Made Me Laugh

Some Mom wasn't paying very good attention to Philip and his homework this night I guess.  :)

An 11 foot bed.  Still making me laugh.

Snow Fun

Inside in these pictures but it was nice enough to go outside too.

Happy Birthday Julia!

I realized after she went to bed I didn't take a picture of her on her birthday.  I thought I'd sneak one while she was in bed...she wasn't quite asleep yet, oops.

She had a nice day at school and everyone got it together and finished homework early so we were able to go eat at the Chinese Buffet for dinner.  She and Nicholas and I went to see Moana on Sunday while the other boys were wrestling.  Afterwards we went to Kohl's and she picked out a new outfit.  So overall I think she had a good 9th Birthday!

She's less squinty in the morning.  :)

We love you Julia!

Slack Line

We (well technically Philip) got a slack line for Christmas too.  The kids enjoyed it this beautiful week.

Daddy tried out the Ninja line after we raised it up higher.

It's going to be awhile before anyone can make it across.  We may have to rethink the obstacle line up.

And this afternoon we have to take them both down...they can't be up in freezing weather!

Ninja Line

Samuel and I worked hard to get this up this morning.  And then we didn't put it high enough for the big boys to do it without having to bend their knees which is really hard.  Poor Sam.  He was disappointed.  We're going to wait for Jeremy to get home and help because it's going to have to go pretty high up and more hands will be better.  

Philip had a lot of fun though!

Mandatory Outside Reading Time

Made even better with a snack and a water bottle.  Not to mention the gorgeous weather!

This may replace rest time this summer.

Playing Hard

It's that time of year when the kids start playing hard again.   Something about sunshine and warmer days must inspire them.

Philip built this amazing magformer vehicle.

Julia enjoyed an easel Jeremy brought home for a presentation I gave.

 I don't remember why the dinosaur is eating her bread....

Imagination at work.

Warmth!

He made a road with a little offshoot that he informed me was for, "when you have to go puke."  Yep.  We have a tendency to get car sick in this family.

It took him a little bit to take off again but he sure was happy to be riding!

What Nicholas has been Up to

He diligently loaded this trailer.  He got it for Christmas but somehow the front axle of the semi got broken less than a week later.  I emailed the company and they sent us a whole new truck!  Wow.  It's been played with a lot since then.

My little Valentine got me flowers.  (With Grandma Raleen's help.)

"Hug Bug, hug me!" he demands multiple times every day.  But how can this Hug Bug resist?

I had to write the N but he did the rest with me only telling him what letter to write next.  Did I mention that he has told me more than once that now that he's four he no longer has an S in his name?  It's been replaced by an X.  Except not on this day I guess.

He's "snissoring" in this picture.  Please.  Don't ever correct that word.

His first experience with Fruit by the Foot.  He was impressed.

 The sun!  It does still exist!

Catch Up

We've been busy lately!  This fall I put my name on one little Catholic school's sub list and I've subbed three times since last Friday!  Add trips to a couple doctors and the orthodontist, Jeremy picking up an extra one time job waxing the floor at John Deere, wrestling meets and regular stuff, and I've only been home with no where to go and nothing to do two days in the last two weeks!  I realize that sounds like Heaven to some people but to this stay at home who purposely avoids over-scheduling, it's busy!

The three littles made Valentines.  Nicholas diligently put one letter (mostly Ns but some other random letters too) on each of his Valentines.  Then he showed them to Daddy and they got lost, which we realized half an hour before school on Valentine's day.  We still haven't found them.  Fortunately for him he only has 8 kids in his preschool class so Mommy bought him another box and he was able to write on them before school.

Thomas wasn't feeling well one of the days I had to sub (of course) so Daddy stayed home!  They made this fun ramp.

 I don't remember why I took this picture but I like it.  :)

He Stands Alone

Wrestling.  As I'm sure you've noticed I'm torn.  There's so much to learn from it but so much disappointment that goes along with it.  Honestly, watching my kids be disappointed is the hardest part of parenting for me.  Especially for Thomas and Philip, I've wondered if the good of wrestling really outweighs the bad.  As I've mentioned, Philip cry wrestles.  Before him I used to look at the little boys wrestling through their tears and (judgmentally) wonder why their parents were forcing them to wrestle.  Now I understand many of them aren't crying tears because they don't want to be out on the mat; they desperately want to be there and crying is how all the emotion comes out.  It's hard on my heart to sit there and watch that happen, but the piece below put into words why I still let my sons stand there on the mat all alone week after week.  (The page I found this on did not list any credit to the writer on this, sorry Writer.)

HE STANDS ALONE
When a wrestler walks onto the mat, he stands alone. No one can run interference, no one will pass him the ball, no one will catch a pop fly after a bad pitch. He stands alone. In other sports, where individual scores are kept, the contest is determined in time, distance, and height. But in wrestling, the score is kept on a wrestler's ability to overcome an opponent in a hand to hand contest, where a two second interval at anytime can mean a win. If an opponent gains an advantage, there will be no help, no substitute; there will be no time out and all can be lost.

There is no place on a wrestling mat for a show off, the halfhearted, or the weak. When the whistle blows, a wrestler puts his ability, his determination, and his courage on the line.
As a parent of a wrestler, we watch the range of emotions from elation to heartbreak. We see coaches choke back tears to console a young wrestler who has given his all . . yet lost.
Winning with grace, losing with dignity. There is no true loss in wrestling, you either win or learn. We stand by them, supporting and cheering, but in the end, he stands alone.
Wrestling is the one sport that makes you dig the deepest, like life, it is the survival, the passion, the commitment, the work ethic and the personal accountability to fight and to persevere. And at the end of a match, win or lose, he knows that it all came down to him. Win or Learn - He stands alone.

This Is Fun

http://www.wordclouds.com/

Not During Catholic Schools Week!

The living room on Monday

On Tuesday

And today.

We either have not so bad influenza or a really awful cold.  Julia and Thomas are not that sick.  I kept them home today in hopes that a day of rest will keep them from getting really bad.  Nicholas and Philip have been pretty sick but I think they are both on the upswing today.

Just Enough

snow left for a little snowman named Addy.

Wrestling

Samuel is wrestling on the weekends for Cavalry and has a few junior high meets too. 

 I hate this picture.  Too big.  All those muscles. 

He had the match of the night last night.  And I forgot the camera.  It was the first Junior High meet, a dual against Public from across town.  Public has a great wrestling program, BN's (Samuel's school) program is definitely in a building stage. Public's crowd was twice as big as BN's even though it was an away meet for them. All the boys from BN who are totally new to wrestling got pinned.  The six or seven who've done the little kid league won some and lost some.  There were good matches but no really exciting ones.  Parent's cheered for their own kids but no one was very into it.  Sam had the last match.  He's dense so the boy in his weight class was taller.  Not good in wrestling.  They went back and forth pretty evenly (ask him for the blow by blow, I'm sure he'd love to relive it) in the last 30 seconds it was 5 to 1, Sam loosing.  There's pretty much no way Sam could get ahead on points at this point.  Then suddenly, he gets a reversal and is on top of the guy.  The crowd roars (for the first time that afternoon).  He almost pins the guy but the guy gets just enough shoulder off the mat.  Sam muscled him back down and got the pin!  It was very exciting and a great way to end the dual!  Congrats Samuel!

We went to a meet last week end that wasn't round robin.  Ick.  Also I forgot to steel my heart for all the disappointed little boys.  Ick again.  Philip got 7th in a 8 man bracket.  He really doesn't care how much he wins or loses, he just wants to win one match each meet.  He waited until the very end of his very last match to pull out a pin.  It was excruciating for me but he says he enjoyed it.  Good job Philip!

Thomas got 8th in an 8 man bracket.  I saw two of his three matches, one was okay and one wasn't.  He just keeps trucking along.  Keep working Thomas, we're proud of you!

Samuel got 5th out of 8.  I didn't see any of his matches because he wrestled at 8:30 while the other two didn't start until 1:30 so he and Jeremy went early and I came up with everyone else about 12:30.  There's a lot of wrestling season left...

Cold Day Fun

What Nicholas has been up to

Nick drew his first picture where he decided what to draw first.  It's a bunk bed.  I'm on the bottom totally covered up and he's on the top all covered up too.

Nicholas spelled his name without the board to match it up on.  Except he did it right to left and mixed up a couple letters.

No one enjoys a hand dryer like Nicholas.

Snow and Ice

We had an ice storm come through that kept us home for two days.  It was really pretty.

 Definitely a good call on no school.

Later on we got the first snow.

 See Sam's boot's sticking out the tunnel he's digging?

Some inside play when it was too cold to go out and the brothers and sister were at school.