Ian's a Teenager!

Ian had a birthday and is now officially a teenager.  Once again, as is becoming a common theme this year, Corona interrupted our usual plans and we had to get creative.  Even the weather wouldn't cooperate with us and was cold, windy, and rainy all day.

To cheer ourselves up, we started with some Monkey Bread.  Ian had a recipe from his cooking class that he had taken this year and it turned out SO yummy!

Ian also helped me buy some party supplies at the store and we got some balloons to make balloon animals as well as a helium tank.  We thought we could make floating balloon animals, but for some reason, it just didn't work that way.  The kids all still stayed entertained for over an hour making their balloon creations.

Ian recently finished Hunter's Ed. and Zac and I decided to surprise him with his first .22 rifle.  He was very surprised and all smiles.

Bronson designed a little gift for Ian on the 3D Printer,

as well as built his brother a tablet stand out of Legos.

We then decided rain or shine, we were going to take this new gun out and get some shooting in.

Ian chose an ice cream sandwich birthday cake that he had also made in his cooking class and formed it in the shape of an I. 

He is finally the age that the amount of letters in HAPPY BIRTHDAY equals his age!

As an activity, we participated in a family Escape Room that I had received as a free download kit from thegamegal.com, as she was offering her Escape Room packages free of charge at the beginning of this Coronavirus outbreak as her way to give back to the community. And the kit was amazing.  I would definitely recommend buying one.  It had all of the clues for us to print out and explained how to set up the room, using only just basic materials that we already had at home.

I think my kids would still be locked in that room today if I hadn't been there guiding them with my frequent hints.  It was interesting to watch our kids work together, organize, lead, and brainstorm.

10 Things to Know About Ian

1.He is very easy going and easy to get along with.  This kid rarely fights with anyone. Ever.  And is often the one others go to if they are fighting with someone else.  He has a very good sense of humor and can make everyone laugh and laugh often.  He is just so pleasant to be around.

2.  Ian is our tech expert in this house.  If anyone has a computer question or needs to know how to start the projector for a movie.  Ian's your guy.

3. Ian is such a hard worker.  He has been moving pipe this summer and has been out the door every day for the past two months at 7 a.m. six days a week.

4.  Ian has an engineering and inventive brain.  He is very intuitive when he is working with others and adults often comment to me that Ian knows what tools are needed, what needs to be done, and how it needs to be done more than any kids his age.

5. Ian is a builder and often comes up with the most thoughtful and innovative gifts for me that he builds.  This year for mother's day out of his own head and with his own motivation he went out the garage and with the scrap wood out there, he designed and built me a frame to hang flower baskets and it is amazing.  During school as he was learning about the Egyptians, he would come home and build replicas of Egyptian tools just because he wanted to see if he could do it and would take them in for his teacher to use.  He can also be called upon to find any lost or misplaced tool.  He knows where everything is... probably because he is the one that loses them.

6.  Ian is a good athlete and played football and basketball this year and had started track before schools were shut down.  His football team was undefeated until they had the saddest loss in football history in the championship game, and his basketball team went undefeated taking the district trophy.  Ian is a great contributor to his team and humble to boot.

7.  Ian loves the outdoors, camping, cabining, fishing, and he thinks he might enjoy hunting.  He just got his hunter's license this year.

8.  Ian is a ladies man!  As he has started going to church and school dances this past couple of years, he has decided that he would not sit out a slow dance.  He has competitions with his friends to see who can ask the most girls to dance.

9.  Ian is musical.  He has a real talent for the piano.  He finds songs that he loves, finds the music for them and then learns to play them on the piano until they are perfected, which sometimes results in him playing the same song so many times that his siblings threaten to lock him out or burn the piano.  This year, he perfected Maroon 5's Memories.  He also took up the Bass this year.

10.  Ian has great social skills.  He doesn't appear to be uncomfortable to talk to anybody.  He is great at making relationships with adults and often becomes the favorite of teachers, Young Men's leaders, and his employers.  Sometimes, the other kids in our family take advantage of him making him make phone calls and contacting people for them because Ian seems so at ease.

*One other funny thing about Ian is that he loses a lot of things.  The kid has the worst luck for losing his stuff and it has become a running joke in our family!

Happy Birthday Ian!  We love you.