Overheard

Benny (on Bob Ross): “He's a pretty cool guy.”

TEAM Awards

Our elementary school does quarters awards for kids who exemplify a team spirit and always do their best. Andy and Lilia got one first quarter (at the same assembly, thank goodness!) and Benny second. It is always so nice to see how well our kids are doing. They are all great kids and they are loved by their teachers. I am so grateful for these great kids!

Spectators. 

And Benny. 

I love this group of pictures. Such cute kids, but everybody has their moments!

Benny makes dinner

Saturday, 9 May, Spencer was on call. Flu restrictions at the hospital had been lifted, so Spencer asked if I wanted to take the kids up for dinner outside if it wasn't too busy with new admits. The weather was beautiful and it had been a while, so I said yes! Trouble was that Chris would eat when he woke up and I didn't want to wake him up if I could avoid it. And so, I employed Benny. Benny has really stepped up to the plate when we need him to (I just need to ask him more often) and this time was no exception. 

Quinoa was on the menu, so I wrote out a recipe and Benny made dinner! I helped only to get the quinoa on the stove and to season at the end. Benny did a great job! And what is double great is that this fulfilled a Cub Scout requirement (we will be working hard to have Benny finish his wolf before his 9th birthday in under a month)!

I love this picture with everyone smiling! We love joining Spencer when he is on call. For now, this is the last time since he is not scheduled for any more Saturday call days. In a week-and-a-half spencer will be a fourth year – scheduled only for Sundays and Thursdays. We are hopeful that we will be able to trade his ten Sundays for Saturdays, though.  If so, we may have repeats of this. 

Benny's Christmas program

The kids love our family blog books. We have had some already start to fall apart, which makes me sad. Alright, doesn't make me sad — we are big on personal responsibility around here — but it definitely contributes to my choice of sadness. 

I have been wondering lately about blogging. Not sure, exactly how I want to continue. It has been so long since any blogging and even longer since I have gotten any pictures printed off and still longer since I have added to any photo albums. What I have been doing, though, is keeping up my daily journaling. I have missed very few days in over two years. Something for which I am very grateful. There are, however, different forms of family history in which I would like to participate. We will see how it goes. 

Early December, though, benny did tell me something he thought would be good to have in a blog book if we made one from 2014: his 3rd grade Christmas program. I whole-heartedly agreed. 

So here it is. 

We were told to get an elf costume together. I first thought I could make a hat pretty easily. Then I thought a vest wouldn't be so difficult, either. I have a TON of felt, so an elf costume seemed well within reach. Even with a baby not a month old. The weekend before we had Bubbe and Papa with us and I thought My mom could help me whip this up! 

The hat came together really quickly. No problem there. I even embroidered "Tommy" onto the bottom (Benny was given a speaking part and had a name – why not use it, I thought!) with my new-found ability on my machine. It turned out great, I thought. 

Then I got tired. That Saturday evening (Benny needed the costume Monday, program was Thursday) Mom and I went to Target for some things and I decided to suck it up and just buy a costume. It would be totally worth it! Amazingly enough,  Target was carrying elf pajamas this Christmas! They were absolutely perfect. And it turned out several of the other elves on stage had the same costume. I am so grateful it came together so easily. 

On stage. I found out a few days before that Benny only had one line. And nobody knew his name was Tommy. Benny rocked his one line and I have always liked the name Tommy (I could just never bring Spencer to come around to using it for one of our boys), so I would say it was a win-win. 

The one picture of a spectator I got. I thought I was going to have to feed Chris at the school, but this great little guy slept the whole time!

After the performance. 

Our Christmas elf. 

Cub Scouts

At some point there are going to be a whole lot of random, out-of-order posts in some sort of effort to document this year. I have not been great about pictures, but there are some. I will slowly be going through them.

In July, when Benny turned 8, we entered the world of Cub Scouts! It didn't take long for him to earn his Bobcat. 

Benny has been really excited for this and every week wears his uniform and has his book. He has read through the whole thing multiple times by now. And whenever he has anything to be added to his shirt he makes sure to ask me until I am able to get it done. 

A friend took pictures of us at the pack meeting when Benny was advanced. I just need to get the pictures onto the computer. Will have to add later. 

We love our scout and are excited to watch him go through this program. I think it has been good for him already! 

First day of school

We now have three kids in school! I can hardly believe it. Benny, Andy, and Lilia have all been so excited to start school for pretty much the whole summer. 

I remembered to make signs as we were ready to head to the bus stop. It took four different markers to get them done since apparently all of ours are about out of ink. 

Janie gets to join us at the bus stop, now!

The day before school started, Spencer texted to suggest I take the little girls to the children's museum or the zoo on the first day of school. I knew I would need to do something, but, quite frankly, I did not want to set the bar too high!  We settled on a bike ride to the park. 

Janie's first ride on the merry-go-round. Despite what it looks like, she did love it. 

She also insisted on a solo ride on the "big girl swing."  This little girl thinks she is a big girl and ready to keep up with her big brothers and sisters! She's just about there, too. 

And this beautiful girl loves any chance to swing in the little kid swings. I don't ever put her in them, but she has a friend we met there to thank for this ride!

After getting home we had lunch followed by nap time for the three of us at home. Even Anne slept (I am hoping for more of that this year)!! I must say, it was a great first day of school for everyone!

Kids' Play

Andy and Lilia had a few nights of coming up with different "plays."  Nothing scripted and no real story line, but it was fun to watch them dress up and put on a show. They loved setting up the curtain on the mantle. 

The spectators. 

Taking their bow (Benny ended up joining in).

The obligatory "silly picture."

Dress-ups

I had wanted to make some princess crowns and superhero masks for a while and I had gotten a whole lot of felt to do just that.  Unfortunately the felt sat it bags for a while until I decided to make some beards!  I was doing sharing time in primary and wanted to have some kids dress up as some prophets.  And they would be perfect to add to the dress-up box and to use for the nativity!

Then I decided to go ahead with the crowns and masks.  They were pretty fun and the kids really like them.

Already growing up so fast!

Such beautiful princesses!

Such tough superheroes!

Here Anne is modeling the Rapunzel crown I made for Dominic and Jen's kids.  We had them for Christmas and I thought they would love some dress-up stuff for their collection.

Jen sent me these pictures of their kids.  I am so glad they are enjoying them!

Not pictured: The Incredible Hulk and Batman

Alright, alright.  Here is Hulk.