Lucas' Day and, of course, Some Quilting

Lucas turned 9 yesterday. He's been looking forward to his birthday for weeks now, as he knew he would ge to go to his favorite Chinese buffet for lunch and choose his dinner. He likes to eat! My husband was able to take the evening off, so once he finished his morning work, we headed out for lunch, just the 3 of us.

After lunch, we took him shopping for his gifts. This became the birthday tradition for the girls a while ago because they usually wanted clothing and it was more practical, and more fun, to take them out and let them pick what they want and try it on so they weren't disappointed with ill-fitting clothing.

Lucas had a few specific things in mind, so off we went. He had money from us, some from his grandma and some that he had saved from his allowance. His brothers and sisters gave him the PS2 memory card that he wanted and he was able to find the video game, the board game, and the nerf gun he wanted.

He had enough left to get a small wall mount CD player for his room, and an inexpensive CD. He thought he'd be saving for a long time for that, so was quite happy with his treasures as we arrived back home.

His chosen dinner was deep fried calzones. I got a deep fryer a couple of Christmases ago and it's the hit of all the kids' friends. Last fall, Rachel's boyfriend wanted to try making calzones in it and they came out great. Shortly after that, Lucas decided that he'd found his birthday dinner choice.

They are a LOT of work! Only a couple at a time fit in the fryer, thankfully Rachel's boyfriend manned the fryer while I made the calzones and we were able to keep it moving pretty well, but couldn't really all sit together and eat. No matter, though, they had fun playing video games while eating with occasional ambushes from the nerf gun and a good time was had by all. Rebekah and her boyfriend found a couple of video games for him as well, so he has a lot to keep him occupied on gloomy days.

His "cake" choice was an ice cream cake. When the kids were small, they liked the boxed cakes because they could pick the cake flavor and icing flavor quite easily, but several years ago now we started making all different things for birthday desserts. Trifles are one of the favorites, and we've done cheesecake, various homebaked cakes, giant frosted cookies and a myriad of other things as birthday cakes.

This is the second time that Lucas has chosen ice cream cake. The bottom layer is crushed chocolate filled chocolate sandwich cookies, then vanilla ice cream with chocolate swirl, followed by a drizzle of both caramel and chocolate syrup, a layer of whipped topping, and another drizzle of caramel and chocolate sauces. It really looked good! And tasted even better.

What a busy day it was! Rachel's boyfriend left at about 11 and everyone went to bed but me. I settled down in my quiet house for a while to just relax.

After a jam packed day of activity here yesterday, today is remarkably quiet. Joshua left a while ago to help out with "Family Faith Night." It's a yearly event here tied to our city's Fiesta Days where they get a Christian artist to come perform in the park for a reasonable entry fee. There is a lot of set up and tear down work, done mostly by volunteers from local churches. He won't likely be home until it's all over, late tonight.

Rachel is babysitting all day and into the evening, and Rebekah is working and then going with her boyfriend, it's his birthday today, to his parents' house for their second birthday dinner in two days. Rachel's boyfriend had promised Lucas they would roam the small woods near his house and make dinner in the woods. Jonathan and a couple of other guys were going as well. They've already left and are going food shopping, then preparing what they need to for their forage in the woods and will cap their day by cooking chili over a fire. Lucas has been looking forward to this for weeks.

I don't expect any of them back until later this evening, which leaves me and Ruthie here alone for the moment. My husband is out working but should be home soon. I'll spend my day mostly sewing, I hope, and taking my time with dinner (chicken wings) and kitchen clean up.

Emma's quilt is moving along, I'm on block 24 of 80 (6 inch blocks.) I will spend a good part of my day working on it.

I've also started the next block of Debbie's quilt, and will alternate hand quilting and applique as time and motivation allow. Ruthie is hanging out in my sewing room with me. My husband will probably spend some time out in the yard and I'm sure she'll take that chance to go outside. For now, she's happy in the big chair, with her newly painted pink toes, playing with whatever odds and ends happen to be within her reach.

Sundays tend to be quiet here as well, the kids usually have activities planned for after church, though there is a bit of coming and going and friends popping in to meet up with them, which is fun, too.

Of course, since I started writing, things have already changed a bit, Joshua is back and will probably be here all afternoon, though that could change if one of his friend's shows up. What that means is my nice quiet quilting and Cubs game afternoon has gone out the window as my husband, who just got home, and Joshua will chatter through the whole thing! They'll be happy, and that's what important, and I can always sit in another room :)

For now, I'm going to sign off and get to my quilting. I should be able to get a lot done today. With several new project waiting for me, and the hope of quilting the flying geese this year after all, I'm feeling pretty motivated to get these Christmas quilts done as soon as possible!

Happy Quilting!

Sue