Christmas Band Concert

It was a nice concert as always and Mr. Kellett DID come up with another word for his O wreath.  Glory!

Julia and Izzy love playing together.

Philip was a little hard to see from our angle.

Nicholas and the 6th grade band sounded great too.  

 Nice job everyone!

Fair Week- Parade

The first school event of the year is always the parade.

Julia and Philip like being in band together.  I'm sure they cause chaos and delay just like at home.  But in a good way.

Just Nick and I watching!

He got his July-October candy supply.

Jeremy rode with Platte Valley as usual.  Nicholas jumped on with them and I walked to the end which meant I got to hear the band again which was fun.

The day was fun as always!

 

Kitties

Since Dexter's disappearance last spring we have been without a cat.  The boys had been askign and some friends had two big litters of kittens at their place so we got Jerry (orange) and Larry (brown).  The kids did not know they unwittingly named the cats after my uncle and his brother...

They are adorable and very loved.  But maybe not so much by Thomas.

Band Concert

The band concert was nice as always.

Nick played snare 

and base drum.  Eagle Summit's March was a highlight as at every spring concert.

Philip and the junior high band sounded good too!

High school was amazing!

It was our last year for having kids in 3 of the four bands.

So cooperative...

Eventually.
 

Happy Halloween

 

From Timmy Failure (minus Total the polar bear. He did go along trick or treating though.)

A black ops guy.

And Remi

Plus Ratatouille!

Nick went with Sam, Oscar and Jacob (and me).  It was so cold!!

Philip went with Cal, Dylan and Nate.  They got to freeze by themselves.

First Day of School!

8th grade

Sophomore year

5th grade, with a brand-new to our school and community teacher.  It's not often Nicholas is a blank slate to teachers.  Every one he's had so far has also taught at least one of his siblings or known our family first.

Ready to go!

Thomas was our only big transition this year and he moved in a week and a half ago so this year's first day was pretty low key.

And after 14 years of loading kids on the bus we realized Julia goes to school and comes home from school at the same time as Philip and Nicholas 8 out of 10 times a week while she has early band and 10 out of 10 time once early band is over in November, so she's taking them.  She finished her drivers ed driving earlier this summer (which includes the drivers test) and we sent off for her school permit last week.  I'll drive the boys on Tuesday and Thursday mornings when she has early band and take Nick on the Wednesdays BN has late start but St. W doesn't.  Samuel and Thomas could never take the littles because they had both early band and lifting in the fall and some sport practice every day after school so their leaving at the same time ratio was more like 1 out of 10 times.  Philip and Nicholas are getting up about half an hour later than other years...but that is largely due to no longer needing the "cartoon buffer" which means they had to be ready early in case the bus was early and then watched tv with their extra time.  They are skipping the tv time and leaving for school about ten minutes later than they got on the bus too.  So far it seems to be working well!

Last Evening of the Summer

at least for these kids.

Samuel and Thomas are both moved in at school but neither one starts classes until the 21st.  I don't start till the 24th (insert happy dance here)! 

Announcing a New Family Member...

Dexter!

Go Away finally did go away in June.  He died slightly dramatically one evening before dinner.  He came out from behind the house, collapsed and lived long enough for everyone who wanted to to say goodbye.  We think we had him 7 or 8 years.  He was a good cat and smart enough not get hit on the road.  Hopefully Dexter will be that smart too.

Jeremy had a coworker who had a kitten that just showed up so we figured it was time for a new cat.  Before the mice try to move in this fall.

Nicholas is in love.

Even Thomas played with him a little.

He's littler than we expected.  Eventually he'll be an outside cat but not yet.  He'd get eaten the first night at this point.

Sam made this list of name possibilities.  They are all plays on names of other cats we've had.

In the end the three younger kids each came up with a name, wrote it on a slip of paper, put some cat food by each choice and then "let the cat choose."  The other possibilities were Comrade and Tucker.

Nick was so excited he wanted a friend over soon after we got Dexter so he could show him off.  Ainsley was appropriately impressed.

Here's to not using up your nine lives too quickly Dexter!