Missed from 2023

Looking back on pictures from 2023, here are a few moments I missed.

Seth, cuddling with Olivia to try to get her down for a nap. It worked for one of them!

Yet another nap. This one (at a family Christmas) was started by Olivia and she was

 joined by Grandpa, Dad and Uncle Jason!

Frank, roller skating at St. Ed's!

I showed this wedding picture of my parents to my class when we were practicing how to say "looks like" in Spanish since I look so much like my mom. Later, when my mom came to my class to talk with the students about her experiences living in Central America, my student from Honduras raised his hand and said (in Spanish), "Your husband looks like a drug trafficker." Papi did have a similar mustache to Pablo Escobar, but in his defense, a lot of people had that mustache in the 70s. 

This was taken on a school dress-up day this past fall. Frank came down wearing his Hawaiian shirt and brightly colored comic-strip pants and said, "Mom! It's All Colors Day at school!" I said, "I'm pretty sure it's FALL Colors Day." Shortly after that, Charlie came into the room wearing this. I guess he didn't have any fall clothes so he taped a bunch of dried up leaves to his shirt with painter's tape. Classy.

Olivia is following in Charlie's footsteps with her love for cats. Anytime we visit farms with friendly cats, she can be found cuddling them for hours. 

 Even better than cats: kittens!

The first day of school. Elena - grade 11, Charlie - grade 5 (and super excited), Frank - grade 2
Sam - MIA (grade 9)

Olivia's first day of preschool!

This was taken after one of Sam's football games. By this time, Olivia has figure out the system and knows what to do. She gathered up all the chairs, blankets, snacks and activity bag and was ready to go. 

 

Sam and his friends at the Lyon County Fair

A houseful of boys

Charlie had his his friends over for a birthday party tonight. I came to the front entry to find this. There's just something about our coat hooks that screams, "Don't use us!!"

(In the boys' defense, it could be that the hooks are pretty full already)

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Charlie turned 11 this week! He was home sick on his birthday with cough, body aches and fatigue - we're guessing influenza. Two years ago, he was also quarantined on his birthday but with COVID. That's one downfall to having a birthday at the height of cold & flu season! Elena enjoys telling him that birthdays don't really count if you're sick so he's actually only 9, which he does not appreciate. Maybe in 30 years, he'll like the idea. 

Sam has no wish to play along with Elena on this one. Now that Charlie is 11, Sam has decided he's old enough to babysit Frank and Olivia as often and as long as needed (so Sam doesn't have to be tied down with this job anymore). 

At any rate, he made it through and I don't think he minded getting to stay home and watch TV for the whole day. He did mind not getting to have friends over, however. Frank had a stomach bug on top of whatever Charlie (and Seth and Elena) had so he'll definitely have to wait for that party until everyone's healthy.

His appetite was still good, though, so I made him a cake to celebrate. We wouldn't let him blow out the candles since he was sick so Elena thought of a way to protect the cake from germs that worked pretty well :)

Never a dull moment...

Hearing the boys' stories and sound effects is a common background noise in our house. I'm used to it so often I don't even register what's being said. Occasionally I catch a video like this one. This "hazardous waste situation" went on much longer than the video shows, but I got a few snippets. This particular session of make-believe caught my attention because Charlie sounded so much like a captain making an announcement on an airplane it was a little uncanny. I don't think that's what he was going for, though.

And sometimes, we find videos like these on my phone months after they are taken. This one explained why our library went through a period of being extremely messy last summer. I kept going in there and wondering how on earth the kids could possibly use so many pens and pencils in one day.

Here are the last few quotes of 2023

Olivia: My friend said I am dumb.

Me: Oh? What do you think you could say if someone tells you that?

Olivia: Don't say it back.

Me: That's right. We shouldn't say mean things back even if someone else says mean things.

Olivia: Or I could go tell someone!

Me: Yeah, you could do that.

Olivia: Or I could say, (with a LOT of emotion) "That crushes my heart!!"

Me: Yep, that would probably get the point across....

A recent discussion had underneath the mistletoe:

Olivia: Dad, Mom is your wife.

Seth: Yep.

Olivia: And you are her...uh...uh...prince! 

Seth: That works! But I think you mean I'm her husband. 

Olivia: Yeah! And that means you are married so you can kiss her!

Charlie: (talking in response to a TV commercial) I don't have hot flashes......by the way what are hot flashes?

Elena: (from the back seat while Sam is driving) Sam doesn't know how to stop all the way at stop signs. 

Sam: Well, Elena doesn't know how to stop all the way in garages.

Elena: (laughing) I guess I walked right into that one.

Seth: You ran right through it!

And just for fun, a video of Frank entertaining his siblings while eating spaghetti.