Big News

 Sam caught up to Seth this month in height, and we're pretty sure he's still growing. I tried in vain to figure out if one was taller than the other. A book across their heads stayed pretty flat so I think it's fairly even at this point. After examining this picture, Seth claims Sam's hair has more volume and he's hasn't quite caught up. Sam pointed out that if you zoom in, his head is closer to the cabinet knobs than Seth's. Either way, Sam is taking the title of Tallest in the family. He calls Seth "Little Man" and "Short Stack" every chance he gets. 

While I'm at it, here a a few photos of Sam from wrestling this year. He had a great year and managed to get by without any injuries for once! He made it to state for 9th grade wrestling. It landed the same day as Elena's One Act Competition, Seth's work Xmas party AND our local big fundraiser for St. Ed's so we were spread pretty thin that day. Seth made it to wrestling and then brought Sam to his work party in my place. I went to One Act and caught the tail end of the fundraiser. We regrouped and rested the next day!

Here's Elena, Sam, Faith, Ian and Joe after their Spring Concert - they did a fantastic job as always.

And the One Act group! We weren't allowed to take photos during performances so this is all I have.

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.

Xmas 2023

I didn't get a ton of pictures this Christmas (as usual), but I promise a good time was had by all! Here are a few things I did capture:

Charlie entertained (or annoyed) any neighbors who might have been paying attention by dressing up light Santa, ringing a bell on our front porch and yelling "Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!" for a good 30 minutes. Olivia thought it was great fun! He also had a tip jar, but I'm pretty sure he got nothing. I think he might have been hoping he would be mistaken for the salvation army bell ringers.

Christmas Day, Frank put the leftover boxes to good use and created this costume. It's either a cardboard snowman or a robot. Either way, he had fun!

The sisters in Ghent went all out in creating a "stable" environment in their chapel for the Christmas season. The kids and I went to one of their weekday Masses in the straw!

The kids and I managed to successfully complete Charlie's new Elf puzzle. I am little worried some other poor family did not have the same success as our 500 piece puzzle actually had 501 pieces. There were 2 identical pieces in the box so I'm curious if someone else got a 499 piece puzzle. 

Other than that, we had lots and lots of fun, caroling and food with family and friends.

Santa visit

Liv wouldn't sit on Santa's lap without me as a buffer. So we got these awkward memories to cherish. She warmed up eventually!

She asked for a doll and nothing more. Pretty simple! 

Grease!

Our lives have been more full of activity than usual the past few months. Well, mostly my life since I took the job of directing the high school musical, but when Mom's busy everyone else feels it. It has truly taken a village to step in and accommodate for the changes in schedule.

We decided to do Grease (School Version) for the musical, and now that we're doing it, I don't know why I ever hesitate to pick that in the first place. It's such a fun show, the kids love playing all of their parts and pretty much everyone loves the music. 

I had the 2 musical directors cast the role of Sandy without me since I knew Elena would be in the running, and they did end up choosing Elena. It's been really fun seeing her in such a big role and I'm excited for her to perform. After hesitating a bit, Sam got pulled into auditioning when he saw how fun the show would be. He ended up with a supporting role, and ironically has had to be at as many or more practices than Elena because he's in so many scenes. This might be his last show since he'll likely do Varsity Football next year so I'm happy for this chance to direct him, too.

Although now that the community has seen him perform, they're not too keen to let him off that easily :) We'll see what next year brings, but now that these kids have performed such a great show, they're already talking about more. It's been wonderful to watch the whole group of kids grow individually and as a group this year. Several athletes who have never been in a show before joined the cast this year, including our niece, Faith, who played Patty. It was a perfect part for her, and Elena and Faith had a lot of fun playing rivals fighting for the same 

Below is the video plus a few pictures:

More Quotes!

 I am working on a post about the happenings around here, but in the meantime, here are some quotes.

Olivia: Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way! Oh what fun...and then you say, "Hey!"

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Frank: Look! It's a walk! It's a fly that doesn't fly. It walks. So it's a "walk."

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Olivia: No more hugs.

Elena: Why not?

Olivia: Because I'm the king and I live with my mother!!

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Olivia, trying to say Gute Nacht (good night in German): Goose and tight

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Seth: Do you like me, Olivia?

Olivia: Dad, I already said I like you! That was when I was a baby ago.

Olivia, post-football game. She knows the drill and picked up all the stuff - my lawn chair included.