Caden Turns 10!

As Caden and I were discussing his birthday this year...crepes with berries and whip cream for breakfast (of course!), doughnuts for his class, Chick-Fil-A for lunch, and treats for Scouts later that day, I said, "I don't think you'll even need a cake, with all these treats lined up!" And he said, "Mom. It's fine. I need a cake." So there you have it! Of course--I made a cake. 

Choosing crepes for the b-day breakfast just never gets old!  

The Celebration Station had to move locations due to fall decorations that were already on the Celebration Station...

Gavin gets Caden a cheese-themed birthday present! (And Caden is wearing his gift from Tristan--a cool sweatshirt!)

Caden gets a long-distance gift from his best pal, Ryan!!

Thanks, Ryan!!

Cleats have come a long way...

Lunch with Mom at the Wellington Cafe...

A selfie of a favorite birthday tradition! 

Can you see the "10" on there?

Caden chose a birthday party similar to the one we had for Gavin when he turned 11. We went to the lake, played Capture the Flag, ate pizza, had a campfire and s'mores (and more cake: "Mom. It's fine. I need a cake."), and an altogether fabulous time! 

Caden and his friends!

Happy Birthday, Caden!!!

Back-to-school/hiking fun!

Now that I've posted about Halloween, I thought it was high time to catch up on a few other goings-on around here! 

Caden begins life as a 4th-grader:

 Gavin begins 8th grade:

Tristan begins his senior year:

The Spencer boys head off to school...

 And mom is just as quickly out the door for a first-day-of-school hike with great pal, Amy!

And speaking of hiking, can I just say how much I love my jaunts into the woods and around the lake? Every time I go, it's a guaranteed burst of happiness. (And no wonder, studies have shown that exercising outdoors, especially near trees and bodies of water, improves mood and even self-esteem. I did not need a study to figure that out...!)

One of the "green pools" we love to hike by.

Amy, me, and Kristi--the hiking crew (no make-up required!).

Lately, I've started biking a lot too--here's one of my favorite look-out spots.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the lake early on a Saturday morning and discovered that the lake levels are so low that the shoreline is now open for miles. It was windy and cold and I could kind of pretend I was on the Pacific Northwest Coast. Oh, my, did that make me feel happy! 

Waves "crashing" on the shore! Those of us who are landlocked have to make the best of what we have...and really, what we have is quite amazing!

Today the temps took a 34-degree drop from yesterday, but we bundled up and went hiking anyway. I was reminded of a quote I'd heard about Seattle, "There is no such thing as bad weather--just inadequate clothing!" Thankfully our clothing was adequate and our hike was still fabulous!

More to come soon on Spencer Scoops!

Halloween!

Our Halloweens have begun changing around here in the last couple of years, with only one trick-or-treater still going strong. But that didn't stop all of us from having a great time this year!

Caden got the party started weeks ago, in the midst of a shopping excursion to Pier 1... but that probably doesn't count.

Tim, Caden, and I started celebrating in earnest the week before with a party at our friends' home. Adults were very strongly encouraged to wear costumes too. I was all for ignoring this request, but Tim thought we should go for it. Our costumes were definitely inspired by my one costume option: a dress that my parents had brought me from Ghana. I was all for an African theme, but Tim thought the dress looked much more hippie than African. So hippies we were, with Tim and Caden both designing their shirts the night of the party.

Of course, we also did the obligatory "Boo" neighborhood treat ding-dong ditch, although I miss the days when we made our own homemade pumpkin cookies and decorated them. We tried that once here, and found out later that the cookies were disposed of by the neighbors. Apparently, if you want your treat to actually be consumed and enjoyed, all while remaining anonymous, the treat had better be store-bought!

The night before Halloween, Caden and I carved our pumpkin with the Charlie Brown Halloween special going on in the background. I have to say, it definitely wasn't the same as in years past when all five of us gathered for pumpkin-carving. Caden and I had fun nevertheless, with Caden completely in charge of designing our jack-o'-lantern. He decided on a mummy.

On Halloween day, Tim had to stretch way beyond his comfort zone and wear PJs to work. This was not remotely his idea of a good time, but he pulled through--and thank goodness! Everyone else did too, big time.

On Halloween night, Tristan and his "squad" (his actual preferred term) went to a party as the Avengers. Tristan was Hawkeye.

The rest of us went to the neighborhood block party, and then headed over to the Ridings' to celebrate over there. Caden had never trick-or-treated with his cousins before and thought it was high time to do so! I felt really torn about leaving our home unattended Halloween night--not that I was worried about our home itself. I just felt un-American, even unpatriotic, not answering the door and passing out treats. I eased my guilt by bringing candy out to the neighborhood kids during the block party, and then bringing the rest to the Ridings'.

However, I have to say that when we arrived at the Ridings' home, I felt so completely fine about hanging out with the ladies (Melissa, Iris, and Jen) and watching the old classic (but new to me) Charade, with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. It was so fun!!!

Meanwhile, Tim and Gary took Caden, Matt, and Kate trick-or-treating while Gavin and Mark willingly answered the door.

All in all, it was a perfect night! Happy Halloween!

Oh, what do you do in the summertime when all the world is green?

Do you remember this fabulous old Primary song? "Do you fish in a stream, or lazily dream on the banks as the clouds go by?. . .Do you swim in a pool, to keep yourself cool, or swing in a tree up high?. . .Do you march in parades or drink lemonades, or count all the stars in the sky? Is that what you do? So do I!" I can hear the melody of this song in my head, and it reminds me of the wonderful, lazy, happy summers of my own childhood. . .and my kids' childhoods as well. For years, I've taken my kids to our neighborhood pool nearly every afternoon, and I've loved it as much as they have. Give me sun and water and I am a happy girl.

However, last summer we bought a new home and so our summer was filled with repair work, packing, cleaning, selling our home, moving, unpacking, cleaning...and more of the same. It was exhausting in all ways and on so many levels. We had an amazing and fun-filled family reunion to Seattle for a week in August, but other than that, 2013 wouldn't exactly register as a summer to remember. When we finally moved into our new home (a year ago this week!!!!), we knew that we were planning to finish off an attic space into a media room, and do some other small projects. We waited until after the holidays to start getting bids, mostly so I could regain my sanity. We anticipated having our project completed around March.

We have learned lots of things, such as: the bid process takes a looooong time, and no matter how long the contractor says it will take, you should at least quadruple that. The contractor did not start our project until the final week of school, which is exactly what I didn't want--another summer dealing with house stuff. My heart broke a little this summer as I longed for those lazy afternoons at the community pool with my three guys. Instead, we were home with the workmen...or I arranged things for them to do while I was home with the workmen. Thank goodness for friends and scout camps and soccer practices so that they weren't bored to tears. Our project that was slated to take 3 1/2 weeks ended up taking all summer, and in fact, was finally completed just today!!! Hooray!

At some point during the summer, I had the shattering realization that even had no workmen been present, my boys are older now. Tristan has long been working and would most certainly not have been swimming with us anyway. Gavin is far more interested in playing soccer, even when it's 100 degrees outside. Caden loves to swim, but not without a brother/friend to play with in the pool. Those blissful summer memories of lazy days at the pool are really just that...amazingly beautiful and wonderful memories, but apparently no longer what we "do in the summertime" now: workmen or no workmen, home projects or no. Weep! They fall into the same category as reading stories at night with all three of them snuggled around me. You know what I'm saying? Those days are over. Weep some more. I love watching my boys grow and am so proud of the young men they are becoming, but that doesn't mean I don't succumb to nostalgia over the happy, happy times we had when they were much younger and completely content to hang out with Mom!

So...what did we do this summertime instead of swimming or lazily dreaming? Check it out:

This is the "hallway to nowhere" at the top of the stairs. Complete wasted space. It was our friend Liz who recommended knocking out the walls on both sides to "make a moment" here. 

Here's the attic space we planned to convert to a media/game room. 

The first thing they did was knock a hole in the roof in order to bring all the wood in. This way they avoided traipsing in and out of the house and bashing into the walls. I LOVED the natural light in the media room and was all for replacing the roof with a bunch of skylights, but alas, I was outvoted. 

The hole in the roof.

Starting to take shape! 

It looks like a playhouse made of cotton candy!

Our contractor never brought over a dumpster. I'm sure our neighbors were thrilled with the complete disaster on our driveway (NOT!)! Luckily this phase was very short. 

The Ridings, the Spencers, and the Stubblefields.

In the midst of our project, the youngest three Ridings came over for a few days while Melissa and Amy were at girls' camp and Gary and Chris were headed to BYU. It was the BEST for helping to entertain Gavin and Caden...and we even snuck away to the pool Thursday night. Friday, we didn't mind a bit when the workmen finished up really early and we got to dash over to the CAC for the day--more pool time and fun for all of us! The kids were even good sports about all sleeping on the floor in the family room downstairs because the hole in the roof made things unbearably hot upstairs.

Oh what do you do in the summertime? Roast marshmallows and eat S'mores, of course!

Playstation for 5!

We hoped our project would be done when we left on vacation July 3--that was the plan, after all! But it didn't happen. Not even close. We took a big break while on vacation, and even the week after we got back (see separate post about vacation--coming soon!). But things started up again at the end of July. We had a number of set-backs (mostly because the staining had to be done three times!!!!!). However, we are so happy with the finished product (although, of course, this isn't showing the really finished product, with pillows, and books, and art, and so on--but you get the idea!).

They finally get the staining right! (These two pics were taken prior to completion, as you can tell if you look closely at the edges.)

Completed book-nook--much nicer than the little hallway to nowhere!

We need the blinds back on and books and pillows in place, but you get the idea!

Media/game room (pillows and end table still needed here).

Huge food storage closet in the entryway to the media room. Hooray! 

Oh, what do you do in the autumn-time? Relax and watch a few movies and read some good books, I'd say! (Oh, and maybe stock up and fill up the remaining shelves in the food storage closet!) Here's to a completed project and a relaxing poolside summer in 2015!