Growing up!

Olivia is 7! We celebrated with a joint party with her cousin Briar as well as a friend party in the birthday room at a local pizza place. Their most noteable gifts were matching cowgirl hats from my mom, which both girls wear frequently!

Unlike Elena she has been chomping at the bit to get her ears pierced so we got that done not long after her birthday. She did great during the piercing and didn't make a peep (as opposed to Elena who hopped off the chair and ran away before they could even mark her earlobes). 

Here are a few photos (in reverse order). The first is with Elena's friend Kylie after we went to see her perform in Anastasia. It was a fun night for us. It was not such a fun night for the deer that jumped out in front of us on the ride home, destroying our headlight, hood and bumper. Fortunately the car still drives fine! We'll just avoid driving at night until we get it fixed or replaced.

Church-going Charlie

I found this puppet on our kitchen counter. It appears Frank's class made puppets and had to write up a description. Frank's was named "Church-Going Charlie." 

Prom 2026

 After being paired up in the "Mooning" duet for Grease  their Freshman year and cast as Hugo & Kim for Bye Bye Birdie their Sophomore year, it only made sense for Sam to go to Junior prom with Wini. From the sounds of it everyone had a lot of fun. Sam was still eating lunch with a giant bib to protect his suit when Wini arrived so her mom snapped a picture of that right away. Olivia wore a dress to match Wini's (she has matched Elena's dresses for her proms, too!) Seth helped chaperone the after-prom, getting home after 4:00am, but both guys are holding up ok today. And that about sums up Prom in a nutshell. Here's a photo dump:

"Charged" fun!

At the playground today, Olivia and her friends started playing a very creative (and science-y) game. They were taking turns being the one to go down the slide and the one to touch the metal playground equipment with one in the middle. The girl going down the slide would generate enough electricity to send a shock through their fingertips to the metal pole. A little impressed that they knew enough about electricity to know this would work, I asked where they came up with the idea. They said Frank had started it at recess. And honestly, I can't say I'm surprised. Frank would be the type to figure out a game that uses regular old playground equipment to shock his friends.

Here's a quick video:

And I was able to collect another quote yesterday, too:

Olivia's friend: I never have to do chores.

Olivia: You're lucky!

Me: Well, think of it this way: when you grow up, you'll know how to keep a clean house.

Olivia: (looking me dead in the eye with just a hint of accusation) Yeah. By making the kids clean it.

The Jungle Book

On the heels of Snoball week at the high school was Catholic Schools Week. We were very fortunate this year to have Missoula Children's Theater come in to put on The Jungle Book with our students. The directors, Pablo and Alex, did a fantastic job. At the end of the week, Seth took Pablo (a North Carolina native) ice fishing for the first time. They didn't catch anything, but Pablo loved every second of this cultural experience - snapping pictures like a tourist at every opportunity. Unfortunately kids were getting sick left and right throughout the week so both our stage managers had to step in and play at the end - and Kaa (the snake) was about 3 kids shorter by the performance. But they pulled it off and the show went on! Here are a few pictures

Oliva was a monkey (3rd from the left)

 

Frank was part of Kaa (also 3rd from the left)

Charlie was the Father Wolf (in black). 

And with that, I'll share a few recent quotes!

Olivia (looking at a watercolor painting): Who painted this?

Me: Elena

Olivia: Wow! She's really good at painting. I wonder if she's secretly Bob Ross's wife...

Me: Let's ask her... (through the bathroom door) Elena! Are you secretly Bob's Wife?

Elena: How did you know???

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

Olivia: Jesus isn't like Mr. Cardinal [the gym teacher]. He doesn't blow a whistle and make us run 5 laps. Jesus is like a ninja! He stays hidden and you can't see him and he's a hero who saves us.

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

Olivia: These onions are sweet.

Me: Yeah, if you cook them it takes out the.....what do you call it?

Olivia: Cryingness?

Me: Yeah, that'll work.

It's been a busy few months for Sam. First, he was selected as the Junior attendant for Snoball week at the high school. Some of the activities were interrupted by snowstorms (which is pretty typical), but we were able to attend the coronation. Seth had to leave before we could get a picture, but I got one. I did not realize how short I look next to Sam until I looked at this photo. Yikes!

Shortly after Snoball, a group of the high school boys, including Sam and RJ spent all of Valentine's Day delivering Singing Telegrams to students around the school. It was quite entertaining. I got a few videos, which are at the end of the post. Here's the poster from the school hallway leading up to the big day.

February also wrapped up the wrestling season. It was an exciting end to the year with the team & several individuals going to state. The team got 4th place in a very close match! The first 2 photos are from earlier in the season. The ones below are at State. Sam was able to pin a kid from Chatfield in a very exciting match - you can see the pin and the reaction below. Oh yeah, and all of the wrestlers bleached their hair for state, thus the blonde hair. 

Frank and Olivia typically struggle to sit through wrestling tournaments, but we were lucky to have cousins there. We were also able to visit both the Children's Museum and the MN Zoo while we were up there. 

Right on the heels of coming back from State, Sam and Ian got confirmed into the Catholic Church. It was a beautiful Mass and a beautiful day. We celebrated with two other families who also had boys getting confirmed. The 4 of us have been good friends since before they were born, and these boys were all born within 5 months of each other. Each of our 4 boys had at least a sponsor or godparent (or both) from one of the other 3 families.

  

At the party, we dug up this old baby picture of the 4 of the boys together. Of course we had to re-create it. I don't think any of the boys were at all enthused about this, but they obliged for their mothers. We also made them take a picture all on our laps for old times sake. 

Since they were such good sports, we let them get one normal picture with us as well!

Here are the videos of the Singing Valentine's. Since Valentine's Day landed on the weekend, they had to sing early so it landed up Ian's birthday - thus the bonus song at the end.