Starting off the Wrestling Season

The boys got a slow start on wrestling because they were sick the first week of tournaments and the second week they had their big Robotics tournament (more on that when I remember to get the pictures off Jeremy's phone) and we had birthdays to celebrate so they didn't wrestle.  So this was their first tournament of the year.  Jeremy had to work so I got to take them (and all the littles), which I don't often do (to guess why, see following).  Philip didn't wrestle (thank goodness, it would have added more hours on to our already long day at the gym) but Samuel and Thomas did.  Since Samuel and Thomas aren't in the same age group this year we get to hurry up and wait for both the third/fourth and fifth/sixth matches.  The whole tournament started 40 minutes late and when we got there to weigh in at 10 (half an hour before Thomas's deadline) they had only been wrestling preschool/kindergarten for twenty minutes.  Fun.  Thankfully Raleen was with us and she grew up in the town the tournament was in so she knew where to kill two hours.  First we visited her aunt at the nursing home for a little bit, stopped in to see Jesus at Church, then we checked in to see how the tournament was doing (first/second grade just starting at 11).  Since we had plenty of time we headed to the park for playing and lunch.  When we got back to the tournament around noon Thomas's brackets had gone up and we didn't have to wait long for his first match.  He lost all three of his matches but wrestled hard and you could see that he's improved since last year.  Samuel's matches started soon after Thomas finished.  He won one and lost two.  He wrested hard as well- it was a tough meet!  We headed home around 3.  The littles did pretty well keeping entertained that whole time.  I really only had to wrestle Nicholas but unfortunately for me there are no medals for son wrestling.  I would definitely place in that competition! 
They wrestle at home on Friday and at Public the following week so we won't have to travel again until after that, and hopefully Jeremy won't be working! 

I missed getting Samuel in his singlet.  Maybe next week.

 

 Real teeter totters?  Awesome.

 

I was a little far from Thomas' mat but we had a good nook for the littles to play in so I didn't move.

Got closer for Samuel.

Good luck for the rest of the season boys!

More Inside Fun

Even though the weather warmed up it's still too cold and windy to go out and play in the sand with Nicholas' cool new excavator and dump truck from Aunt Pat.  So instead Mommy dumped out all the dry beans she thought she would use for dinners but never ended up using as well as half a bag of white rice to play in- almost as good as sand!  :)

Our Kind of Fun

Addy wasn't super impressed because this activity is noisy.  There's lots of cheering and "woo-hooing" and groaning when the boxes get knocked down.  Sorry Little Girl, if you hang out with us you'll have to deal with some noise!  :)

 

 





Birthday Celebrations!

We enjoyed a double birthday party for Thomas and Nicholas this weekend.  Foxes seemed like the obvious theme for Nicholas and Thomas picked Camouflage (as in hunting but we didn't emphasize that as it seemed a little strange paired with foxes!)  My mom made a nice camo cake for Thomas and my friend Jessica helped me with a fox cake for Nicholas.  It turned out really cute.

Happy birthdays boys!  And thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us! 

Happy 10th Birthday Thomas!

He's hit double digits!  Happy birthday Thomas!  You keep things around here exciting, sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a not-so-good way, but we love you and can't imagine our family without you.  May your year be filled with blessings!

Just For Fun

Here's Julia's 2nd birthday

 And Philip's

There wasn't a blog yet for Samuel and Thomas but here they are too (Had to find and scan these!  So much for a quick blog post.)

Samuel's

Thomas's

I love how you can tell what they liked by the theme.  :)  Nicholas's will be foxes!

So many to love!  :)

Happy Birthday Nicholas!

Nicholas, how did you get to be two? You're officially a toddler instead of a baby and doing all sorts of toddlery things:  talking, throwing fits, having opinions, jumping, being stinking cute and ornery at the same time...
For your birthday you enjoyed:
A doughnut you picked at the bakery for breakfast

Your favorite meal, spaghetti and blueberries (with rolls for good measure) for dinner

and plenty of fun in between!
You loved opening your gifts

 which were a toy fox family, a drawing pad and two toy tractors.

I'm sure you'll have even more fun this weekend when we celebrate with the extended family!
We love you Nicholas!

Cold Snap

Anyone else got too much energy for inside?

Yay for the basement!

 

Doll House

My grandpa built my sisters and me this doll house when we were little.  Julia got it for Christmas this year.  Grandpa would have been really happy it's being loved again.

 

 

Julia and Daddy made a little table for it out of the top of a stackable shelf that we weren't using.  Nice thinking Daddy!

 This one loves it too.

Cheer/Dance Camp

Julia was thrilled to attend an afternoon of cheerleading and dance team.  They performed at the high school boys' basketball game that night.

Look at those rosy cheeks!  Next year we'll put shorts under her pants so she won't melt!  :)

Family Fun

Homemade pizza lunch.

 Inside snow fun.  It was FREEZING outside!

 Too many stripes?

 Some fun with Addy

 Driving

 Still so cold the boys had to cuddle up for warmth.  Their own idea.  Yes, it's that cold.

Hidey-Hole

He was very proud that he emptied all the cans out of this cupboard and fit in it.

Still with the eyes closed for pictures though!

Someone Would Like to Show You His New Smile!

As of Dec 30th Samuel is braces-free!

Look at those nice straight pearly whites.  As compared to this.

Awesome

I do believe this is the best made-at-school present Jeremy and I have ever received. 

If I'm ever blessed to go back to teaching I'm totally stealing the idea!

Christmas Break Fun

We did some cookie baking and candy making

Some Christmas card addressing

More Christmas goodies (and the aftermath!)

Some project time

Even more Christmas goodies!  Philip dipped the most by far.  His attention span was amazing!

and to wrap things up- bowling!

It was a pretty good break from school I'd say!