Charlie!

Although Charlie is getting older and we see less of him during the day, he continues to entertain us with his imaginative mind. Like his description of the "Man Cave" he wants some day, complete with a bear skin rug and a little cave for his cats featuring a little "mouse skin" rug. Or the other day when I heard him singing for an extraordinarily long time, only to finally realize what he was singing: all the words on the tinker toy box, including the list of all the parts and pieces found inside.

Coco was featured in his science fair project this year. She was allowed to attend the fair as long as we kept her in her carrier. I wasn't sure how she would do since she doesn't typically like being in the carrier, but she loved it. Between the judging and public viewing, Charlie let her outside.  Once it was time to come back in, I brought the carrier out behind the school expecting Coco to be long gone. As soon as I came out, she ran right for me and climbed into her carrier. She sat calmly purring throughout the fair and seemed to enjoy all the kids poking their fingers in at her. 

And the most recent Charlie story is the new name he gave their lamp that's paired with their alexa. He likes to set the lamp to go off in the morning to helping wake them up. Whenever he sets it, alexa responds "OK, I'll set Boys' Lamp for 7:00am." Just for fun, he decided to change the lamp's name. And of course, being Charlie, he thought to himself, "I wonder if there's a limit to long I can make its name?" So now whenever he sets a timer for the lamp, this is what Alexa says:

Happy 18th, Elena!

We somehow managed to raise a Boomer. Well, not exactly a Boomer, but Elena is basically an old lady in an 18-year-old body. I guess "Old Soul" sounds nicer, doesn't it? We'll go with that.

While she does stream music on apps like Spotify, she prefers using CDs in her car, which I'm pretty sure many of my students have never even heard of. And the CDs are mostly things like Hits from the 60s, Elvis and Frank Sinatra. When asked what she wanted for gifts, she requested DVDs (!) of black and white movies. We called her the night before her birthday and asked what she was doing with her last night of being a non-adult. She was watching Casablanca. Of course. She goes to 7:00 am Mass before school and adoration once a week (as do several of her friends, which is awesome.)

She's as likely to be hanging out with women between the ages of 40-90 as she is to be hanging out with other teenagers. She recently had to postpone an appointment to visit one of her friends because Kay had shingles. She even took an afternoon off of school about a month ago to join a woman from our church on a 2 hour drive she had to take. To a medical appointment. And she had a great time. I'm pretty sure this woman is the reason Elena & friends go to Mass every Thursday - she's an amazing woman. 

She just turned 18 this week and it dawned on me that she could now get social media apps like Instagram or Facebook. I asked if she was going to get any accounts, and she said, "No, not for now. They're all dumb." And then she went upstairs to sew herself a skirt. 

We love her in all her uniqueness and gifts so very much. It's been an absolute joy getting to raise her, and although we hate to see her move onto to a life that means we will see her less, we are looking forward to seeing what this spunky girl does with her life. 

Republica Dominicana

Seth and I were able to enjoy another getaway with the Knights this month. This year was the Dominican Republic - I always enjoy getting to go somewhere where I get to practice my Spanish. It was a great week to go - the kids had 2 early outs and 1 late start while we were gone due to snow. It was also not a great week to go since we missed Elena's 18th birthday. Our parents once again took care of the kids while we were gone, and it sounds like they all had a great time. Grandma made homemade donuts for Elena's birthday so she got spoiled a bit at least (plus the early out!)

Seth wore a "Minneota Vikings State Champion" shirt from our recent football season, and a shocking number of people asked him about it. We never imagined it would be such a conversation starter. He's realized that wearing it out of Minnesota might not be the best idea. For one, several people thought Minnesota was spelled wrong. Most thought it said MN Vikings and couldn't figure out how they would be their own state champs. 

We came home to a giant snowman in our yard, but other than that most signs of the storms were gone by our return.

Here's a few photos from the trip.

Not the best picture of us, but there's a rainbow in the background!

One of our desserts - a chocolate concoction in the monkey's head, topped with cotton candy

The pepper grinder at one of the restaurants!

Me in my happy place: a book and sunshine! We stayed in the shade most of the time, though! We burned way too easily.

Elena's 18th

And since not much exciting happened on the trip other than us hanging around soaking up sun, reading and visiting with other Knights, I'll leave you with a few recent quotes. Our kids are still more interesting than we are.

Olivia: Guys, if I don't get some peace and quiet, I won't be able to draw my letters!!

---------------------------------------

Olivia: (singing the Circle of Life from Lion King) Naaa Savanyaaaaa Feliz Navidad!

----------------------------------------

Frank: Mom, if sharks ever figure out how to get to outer space, we could probably meet aliens.

Me: Sharks?

Frank: Yeah.

Me: Sharks. Like the large aquatic animal.

Frank: Yeah.

Me: I'm not following.

Frank: Well, if sharks are taken out of the water, they can't survive so they have to stay in the water. And if we leave our atmosphere, we can't survive so we have to stay on Earth. But if sharks can figure out how to get all the way past our atmosphere and into outer space, we could probably figure out how to get past outer space into another universe and meet aliens! 

-----------------------------------------

Frank: Mom, I'm filling this balloon up with carbon dioxide and releasing it onto our plant so it can turn it into oxygen!  (He must be paying attention in science class!)