We have another teenager

Charlie turned 13 this month, and right on cue he's growing up. Most noticeably, his voice is dropping. I entered the house a couple of weeks ago and was greeted with, "Mom! Bad news!!" I asked what was wrong, and Charlie informed me, "I can't do Michael Jackson's hee-hee anymore!"

He celebrated with a "Poker" Party out in our new (unfinished) tree house. We were able to get it warm enough with a space heater that the boys were comfortable. I believe they ended up playing Slap-Jack, but either way, they had fun. 

And lastly, here are are few quotes:

Charlie: Ha! I beat the system: I've never been rejected by a girl because I've never asked a girl out.

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Olivia: Mom! How do you spell "Uz"? 

Me: What?

Olivia: Uz.

Me: Uz?

Olivia: Yeah.

Me: Use it in a sentence.

Olivia: OliviA'S. 

Ebenezer Scrooge's Big Minneota Christmas Show!

We pulled off another fun musical this fall at the high school. The kids once again did an amazing job. They were able to put in a lot of their own ideas and talents since the script itself allowed for some flexibility. It was basically a comedic retelling of A Christmas Carol, told as though it happened in our town, finishing with a big Christmas show. 

I thought it would be easier than our past show because we were using all familiar Christmas songs, which in theory would cut down on the stress of learning new songs. Turns out, the Christmas songs were familiar to me but not necessarily the kid. I was shocked to discover how many kids had never heard songs like "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "Good King Wenceslaus," and "Baby, It's Cold Outside." 

Fortunately one song everyone know was "All I Want for Christmas is You." We choreographed a dance routine for the girls to do, and as we got to dress rehearsals Sam asked if he could join them. I told him he could not because I didn't want him to steal the spotlight. About 30 minutes later, the girls said they were worried the song would be too boring so we added Sam after all, and they all nailed it on the first try. Just as good as his performance are some of the girls' faces as they "react" to it. 

Charlie did a great job playing the hopeful yet pitiful Young Scrooge. He and the other boys in his scene threw in British accents as well - even though they weren't used by anyone else in the play. It wasn't the kind of show that requires historical accuracy as all so we just went with it. 

You also might notice a few pictures of our nephew, RJ, in a dress. During auditions, we didn't have many girls interested in auditioning for the Ghost of Christmas Present, so RJ read for it. He did such a good job, we gave him the part. I offered to change it to a guy and he insisted we leave it as a girl. Needless to say it got a lot of laughs. He did such a good job, several people didn't realize who he was (or even that he was a guy) at first. 

At any rate, we got through it! I'll share a bunch of pictures. The video is at the bottom. The sound is very echo-y so it's challenging to watch. The 2nd act has a lot of fun musical numbers that still come through ok. 

Football players (and managers)

Charlie as Young Scrooge (on the right)

RJ as the Ghost of Christmas Present

The 12 Days of Christmas (6 geese a-laying)

We pulled up a couple of audience members for Mele Kaliki Maka (with no prior warning). They did great!

Here's the video if you want to watch some or all of it:

The latest in reverse

Because my photos uploaded on here in reverse order, and I'm too lazy to re-order them, here are some more recent highlights out of order. First, our football team won the state championship title for the 4th year in a row. Sam got lots of playing time along with his two cousins Ian and RJ. It was a great year and a lot of fun to watch (at least to most of us - Olivia still doesn't enjoy going to football games, even at the US Bank Stadium). A special thank you to Reba Lipinski for all the great shots from the season! Sam is number 7. He plays Tight End and Defensive End...whatever that means - I just know he knocks people over a lot.

I interrupt this program with a shot of Frank and his class on All Saint's Day. Frank is St. Pierre Giorgio.

This is one of my favorite shots from the season, featuring RJ on the left (#30), Sam in the center (#7) and Ian on the right (#2).

The 3 amigos:

I think I may have forgotten to mention in my last post that Frank shot his first deer! He turned 10 during youth hunting, went hunting the next morning, and shot a deer before lunch. Seth was in CO so grandpa was good enough to get up early and take him hunting.

The treehouse is coming along! The outside is mostly finished, but now that winter has hit, the inside will have to wait for next year when it warms up.

Olivia finally lost her first tooth while we were at the eye doctor. She pulled it out herself with no trouble at all.

Celebrating after the big win!

Sleeping after the big win! Everyone except for Seth (who was driving) was out like a light on the ride  home.

Halloween featured many costumes for our kids. Frank is Groot and Olivia is Elphaba. 

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Charlie's Saint's Day Costume: St. Denis, who reportedly was beheaded and then picked up his head and walked to the area he wanted to be buried, preaching the whole way. Unfortunately this is the best picture I got of the costume - it wasn't quite finished, but due to the extreme weight he didn't want to walk to school with it on, which meant no morning picture that day.

One of Charlie's (2) Halloween costumes. In this one, he is Spooderman, Spiderman's lumpy knock-off.

Frank and Olivia also had 2nd (aka "old") costumes for Trunk or Treat. Our friends happened to be visiting from Brainerd that day and joined us!

The quotes are getting fewer and farther between as our kids grow up, but I have a few.

 Me (reading Olivia the fortune from her fortune cookie): A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Olivia: Yeah, I'm not gonna do that.

And one more from Olivia: Mom! How are you older than me? My birthday is before yours. (It's not)

(In case you are wondering if I forgot about the musical, I haven't. I'll put those pictures and the video in a separate post)

Stuff

Today you get a hodgepodge of information and quotes since I won't have the time to put together a anything coherent until after the play. So in no particular order:

Frank turned 10 years old! We celebrated by bringing his friends and cousin, Gabby, to the ball pit in PK's. My sister and Elena joined us, which was nice for me so I didn't have to be the only adult! Oh yeah - Seth wasn't there because he went with his brother Craig to hunt elk in Colorado. No luck, unfortunately, but they had some good bonding time out in nature and brought our vehicle back in one piece (with only 1 flat tire on the way out). 

Sam was a jot dog for the 11th grade homecoming parade. His class won for best float. We're pretty sure the hot dog costume was the deciding factor in their win.

During their last visit, Maria mentioned to Charlie that both of Gabby's grandmas are named Helen (or Helen and Hellen to be exact). Charlie didn't skip a beat and immediately  responded with "What the Helen?"

Backtracking yet again, I don't believe I mentioned that Elena officially started at SDSU! She's doing great and adjusting well to college life. One thing she misses is having a place to clean. Keeping her dorm clean isn't satisfying enough so she's planning to come home this weekend just to do some "deep cleaning." I'm not going to complain! She must get it from my mom. When I told her, she said she used to defrost the freezer in the shared dorm fridge at college when she got the itch to clean.

Papi had a bumper crop of apples this year and the boys were happy to take them off his hands to sell. Between the two boys, I think they delivered well over 100 pounds if apples!

The weekend before Frank's birthday, I brought the kids to Brookings to visit Elena. We went to the children's museum in town while we were there. Charlie spent most of his time on the SDSU campus looking for his former baseball coach, Tate, who also happens to be a classmate of Elena's. He stopped just short of asking every person we passed if they knew Tate. We were not able to stop him from yelling "Tate! Are you there?" outside of open dorm windows as we walked by.
 

And lastly, here are a few pictures from Bug Days. First is Olivia pushing Captian Jack in a stroller (after Seth gave him yet another bottle of rum). At one point during the weekend I walked towards home through the back parking lot of the grocery store only to find Charlie eating fries by himself on a crate behind the dumpsters. I asked what he was doing there and he said, "I do this every year. There's always a few crates sitting here so I just use them for my table and chair." Well, ok then. I guess it's tradition. The last is Little Red Riding Hood in the kiddie parade. Sam escorted the bug days princess, Clare, but I can't seem to find a picture. 

And lastly a quote from Olivia!

Me: We really need to move all these bikes from in front of our house. It looks terrible. 

Olivia: Mom! It just adds character!!