Eleven Years Old Today

Everyone loves Michael. 

Happy 11th birthday, August 21st.


(Top left-at your baptism by your namesake Fr. Michael Joseph Zeps, S.J.  Then your Godfather Joe, Dad, FF Marlene, Uncle Joey again, Aunt Lala-August bday club and your Mom holding you on the bottom)
He is one loveable young man. (Last year I might have said boy)


Concentrating on his yo-yo skills in Pittsburgh. Summer 2016


Language camp last week -photo by parents 

After your swim meet-June 26, 2015 with new cousin Charlie at the hospital

Teasing  old Grandma, making me think your head was stuck!

Michael if you want to see how quickly you are growing up, here are some blog posts documenting your growth! 

Seems as if you just turned 10- tenth birthday post 

Florida Rainbow appeared when you were born. 9 years old 

*Seems you were 8 not so long ago 8th birthday post

* Here’s your 7th birthday

Laura made you an Alvin and the Chipmunks cake when you were Five – Chipmunks Cake

Don’t know what happened to six but you were my first photo on the blog with Murphy the Airedale

And here you are with Henry the Airedale

Love you lots

Happy 11th Birthday to you Michael Joseph

Love, 

FF Ruthie

P.S.  I need a photo of me with you, please.  Birthday mail on the way. 

Ky Started Yo-Yoing at Age Eleven

I stopped into the old fashioned/classic toy store in the neighborhood of Shadyside on Ivy Street. The cool toy store is around the corner from where we lived when we first moved to Pittsburgh.  This is the same store my three kids would browse in for the longest time on the way home from school in 1989-1991.

Two floors of toy store!    Filled with LEGO®  and Playmobil®, knights, puppets, trucks and trains, dolls and puzzles. Everything you can wish for as a child.  You might see some items you yearned for as a kid but never received.

I was buying a gift for a friend.

And while I was there, the young man came from behind the counter and started yo-yoing. I mean yo-yoing extraordinaire!  His name is Ky.

There was nothing else but to stop my shopping and watch in amazement.  All I had with me was the phone camera.  With a phone memory too full, I had to delete pics to take a few shots. (too much phoneography for challenges?)

Wowee Wow. I don’t know how to describe it -but I was mesmerized.  And then he put down the yo-yo and picked up a kendama.  Yes, we have an old wooden one but I never knew what it was called. Or that it was of Japanese origin. He was smooth and skillful at both the yo-yo and kendama!

If you want to learn how to yo-yo like Ky you can head on over to Shadyside on Sunday at noon and practice how to put your yo-yo into a “sleep” so you can attempt the tricks like Ky was demonstrating.  Learn “looping”.   Ky will be there teaching in  the Yo-Yo/Skill Toy Club at S.W. Randall’s.  I think I need to return with a video camera and you can understand how you had to keep your eye on Ky and the yo-yo or Ky and the kendama.  Do you have any yo-yo tricks?