Spencer!

Spencer turned 14 on the 20th. It was a Wednesday so he was happy to get to go to school and track practice. He still loves school! We made time to quickly open some of his presents before school though.

Spencer was in a bad need of a new bike so Mason helped me set up a surprise in the garage for when Spencer got home. We even put a sign on the garage door so he would go through the front door instead.

Spencer just wanted Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner and brownies instead of cake so we had a relaxing night at home after he was finished with practice.

I threw a party for him on Saturday afternoon. Planning a party for 13-14 year old boys was a little intimidating since I don't have a lot of experience with that demographic. Ha! Spencer wanted a geocaching party, but we ultimately decided to come up with our own geocache/code scavenger hunt instead of just locating geocaches other people have placed. Each clue on the hunt was written in a different code that the boys had to decipher before solving the riddle. (Huge thank you to someone on Etsy for creating all of the codes and riddles for me!!) A few of the clues had GPS coordinates that lead the boys to a box full of candy or small prizes along with the next clue. I think there were 13 clues in all, but we wound up skipping one or two in the interest of time. I had no idea how long it would actually take the boys when I was planning. 

The boys did a good job of taking turns solving the riddles and it was kind of fun to see how different boys were better at solving different types of codes. I was so grateful that it turned out to be a gorgeous day since the clues took us all over the neighborhood. I think they enjoyed the hunt, but everyone was hungry and ready for a break by the time we finished.

Spencers BFF from Camas came down to celebrate with us (it was his birthday too!) so I just made Duncan Hines cupcakes that were nut and dairy free for him. We also had Oreos, popcorn, and root beer. It was amazing how fast the food disappeared!

No one was super happy, but I made them take one nice group shot. ;) 

Back: Toby, JJ, Sawyer, Karter

Front: Blake, Spencer, Mason

I didn't know a couple of the boys very well, but was impressed with how kind they all were to Mason. So grateful that Spencer has such good friends!

We had a few more minutes after cake and presents so the boys played a few rounds of Apples to Apples. 

After dinner, I took Spencer and Mason to find the last geocache that we had skipped during the party. It was far away and we were all tired so we drove to get it.

Spencer has had another great year and is truly such an easy kid to raise. He loves school and I never  have to remind him to get his homework done or help him at all. He is organized and bright and learning, especially math, comes very easily to him. He is on an advanced math track and is currently two grades ahead of where he should be. He took geometry this year (I took it as a sophomore and seriously struggled!) and will have the opportunity to take some higher level math classes during high school because of it. He is excited for high school and I'm not really nervous for him at all. Sad that he's growing up so fast, but not nervous.

Spencer has lots of friends with lots of different interests. Sawyer is still his bestie and his mom and I manage to get them together once or twice a month. They still love playing Pokemon together. Spencer also has friends from track, friends from church, friends in band, friends who play Dungeons and Dragons, math friends, and probably lots of others I don't even know about. He is just a really likeable guy who gets along with just about everyone! There are also a few girls in the mix now. ;)

At home, Spencer gets annoyed with his little brother like all brothers do, but mostly he's great to Mason and usually does his chores without complaining or needing to be reminded. He is very dedicated in his piano practice and does most of it before going to school every day. He is talented on the piano and I'm pretty sure he's passed the highest level I ever achieved. He is currently learning a Mozart piece that I played for one of my final recitals and already does a much better job on the trills than I ever did.

Spencer is just about 5'11" now and has had some fuzz on his upper lip for awhile. Mason thinks it's hilarious that Spencer has hairy armpits. Haha! Acne hit him pretty hard this year and he's on a prescription for it that is helping now. We often quote Big Hero 6 and tell Spencer that he's "flowering into manhood." 😂He is a good sport about it!

Lately, Spencer has been frequently reminding me that he only has another year until he can get his driver's permit. Ahhh! I don't like the thought of that or of how little time he has left at home at all and try not to think about it much. It makes me a little sick, but I'm also so excited for him and all of the awesome things he's going to do. Sometimes being a mom is such a weird paradox! But seriously, Spencer is such a great kid and Alan and I both feel so blessed to have him as our son!

Love you Bud!

April

April Fools! You can't see them well, but I drew mustaches on the boys while they slept on March 31. I knew Mason wouldn't care, but made sure to draw Spencer's in washable marker. Haha! 

We had to postpone our usual April Fool's dinner because I was in charge of a Relief Society Bunco party that night. It turned out cute and super fun, but I was sad we only had 13 sisters attend. 

General Conference time again! 

We finally got to have our Fool's Cafe dinner on Sunday night after Conference was all over. I didn't have the energy to come up with a new menu, but no one complained about grilled cheese and tomato soup! We were all happy that Alan got to be home and enjoy it with us. He works 80-90 hours/week from March-May so we don't see much of him. 

Grandma Rasmussen came to visit for a couple of hours. She was in town to celebrate her Mom's 88th birthday and for a fun weekend with her sisters. So glad she squeezed in a little time for us! She even brought the boys an Easter surprise.

I got my garden seeds started!

Out of the blue, Spencer decided that he wants to try clarinet in band next year! Most kids start band in 6th grade so he has quite a bit of catching up to do as an incoming freshman. An acquaintance of Alan gave us a clarinet, but it needed a pretty thorough tune up. This was Spencer's very first time attempting to play. Someone I know offered to help get him started on correct mouth placement and he is going to need that for sure!

April 11th was a happy day for Mason - it snowed!! We had missed the winter's only other snowstorm when we were in AZ for Christmas and Mason was super bummed about it. April is really late for snow here and it only stuck around for a couple of hours, but it was enough for a two hour delay from school and gave us some extra time to play in it in the morning. 

And this was later that afternoon - sunny and almost warm! It was supposed to be Spencer's first track meet of the season, but apparently Wilsonville got more snow that we did and cancelled. So, it turned into an inner-squad practice meet at Sherwood which was just fine with me. Alan's meet also got cancelled so he volunteered to time Spencer's. Spencer had no interest in running anything besides the 1500 in track this year and that's all he ran at every meet. Nice for me because the 1500 is always at the beginning of the meet so Mason and I didn't have to stay long. Mason was happy to find his friend Drew from church at this meet though. They love to play tag together!

Spencer had the Friday before his birthday off school for conferences so I took him out for an early birthday lunch. He chose Biscuit's Cafe and quickly finished that entire plate of food. Ha! He's definitely a teenager! More on his birthday in the next post.

An awesome family in our ward hosted an Easter Egg hunt for the whole primary at their house that afternoon. I think almost every kid from the entire primary was there and it was so much fun! I don't care for community egg hunts and have never taken either of our boys to one, but a smaller one like this was awesome!

The Easter Bunny visited our house on Saturday afternoon. Poor Mason thought he was going to die because he had to wait so long! And Spencer still uses his little yellow and pink bucket! Haha! It started raining a little before they finished gathering the eggs and turned into a massive hail storm about 10 seconds after they finished! Whew!

We dyed eggs that afternoon. Spencer is starting to outgrow all of these traditions, but he is a good sport and still participates with Mason. ❤️ Mason only wanted to use blue and green. 

Easter morning! We used the bunny pancake pan from Grandma Rasmussen for breakfast. Cute!

Spencer and I were both participating in the music for church that day. Spencer played the handbells for one piece and I sang in the choir. We had a practice before church and then performed for both Cedar Creek Ward and our ward. It was good, but busy and we didn't take the time to set up the tripod for a nice picture this year.

Yummy Easter dinner! We miss having family to share it with though!

Another track meet, another 1500. :) I don't remember all of Spencer's times, but he improved a little at almost every meet. Awesome!

Mason's track club practiced behind the school during the meet. Pretty sure this was Mason's favorite practice all season because he didn't have to run around the track! Haha!

Traditional Sunday afternoon walk/bike ride. We do this route every Sunday we possibly can. 

Trying turbo jav at track for the first time - he loved it!

Temple baptism trip with some of the youth in our ward. So grateful that the temples are open again and that Spencer has a desire to go as much as he can! I only got to go about once a year when I was his age so it's super awesome that he can go every month or two now! And, grateful for a great group of kids for Spencer to hang out with in our ward!