Jared's Birthday

(This post was written by Robert)

Normally we start each child's birthday with breakfast in bed. But his birthday falls on Sunday (Fast Sunday) so we were going to do it on Saturday...... great intentions... but we forgot... (Sorry Jared...) But he did get French toast and he wanted to make it himself, so he was even happier. We worked hard to get the house ready for the party. Rooms cleaned, kitchen done, cupcakes made, garage cleaned out. Around lunch time I took off for an hour or so to play the piano at the church (it is soooo nice to have a key). I have been playing Phantom of the Opera and getting better at it. Laura bought me a Michael McLean book and that has been fun too. It's funny, Michael McLean is MORE difficult than Phantom. Even though Phantom has some key changes that should be outlawed (5 flats to 4 sharps, then back to 2 flats all on one page!!!!!!! At that point Andrew Lloyd Webber is simply showing off...) When I got back Laura had set up small workstations in the garage. Each child had a baggie of marshmallows and toothpicks. Their goodie bags were all aragned neatly on the side and all the stuff was ready to go. Some kids arrived and I showed them the microscope that we had set up. There is a water retention pond just around the corner and I scooped up a gallon of moss water and decided to see what critters we could see.I found this site that talks about pond critters...