Dueck's Roost

Brooks/Brookerhood or Brooksie (from his toddler days:-) was awfully happy to have a "friend party" for his 11th b-day. Since I'm frantically trying to catch up on our blog (yet again) and am a whopping year-and-a-half behind, I'm going to keep this short and sweet ...  Friends came over to hang out, play video games, eat pizza (all the pics of that were way too disgusting) ... And of course open presents!! Books, bats, and balls (lots of them) were apparently on the list for this pre-teen. Sugary snacks and money were also included ... and MUCH appreciated! Not sure what exactly these two gave him ... other than a serious sibling "squishy" and a definite lack of personal space. Hard to see it in this pic, but Brooks' preferred b-day dessert is a ice-cream sandwich cake, so we definitely incorporated that as well! Mmmmmm!! So good. Like I said, short and sweet! We sure do love this quirky, curious, intelligent, s...

And, to finish off October 2017 ...  We had a little too much fun with a "new" iPhone app:) (I don't think James was complaining) Mae performed with her Pacific Ballroom team. We enjoyed watching our church's General Conference as a family ... and eating yummy food! These two bros wrestled with the A-Team We had a little fun at the Family Discovery Day. Joseph got a little itchy at the Family Discovery Day;) ... searching for prizes in the hay. The two bros couldn't seem to get enough of each other ... especially while asleep. (if you look really close, you can see Mae there too). Kevin and I went out for a b-day date, attending The Mystery of Irma Vep at the Valley Center Stage Theater in North Bend ( http://valleycenterstage.org ) Joseph enjoyed the best part of Fall with some little neighborhood cuties.  Porter officially became a licensed driver:-). And Mae and I checkout out the...

It's been a busy couple of years so for Halloween 2017 I think we missed one of our traditional festivities--pumpkin carving:(.  As a consolation, Mae was able to at least decorate pumpkins (or, A pumpkin) at one of her youth activities. It may have been the only pumpkin on our door step, but at least it was something:)!! We tried not to miss out on dressing up, and Mae enjoyed experimenting on Joseph with face paint for one of his costumes.  Turned out very ... interesting;). For our church Halloween party, we recruited our very own team of basketball players  (complete with a robot mascot!) This was definitely the easy route, since I happened to have been collecting BYU jerseys from all the years Kev and the boys have attended Fathers and Sons b-ball camp.  The kids being willing participants definitely made it a lot of fun! We all had a fun night, and the oldest three were nice enough to help with the various activities! ...

And then, just a week later comes Mae's 13th b-day! Yep, another teenager in the house!! For 7th grade she did school online from home, so we were able to enjoy a nice weekday lunch at The Mill ( https://www.themillofmilton.com ). If I remember right, we really enjoyed their burgers and bread pudding! Then a family b-day party with the cousins, where she got lots of snacks, some clothes, and other random gifts:). My real gift to her was making/decorating her b-day cake. Doesn't sound like much of a gift, but she's the baker in the family and I basically know nothing about cake decorating, so she always LOVES it when I try my hand at one of her special arts ... I think my lack of ability really just entertains her;). By some random miracle, the cake actually turned out decent (and tasty) ... although I'm not sure she would have cared either way. Now she wants it to be a yearly b-day tradition. Oh boy!! Wish me luck:) We love love love this...

I'm currently spacing on how old Kevin turned in 2017, but I'm pretty sure it was the big 41!! Mid-week for Kev's big day, we made--and all benefited from:-)--one of his favorite goodies, Special K Bars (sometimes called Scotcheroos).  Recipe Found Here:  https://www.garnishandglaze.com/scotcheroos-recipe Then come the weekend, we gave him a bunch of different Star Wars b-day cards since he's definitely a Star Wars Nerd (I mean, fan). I'm really hoping we were thoughtful enough to give him some presents too, but since this was SOO long ago:/ I really can't remember. And the pics from that day offer no proof either way. Oh, and of course Mae made him his favorite cake ... German Chocolate. Mmmm. The best part for him is that none of the kids really like it, so he pretty much gets the whole thing to himself!! Or at least, the half that I don't eat;). Happy b-day Hon! The 40s are lookin' awfully good on you:-).