Friday!

It's been a busy week at Michael Delving, but fortunately, we've been able to get some down-time here and there.
Today, to celebrate the start of the weekend, the Mayor took the hobbitlings down to the shop to play with blocks. Not any old blocks, mind you. These are the coolest blocks ever. They were custom designed by one of the Mayor's grandpas and built by his other grandpa. There are four sets; the Greek-inspired gray set was the Mayors, the black Roman-inspired set was Uncle Andrews, the light brown Roman-inspired set was Uncle Matty's, and the brown Greek-inspired set was Auntie Alexis'.
Here's Ela playing with Uncle Andrew's blocks on the floor of the shop.
Here's Boookie being an engineer, just like his daddy and the great-grandpa (and namesake) who designed the blocks.
And finally, here are the hobbitlings settling down for bed.

Another March Update

Last week, the hobbits of Michael Delving celebrated St. Patrick's Day. The Ela hobblitling and the Hobbit Wife got their nails painted orange to celebrate the day.

The Ela hobbitling walked around for days afterward showing off her hands and saying, "See? Is so pity!"

Last Friday was the fifth anniversary for the Mayor and the Hobbit Wife. They have made big plans to take a trip this summer, so the event was kept low-key. The whole family went down to ride the South Lake Union Streetcar (not to be confused with the South Lake Union Trolley). A fun time was had by all, but especially the Boookie, who loved riding the train down to Westlake Center, where he got to eat pizza and watch the monorail. As a special anniversary gift, knowing full well that the fifth anniversary is Wood, the Mayor went ahead and bought the Hobbit Wife...Metal. The picture below shows the bottom element of the Hobbit Wife's oven earlier in the week. The Mayor had awoken to discover bright orange flames filling the oven. Apparently, the oven element had burned through - did anyone know that oven elements could burn? The Hobbit Wife has assured the Mayor that his gift of Metal is entirely appropriate for the Wood anniversary.
Speaking of wood, on Saturday the Mayor built himself a cart for under-the-stairs storage. One doesn't attend Crosspoint Church for this long without learning all about carts!

The Ides of March

Michael Delving has seen more fun and relaxing lately, giving the residents time to do important things like making Duplo space helmets, ...
...putting olives on our fingers, ...
... and wearing our hair in very small ponytails!
The Mayor spent all day Saturday building his workbench and pegboard. This is the Mayor's very first work area that is his very own. He keeps disappearing to the basement for undefined errands, just to go stand in the shop.
The Mayor now has a place to hang his sword and shield from Afghanistan. He received an iPod dock from his company as a 5-year anniversary gift, and is enjoying filling his space with his music.

1Q 2009

Here are highlights from the last months at Michael Delving. Let's see - in December we had Christmas...
The hobbits got presents like a baby doll from Auntie...
Legos from Grampz and Grammy...
Automoblox from Uncle Matty...
Earlier this year, Auntie moved out of the basement, which means that the hobbits now get their own huge playroom!
GranDma and Apu gave the hobbits a tent/tepee/tunnels playset for the new playroom!
With the extra space in the basement, the Mayor decided he could finally fulfill a lifelong dream to have his own shop area, which started out looking like this:
The Mayor enlisted Boookie's assistance for painting.
What was the Mayor thinking? The shop is now painted from floor to ceiling in "Man Cave Gray," and is waiting for the Mayor to build his workbench.
For the Mayor's birthday, he got a 2-person unlimited annual pass to the Space Needle - $30 web special!
And finally, last weekend, the Mayor rented a flatbed truck from Handy Andy...
...and with Uncle Matty's assistance, disassembled and brought home a huge playset from a friend's backyard. This is not the first time the guys have seen this particular playset, having built it in about six years ago for another family! The Mayor felt a peculiar sense of goblin-like joy at recovering his handiwork!