Sprague Rd. Caniacs

The universe aligned this month and Devlyn's Winter track out took place the same week as the Greater Raleigh Sports Council's annual "Lunch with the Hurricanes".  My company (Glyph) sponsors a table there and we had extra seats so Devlyn got to go!  Poor Blake was in preschool.  They break the room up into about 40 tables of 8 and each table gets 1-2 members of the Canes.  Devlyn had high hopes we'd get a Staal.  Eric Staal's brother Jordan joined the team this season so it's cool for Devlyn and Blake that brothers play on the team together.  Eric Staal is their favorite player anyway : )  Long story short, we stopped in the team store on the way up to the luncheon and got Devlyn a new team jersey.  He's grown out of the one we bought him when he was 3 and Blake can wear that one now.  After lunch and mingling is over, you get to walk around and seek out your favorite players.  So Devlyn rolled into the luncheon with a fresh, clean team jersey and came out with 6 or 7 of the top players' autographs!  Man did he have a good time.  He would not let me take pictures of him with any of them but he started with Jordan Staal and ended with the coach.  He had the Staal brothers autograph his shirt right next to pins he has with their numbers on it.  And of course all the players are extra nice to kids he really got the full treatment.  We sat with Grayson Bowman (newbie) and an old Whaler, Steve Rice who was at the luncheon as an alum.  Dad - thought you might remember that name.  Here are some pictures including one stealth pic Devlyn took about 5 seconds after the players sat down at our table.  It's of Bowman.  Next year I'll have to plot a way to get Weebsie in there : )

Catching Up

Hi everybody!  I've been busier than a termite in a sawmill lately and feel bad that I haven't had time to keep up with posting - I know that those of you far away haven't seen pics of the boys in forever.  Here's a new slideshow with images from Christmas break through now.  Devlyn & Charles' basketball team, date night for Charles and I (phenomenal dinner at a New Orleans' style eatery downtown and then a show by one of our fave bands), Christmas, ice skating, family date night and a really cool homemade teepee that Blake and I found in the woods yesterday - it was even "carpeted" with freshly harvested moss.  It was so cool.

Devlyn is tracked out right now and in skate camp this week.  Blake is boisterous and cute as ever, Charles got a job offer, Indigo Media has exploded and I haven't been to the gym since the week after Thanksgiving : ) Here's to a fabulous 2013!!!  I promise to take the Halloween theme off my blog soon ; )

So Excited!!!

Charles and I have spent the last week or so researching, brainstorming and designing a wall unit for the master bedroom that would allow that room to serve as a master bed / family room / kids play area /office since we only have one real "living room" in the house and well, have you met my boys lately?  One word.  LOUD.  Four words - need their own space.

Charles sketched out our design for the backwall of the bedroom tonight and I am SO excited I can't stand it.

The middle panel is a king sized murphy bed.  The rest of it has lots of storage/display space and the cabinet on the far right has a bi-fold door with a pull down desk to allow for an office area right in front of the window. Yay!!  Time to get some quotes on this and make it happen.  Of course, I wish I could build the whole damn thing myself but I think we all know that ain't happenin'.  That wall is 19 feet 2 3/4 inches.

Check it out!!

Not Gonna Do It

Yesterday morning, upon waking, Blake announced that he would not be participating in the Soapstone Preschool Christmas pageant.  His class was to play the role of angels.  He wasn't going to wear white, he certainly was not wearing the halo (him wearing a halo is worthy of a blog of it's own!) and under no circumstances was he going to sing in front of the audeince.  Blake is not a child who's resolve wavers so I told him that was perfectly fine and that he could take it up with his teacher Miss Peg when he got school.  We packed his white "angel clothes" in his school bag just in case.

When I arrived for the performance, I was surprised to see him in his white outfit.  No halo but he was marching in line with his class towards the stage looking around for me....all good signs.  Here's how he "performed" during the singing part of the show  : )

He kept his ears plugged with his fingers and his eyes closed the entire performance, smiling all the while.  He opened them twice to see if i was watching, which, of course I was : )

The Birthday Boy

Devlyn was so proud to tell me that Mrs. Montgomery (his teacher) asked for his size today to order his school spelling bee t-shirt. He'll be representing his 1st grade class in the first annual Sycamore Creek school spelling bee! The invite/informational sheet we received today spells out the rules. He'll be competing against 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders!!! I'm a nervous wreck already. I still remember the word I lost on in my elementary school spelling bee!! It was "phase", I went too quickly and blurted out "f" as the first letter :(. We're so proud of him already for representing his class - my heart swells thinking about watching him compete in the school spelling bee! His birthday presents are all laid out at his spot on the breakfast table for tomorrow morning :). I let them choose what they'd like to eat for the day on their birthdays (within reason). Devlyn has requested donuts for breakfast, a lunchables to pack for lunch and an early dinner at sushi blues for his birthday supper. Sounds like fun to me! I'm going to meet his class at the cafeteria tomorrow with cupcakes during lunch :). 7 years old - what a great age - his whole world is just starting to open up!

Halloween 2012

Best Halloween yet for the Raleigh Upchurch's! It was pretty cold here so it felt really Halloweeny.  The boys had long underwear on under their costumes : )   Of course, Weebsie was complaining of being hot half way through - human heater that he is.  Started the evening out with a stop at our neighbors Carmen and Daniel's house.  They have a great tradition of handing out candy for the kids and adult beverages for the parents!  Usually it's beers but this year they stepped it up and had shots in test tubes - something called "Birthday Cake" vodka...hello!  As we headed down the street to the Hilburn section of the neighborhood 5 houses on Sprague Rd. had pooled their resources.  They were having a street party and met all the little kids at the curb with massive bags of candy for each one.  Talk about spoiled - the kids didn't even have to walk up to the houses.  Then it was on to "Corky's Lounge".  It only took us 10 years but we finally sniffed out and got in good with the fun people in the neighborhood.  One family's garage is always the party lounge - refills, appetizers, a roaring fire, a million kids and plenty of candy.  Got a few pictures of the neighborhood ladies while were were there.  None of the pics came out too well but I was thinking of all the Mom's names and listen to this, Kari, Kristy, Corky(not sure what her real name is!), Christina and Kristin.  Kkkkkkkkkccrazy.  Noone else with a "K" name is allowed to move in!  Devlyn was Sonic the Hedgehog and Blake was Luke Skywalker.  Blake opted to bring his gun rather than his lightsaber and he took great pride in explaining to me that Luke Skywalker has both.  He had that look in his eye that said, "If you don't believe me, I'll pull out the Star Wars book and show you right here and now."  That kid is a Star Wars encyclopedia right now - he and Devlyn know the minute details of characters I've never even heard of before.

HBD Weebsie

The weather held off :). Great birthday for Blake! Hope Sandy takes it easy on you Northerners!