Halloween 2015

Halloween has a lot of childhood traditions that I really do not think I am going to miss when my kids grow out of them.  In fact, I don't think I'll miss any of Halloween (only maybe 10 more years to go....).

Seriously, gross pumpkin guts, children with knives and tough pumpkin skin.  Why is this fun?

I thought Nicholas would like to go as James.  He's a train and he's red.  Two of Nicholas' major criteria.  Nope.  Did not like the costume.  So I racked my brains about what we had (on October 30th of course) that he might like and remembered that back when I only had two children and thought I should do things like make costumes I made Samuel a Bob the Builder costume.  Big hit.  He sang Bob the Builder on the way up to quite a few houses.  And wore it the next day after Mass too.
My mom made Julia's costume (thank you Mom!!!).  I think Julia remembered my version of Elsa last year (sparkly blue dress and silver scarf for the cape, I thought it was great for being made out of things we already had) so she completely bypassed me (thank goodness!) and asked my mom to make her an Anna costume.  It's beautiful.
We got Thomas's Darth Vader costume from a coworker of Jeremy's for $10 and found $3 light sabers at Target.
Philip wore the saint tunic and carried a light saber and was Luke Skywalker.  Not that he's seen StarWars.  But the big boys think Luke is cool so he must be.  For school Philip wore his firefighter outfit.  No weapons are allowed at school and as the light saber is what makes his costume recognizable I lobbied for being the change.  Thankfully he went for it.

We went around Mike and Jen's neighborhood with Raleen, Aliza, Jen and Skeleton Dylan (who I didn't think to take a picture of).  Aliza was Anna in her coronation dress.

Samuel did not want to dress up.  He didn't even want to join us for dinner at Runza.  He enjoyed his 3 hours to himself by finishing his book report and watching football in peace.  Maybe some day I too, can enjoy a peaceful Halloween.  :)

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.