My tiny baby boy entered a new decade last week! Years ago my grandpa made a comment about how we take so many more pictures of babies than of older people. That came back to me just now as I realized I only took two pictures of Lex on his 20th birthday, but probably a hundred on the actual day of his birth!
The pile was small, but high quality..The photos weren’t even good photos. Poor kid. I’ll have to do better on the 21st!
The weekend before, E and her friends went to Senior Prom. They took photos at the Powerhouse, had dinner at Panera, survived torrential rain to get there, then danced their hearts out at the Marriott.
We also attended the FRC wrap party on a recent weekend. E and her teammates designed trophies for the coaches and we 3D printed them. We had fun at the party and everyone enjoyed the awards.
G and E presenting the awards.The gold is their robot design. :)
I’m currently home alone, getting a tiny taste of the upcoming year. Lex and E drove to Worcester together to meet with Lex’s roommates and landlord for next year. They planned the trip, including extra time for whimsey, and seem to be having a great trip. They’ll be home soon. E sent me some photos while Lex and his roomies made plans. I can’t wait for the full update when they get home!
The living roomHis bedroom. Now to figure how to furnish it!
R spent the day sleeping, waking up at 4pm when I woke him!, then headed out to spend the evening with friends. I’ve been alone with the cat and dog for company.
We are skewing towards calm around here, but the chaos still rears up… usually around midnight! And I love it. <3
I’m a little behind on the postings, but I can’t miss this big one! The last of my babies turned 18. We’re all grown-ups around here now! Kinda. LOL.
We celebrated with robotics, painting, muppets, and sushi. I took the birthday squad out for pottery painting and dinner. I thought we could go to a restaurant, but after much discussion they decided to get sushi take out and watch the Muppet Movie at home. They were all wound up after painting, so I drove to the local park and kicked them out to run around for a bit while we waited for our sushi order to be ready. They maybe be growing up, but they are still the goofy kids I know and love. <3
The thought snuck into my mind that this might be his last summer living at home for his birthday, but I had to quash that thought real fast! I’ll take every summer I can get with this kiddo. 💕
Friday was a hot one, as was the whole weekend, so after work and school three of us went out for ice cream! (the 4th didn’t want to come) The kids played on the play structure a bit and we all enjoyed the treat.
Saturday, Lex woke up before me so I didn’t have a chance to get the birthday table done first! Eeek! LOL. He said his birthday was just as good even though he didn’t see his birthday table until after he went upstairs to brush his teeth… for a good long time. :) He is so responsible these days that he sets a 9am alarm every day. He said (rightfully so) that the schedule and routine is easier for his sleep cycle. I got that table set up though and he did a wonderful job of acting surprised to humor me. LOL. He’s a good kid.
The kids had DND plans in the afternoon, so we did presents and ate birthday cookies before they left. I packaged up a bunch of birthday cookies for him to share with the group, but apparently other people don’t think oatmeal raisin cookies are the greatest and so he came home with many cookies still left. We have been munching on them all weekend.
Books, Minecraft, and Legos, of course.
Mema knows what’s good!! Lex had two types of oatmeal cookies to enjoy this weekend.
A year later I finally got around to framing his black belt certificate and photo. I wanted a better mat option, but I didn’t want to pay the hefty framing price. I might redo it some other time. We’ll see.
Then the kids went off to play DND. I went off to bicker with the owner of a new car wash that scratched up my car (🤬) and get a mani/pedi (💅🏻). One obviously was much more fun and productive than the other.
It’s weird to photograph toes. I think. I liked that they painted them with my sandals already on though! No smudges at all.
On my fingers I got color changing “cats eye” polish. There is magnetic material in it that forms the “eye” line and the color changes in heat and cold. I asked how it worked and the girl said 🌟 science 🌟
At bedtime my responsible 19yr old reminded me to measure him on the way. I got out the step stool, which resulted in some silliness. In terms of height, Lex has only grown a touch since he was 17, but it feels to me like he keeps growing! Maybe I’m shrinking.
Recreating an old picture Mema posted on FB.
The “behind the scenes.” Don’t ask why they are both on the stool. LOL.
Recreating my fond memories of being taller than my kids.
I’m sure you can guess how this was done. 😁
On Sunday we picked up the birthday squad and headed to an escape room! Alan met us there and together we solved puzzles and rescued Dr. Jones! Go team! We celebrated our success and hunger at a tasty pizza place in town.
The crew!
A cool and tricky code to crack.
Sometimes we take shortcuts. LOL.
Today we are enjoying our bonus weekend day. The kids were going to play DND again, but one of them is sick and a few others are sick of the group (Saturday’s game was rough) so they are taking a break from it instead. Everyone is quite and enjoying some down time on this rainy Memorial Day Monday. Living our best lives for those who gave theirs.
Baby Eve turned 17 today! Not such a baby anymore, but she’ll always be my baby.
I had lots of celebration ideas, but she vetoed them all this year, so instead we’ve had a really nice low-key day. We had presents and cake in the early afternoon, with Lex joining us via Discord. :)
The usual birthday table. The yellow thing at the bottom is actually a present, not the table. :)
Queen E
I’m curious to see the rest of this costume come together.
Anything that arrives in the mail around an birthday becomes a birthday present. :)
Afternoon cake
Blue Angel Food cake with Cool Whip and dino sprinkles.
Party table
Alan got her a Lego succulent set, so we had fun building that while chatting with Lex. Lex was moved to the phone after R took his computer away. LOL.
:)
E decided she wanted to spend some time in nature, so we took a walk along Mink Brook, a Connecticut River tributary. It was a beautiful day. We brought Huxley along for the outing and we all had a lovely time.
Huxley wants to catch up!
Smiles
Can’t forget the doggo.
Fun in the sun.
Zoom in to see the “Princess” sign on the bench. I decided it must be Eve’s bench.
Practicing for her senior pictures? LOL.
There’s the Connecticut!
There’s the Connecticut!
This spirally thing (bark, perhaps) was so cool. There were several others on the tree as well, but this was the biggest and best.
We had dinner at Molly’s and now we’re home, watching The Simpson’s, E’s favorite show to watch with her daddy. Overall it was a beautiful day for a beautiful girl.
Also, it’s Easter! I totally skipped it this year. We put up a few tiny decorations, bought some jelly beans last week, and that was it. No eggs or baskets or anything. Oh well. Happy Easter to those who celebrate it better than I do. Happy Birthday to those who celebrate today (both E and my bestie Lisa!). Happy Sunday to all. 🐰💖
I celebrated 47 wonderful trips around the sun yesterday. We had a busy weekend, mostly involving driving and waiting at the car place for tire changes. Nothing exciting, but also somehow still fun. Friday I drove down to WPI to pick up Lex, brought him home, picked up Eve, then we went to the high school’s production of Curtains: The Musical. It was fantastic and hysterical. Lex was happy to be there and all his theater friends were happy to see him again. We brought two cars so I could go home while the kids socialized, but in the end they went home before me because I was socializing! LOL.
Saturday morning I took the kid car to the tire place and waited for four hours (FOUR HOURS!) in a freezing cold tire place for them to put snow tires on the car. Clearly I waited too late in the season to do this, but in my defence I did start calling around in early October and everyone was booked through December, so…. anyway. Towards the end of my long wait, Lex and Eve showed up with a mug of hot tea for me, and plans to run some top-secret errands (that Lex repeatedly reassured me were not bad errands).
Saturday afternoon they surprised me with beautiful flowers, presents, and a table display. 🤗 I opened presents Saturday afternoon while Lex was still home. Then Eve and I drove him back to WPI. Eve hadn’t had the chance to see his dorm room yet, and also she love car trips with me. We left around 4:30pm, when it was almost dark, so it felt like a super long drive in the dark, but really it was fine and we were home by 11pm.
Sunday, my actual birthday, Eve made waffles for breakfast and angel food cake for dinner. I went to an adorable wine bar / cafe in town with a fellow librarian I haven’t seen in many months. It was super nice to catch up with her. When I got home Eve had cake ready and we watched a Great British Bake Off together, then I joined a Discord video chat with my college buddies.
Overall, it was a great birthday weekend! I’m happy to be 47 and starting another trip around the sun. 🌞
Holy moly! My baby is 18. Somehow that happened today.
At this time 18 years ago, we were snuggling a tiny baby. The first in the next generation of Collier/Johnsons. It was such a surreal experience.
And in the blink of an eye he turned into a giant, functioning human being, rocking his life in high school and preparing to spread his wings and fly.
For those who can’t do the math (me!) the answer is WPI. :)
We had a perfectly lovely, low-key Lex style birthday day. He wanted cookies instead of cake and an evening with the robotics team, which he hasn’t been to in awhile due to recent theater and band commitments. We all did the normal school thing, of course. Eve and friends sang to him at lunch and his buddies bought him Twizzlers. After school we had a quick appointment at the doctor’s office where Lex had to fill out his own medical forms and a separate form authorizing the doctor to talk to me and Alan. Welcome to adulthood, it comes with paperwork. :)
After that we came home to open presents. He got fun stuff like WPI gear and a new phone (sort of fun, he is a neophyte after all — Mom, this is not the right word! What is the word you always use?!), and boring stuff like sheets and towels for college. After a quick dinner of New York bagels, he was off to robotics to prep for their match at WPI next weekend!
We had another fun surprise this evening when I was tidying up the birthday celebration and we realized the bagels were a monthly subscription! Who knew you could get a subscription for authentic NY bagels?! (clearly Rosy knew!)
He has a few more weeks of senior-slide school left, then it’s summer vacation. I’m going to make those days last as long as possible before I deliver him to his new life on August 20th.
Birthday cookies!
It was a 7A birthday. :)
The drumsticks work!
Hmmm…. if it is big and square and sounds like lots of little plastic bricks… what could it be?! :)
Bagels!
Happy Birthday Lex!! I could not have asked for a better kid. I love you forever and ever. 💗
We had a pretty low-key day. I had to work, but the kids were home and Alan came down for the day. Lex and B’Lake had to leave at 3pm for a robotics event, so I came home at lunch time for the birthday celebration. I never got around to making a cake, but we have plenty of sweets around here these days and Alan brought her a birthday cupcake. She got a new laptop, an awesome hiking backpack, flowers, and more. She was pretty happy with the birthday presents. :)
The boys left at 3pm, I got home around 4pm, then Eve, Alan, and I spent the afternoon/evening watching silly TV and eating sushi. It was a good day.
The table was full of sewing and craft supplies, so the piano held the present display intead.
We wrapped up Lex’s birthday weekend with a trip to the Boston Museum of Science today. It was a beautiful day for a road trip. We got there by mid-morning, explored the museum, watched the cool lightening show, had some expensive cafeteria food, and generally enjoyed ourselves immensely.
The wave machine and a beautiful view of the water.
I want a plant wall like this! And someone to take care of it.
Earth
A little (digital) arctic friend.
Today’s forecast…. lightening!
So much lightning.
Crazy man in a cage, with lightning!
Eve, pretending to be Pluto.
Give this man a hand.
Family portrait. :)
We spent a lot of time on this engineering challenge.
The beautiful side of Boston.
Beautiful Boston with some silly people too.
Dinner at the OG!
We had a great day and we’re all looking forward to a no-plans today tomorrow! Hallelujah for three day weekends!
This handsome fellow had a birthday recently. He is thriving in all ways. We had a quiet birthday celebration with just a few gifts — cookies, books, Legos, and money — just what he wanted! :) Here are a few pics of my favorite 17yr old!
Spring brings concerts and plays as well, which Lex has been rocking. He had his spring concert, a district music festival, the high school musical and the middle school musical – both of which he ran the lights for. He even went in early before the spring concert so he could program nice lighting for the concert.
Spring concert
Dinner after the district concert
Lex and the light board
He won a few awards this spring too! At the spring concert he was given the Spirited Percussionist award, in celebration of Armand Zildjian. It came with a nice certificate, a personal note from a guy named Damian Poludin in Texas who manages (runs? is in charge of?) the award. It also came with a check an a cool laptop backpack with drumstick holders for percussionists. It’s pretty cool. He was pretty proud of himself. I am too!!
Yesterday I got a text from Eve saying “Lex just won an award.” I was confused because it was the middle of the school day. Lex replied, saying it was a “come to this college” book award and he was mostly just excited for the book. Apparently they announced a bunch of “college awards” over the loud speaker. So random! :) When I got him he showed me the certificate and note that says he can get his application fee waived and qualify to apply for an annual scholarship. Yep, definitely sounds like a “come to this college” recruiting award. Sadly he didn’t actually get a book. They gave him a paperweight instead. I’m not sure what the deal with that is. I told him to ask the counselor, but he said no. :)
Getting his award at the concert
<3
Thanks RIT! :)
I’m so proud of this kiddo. I miss the tiny baby and curious toddler (though I don’t miss the tantrums!), but I love seeing how well he has grown up and how happy he is with life in general.
