened and immediately found great seats. We didn't go so far as to have "Freak Seats," but we were happy. The concert began at 7:00 p.m. starting with a less known band called "House Of Heroes". They did a few rowdy songs before the stage was given to Brandon Heath, whose songs were much less loud then House Of Heroes'. After Brandon did several songs the countdown began for Toby Mac. Everyone stood up when Toby Mac came onto the stage, which forced me to switch places with Mom so I could see. Toby did parts from most of his songs, including most of my favorites. At one point in the concert, when Toby was singing one of his slower songs, "City On Our Knees", everybody took out there phones plus other electronics and started waving them to the beat. The concert ended a little before 10:00, and Mom and I went out to the lobby to buy me a "Catchafire" t-shirt and "Tonight " hat. We spent half an hour trying to get out of the parking lot--it was that crowded. After a snack dinner at QFC we arrived home a 11:30 that night. I was so tired I went to sleep in my Catchafire t-shirt.

-Emma

Piano Recital 2011

The first piano recital of the year took place at Mills Music in Bothell this afternoon. Actually it is more of a late Christmas program - doing it after the holiday rush is actually a benefit. Teacher Sue Severin put together a great show with each of her about twenty students doing a showcase number. Here are Caleb, Emma, Colin, & Cian's performances.