The Spring Show2014

Since I had promised both sets of grandparents a blog post on Friday I figured I would do it.  I will do a recent one that they missed.  Even though I have not posted my Easter pics yet.  I wonder if it is to late.  There is a lot I have not posted but that's okay.  I will get to them sometime hopefully.  Instagram is the place to find us now days.  It is quick and easy and I love it.  Not only do I have an account but I let the big boys have one too.  A pretty locked down one but it has been fun to share with them that way.

The Spring show 2014 it was good.  The kids, all of them did a great job.  The tiny team not so much, true to every event at that brothers school.  Unfortunately my camera batteries died there!  I was not able to get all the videos of them but 4 particles.

The upper el, middle school and high school did an American Voices play.  They would tell some about a few of the presidents and important american, what  they are know for there views and influence that had.  It was very good.  They would sing a song from the time period.  Gregory was a greaser from the 50's.  He did the Freddie with his slick back hair.  He is on the top far left side dancing except the end when he is in the middle.



Sorry if does not play I am having trouble because of copy right laws.


This is the schools 4-12 grades with maybe a few kids missing.

During the hippie decade he held a love sign.



That picture was from the schools website took during a rehearsal because by this time my camera was so very dead.

They sang so many songs but they also sang this little light of mine.  I taped it for the tiny team.



Evans group the lower el did a play called go fish.  It was cute and they too did a great job.  Evan and his best friends were all clown fish.  Evan is the one with the silver top hat, his choice in clown attire.



They sang the cutest songs here are snidbits of 2 and a joke by Evan.





The tiny team loves to dance and sing to them too.  It's cute.



And here is their schools 1-3 grade.  They are so little and so joyful.


It was another great spring show.  I am so glad I get to see them and have these memories of the boys childhood performances.

Maybe I will even update you on some other fun thing we have been doing, maybe and hopefully it wont take me a month again. sorry.

Post surgery

We are back home and Brendan is out of surgery.  He is doing well, much better now as a matter of fact.



We got up there pretty early.  Traffic was no problem and the weather was fine.  We left at 6am to avoid it all and we got there with 40 minutes to spare.  To bad we could not grab breakfast he was on strict no eating orders.  Dinner was his last meal for a while.  He still can not eat.  He has been on a jello, juice, milkshake, ice cream, liquid cold and creamy diet today.  He is so hungry.  I should have got him protein shakes or something like that.  I caved in and let him eat some soft scrambled eggs.  He did well with them.

As you can see he was all smiles before.  He  did not like the gas mask we had to hold him down till he fell asleep but luckily that did not take to long.  Waking him up from it that was another story.  It was not easy he flopped around like a fish on a deck.  He was crying and disorientated and completely confused about what had just happened.  It was a while before I could calm him, even then he was still quite out of it.  But within a few hours and some tylenol he started feeling better.



His brothers rushed in when they got home to see if he knew what happened yet.  They were ready to tell him but he was ready to show them the stitches and holes, he grossed them out.  You can't see any of that in the above picture but he already has a lot more movement of his tongue.

Since we got home he has had a relaxed day and some pain.  But he is doing well a bit off but nearly himself.  Thanks for all the prayers and concerns.

January happenings

Shortly after Christmas we went bow shooting.



The kids have really been enjoying it and they are not that bad.

Evan got a shot right between the eyes.  Although that is not where you want to shoot to kill it but I do not believe they would ever live through that either.





Even I have been joining the boys.  I am decent at this, but I have done it since I was a little older than Gregory.





We have not actually done much shooting the past couple weeks since it has been unbelievably cold.  And not the normal me whining about temperatures lower than 70 but truly very in the -20's FREEZING.



It was a polar vortex.  It was cold!  They shut schools down because the temps were single digits and under, for highs.  The kids have barley been too school this January.  They have had snow days, cold days, ice days a broken heater day, tomorrow is a holiday and Tuesday a teacher in service day.  And Thursday?  Guess What??  We are expecting a second polar vortex.  YAY.  Actually even with all these days off the kids are not that happy about it.  They would rather be at school.


Gregory

They certainly have kept me busy here and I am back at school for one of those super condensed super hard January classes.  A 15 week upper level biology class that has so much more chemistry in it I would have thought, all in in 15 days.  Yup a week a day and I should be studying.  But all those have once again left me to neglect this poor blog.  However, that class ends Friday and then back to the normal semester.  And hopefully back outside.

The little princess do go out and play for a few minutes.  But mostly they stay in.  They can not manage to keep their gloves and boots on, so they come in crying and cold.

Faithy dancing away



We are still watching the Nutcracker almost daily.  I bought her 3 different ones after Christmas.  One the real one with live people.  Gregory likes this one best he will sit and watch it with her most anytime.  She loves the Angelina Ballerina one.  Or at least she thinks she does.  She begs for it sings the songs loves watching them for a few minutes but then dances away.  Angelina's best friend in the shows, name is Gracie, too cute.  Lastly she got the wonderpets one.  I think that is the one the tiny team all loves the most.  They are all cute though.  And YES I did get a video of the kids all dancing the Nutcracker like I mentioned here.  I will get that uploaded to youtube sometime in the next month so I can show you.

And both of the girls have been playing with their baby dolls.



They are just such little girls and so much fun to have.  Completely different from the boys yet so much alike too.

Thanksgiving 2013

We had not planned on doing anything this Thanksgiving day except watching the parade and just our little family being together.  I took the children down to their grandparents house last Sunday for Thanksgiving.   We had the big traditional meal then, plus the boys had it on Tuesday at school.


Gregory



I did not think I would be able to get them to eat it 3 times in one week.  Although they said their feast at school was the best one ever.  And the first I missed, I was sad about that.

At my parents house



Me and babycakes because she is easy to get a picture of.  Whereas Faith..



This is every picture of her lately.  You tell her to smile and she makes silly faces.



And why no pictures of the boys?  Well I could not get them to hold still for 1 minute they were to busy playing .  Even Gregory was playing like a little boy.




Late the previous evening the tiny team and I watched


(though they were not happy about it though)



It was so cold!  And snowed most the entire time.

the older boys march,


Gregory yelling I am cold!

and ride

Evan



In the Thanksgiving/Christmas parade.  There school is celebrating its 25th year of being in Chambersburg this years and this was a fun event for the kids, sorta minus the cold.

So with Thanksgiving essentially behind us I was not planning on any big meal.  But I keep asking the kids what do you want to do, eat?  They did not care.



Besides these two turkeys...

I had bought a big turkey a few week ago frozen and it has remained frozen since and now to late to do anything with.  The boys did say they would like a salmon dinner a few times, I love that.  But I did not want to go to the store.  Last night I stopped asking and started pulling things out of the freezer.  Yes I would do a Thanksgiving for my family and it would be from what we have on hand.  I pulled out a big beautifully marbleized chuck roast.  I had so many vegetables that were close to going bad I picked up at the farmers market in October I new I wanted to use them.  So with what I had on hand I whipped a day long feast of

* The best pot roast I have made to date.  So moist and so delicious
* cooked with it in the crock pot were all the carrots we had left, lots of celery because I love celery! and some onions for flavor and they are so good when crock potted (and yes I make up my own words all the time, a friend has also pointed that out this week as she learned 5 new words in just one of of being together, it is just genius I tell you) all day in delicious juices
* baked mac and cheese- mostly because we had everything, and I made 2 because it is delicious and it will come in very soon.  I don't know when but trust me it will.
* pasta salad because I had extra noodles to use as well as it is a great fridge clearer, and Jay loves it.  I can't believe how often he tells me he hates mayonnaise and how digesting it is but yet every few days I make him dishes with mayo as the base ingredient and he can't eat enough-silly guys, he does not know though ;)
* sweet potato casserole.  Baby cakes loves sweet potato and since I had not shopped I used what was on hand which meant multi colored marshmallows.  It did not matter at the end of the day...NONE of the kids would eat it.  ha.  But they all helped make it and poor Smiley even hurt his finger doing so, peeled some skin right off it.  Ouch.
* rolls, for Gregory, he loves those
*Evan made his special gravy to which I made my special turnip mashed potatoes for.  It adds more veggies in their diet, gives it a bit of a different taste but not too much.  It is 1/3 turnip to 2/3 potato and tonight it was a mix or Yukon and red because that's what I had.  I was good and not nearly enough.
* peas, because there is a lot of starch mentioned above so to give them smaller portions of starch I add pure straight vegetables.
*pears and applesauce
* dozens of homemade cookies, yum
*Plus I bought them ginger ale as a Thanksgiving treat.  It does not matter though they are so wound up.  I think from the sugar, soda and cookies but Evan is assuring me it is from the extra couple cups of coffee they had this morning.




It certainly turned out to be a good Thanksgiving.  A filling Thanksgiving.  I had thought they would not want Thanksgiving but I was wrong, they did.  They were excited and happy and helped make the all of the meal the entire day.





 It does not matter what you cook it matters that you are together.  It matter that you all contribute and you keep with the importance and traditions of the day.  My kids like routine, my kids like traditions, my kids like Thanksgiving and I LOVE my kids.

Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours!!!

Getting out of a fire

What would your kids do in the event of a fire?  Mine, who knows?  I would hope they would get out and run away.  What they really would do might be different, so it never hurts to practice what the should do.  And pray we never face this situation.



The kids went in a camper that they had converted a bit to smoke and mimic fires.



Gracie did not quite know what to think so she just threw up and ran out.  I did not expect that reaction.  But the rest thought it was funny.  The fireman was trying to tell them to cal 911.  And teach them how to talk to the fireman  on the other end.  But why he is having them call from in the house I don't know.



Smiley though just grabbed them phone and kept yelling you stink I hate you.  He was trying to be funny but he wasn't and missed the point of the practice.  Gregory finally got the crawl at the bottom to get out.



I guess any practice and exposure is better than none.  And they had a good time

up and away

As with all boys mine love things that fly planes, rockets and helicopters.  Sadly they have never been on any.  They want to fly bad especially to go to Disney but flying a family of 7 is thousands and thousands  of much more money than we have.  The other day they had the chance to "play" on the life lion helicopter.  Hopefully this will be there only time on it unless they are the doctor or pilot.  I don't know what it is called in other states, medic vac maybe, but in PA the trauma helicopter that will rush you to the hospital is called Life Lion because Penn State, Nittany Lions, Life Lion- Life Line, you get it I probably did not have to explain this.  But they though it was pretty cool.

Smiley a pilot?  Maybe he is good at video games and the panels and so many control in addition to the ipad looking screens the pilots said it is not that much different than playing video games.  I am not sure whether to be scared or encouraged?

They are sitting where the patient lays it is small and confined.  I was expecting more space like an ambulance but nope.  It is not bigger than from Gregory's bum to head.  They slide the gurney in there like a pizza in the oven.

I really can't imagine these two as doctors or pilots.  I could imagine them flying then saying hey look at that cool tree lets see how close we can get to it and not crash.  And if they did the doctor in them would just put ice on the boboo (yes they are still young enough for it to be a boo boo, although Gregory has told me he is now on to the och-es and scrapes stage, next to come the cuts and bruises) until they got distracted and started eating the ice like a bag of popcorn.  It is weird but happens all the time here..boys.

I do hope we can fly soon and I always hope it is not on life lion.

School is in Session

Oh wow I left off with the first day of school?!  Last month!!  Well then you can guess what I have been doing instead of blogging.  School has kept me busy.  Almost full time work week hours, busy.  But I am doing really well.  I am not quite getting every compound, changing, mathematical, non balancing equation chemistry is throwing at me but I have been getting  help and I will make it.  I even got the shower curtain to help HAHA!  And it can't hurt my little chemist crew to know also.



And actually we are memorizing them.

Otherwise it is soccer that keeps us busy.  Soccer is actually a break in the day and week.  It is nice to be outside.



They are on different teams this year.

Gregory is on a U16 team which means it is for people under 16 years old (in this association) down to 10.  Yes talk about an age gap.  The big kids are incredible bigger and taller than Gregory.  He is the youngest and smallest at 10.  But he holds his own.



Great job by my 4th grader playing with sophomores in high school!

Evan is also doing a great job.  He is playing on the U10 team.  His teammates are only 8 and 9, this league is better suited to Evan.



Some how fortune intervined on my busy life and had mercy on me.  All, every single one of the boys games match up same place same time.  Different parts of the complex, even there by week is the same.  Does that every happen to anyone?  Yes we never see a game in whole.  Last week I spent the first half watching Evan, second watching Gregory.  We moved around a lot but that was fine because it is hard to keep the tiny team still.



Well that and juice boxes, ice pops, nachos, french fries and and egg sandwich.  It was not going to smooth I had to pull out all the stops.  I had woke them up dressed them and through them in the car all by 8 so for them to go from sleeping to a brisk morning where I could not let them just run and play took a bit of... give and take.



The teams this year are not their school teams.  This was kinda a big decision.  I feel they should play for their school and support them but their school does not have a team for Gregory's age so I had to move him anyways, which meant Evan had to be moved also.  But it was a good decision.  The school team was more of fun and friendship but at their new club they are learning so much more, it is more structured and is pushing them, certainly Gregory.  And they do have lots of friends on this teams from the community, church and YMCA, which they do not see as often as their school friends.  So far I have been very happy.



And Evan was happy win or loose his coach bought the whole team ice pops at the end of the game.

Helping with Dinner

This little guy is my shadow and helper.  It is usually the tiny team who help me cook and LOVE to do so.  But as the bigger guys are growing up they to like to help because now they can do more than just stir.

Back to school

Yes it is that time of year.  For the most part we are all happy about it.  I started back at college too.  Moving through it but ever so slowly.  And  boy is it ever tough.  I am faced with much higher math than I took 20 years ago.  And I did not do good at it then so wow what a struggle it is now.

I used to be in this camp...



I rather enjoyed it there.  I hate math.  And now daily I am suffering through dimensional analysis and it gets worse.  My only reassuring thought is I felt Spanish was SO hard last year too and  I made it through it with A's each time.  Hopefully this to will become more of a second language.  After all there are enough letters in it.



And different SI units in the same problem. Just pure Evil I tell you!



Here is my first day of school picture.  Looks the same as last years right?  I hope that continues.  Then no one will know I will be over the hill when I get out of chemistry and physics graduate college.  It will be so very much worth it.

The boys headed back to school too.



last year I did not think they had grown to much between their first day of school pictures and their last day of school pictures but looking at this I think they grew older over the summer they don't look little.  They look older than their end of year pictures and much older than the beginning, wow.  Soon they will be in college with me.  Good!  They can help me with my math and I will help them with their Spanish.  We will be study buddies.



Hooray for an awesome new school year!  They were so excited to go back.  I love how I did not have to "pose" them.  I simply said stand next to each other so I can get your picture (And this was at 6:45 in the morning because I had to leave before they do, what troopers) and they grabbed each other hand in excitement and love.  Or possibly because they were tired and needed to hold each other up?  No, nope it has to be the excitement and love.  But it came out so cute to this momma, I love their pictures.



Gregory      10 years old
This year he is a 4th year which means he is now in upper el!  He is loving that.  He is back to being the youngest grade in his class.  Upper El is 4,5,6.  In his school there are only 22 kids in upper el.  They are divided into 2 classes.  His best friend is in the other class but he is loving being with the bigger kids in his class.  He finally gets to bring a bag pack to school.  They have such cool trips planned this year and some neat lessons it is going to be a good year for him.



Evan         8 years old
This year he is a 3rd year and at the top of lower el.  He loves being in the oldest grade.  And thinks it is cool he has an inside on what the older so therefore cooler kids are doing.  And its YU-GI-OH not very cool in my opinion but boys love anime.  He is still in the same class he has been in for the past 2 years.  They block 1,2,3 together in lower el.  But with the same class come the return of great teachers and friends.  He is so happy to be back too.




A quick selfie with mom because no one else was awake to it.

The tiny team was left at home against their wishes  They want to go to school so bad.  They miss their brothers when they leave until they come home.  So they wait.



For that blue van that brings them back their brother and added happiness.



Faithy waving hi as Gregory steps off.



And Evan comes racing home.



Good to have them all back and what a relief it is to be falling back into our familiar routine.  Summer was nice but school is too.  And just because it is the end of summer does not mean it is the end of fun.  We just came back from another cool trip yesterday I hope to get posted before Christmas :)