My Thoughtful Boy

My parents love to go to yard sales.  They have found many great things, especially cheap pieces of old furniture that they can repair/paint and resale.  Recently, my mom bought a box of jewelry to resale.  She separated the resalable items from the junk (trash).  This junk jewelry was still laying on the table one day when Nate was at their house.  Nate did not see junk, he saw pretty jewelry for his mom. :)  He asked my mom if he could pick out some for me.  She said of course.  Then my dad stepped in and said that he could buy some for me.  Nate picked out $7.00 worth of jewelry for me. 

Rewind with me for a moment.  Over a year ago, we started giving Nate an allowance.  He gets a certain amount of money each week and that money is divided into three different jars: spend, save & give.  We want Nate to know the importance of saving money and sharing with others.  And we want him to know what it's like to have to wait to get something you want because you don't have enough money. 

Right before he found this jewelry, he had given all his give money away for a Tae Kwon Do St. Jude fundraiser.  He told my dad that he had given all his "give" money away, but he would use his "spend" money to buy it.  This totally and completely melted my heart. :)  You see Nate's "spend" money is all for him.  If there's a toy or game he wants, that is his money to use to purchase those things.  And, just being honest, he kind be pretty stingy.  So you can only imagine how joyful it made me to know that he was willing to sacrifice his money to buy me this "beautiful" jewelry.  My dad wasn't serious and wasn't going to make Nate pay him, but Nate didn't know that.

Here's all the beautiful things Nate picked out for me. :)

A couple of days before Mother's Day, Nate was at my parents and wanted to pick out some flowers for me.  My parents have lots of beautiful things blooming this time of year.  Nate and mom my walked around the yard and picked out flowers for me.  My mom had one stalk of amaryllis blooming.  Nate really wanted it to go in my bouquet.  He said it was the prettiest flower in the yard.  It was the only one blooming and my mom really didn't want to cut it.  She said they would see what else they could find.  After they cut many things and my mom thought they were done (and hoped Nate had forgotten about the amaryllis), Nate reminded her about the amaryllis.   As you can see, there was a beautiful amaryllis in my mother's day bouquet. (If you aren't familiar with amaryllis, it's the big pink and white flower on the right.)  

Movin' On Up

Nate is really enjoying tae kwon do.  Way more than we anticipated.  Every ten weeks, the students test in front of a panel of judges and all of the parents/family members.  It can be pretty intimidating.

Last testing, Nate just had to answer some questions, do kicks, punches and stances.  This time he had to do those things as well as "one steps" with other students.  One steps are a series of punches and kicks (no contact) you do with another student.  One steps are his favorite!

Nate's group (ages 4-6) are called the Little Ninjas. This is most of them with Miss Allie, one of the student instructors.  You have to be a black belt to be a student instructor.  She does a great job with the kids.

They test on the weekend, but don't find out if they pass until the following week.  Thursday night, Nate officially moved up to orange belt. 

I wish you could have seen the excitement on his face.  We were even surprised by his excitement.  Now he will be doing "forms." His first form has 17 moves.  We'll see how excited he is when he's memorizing all of those moves. :)

Fishing With Pops

Last week Darren and Nate went fishing with my dad.  They had a fun afternoon and caught over 25 fish.

Camping

A couple of weekends ago, we camped for the first time this spring.  It was a fun and relaxing weekend.   The weather was beautiful and perfect for being outdoors.

Nate had a great time doing this nature scavenger hunt that I found on Pinterest.

He also had a great time feeding these baby geese. 

Facing Fears

Nate has learned to swim!!! He has been taking swim lessons for several weeks and on April 16th it all came together and he swam on his own for the first time.

At the end of class they jump in and practice swimming back to the wall.  Nate had so much anxiety about this part of class and did not want to jump in.  Sometimes I would have to "help" him. :)  The day he started swimming, he also faced his fear and jumped right in without any hesitation.  I was so proud of him!  I almost cried happy tears.  He, of course, loved it and jumped in about five times in a row.  I think this video is his third jump.  Please excuse my high pitched excitement. :)

Homemade Strawberry Popsicles

Since it is strawberry season, we decided to try making our own strawberry popsicles. I found a simple recipe at Heather's Dish. You only need three ingredients: 1.5 pounds strawberries, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/4 cup cream.  You also need a food processor or blender and a popsicle mold.  We got our molds at Wal-Mart, but you can use an ice tray if you don't want to purchase molds. 

Aren't these strawberries beautiful?  Red to the center.  At this point you just add the sugar and process for two to three minutes to allow the sugar to dissolve.  Then you add the cream and mix until blended.

Pour into molds.

Insert sticks.

If you get a little on you, just lick it off. :)  Then, into the freezer they go.  Now find something fun to do for the next several hours (4 hours for these molds) and resist checking on them every thirty minutes. Thankfully, it was a beautiful warm Saturday and we had plenty of yard work and playing outside to keep us busy.

The wait is over!  This recipe is Nate approved.  I hope you give these strawberry pops a try. We are already working on our second batch. :)

Dino Discovery

The Birmingham Zoo has an awesome dinosaur exhibit now through July 21st.   

The dinos are life-sized and animatronic - even their eyes move.

  

Since we were in the area, we had to have a popsicle from Steel City Pops.  Their popsicles are the best.  Check them out and have my favorite flavor, avocado.  It is seriously delicious.  Nate's favorite is strawberry.  Coconut is also tasty...and blueberry...and chocolate...and peanut butter. :)