Griffin With Santa Through The Years

Seeing Santa over the years ~ our guy has changed! Going through photographs, I realized the last time Griffin sat with Santa was when he was seven. (He chose not to visit when he was 8, 9, 10.) I'm so happy he decided to make his Mom happy when he visited with Santa at Cabela's over the summer. And my other two favorites are when he was one and visited with Santa Hut (my brother) in Florida and 'our' Santa when he was seven at a special event in Goochland.

Past Halloween Costumes

This time of year it's fun to reminisce ~ Griffin's costumes over the past 11 years. 2014 was the year of the 'non-costume', it just never came to be.

2005 - Our little pumpkin
2006 - Bob the Builder (Mike's fave!)
2007 - Captain Jack Sparrow
2008 - Batman
2009 - Buzz Lightyear
2010 - Bumblebee
2011 - Dragon
2012 - Alien
2013 - Uncle Si
2014 - The year of the non-costumer (I felt SO bad!)
2015 - Griffinator - his idea and we made the whole thing

Griffin's Pipe Cleaner Roboticals.

Griffin's art mediums of choice are pencil, paper and pipe cleaners! Today he began designing small 'Pipe Cleaner Robiticals'! He is very talented!

A Gift For Griffin

The Goodyear plant interpretor, Mr. Meilong shared a gift with Griffin ~ Chinese agility balls.

Lunch Time ~ McAlister's Deli

Griffin and I decided to have a little something different for lunch while we are in town so we went to McAlister's Deli. We just ran into our neighbors Warren and Carol here, such a nice surprise. And, we just discovered they have a tea bar!

VBS 2015 ~ Camp Killimanjaro

These guys are having SO much fun at Camp Kilimanjarrrroooo! —

VBS Shopping

Out VBS shopping and they walked like this back to the car ~ makes my heart happy.

Griffin's Stuffed Grunt

Griffin decided he wanted to make a stuffed 'grunt'. He designed it, made a pattern, sewed it, stuffed it and then embellished it. I think he did a fabulous job!

Busted!

Someone snuck down stairs last night - looks like he had a busy night planned with the iPad, Kindle, books and TV.

When I Grow Up ...

Griffin: "When I grow up, I want to build robots just like Daddy."

Making Paper Boats!

After the movie Griffin and Branden decided to make boats. They had excellent ideas and then wanted to see how their engineered designs would hold up in water. They were very clever in their designs and the boats were sea worthy ~ who knew a dryer sheet could make such a great sail!

Move Time ~ Jurassic World!

Today Griffin, Branden and I went to see Jurassic World. It was a terrific movie and the boys had a really good time!

Summer Bowlling!

We had fun bowling with friends today!

Rose Hill Mission Trip.

This past week, our family was incredibly blessed to be part of the Rose Hill Mission Team. We saw God working in mighty ways in the community in which we were served. We laughed. We cried. And, we rejoiced in the Lord. It was an absolute priviledge to be the hands and feet of Jesus in Rose Hill this week.

VBS in Rose Hill

Griffin had so much fun at VBS last night at First Baptist Church in Rose Hill!

Talking In The Fan.

I totally remember doing this ~ it brought back memories when the kids did it yesterday when we were shopping. Makes me wonder, how we even knew to do this!

Griffin's Bicycle Drawing For Me

It's raining pink flowers around the rainbow colored bicycle Griffin drew for me.

These Two.

I love these two.

Sweet Innocence ...

Between the innocence of babyhood, and the dignity of manhood, we find the delightful creature of a boy!

Interview With A 4th Grader

WITHOUT ANY prompting, I asked Griffin these questions and wrote them down exactly as he answered them.

From: Griffin, 10

1. What is something Mom always says to you? You are the best son in the world.

2. What makes Mom happy? When we go to church to learn about Jesus and when I tie the trash bags and being responsible for other stuff.

3. What makes Mom sad? When I don't tie bags and I don't be responsible. (Can you sense this may have been an issue today?)

4. How does your Mom make you laugh? By doing stuff that is sorta funny

5. What was your Mom like as a child? Great student and had no television or anything. (We had a TV ~ I've explained to him we played OUTSIDE all day and didn't stay inside and watch TV)

6. How old is your Mom? 47 (yep!)

7. How tall is your Mom? At least as tall as me (I'm 5' and he is 4'10')

8. What is her favorite thing to do? Make banners

9. If your Mom became famous, what would it be for? Making crafts, that's a definite fact of truth (that one is funny!)

10. What does your Mom do when you are not around? Work

11. What is your Mom really good at? Making banners

12. What is your Mom not very good at? Sometimes she is not good at being patient (that is the truth)

13. What does your Mom do for a job? She is my teacher

14. What is your Mom's favorite food? Parmesan soup (?)

15. What makes you proud about your Mom? She is always nice to me and funny

16. If your Mom was a character, who would she be? She would be Agent O from Odd Squad

17. What do you and your Mom do together? A lot of fun stuff

18. How are you and your Mom the same? We are the same height and we both like to draw

19. How are you and your Mom different? She's a little taller than me and plus I'm (Griffin) a really good drawer

20. How do you know your Mom loves you? She does all these kind things for me and she always tells me she loves me

21. What does your Mom like most about your Dad? He is always nice to her

22. Where is your Mom's favorite place to go? Hobby Lobby

23. How old was your Mom when you were born? 37