The Big 1-2!

In honor of Adam's 12th birthday yesterday, here are 12 random facts about him:

His birthday cake…a mint chocolate ice cream cake made by Emma

1.  His favorite dinner is lasagna and breadsticks
He tends to love any pasta dish as well, but usually makes some kind of sandwich when it's his turn to make dinner.   In fact, he makes himself a fancy panini almost every day for lunch, which includes pesto, fresh avocado, cucumber, and lunchmeat.

2.    His favorite treat is apple pie
 …and his favorite breakfast is apple walnut pancakes.  For his birthday he requested chocolate mint ice cream cake, which Emma was more than happy to make for him.  She tried the tutorial on my food blog for buttercream transfers and ended up making it  gorgeous as well as delicious.   Lucky for him, apple pie season is coming up and he will get some at least a few times over the next couple of months.

3.   Has a scientific mind and loves to figure out how and why things work       
I can count on Adam to be right by my side whenever we have something that needs assembling or fixing.   In fact, when Glen was out-of-town recently, he just took over assembling the fire pit we had recently purchased.

4.   He is still our resident bird expert  
His second grade teacher lit a fire in him to love and appreciate the beauty of birds.   Although our entire family now enjoys birdwatching as well, he still is by far the best at identifying the different varieties of birds.  

5.  Wears shorts and t-shirts almost exclusively…no matter the season
I can get him to wear a jacket at least in the winter, but even when temps dipped into the teens last winter, he still wore his shorts and t-shirts every day.   The only time he'll wear long pants willingly is to go to church and on campouts.

6.  His favorite outfits are monochromatic (i.e. an orange shirt with orange shorts)
He doesn't do it as much as he used to, but for several months earlier this year, he would almost invariably wear green on green, navy  on navy, orange on orange, and black on black.

7.   Really enjoys fishing
Adam has really taken to fishing this past year.   He won a fishing derby earlier this year and really enjoyed all the practice fishing he got to do with his daddy in preparation for it.  Glen wanted to make sure I also mentioned the awesome rainbow trout Adam caught in Utah.

8.   Doesn't like changes in routine
Ever since he was a baby, he's been our slow-to-warm-up kid who needs extra time to adjust to changes in our routine.   The beginning of a new school year is always particularly a challenging time for him and this year is no different.

9.   He is the family rule enforcer
Whether we are about to cheat on a diet or someone is trying to skip out on their daily chores, we can count on Adam to point it out and keep us on our toes.

10. Has always needed less sleep than the average kid his age
BUT  he also is by far the grumpiest and most nonfunctional of my kids when he doesn't get his required amount of sleep.   We all pay dearly for his lack of sleep at scout campouts and late nights with friends.  

11. Loves to program our Lego robot to do silly and pointless tasks --like spin in a circle for 3 minutes or go up and down the hallway over and over again.   He actually is quite good at programming it to do functional tasks (functional for a toy at least) as well, but as per his scientific mind, his favorite way to use it is to experiment with it to see what exactly it is capable of doing.

12.   Enjoys reading the "39 Clues" book series
…and the "Harry Potter" series, the "How to Train Your Dragon "series, and the "Percy Jackson" books!

We love our Adam boy!   Happy birthday to you!