Husker Fun

Samuel got to go to his first Husker game last week!  Friends of ours had two extra tickets so he and Jeremy got to go with Chris and his son Max, who is one of Sam's favorite friends.  Samuel and Max are peas in a pod.  They are a year apart in age but their personalities work together really well.  Last year Max came over to watch a game on TV with Samuel and it was young boy commentating heaven in our living room the whole game.  Anyway we were all really excited for Samuel to be able to go- until Friday evening when we realized he would have to miss football practice in order to get to the game in time.  Now, normally I would have said just go!  But it was playoff weekend and Samuel had already missed one practice that week when he was sick.  So Jeremy and I left it up to him but warned him if he chose to go to the game it would probably affect his playing time in the playoff game.  Want to see 12 year old devastation?  That is a perfect recipe for it.  So Samuel thought about it and asked both Jeremy and I what we thought he should do and then thought about it some more.  In the end he decided it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.  So we had him call his coach.  He wrote down exactly what he wanted to say and built up the courage to call.  He told the coach what was going on and that he understood it would affect his playing time.  And the coach said, "That's a great opportunity!  Go to the game and don't worry about practice!"  Want to see an elated 12 year old?  Have a coach like that.  (Really I should devote a whole post to how great Samuel's coaches are but I'll save that for after the Championship game tomorrow.)  So long story short they went to the game and had a wonderful time despite Nebraska's inability to win this season.  (If I was a football person I'd devote a whole post to the disaster of a season Nebraska is having but I'm not so we'll just let it go.)  Thanks for the tickets and the great time Chris and Max!

Headed to the game!

They went for the whole experience, Tunnel Walk and all.

 Enjoying a great friendship, if not Nebraska's playing ability.

We still love you Huskers, but maybe win a game soon, okay?

Fall Portraits

Hmm, the kids are a little pasty.  They're in various stages of getting over being sick.

Sick Ward

So all the kiddos have been vaguely sick all week.  Not miserable but not school-well either.  I sent no one, that's right, no one, to school on Tuesday.  Everyone but Thomas is back today but Nicholas is pretty sick.  Took him to the doctor today and got some antibiotics for an ear infection.  Hopefully we're on the mend!

Homework really piles up when no one goes to school (thanks for picking it up Grandma Raleen!)

1st World, Stay at Home, Catholic Mom Problem

My kids are sick so I couldn't go to Mass on Pope St. John Paul the Second's feast day.  Boo.

Thomas's Trombone

Thomas decided he wanted to try trombone for band this year.  We have three ex-trombone players in the family (Jen, Mike and Logan) but did we have a trombone?  No.  (Not that I blame any of their mothers, a trombone that no one is playing is rather cumbersome to store.)  After seeing the price of even just renting a trombone, I emailed the band teacher to ask what I should be looking for if I tried finding one on Craigslist or such.  She is not a fan of buying instruments like that, which I understand, and she happened to have a couple trombones that had been donated to her over the years.  Score.  We're renting one of them this year (way cheaper than through the music store!) and will buy it or a nicer one probably next year when Thomas has had a chance to decide if he's going to stick with it.  We have a rule at our house that you have to stay in band a whole year at a time.  No quitting in the middle of the year because for one thing, you can't judge if you like an instrument when you only know five notes and because sometimes you just have to stick things out. 
He's really enjoyed it so far (possibly aided by the fact his best friend Anthony is also playing trombone, but that's okay).

A Good Day Off

On days like today I think maybe, just maybe I could homeschool.  Then I remember the reason everything is going so well is because we haven't spent days and days on end together 24-7.

Samuel is baking.

 Nicholas is playing happily by himself.

 Philip is reading

 Julia is practicing her piano (I've been giving her lessons here and there and she's enjoying it and practicing pretty well!)

 Thomas is practicing his trombone which Nicholas finds both fascinating and hilarious. 

And Addy is making an impressively large mess out of a granola bar snack.

 

Gooooo BEEF!

Samuel has been enjoying tackle football.  His team, the Beef, just finished their season at 6-0.  They are pretty good and have a great set of coaches.  Of the 5 games I was able to watch only one other team came close to having as good of coaches as Sam's team.  They are good at actually coaching, not just yelling their instructions louder! 
Here's the tough guy:

Oh, wait, not looking so tough in that picture....

They have a bye in the first round of playoffs (yes, playoffs) and then will compete in the semifinals and hopefully finals the next two weekends after that.

A Boy and His Cat

Sadly Tiger has been in need of love the past couple days because Snowball disappeared.  I think our keeping a cat alive record is still less than a year.....

And an unrelated humorous story:
Mommy:  (While buckling Nicholas in the van) We are going to play at the Storm's house for Bible Study today.
Mommy gets in van and starts driving.
Nicholas:  My no want to go to thunder house.  My no like thunder.
M: (wondering where he came up with the idea of a thunder house) No you don't like thunder do you?
5 minutes later while getting back in the car after running an errand.
M:  Okay, now we're going to the Storm's hou....ohhh, the Thunder house, no, Nicholas, the Storm's house doesn't have any thunder.  It's their last name.

Well Played?

Mommy:  Philip, guess who is going to come to your class to teach Spotlight on Art?
Philip:  Who?
M:  She has brown hair......and blue eyes.........
Ph:  (no guesses)
M:  And she's very beautiful....
Ph: (eyes light up) Oh!  You!

I'm just going to believe he wasn't playing me.