{this moment} - National Junior Honor Society

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.

Project Redecoration: Paulie's room

As a present for each of the kids this year (their main gift), we decided to redecorate each of their rooms. In the 6 days leading up to Christmas Eve, we managed to tackle all 3 bedrooms (Philip and Finn share a room.) with help from a few family and friends on the days that Paul was working.

We began with Paulie's room. He and Philip spent the week before Christmas with their mother, so we started his room immediate after he left, but while Elizabeth and Finn were still around. They thought that we were just redoing Paulie's room as a present but didn't even guess about their own rooms. 

Paulie's room was the only room in our house that hadn't been repainted at all since we moved into this house. It was the same bland off-white that the entire house was painted when we bought it.

We really couldn't move the furniture around in his room because he has the smallest bedroom in the house and the largest furniture.

Paulie has been asking for years for a green room, and we've put him off because he had a red futon cover. I found a good deal on a brown microsuede futon cover, and we decided to paint his room "Organic Garden", which is kind of an avocado-y color. We also decided to trade his bulky quilt for a Pendleton wool blanket which will keep him warm but isn't as bulky to tuck into the sides of his bed. My best friend helped me out by making his curtains which are Kona Cotton in Cocoa at the top and have a trim of Air Mail 1930's by Clothworks at the bottom. I also made a sham for his bed out of the remnants of both fabrics.

His desk remained largely the same, although we got him a new modern Ikea lamp. (He also got another new Ikea lamp to clamp to the top of his bed for reading at night.) We also framed some stamps from Paul's old collection to match his curtains and hung a license plate map of the US over his speaker shelf.

Finally, Paulie has been obsessed recently with Lord of the Rings, and I found a print on Etsy of the saying, in Elvish, Not All Who Wander Are Lost.

Finn's first race

Finn has been asking for about 6 months to run a race. He's been on the sidelines watching his big brother, Paulie, race since he was about 2 years old, and he's been chasing him around in the backyard about as long. He finally felt like his time had come to run in a race of his own.

We signed him up for a Fun Run in the local Race Against Hunger, and he proudly wore his tattoo, t-shirt, and carried his newly acquired race loot bag.

We arrived very early as we hadn't been to this race event before. We got the packet and acclimated ourselves to the event layout.

When the sun finally came completely up, well, as much as it ever did on this rainy autumn morning, we headed out to the starting line area.

Finn did all of his stretches. (Paulie spent some time teaching him how to stretch before the race.)

And they were off!

Finn was so thrilled to be able to join his big brother on this adventure that he'd only been able to spectate before.

They both came through with good time and smiles. A sign of a race well run.

And then they were handsomely rewarded with arm paintings and a huge inflatable slide. All the makings of a good first race, I think.

celebrating Paulie!

On Friday we celebrated Paulie's 14th trip around the sun. (How is that possible?!) He retains much of his sunny disposition, despite his foray deeper into teenagerhood, and we are thankful for another year to spend with him and watch him grow into a fabulous young person. He often has the hardest time making decisions about what he wants for his birthday meal, or even his birthday presents. I sometimes just end up making those decisions myself. Since he had friends joining us for his birthday dinner (Friday birthdays can be handy for that.), I opted to make a variety of pizzas to help us celebrate.

We keep our birthday celebrations relatively low-key. A birthday ring with seasonal decorations and a couple special ornaments, celebratory food, and a few presents.

And of course, a special dessert. Paulie couldn't decide on which special dessert he wanted this year. I opted to make him some homemade vanilla ice cream and homemade oreos to accompany. His oreo was a triple decker!

After the singing, candle blowing, and dessert eating, he moved on to his gifts. He always has the best expressions when opening presents. This expression looks like he won a million dollars; actually, it's the latest book in a series he enjoys.

He was suitably thrilled about his Totoro pillow, although I couldn't quite tell if he was a mite embarrassed to be receiving it in front of friends. ;)

His big gift this year was a new 7-speed bike. He refused to ride his old 20-inch kids bike this summer claiming he was too big for it. He had an inaugural run around local lake trail yesterday, with Finn and Philip in tow. He was still smiling 7 miles later. The bike must be a winner!

Happiest of birthdays, Paulie! We can't wait to see what 14 brings.

school projects

Paulie and Elizabeth have been busy this weekend with school projects that are due in the next week or two.  Mostly, they have been fun to work on and I thought I'd share.

Elizabeth is constructing a timeline about Harry Houdini's life to go with a book report that she has due shortly after Thanksgiving.  Her school is fortunate to take off the entire week of Thanksgiving, but with family coming into town today, she didn't want to spend her whole break working on the project.  She diligently worked all morning yesterday to get the timeline finished. 

Paulie has been swamped with projects lately, but at least the 2 he had due at the end of this weekend were fun.  He worked on this Facebook page for Immanuel Kant.  Much of the information was gathered during class. He only had to create the Facebook page this weekend.

Paulie's bigger project that took quite a bit of time was a cell cake.  The entire cake had to be a 3D diagram of the parts of a plant cell.  He was a bit stumped at first as to how to make an entire cake within the parameters of our family food values, ie. no artificial colors, no artificial flavors, etc.  We bought a variety of candy from Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and used some fruit leather and homemade cranberry jelly to supplement.  Everything in this cake is organic and all-natural. I think he did a fabulous job!

Be sure to stop back by tomorrow to enter a giveaway that I'll be hosting through the Thanksgiving holiday.  I promise that it's an awesome one! ;)

Zombie Run

Paulie and several of his friends gathered at a local Zombie Run on Saturday to see if they could make it through a 2 mile course littered with zombies with 2 yellow caution tapes attached to their belts intact.  We, of course, were only able to watch them at the beginning and the end of the race, but the antics were hilarious.  The roller zombies at the end of the course were particularly dicey to navigate, but Paulie and all of his friends made it through and won little sticky, squishy brains as a prize, not to mention the distinction of defeating the zombies.  I don't think it would have been worth it for me, but they were thrilled.

a birthday trip

For Paulie's birthday this year, he requested to take a trip with his dad instead of a larger present.  I did not attend this trip. Therefore, I don't have much narration for this post. I did want to post a few of the photos that Paulie took with his camera while he was visiting Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta.

{Confederate Memorial on Stone Mountain}

{Paul found his name etched in the granite}

{views from the top of the mountain}

{the Skyride down from the summit}

Paulie's thoughts on the trip to Stone Mountain were that the carving was "enormously huge" and the hike was tiring and made him sore.  He claims to have "had a blast", and he's glad he chose a trip over a present. His favorite part of the visit to the park was the laser show on the carving at night (although his dad might disagree).

celebrating Paulie

As of this morning, we officially have a teenager in our house. We celebrate a couple of days early as he's at his mom's house today.  

But we celebrated in style! With a few small gifts and a birthday ring sporting 1 candle on the left and 3 on the right, and he downright chuckled when he saw the photo I placed of him in the photo holder.

Elizabeth had a few contributions to the festivities, as she always does.  She picked a few of the remaining begonias and several mums to place in a vase near the birthday ring.

She also made a dozen of these signs to hang around the room, proclaiming the day to be a celebration of Paul!

Her final touch was a simple framed portrait of an 18-month-old Paulie.  It's hard to believe that little guy is now 13!

He enjoyed some of his favorite foods for his birthday meal, then we got down to business.

"Ice cream lasagna" and candles! (The ice cream lasagna was a repeat from last year, and a sugar overload, as always.)

He received gifts of several books that were on his wishlist, an iTunes giftcard, and a magazine subscription to Calliope.

His big gift will arrive this weekend as Paul whisks him off to a special father-son trip to Stone Mountain Park for the weekend.  Until then, you'll likely find him with his nose buried in his Star Wars Origami book, making all manner of paper Star Wars creations.

Happy birthday to Paulie!  We hope 13 is good to you (and gentle to us)! ;)