NYE

 

Happy New Year!

2023.

Mike and MJ both had to work on NYE and the next day was Sunday, so it did put a bit of a damper on our celebrating, but we managed to get a bit in.  

Attempting a family photo

Gifts

His favorite thing was a homemade noise maker-made out of a plastic water bottle.

Some afternoon festivities:

Levi was thrilled that his team won!

Wishing you and yours a blessed, healthy, prosperous New Year!

7 MONTHS

 

This guy turned 7 months not too long ago.

Crazy how fast it goes!

He started crawling late in the 6th month,

has two little bottom razors teeth, and is determined to pull himself up on just about everything.

He has tasted a bit of "people" food but not much at this point.

Overall, he is a pretty happy guy 

and we're so thankful for him!

BASKETBALL

A new venture for us this year.

The 3 middle boys are playing basketball with the Upward program.
I had heard that it is fairly low key and practice just once a week, so figured we'd give it a shot.

Of course, its 45 minutes away and practice is from 7-9 PM and games are EVERY Saturday NIGHT!

whew.

We'll make it.

I was NOT expecting evening games.

They had all 3 boys on different teams with overlapping practices, but a friend pointed out that one of the boys had practice at a different location.  So, being that I cannot be at three different places at once, we moved one of the boys to another team.

So far, all is well.

Well, except for the fact that Grant cut his finger and had to get stitches and is missing practice and the first game already.   

One of the nice things about this program is that it is Christian based.

The head coach gathers everyone mid-way through practice and they read a Bible verse, do a brief meditation and pray.

Can't beat that!

Hope you have a great season boys!

A CHRISTMAS CAROL 2022

 The kids were part of "A Christmas Carol" again this year.  

They put on this play last winter, but had different roles this year.  

We also had one backstage with the stage crew!

The three thespians had roles as townspeople/chorus, a social worker, the ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, Old Joe, Fred's wife..and I think that may be it??

some scenes..

Bean was the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come..and it was pretty creepy.

She was about 9 feet tall on contractor stilts..the director has bought acrobatic stilts for her to practice on.  And she did.  For a good month, but the thing about acrobatic stilts is that you cannot stand still-and that would have been really difficult for this particular role. Unfortunately, these pictures don't do justice to the part she played.

MJ had a pretty significant role and solos with Old Joe.

He did a fantastic job

The end and a shoutout to Bean for her part in taking on the stilts and giving that extra bit to the performance.

Cast shot.

This year was tough. Some of the kids who had practiced for months, did not get to play their parts. Pretty much the entire, and I'm not exaggerating here, ENTIRE, cast came down with the flu the week of the play.  There were kids dropping like flies between the 3 performances with fevers and coughing and overall yuckiness.  They had to fill in, take on roles that they had not practiced, and act while ill! Our little theater group does not have understudys. I give them all a lot of credit-the show must go on and through all the trials, it did go on.  They made it work.

Congrats on a great performance, All!

ROLLIN'

 Twice a month a local-ish rink holds a "homeschool skate session."

I try to make it once a month if possible.  

Some pictures from October's session.

4 year old is still learning, so he had some helpers since I had the baby and Mr. 2.

getting some confidence on the carpet

MORE FALL THINGS

The leaves are pretty much neverending around here.

The "Rose Bros" landscapers work on them several times a week--

I'd say probably every other day and yet the leaves persist.

These Rose Bros just reap the benefits of piles...

Though this guy realllllly wanted to help with a rake that was 3 times as tall as he is!

I'm not really complaining about the leaves. Tis' the season.  And I'm grateful for all the helpers!