Makin At Twelve

Twelve! You are our engineering-minded, kind- hearted child who keeps us smiling.

You love gadgets.

You love Husker football...which comes with a bit of frustration right now!

You love golf. You love to golf with your dad and get that one-on-one time.

You are still a huge Lego fan! Your interest had slowed down a bit, but now you are more interested in making some of your own creations.

You love to read, but are a picky reader, mostly only interested in fantasy. It takes a lot to get you to try a different genre. Thankfully there are many amazing fantasy books out there and we are thankful for an awesome library nearby! You are a huge fan of audiobooks and listen to one almost constantly in your spare time.

You don't particularly love learning, which can be a struggle. You are pretty content with the 5th grade level of education so we have to remind you that to be an engineer you are going to need to keep learning! ;)

You enjoy plants and gardening and get a special thrill when people love any food you grow. You don't like spicy food, but it brings you so much joy when your dad says your peppers or jalapenos are super spicy.

You love to make up games and play almost any game.

You love to be funny.

Quotable Moments:

Brad: I need to work. I don't really have a choice.

Makin: Yes you do, it's America.

(Referring to his two-year-old self...)

"Why did I need cookies to sled!? Now I'd PAY cookies to sled!"

M: She's a millennial.

Mom: How do you know that!?

M: She looks a little younger than you.

Mom: You know some people would say I'm a millennial.

M: You're an Xennial.

"Turns out I'm not that good with pillowcases."

"Life just keeps getting harder doesn't it?"

"So how often should we make dirt? Every day, every other day?"

Mom: You can make breakfast...pancakes.

Makin: I think that's a little out of my skill set.

Makin: (filling out Mad Libs) Name a celebrity. 

Mom: Candace Cameron Burre

Makin: (Long pause...) That's a long name. I'll put CCB.

"Poor Matt. He always gets stepped on."

Mom: (Makin unhappy about trying on so many clothes) You'll be fine. 

Makin: Or will I?

"I have a question, but I think this one you're gonna like."

(Sarcastically, as I'm telling him how excited I am to do vocabulary words in grammar...) "I always wanted to be a traveling dictionary."

Makin's Twelve Year Interview

Favorites -

Food: Pesto Stuffed Shells

Place: Universal, Main Event and Home

Movie/TV Show: Sonic/Ninjago

Color: Neon Green

Thing To Do: Read/Listen to audiobooks, Build with Legos

Animal: Frosty (my parakeet) and a hawk

Books: Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, Story Thieves

Song: Unstoppable, Legend, Revolution, Higher - The Score; Lets Do This - Outskrts

Treat: Better Than Anything Cake, Dirt, Jelly Beans, Vanilla Bean Scones

Holiday: Christmas

What do you like to do with Dad? Build Legos, golf, watch football

What do you like to do with Mom? Read books, play games

What do you like to do with Lorelei? Play games, build Legos, try out creative ideas

What makes you happy? building Legos, reading and listening to audio books, playing laser tag, playing paintball, watching football

What do you think about before you fall asleep? I just let my mind wander.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Mechanical engineer

Lorelei At Fourteen

We have a fourteen-year-old! You are our always-talking, book-loving, life's-so-exciting girl!

You continue to have a passion for animals. You love to tell everyone about them and are extremely interested in rescue efforts made for all animals. You love to tell everyone about Clearwater Marine Aquarium. You enjoy working with horses during lessons as well as ManeGait, a new volunteer project you have going at an equestrian center for kids with special needs. You also continue working on training your Beta fish.

You enjoy Polynesian dance class each week.

You love learning. You get so excited about projects and your work. You especially love learning other languages and are continuing your Spanish because you want to!

You listen to Christmas music at night all year round. During the day you will typically listen to Harry Potter music or soundtracks from Dolphin Tale or horse movies. You love the HP study music available online.

You tend to catastrophize. We are working on that and you are pretty good at joking about it with us!

You are responsible.

You are still fairly anxious and shy around people you don't feel comfortable with. You still struggle with your temper and attitude but we are seeing progress!

You love to research.

You love to decorate. You rearrange your room décor often.

When we do our high, low, looking-forward-to at meals you list off almost your entire day as your high-of-the-day. Even if you had a rough math lesson, that typically doesn't even come to mind by supper.

Thank-you notes are your specialty.

Quotable Moments:

Discussing a nickname idea for Makin as "Carbonator" because he loves carbs...Lorelei chimed in, "Or it could be because he has such a bubbly personality!"

"You could've changed the world mom!"

"But it brings us joy!?!"

(After venting about her teaching not making them actually do a weather-drill practice at school...)"Do you think you should share your concerns with Mrs. Smith!?"

Lor: Tomorrow there is only one more month until I'm fourteen.

Mom: Not cool.

Lor: Yes cool.

Mom: (Discussing future travel dreams...) Yes, several hundred more dollars more!

Lorelei: Yes, but several hundred more memories!

Lorelei's Fourteen Year Interview

Favorites -
Food: Spaghetti
Place: Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Universal, the beach, Disney
Movie/TV Show: Harry Potter, The Mysterious Benedicts Society
Color: Pink, Purple, Blue
Thing To Do: Read, be around animals, horseback riding
Animal: Dog, Horse, Dolphin
Books: Harry Potter Series, any animal books, historical fiction, Gryphon Chronicles
Song: Handpainted by Cozi Zuehlsdorff
Treat: Ice Cream, Better Thank Anything Cake
Holiday: Christmas

What do you like to do with Dad? talk his ear off, back massages, try spicy food

What do you like to do with Mom? go to fun places, homeschool, read books

What do you like to do with Makin? audiobooks, outside time, Legos

What makes you happy? animals and learning, friends, reading

What do you think about before you fall asleep? my day or what we are going to do tomorrow, what ifs, planning things

What do you want to be when you grow up? Animal Behaviorist and/or a psychology degree (Whatever degree gets me to work at CMA)

Makin Turns Twelve

 

Makin enjoyed a day full of favorite things on his birthday!

This year he chose blueberry muffins for breakfast. Typical Makin-style he was mostly too busy having fun to worry about eating them. He reserved the morning to be able to enjoy his gifts, which included playing with them around the house and the pool. 

He also received a fill-a-bag at our local used Lego store, so he decided it would be great to go ahead and get some more Legos as well.

Lunch was the bigger meal of the day as he requested meat-loaf muffins and mashed potatoes.

Later in the afternoon, we headed to Main Event where we played LOTS of laser tag, as well as bowling, etc. We completed a survey, which earned us a card to play games, which was an unexpected surprise!

He wrapped up his day with pizza and a movie.

When you ask an almost-twelve-year-old what candles he wants for his cake...you shouldn't be surprised when you end up with firework candles... He absolutely loved them and I am guessing they will be seen for his birthdays again in the future. (And apparently, I need to learn how to photograph them!) His dessert of choice this year was Better-Than-Anything-Cake.

So much fun celebrating this guy!

Lorelei Turns Fourteen

We spent Lorelei's birthday celebrating with many of her favorite things!

We had our traditional presents-then-breakfast. I went a bit extra-festive on the traditional table this year.  I had a poster in the birthday bin I found a few years ago, so just took some color ideas from that. :) She chose french toast, REAL bacon (vs turkey), and strawberries for breakfast this year.

You really can't see it well in the pic...but it's worth mentioning and is behind her...
Double rainbow on her birthday! :)

Then we headed off to the aquarium for the day. (We dropped Brad off at a workspace on the way...you will see why later!) We had only been to the aquarium once about 10 years ago, so it had changed quite a bit! It reminded us quite a bit of the Omaha Zoo Lied Jungle! It was small enough we were able to go through the entire thing and then double back to see a few favorites the kids requested to see again. Even though we have been blessed to see so many amazing zoos, aquariums and the like, I love that it is a new and different experience each time getting to see God's amazing creation!

New Christmas music (she listens to it year-round)
and a new book to read for the drive!

Tex Mex restaurant at the aquarium for lunch!

There were a surprising amount of birds at the aqurium, including a burrowing owl.
This was a favorite because Makin had recently read a book about them!

This fish did not look real, but it was!

Seaweed? Nope, seahorse!

Sawfish!

Not the best pic but a fun moment...
Getting to watch a sloth eat! (Upper left!)

Hanging out with the little blue penguins!

Barbara!
(The boys LOVE to give Lor a hard time. They call EVERY manatee Barbara...
any Veggie Tale fans reading this will understand. ;) )

Axolotl's were another fun creature to see!

Then we headed back up to meet up with Brad's childhood friend, Dennis (who you may remember we saw about a month ago!) and his wife Racheal who were in town. We met up with them at an Italian restaurant in order to keep Lorelei's birthday supper of spaghetti tradition! (We are fairly certain she has chosen spaghetti ever since she could tell us what she wanted!)

We told Lorelei she could choose any dessert out and she chose The Yard for an extra special milkshake! So yummy!

So much fun celebrating our girl!