It's the year of milestone birthdays here at the Waterstrauts! Just last month, Calib turned 18, and just last week, Peyton turned 16. (Hayden turned 12 this year- and likes to think of his last year as a 'tween' as a milestone year. Plus, you get to go to the lodge by yourself when you are 12, so he's pretty confident he was in on the milestone birthdays too.)
Because my mom spent two years living with my grandma, she wasn't able to visit very much. She's making up for it this year, as she's visiting for all the milestone birthdays! Couple that with my THREE trips to Ohio (here, here, and here), and I think this will be the most I see my mom in a year since I moved to Florida. That's fine with me, she's good company.
However, when I went to get her from the airport we were in the mist of a full on monsoon. I just decided to go to Trader Joes while I was in south Tampa too, so it was an adventure. It's just that time of year. It currently looks like it's about to pour outside right now, and hopefully it holds off because Calib's at the shelter walking dogs until his braces appointment. If it pours, he either has to spend time indoors with the cats (he's not a fan), or I have to go get him early.
Anyway, mom likes to work on projects while she's here, and this time around we worked on a practice quilt for Allison. She wanted a sunburst quilt and we weren't quite sure how we were going to do it, so we just made our own pattern and then when we cut the material we accounted for the 1/4 inch seam. It really wasn't that hard. We do need a little practice lining up the middle, but once you quilt something like this, you might not even notice. Anyway, this was just our practice with random material I had sitting around.
Sunday morning Asa, Peyton and mom made a trip to the Buddhist Temple in Tampa. Peyton doesn't get up early for much these days (you have to get there super early to get a parking spot), but that soup is one of the things that'll spring him from his top bunk on a Sunday morning.
And, they got me a swamp hibiscus for my pond! I am still on the hunt for lily pads, but we just haven't been able to locate any around here. (Mom says we just need a reacher to get one of the thousands of them out of the ponds in our neighborhood. I told her there are alligators in there!)
So, we've kind of settled for plants that aren't pond specific- but are fine living in water like that. I mean 'settled' is a strong word, I think they all look lovely out there.
Monday, July 2, was Peyton's actual birthday. Now because of when Peyton's birthday is, and because noth of my sisters-in-law are teachers, we've been on vacation with my whole family a few times ON Peyton's birthday. His 9th birthday he spent on the rock climbing wall on the cruise ship in Alaska, sailing through the Hubbard Glacier. Then, last year he spent his 15th Birthday at the Maui Ocean Center and snorkeling with sea turtles at a beach in Hawaii. And now there's talk of a Mediterranean cruise with everyone, now that Peyton is 16 sand back in the world of being able to get a passport.
Calib is irate. I mean, sure he gets to go, but he can't believe it always happens over Peyton's birthday. Peyton meanwhile, is a homebody, and prefers to spend his birthday 'doing nothing', which basically means he can sit at home and play video games in his pajamas all day, and I won't tell him to do this or that.
Anyway, this year fell under the 'doing nothing' category for most of the day. Peyton slept in (per usual) and then asked for his presents right away. He got some games, books, and we got him a couple of giftcards.
And, he ALWAYS talks about this mustard we got at the Maui Ocean Center on his birthday last year, so Asa and I ordered it online and had it shipped to us from Hawaii. He was most excited about it.
Oh, and there was a new Garrett youtube video posted, and everyone comes running for those.
Then, there was lots of video games. He also likes it because he usually kills everyone in fighting games and nobody wants to play with him. But, on his birthday, everyone HAS to play with him anyway.
Peyton requested 'James Garfield Grilled Cheese' for lunch (because that's a thing in my house), which is really just grilled cheese with pesto on the good Publix bread from the bakery, and watermelon (which is always BOGO on his birthday because of the 4th of July).
Asa worked on Peyton's birthday, because Peyton likes to stay home anyway and he's been needing lots of schedule exceptions (for birthdays and anniversaries and such) since he started at this new job. But, he does have hour long lunches. We've been mostly using that time to go to the pool, but sadly our hamster, Damascus, passed away the day before Peyton's birthday. So we told Peyton if he'd like we could also go get a new hamster on his birthday. He seemed to like that idea.
We also told him he could name him whatever he wanted, and he decided to stick with naming pets after capital cities and decided to go with Moresby as in Port Moresby, the capital of New Guinea. (Though we did decide later it would have been a better name for a GUINEA pig, get it?)
He's a dwarf hamster (Damascus was of course, Syrian) and usually those buggers are mean, but even the guys at the pet store said this one was rather out of the ordinary friendly, and they weren't wrong. He's already pretty tame and friendly, and he loves all the tubes and his wheel (so much so we had to move the cage to Peyton and Hayden's room and out of the office because the constant wheel running was driving Asa crazy while he was working.)
Now, my mom was visiting, so she told Peyton she'd take him wherever he'd like to go for dinner. He wanted to do Top Golf, but at night- and the sun doesn't set here until like 8:30 ish. So, he asked for a dinner time charcuterie to tide us over until Top Golf appetizers (thus the reason I was at Trader Joes during a monsoon and then to Sprouts- which I hear might be coming to Land O Lakes-- I would be SO excited!) Also, what 16 year old requests charcuterie for their birthday?
He did also request to have it in the blanket fort. There are few things I enjoy more than eating off a charcuterie board in a blanket fort with my favorite people.
After Asa was clocked out, and the sun started to go down we headed out to Top Golf, but then the skies opened up and it was a full on lightning storm followed by an intense downpour. We spent the 45 minute trip to Top Golf worried we wouldn't be able to golf at all. But, as it turns out, you can golf there even in a lightning storm! The place was packed, but we had a reservation and didn't have to wait too long for our bay. Plus, we kept busy in the meantime.
And even in the bad weather, Peyton got to do Top Golf on his birthday.
Mom finally got her own card too, so she doesn't have to share with me anymore. I did, however, give some of my golf balls to Peyton so he could golf a little extra.
And of course there were snacks to be had.
We went with the bacon mac & cheese spring rolls, injectable donut holes, cheese fries, and mushi.
Overall a fun successful birthday outing!
When we got home there was just about an hour left in Peyton's birthday, and we hadn't had birthday cake yet. Of course, Peyton requested the popular Publix chantilly cake.
We actually didn't eat it that night though, nobody was too hungry (and Calib had bloodwork done the next morning and was past his 10pm cut-off time for eating).
But, we got to it the next day and it was just as good.
Happy 16th Birthday to the kid who gave me the most trouble (dude, his toddler years were a mess!), but has turned out to be a pretty spectacular teenager/young adult/whatever you call 16 year olds these days.) Oh, and if you are wondering about that whole 16 year old drivers license thing, we haven't even started on that yet. He's not in a big hurry and one permitted driver is enough for me in this house (although, fingers crossed I think we're getting real close to Calib actually taking the drivers test to get his real life license!)
Oh, and Calib's next day bloodwork went fine, and he even convinced Asa to swing by to open a bank account for him so he could get a debit card. Then, like a nerd, he came home and read all of his terms and conditions and kept talking about his investments.
Next Up: The 4th of July can only mean one thing... THE WATERSTRAUT OLYMPICS!!!
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