Strong Museum Leveled Up!

Sunday night was our annual, much anticipated Strong Museum night through the company that holds the investment my grandma set up for me.  We were really excited this year because a new wing opened since our last visit, so there was a bunch of new stuff to explore!  Jacob decided to stay home (he is such a party pooper sometimes...teenagers, ugh) but we weren't going to let that ruin our fun!  When we got there, we went through the parking ramp to the new entrance, which is actually closer to the original entrance than the temporary one was last year.  We could get a glimpse of the new wing above us, but opted to walk through the museum to try to find the entrance to the new outside board game garden, which was actually at the far end of the museum.  Unfortunately they had it roped off, but the glimpses we could get from outside made it look pretty cool.  Maybe another day.  

Since we were right there, we opted to go to the nearby pinball room and play a few games.  We did some of our favorite themes - Indiana Jones, Simpsons, Super Mario, Tron, Ghostbusters - and then Carter and I found this odd baseball one where you pick a pitch and press a button to swing at the ball with a "bat".  A miss could be a ball or strike, but if you hit it, it determines whether you got a hit or out based on lights lit in the outfield where your ball rolled.  It was fun trying to get a home run when a ramp popped up around the pitcher's mound.

After that we skipped past all of the usual stuff to make a beeline to the new stuff!  After all, we only had a couple hours so we wanted to cram in as much as we could.  Off one of the main play areas upstairs, there was the route to the new stuff, starting with a whole section on the game "Age of Empires".  Carter liked the throne!

I don't think any of us had played that game so we just walked through.  I have to think a big donor was the one who decided to do an entire section based on that because it seemed a little random to dedicate that much space to one specific game, and to my knowledge, one that isn't that particularly noteworthy.  I mean, it's been around close to 20 years and I'm sure it was influential, but how many other games are more well-known and impactful?  I feel like with that criteria it could have been The Sims or Mario or pretty much anything else that has influenced gaming over the last 40 years.  But knowing what I know from my job, money talks, I think.

The new Digital Worlds section nearby was pretty nuts.  There were statues and fun character portraits on the way in.

 
There was also a giant Donkey Kong game!

Brings back memories of our old Atari!

They had been promoting these OLED butterflies as a sponsorship opportunity around when the wing opened.  They actually weren't as cool as I thought they'd be, but they were a nice touch over the new entrance.  Supposedly they're interactive through augmented reality and have a name digitally attached to each one, but I haven't determined how you experience them.  They flickered but I didn't see anything that would indicate how they worked.  I don't know, it wasn't what I expected--I think even the lights were almost too bright to really enjoy the colors.  It's still pretty, but oh well.

The main play area was really interesting.  You got a bracelet and you could scan into activities.  You can make an avatar, play interactive games or old arcade games for free, vote on things, etc.  It was cute but seemed a little over the top and some games were hard to get the hang of, which is tough when you're likely dealing with crowds and just trying to get through things efficiently.  There was one where you'd try to roll a ball within its holder to move a ball on the screen, and it was like a big exercise ball that was too rubbery to move smoothly.  There was another with dice rolling that didn't read the dice right.  Don't get me wrong, a lot of it was cool, but the learning curve on some made it seem like a better thing for someone who might frequent the museum more often.  It was also a better big kid area for the most part, but they did have a couple cute things, like a real version of one of those online games where people ask for a meal and you needed to pick the right ingredients.  It used rather realistic play food that you'd throw into a bowl, and it would sense whether or not you did it right. 

You really know you're old when your toys start showing up en masse in a museum.  There are plenty of toys elsewhere, too, but I had the orange Speak 'n' Spell below, as well as the blue one that's second from the bottom on the right.  That one is a Game & Watch with a Super Mario theme.  And of course I really wanted the top right...but that was one Christmas wish that never happened.  This looked like a vending machine, and on this one you could use the keypad to vote for your favorite and the most important.

This was a game where it would sense your movement and move through the course.

These were big screens to show our custom avatars when we scanned in. 

The whole area was huge.  This was just one space and there were a couple other rooms this big.

Craig and Carter played an NBA Jam game and Carter and I played an old sit-down space shooting game that shook when you were hit.  I played an old school Tetris video game and did pretty good--I think I quit around the 5th level.

This was a demolition derby game.  The steering wasn't very intuitive, but we had fun. 

We wrapped up our time in that space, dropped off our bracelets, and moved on to the very fancy World Video Game Hall of Fame.  It was really cool.  We didn't have a lot of time to look at the exhibits (maybe next time), but we played a bunch!

There was a giant Pong game on an old school TV, but my picture turned out blurry.  I played the real thing back on my little B&W TV thanks to my uncle letting me borrow his back in the early 90s.  This felt harder!  There was also an old school football game with little light blips as players!

There were a bunch of big screens you could play on, but sadly the Super Mario game wasn't working.  I think the boys are playing Mortal Kombat here.

Here was another piece of my history in the museum--I had that same box of "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego", except that was a Mac version and mine was an Apple II GS version.  I LOVED that game and played it all the time.

There was a giant Pac-Man battle game with eight players and you could watch it on the wall.  You could set up smoke screens (to hide from ghosts?) and get big and eat other Pac-Mans.  It was chaos!

After we wrapped up there, the boys ran off to play in the main video arcade for a bit--bubble hockey was calling!--and I decided to try to get into the butterfly garden for a bit.  As much as I used to hate it--and still cringe and duck when they fly past me--I really enjoy trying to get pictures.  Last year I dragged poor Carter up and down the paths there trying to get a picture of a blue morpho with its wings open, and what was the first pic I got this year?  You betcha.

This is one with the wings closed, but this is probably a pretty as that moth-like look gets!

They were really up for posing that night, I think.

I mean...orange on orange?  Yes please.

This one sat in place for almost the whole time I was there.

After I joined back up with the boys, we popped into the short-term Barbie exhibit for a minute, just to see what was there (for my benefit, clearly) and Carter took my picture on the surfboard!

It was closing time, but we couldn't leave without a visit to the crooked room.  It's Carter's favorite and I have to admit, it is always a fun mind trip!  I finally figured out it looks cooler if you try to make the room look straight and let yourself be crooked.

Here's the video--I held it with the natural slant originally and then when Carter tried a second time, I turned it so you get the weird tilt.

It's so weird!  It did make Craig and me a bit dizzier this time.  It really messes with your head, and I think it's because your brain is trying to stabilize you--compensating for the tilt but also being confused by what it's seeing.  It's so weird and very hard to walk through...but we love it!

I grabbed some fish pics on the way out, as usual. 

This one below was new.  You could color a fish, scan it, and have it appear in the aquarium.  We didn't have time, but it looked cool (almost real from a distance) and if you look close you can see that some are more scribbled than others.  It's really cute and I'd like to do it next time.

On the way out I grabbed a couple pics from the parking ramp looking at the game park. 

Hopefully we can sneak in a visit another time to see that and hit up the stuff we didn't get a chance to do this time.  Not that we haven't done most of it before, but there is always new stuff on display and there are things we like to do repeatedly.  If I'm home when Carter has his one random late April day off (I was with Jacob last year, so he and Craig went to the science museum), maybe we can go here instead since it'll be manageable with mostly preschoolers and other Greece kids.  But you can't beat a free night with small crowds!  So happy we were able to enjoy it again--definitely a great way to kick off break week!

Birthday Week in Review

We had a pretty busy week to celebrate Carter's birthday, starting from the weekend before on.  That Friday it was over 60 degrees, which meant a lovely, long late afternoon walk for me before heading to Jacob's first game back from his shin splint flare-up (a tough loss where he didn't play as much as expected).  On Saturday we had Carter's fourth game of the season.  He managed to score his first points of the season, but sadly his team also suffered their first loss.  Trust me that he took this shot--I was a little late hitting record:

 
He and I went to the Knighthawks game that night.  Jacob opted not to go and Carter figured it was better to go to the game with me than stay home being tortured by Jacob and his (loud) music tastes all night.  We had to park across the river, so we took a minute to grab a shot with this fun public art outside the library.

The game ended up being a pretty good one.  We wandered around saying hi to people since it was my first game of the season, then sat down to watch a nice comeback that ultimately fell a bit short.  

Sunday was the Super Bowl.  We had ordered food ahead from our favorite gluten-free place, so that was pretty much the big activity for the day, driving a half hour there and back to get it.  The other "excitement" was waking up to two cats in our tree.  A couple weeks ago I noticed two neighborhood strays running through the yard.  One looked familiar and other one was new--we watch the local strays closely and have given them all names, but this tan one with a darker head was new.  A couple days later I saw the new one climbing our tree in the back of the yard!  We joked about having to call the fire department like they do in the movie "Pleasantville" for cats stuck in trees (if you recall, because fire didn't exist, the firemen only handled cats...and when fire arrived, they had to yell "Cat" to get them to come put it out).  Apparently this one knew how to get down.  But Sunday morning I happened to look out and see both cats up in our tree.  The one was originally near top branch fork, but was working its way down by the time I took a picture.  You can just make out the two lumps.  They were still a good ways up, probably 20-30 feet!  One eventually ended up on our shed roof later.  Crazy cats...but they can stay if they eat the shed mice!

Tuesday was senior night at Jacob's basketball game, which meant he once again didn't play as much as we would have liked since the seniors got a lot of time.  It'll be tough seeing them go, especially because a couple are good players.  Jacob did manage five points in a game shortened by a few minutes because a spectator almost got in a fight with the opposing coach.  These charter school vs. charter school games are always wild.

Wednesday was Valentine's Day.  It was the first of two straight days of in-person work events for me, which made the day even more hectic.  I enjoyed the hot cocoa bar back at the office, but I was so scattered all day that I barely got to check my work email until about 3:45.  Never a good basis for a work day.  I rushed home after that and worked on our fancy dinner--lobster tails for me and the boys, and salmon for Craig, with roasted baby potatoes, corn, and cheddar bay biscuits, plus gluten-free, dairy-free (store-bought) cheesecake for dessert.  Dinner was great, but then I had to gather up the Valentine's gifts for the boys and start wrapping Carter's birthday gifts.  Long, busy, tiring day for me!

Thursday ended up being a weird day.  The boys went off to school, I had to go in for another event, and over the course of the day plans for our evening went back and forth.  Jacob had a game that night in Niagara Falls.  Originally we were going to go as a family and try to make it special for Carter with a fun dinner before.  But then Jacob was told he wasn't going to play because his coach wanted to rest him in preparation for sectionals the following Tuesday.  We weren't thrilled with that because limited play the prior two games made us feel like he wasn't really back in the groove yet.  It was also a bummer since some family wanted to come see him, but that meant Carter and I could stay home and go out for a fun birthday dinner.  But that afternoon, we found out he WAS going to play, and I debated what we should do.  But between a wave of snow, the timing of getting back from my event, and Carter's birthday, it ended up that only Craig went and Carter and I stayed home.  I hated to miss the game (especially since he ended up with 14 points), but I knew Carter would appreciate it.

We did gifts quickly before Craig left.

First he got the movie "Megamind"...

Then some video game headphones so Jacob can't claim his back at inopportune times...

Then an Aerobie because we had so much fun throwing a randomly-found frisbee over at his school in the fall...and now we want to take it up a notch!

And then he got some additional magnetic tiles.  

We'll get to more on those in a bit.  He had one other package in his stack.  It was two cube storage bins with a note that said to enjoy another summer of Darien Lake season passes, and also that those storage cubes were a clue to one more gift.  I led him downstairs to a giant box in our office wrapped in a sheet.

Pardon the mess behind him--there's a bunch of stuff waiting to be posted on the Buy Nothing page sitting in that room right now.

He took off the elastic bands I had used to keep the sheet on and unwrapped it to find a new desk for his room! 

It may not be exciting for him right now, especially because it means a huge organization process in his room, but I think he will like having his own homework space once it's all set up.  Of course, I put it together Saturday night and got a little overly distracted by the music quiz games we kept doing on YouTube as a family (essentially "Name that Tune" where it plays the first few seconds of a series of Disney songs or five decades worth of mainstream hits) so I screwed up something on the desk.  That meant I had to pull the backing off the one side and sadly it ripped a little too much so I have to order a new piece for that.  Sort of a pain, but I'm going to try to press forward with the project this week while Carter is off school, even if it means filling and re-emptying the desk once the piece comes in.  It's so important to get his room in order because it's a bit of a wreck and it's filled with things he barely uses--either because he's outgrown them or because he can't be bothered to look through them and decide he wants to play with them.  It's the "joy" of ADHD that he defaults to the easiest thing rather than looking through his toy areas until he finds something that interests him.  So we need to sort through the books and toys and make sure he's clear on what he has and make it easier to find things.  

Of course now Jacob is having thoughts on his room, like wanting to remove the bookshelf and giant armchair and replace them with a recliner (so he can do his leg therapy) and a table (?).  Of course he's unimpressed by my idea of using hand-me-downs we already have in the crawl space to test out if the setup is really what he's looking for before we go spend a couple hundred bucks, but we'll work on it.  He's at the age where I guess it makes sense to re-think his space and make it more comfortable for him, but sometimes his ideas aren't realistic or well-thought-out, so they end up frustrating.  Like he said he wanted "hooks" and just assumed we could figure it out.  I told him to find something on Amazon that fit what he wanted, to which he had some remark about how much cheap garbage is on Amazon, to which I explained that I was just looking for a style, not something specific to purchase.  And of course what he picked was nothing like I was thinking he meant.  But again, getting to that point with his room will take some work on his part, and we have to beg him just to clean bottles and cups out of his room, so we'll see how that goes.

Anyway, despite the cold, snowy night, Carter and I ventured out for a birthday dinner.  He picked Texas Roadhouse, and while I figured most people ate out the night before, the place was packed.  We had to wait about 20 minutes or so.  Our dinner was tasty--lots of rolls, of course, plus a steak kabob for me and mini burgers for Carter.  We were stuffed!  We got home just in time for Jacob's game to be over, so we missed the streaming.  As I said, he had a good game and his team made a heck of an effort against a state-ranked team.  But at least Carter got to have a fun night out for his birthday at a place we rarely go.  I had a later night than would be ideal waiting for them to get home, but thankfully Friday was a work-from-home day for me and was able to be a bit lower key to just get through the week and on to February break!

As I mentioned, Carter asked for magnetic tiles for his birthday.  We already have a ton of them, but he likes to build giant forts for the boys' army guy/Lego/Playmobil battles and he kept running out of squares.  Even though he may be on the verge of outgrowing them, I figured if it encouraged him to do something not on a screen, it was worth it as long as it lasted.  So I found a set with a lot of squares and he was thrilled to get building on Friday night.  He created a car ramp, and I played around with a ball drop design from a magnetic tile social media account.   

 

We eventually worked on a really tall tower, and this is where we ended up!

We figure it was about 5'8", because it towered over me too!  He's been hard at work on mini golf holes ever since.  It was an idea from social media as well, and he just ran with it.  It's a little hard to see (maybe click to zoom in) but the ball goes up a ramp and there are holes for it to drop into--and sometimes it tricks you into a hole that's not the best route to the real hole.  He's done a good job and it's nice to see him working on something without a screen.

Carter's team had a big win on Saturday over a team that was depleted from either illness or February break travel, and we had dinner out that night before the music trivia session and my ill-fated desk assembly.  Otherwise, we enjoyed Craig's last weekend off until late April (boo).  I did my monthly coffee date with a friend on Sunday afternoon, and then we had one more fun activity for the weekend, but that will get its own post! 

So, now we have an 11-year-old, a living room full of magnetic tiles, and sectional basketball is upon us--probably for less time than last year, but we'll see!

Eleven

Dear Carter,

Eleven...wow.  Ten was a big deal but 11 hits different.  Now you're not just double digits, you're in the middle of "tweenhood" and just a couple years from being a teenager!  I'm not sure I'm ready for two teenagers in the house so I'm going to hold on to the next two years as tightly as I can!

I'll admit I'm actually a little scared because 11 is when your brother really started growing up.  By the time he turned 12 he had pretty much caught up to me in height.  He didn't start looking more "manly" until closer to 13 but to know that's even in sight is getting a little scary to me.  I have absolutely loved having you as my little boy, even as you've gotten big.  I know you probably won't pass me in height quite as quickly as Jacob, but I worry about what happens when the big kid attitude fully arrives.  I'm going to do whatever I can to keep our bond so the impact of that is as minimal as possible, but I see tiny glimpses of it now and I'm scared to lose my buddy.  You have held that role for almost the entire last 11 years (we had a couple tough years around the pandemic), so I don't know how it will feel for that relationship to change.  I suppose if I can still function with Jacob--who was always pretty much only Dad's buddy--we may be okay, but I just know now more than ever how close we're getting to finding out.

The last year was full of lots of new adventures for us, and I absolutely loved it!  As I predicted in last year's birthday letter, our playground visits did decrease a bit, but we made up for it with other things.  We had one amazing playground day last spring and checked out a few others when we had the chance, but amusement parks really took over this year.  We officially got you on Ride of Steel at Darien Lake, finally got to Cedar Point and rocked it, and conquered Disney all over again.  We also had what was probably my favorite day of the year when we were in St. Louis and did both the Chihuly exhibit and City Museum in one day.  The next day of the Arch and baseball game was fun, too, but City Museum alone was an unforgettable adventure and wouldn't have been nearly as much fun without you to share the craziness with!  We had a fun year, for sure!  

Last year's letter included a series of selfies and it made me smile looking at them again the other day, so here we go again!

Last year I said we needed to work on your independence a bit, and we did.  You are now good to do your own breakfasts and put yourself to bed.  I miss our snuggles sometimes, but it's all part of growing up--and we had a lot more years of that than most.  You are also mostly picking out your own clothes, but matching is a challenge sometimes so I think you tend to pick the same handful of shirts!  But we're getting there!  Organizing your school life is a bit of a beast--you do pretty well keeping your homework straight, but bringing the right things home is sometimes an issue, as is keeping stuff from becoming a crumpled mess in your bag, so I can't imagine what locker life will bring--assuming you do better than your brother and actually use one!  I can't believe you're months away from being done with elementary school.  You've done so well this year with being a safety, being part of chorus and orchestra, and trying to be involved as much as you can.  I'm so proud of you for that, because that is definitely an area where your brother lacked a bit.  You take such pride in what you do and I know when we question your effort in a certain area it can hurt.  You are definitely more sensitive than your brother was, and you care more what people think.  I know how bad you want to win "Superhero of the Month" at school and how much it would mean to you because you try so hard.  Your brother has always been completely unphased by stuff like that--hence the shrugged shoulders after his fifth grade moving-up ceremony where he was one of the few who went awardless despite being a pretty good student.  You have to work harder and I think people see that, but sometimes it still goes more unacknowledged than we'd like.  I was definitely more like you, wanting that validation, so I get it.  And I'm trying to be sensitive to your efforts and find ways to encourage them, so hopefully with a little teamwork we'll get you middle-school-ready in time.

We're still struggling through the screen time stuff (what else is new?), but sometimes when I call you out you embrace an activity really well--like this past weekend when you did a marble run by yourself or when you build an epic magnetic tile fort after Jacob "accidentally" knocks yours down--and it makes me wish you'd do it more because I think it would help you in a lot of ways.  That sort of stuff will slow your brain and help your creativity and your fine motor skills.  I actually want to do more of that stuff myself, too, but a lot of that will depend on getting your homework station moved up to your room and clearing off the dining room table for my puzzles and diamond painting.  Speaking of which, we have a lot of work to do on your room, moving it into the big kid era with a desk and editing down your toys and books.  I just can't believe we're at that point already--seems like I just did that with your brother, and hopefully all those books on his shelf that went untouched might have a better shot with you.  Regardless, I blinked and boom, here we are.

Speaking of your brother, you two are still an odd pairing.  I feel like you're making progress finding things to bond over, but there are still so many battles.  He judges how you live your life, and you get upset when he beats you at video games or gets domineering.  He knows how to push your buttons and takes great delight in doing so.  I don't know why he insists on bullying you, but if you ask him, he'd probably say he's trying to toughen you up and make you a better person/athlete/gamer, but he doesn't realize that his methods probably aren't the best way to go about it.  He doesn't like it when people do that to him, so it's ironic he doesn't see that he's doing the same thing to you.  It's frustrating, but I still feel like maybe there's a chance someday you'll find value in each other.  He just needs to lay off and let you carve your own path.  

I've always said that you saved me as a parent.  When everything was hard with your brother, you were the one who made me feel like I wasn't a complete failure.  If you were a good kid I had to be doing something right.  Your smiles and giggles made me happy at a time when parenting was really hard.  As you've grown, you have brought out a fun side that I think I lost a bit somewhere along the way.  I love to explore and experience new things, and you're a great partner in that.  Your brother only found sports interesting, so it's been fun to do all the things he never cared about.  You find joy in little things like fun snacks or a cool playground or something fun at school, and I love that.  That's one of the keys to happiness in life, finding joy and fun in the little things, and you've still got that ability--unlike Jacob who usually sees the worst and has no issue skipping every cool thing in town when we travel.  Seeing the world that way is something I strive for, and you help me do it.  I am trying to cram in as much of it while we still can, while you still don't mind hanging out with me.  

I just can't believe you're turning 11.  But I'm also excited and thankful because it's a blessing to watch your kids grow, even as it's hard to leave behind certain stages and look toward when you'll let them go.  I know we're not there yet, but we're starting to turn a corner.  I know how quick it happened with Jacob and now you're next.  I'm excited to see where you go, though, and I'll be here every step of the way, hoping I can keep our adventures coming.  Happy Birthday Carter!

Love, 

Mom

Redemption Weekend

After the mess that last weekend was, I was determined to make this weekend better.  In fact, I started on Friday night blasting through my to-do list to get a good head start and hopefully motivate myself to keep the momentum going on Saturday.  Then, even if I tired out somewhere along the way, at least I got through a significant part of my list.  I was also motivated because I was trying to free up my Sunday so I could go to Buffalo for something important.

Friday night we had a quick dinner at home before Craig and the boys headed to the arena to shoot on the basketball court, which was set up for the Globetrotters the next day.  I went into the basement to start wiping down the new shelf and clearing out the corner where it would go.  I finally packed away the Duplos, which had been living in a pop-up ottoman in that corner.  I moved the ottoman and our IKEA POÄNG chair and footrest upstairs to one corner of the living room.  It was formally a toy corner and last year became home to the exercise bike.  It gets a chair during Christmas, so we'll have to figure that out next year, but I really wanted to pare down the toys and reclaim one area to look a bit less chaotic.  I started moving a few things into the shelf once I got it in place, but it was really just a start.

When Craig and the boys got back, I had Craig move the bike downstairs.  After that he had to leave for Buffalo for a Knighthawks game the next day, so I had to take advantage of him while I could!  The bike and shelf are maybe a bit tight, even after moving the couch down a few inches, but I think it will work.  I tested it out with a quick bike workout to appease my Apple Watch that night, on top of all the other stuff I did!

On Saturday I had to get up early to get Jacob to a lift at 8:30 all the way across town.  I dropped him off, got gas, stopped at Walmart for a few things, then stopped at Aldi.  We had sort of been on a hunt for an excercise bike like we have (Aldi has them every year) because Jacob can use it in his recovery when he's at school but can't practice full blast.  The price was only $70 this year (far less than we paid) so we thought it might be nice to buy one and donate it to the basketball program.  However, they came out around the new year so they were getting tough to find.  I had checked a couple stores with no luck, but of course this one happened to have two left, so I had to haul it into a cart and carefully wedge it into my car.  I remember that being more of an issue last year, but thankfully it was pretty manageable this year--especially since Jacob had to fit in my car and I couldn't put the back seat down on his side!  I even snuck in a stop for an iced latte to power through the rest of the morning before picking him up from his training session and taking him directly to practice.

Back at home I started in on decorating for Valentine's Day.  That meant taking down some of the snowmen or other wintry decorations.  Some are still up but we go in baby steps this time of year since we know snow is still a thing right through Valentine's Day and I don't have a ton of Valentines decorations anyway.  In between picking up Jacob from practice and going to Carter's basketball game at 4pm, I brought out some new bath mats I bought at Aldi earlier in the week, washed a new fitted sheet I bought on Amazon to replace a ripped one, along with the old sheets it's coordinating with (they had been sitting in a donate pile previously so they were dusty), vacuumed our very dirty laundry room (since I had the vacuum in the basement to clean the new corner the previous night), and took a 3.25 mile walk on a cold but perfectly sunny day.

Carter's game went pretty well.  They finally won!  Unfortunately it was against his best buddy Ben's team, but it was great to see them pick up a victory finally.  Carter had one good chance and missed.  Still a work in progress, but I think the win felt pretty good even though he's getting pretty frustrated with getting the ball.  But watching those two guard one another was pretty funny!

Pretty sure they're laughing at one another here!

That night I made dinner for the boys and then made a double batch of meatballs.  It was about the last thing I wanted to do, but my freezer supply was out and I had put a couple pounds of beef in the fridge a couple days earlier to thaw for it, so it had to get done and that felt like my only shot.  While they cooked I worked on setting up a small pantry shelf I bought at Aldi last week.  We have pretty big vertical spaces in our pantry and rather than stack everything directly on top of other stuff, I felt like it was worth the $7 to get a sturdy one that would keep things a little more organized and easier to access.  Jury's out as things still felt similarly packed in, but it felt a bit better anyway.  I also broke down the giant box from the big cube shelf and took it out to the garbage and recycling.  I wrapped up the night placing the order for Carter's new desk and a headset for playing video games because Jacob has been pulling the "it's mine" card on the one we have, just to annoy Carter.  So, Happy Birthday Carter, here's your own! 

My goal for Saturday was to get enough done to free up Sunday because I was supposed to participate in a meeting for my family reunion on Sunday afternoon.  Ideally I would attend in person but worst case scenario I could have done it via Zoom.  But I knew in-person would be easier, and time with my family is always fun.  Ironically, I couldn't do a two-for-one and see my parents because they left that morning on a vacation!  So I tried to think through if there was anything else I could do there to make more of a day of it, maybe even with Carter, but between church and the meeting timing, it wasn't really ideal to hit up anything before usual Sunday closing times.  I also didn't want to spend the day there only to come home and feel like I was behind because there were a bunch of things I didn't get to, so that was what motivated me on Saturday to really plow through my list and get things done.  I felt like I had done that, so I committed to going and decided I'd take some time after the meeting to do some shopping I'd been meaning to do and also get some good dinner!  I stopped to get a road Slurpee for the drive there and was expecting a nice, bright sunny drive--the sun has made a triumphant, multi-day comeback after a VERY dreary January--but most of the highway portion of the drive was oddly foggy and full of low, wispy clouds despite the bright sun.  Not enough to make driving a problem, but it looked so strange to have fog and sun.

The meeting was productive.  We're really just trying to determine the future of the reunion as attendance falls and the cost of staying at the camp on the beach (where it's been over 60 years) goes up.  We had to talk through changing to a Saturday, how to afford the location, what other things we might do or change to strengthen it, how to do our communications, etc.  It ended up being really helpful to be in person to more easily talk things through.  Instead of typing this I probably should have been composing the email to the family list, but I finally got something down late last night and just need to make a couple tweaks before sending for review!

Before I got on the road, I made a couple stops locally that I had been wanting to make over the weekend but ran out of time.  I knew if I tried to go back to Rochester they'd likely be closed when I got back, so it was easier to do it in Buffalo.  I picked up some Valentine's gifts for the kids, including one thing Carter had been wanting and I wasn't sure I could get anymore.  I made another quick stop to check their Kohl's clearance section (I have Kohl's cash to use, so I figured it was worth a shot), and then headed to my dinner spot: Pierogi Pete's!  You may recall a few years back when I went to the immersive Van Gogh exhibit in Buffalo, I really wanted to go to the Polish place across the parking lot for dinner, but their quick service pierogi line closed early.  Well, that particular part of the restaurant actually moved down the road into its own place a while back, and I was still dying to try this one dish - eight potato & onion pierogi, chicken schnitzel, mozzarella cheese, caramelized onions, banana peppers, fried onions, and buffalo aioli.  That sounded SO up my alley and I decided this would be the day!  It was SO good.  

It was large but I ate the whole thing because I knew the leftovers wouldn't be quite the same.  It probably hurt me a little, but oh man, was it amazing.

I was hoping the boys would do some work on the toy/Lego situation while I was gone, now that the shelf was in place.  Craig did set up a bunch of the sets for display, which was great.  It still doesn't look like a dent was made in the builds scattered around the basement and living room, but I know it's progress.  I moved a few more things down from our toy corner to the new shelf that night, and I still have a lot of work to do on the rest of Carter's toys.  I'm hoping to make a major push on that in a couple weeks when we move Carter's desk into his room and he is off school.  We need to organize his room, make some tough decisions on toys and books, and get his things pared down and in a more usable setup.  He can't work through clutter--his brain automatically goes to the simplest thing, hence his constant attraction to his phone rather than toys--so we need to make things a bit easier to sort through and access in the most logical way possible.  It's been a while since we did a solid purge, so I think maybe there will be things he's outgrown and will be ready to part with.  It's not going to be easy but I have a couple weeks to mentally prepare us both! 

Otherwise, I can't believe mid-February is only a week away and both Carter's birthday and the end of Jacob's regular season are both happening that soon as well.  I've decided February is a weird month.  It was always sort of a dreaded month for me--yet another month of winter, Valentine's Day is annoying, and at one time, it was my busiest work month with few days off--but now that Carter's birthday is in there and it coincides with the switch to playoff basketball, we have some things to break up the winter monotony.  Once we reach the end of the slightly shorter month, poof--spring is technically in sight.  It may not feel like it for a while, but the odds of a decent day go up a bit and the worst of the winter doldrums is over.  It's sort of odd how that has transitioned in my world over the last decade or so, but I'll take it!