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.

Spring is no snow

If it wasn't for the snow earlier this week I would say winter is over.  But since it snowed, sleeted and iced up, the following days have been in the 50's and 60's pretty nice.  I am not the only one who is tired of winter overstayed welcome.  My middle son Evan is too.  I found this poem he wrote about spring.  It made me smile so much.



I love how for N he but NO Snow.  He even drew a snowman  with the no sign.  He is not home this week but I hope he is enjoying the warmer temps, playing outside building his fort.

And there is no snow, sleet, or ice in the 10 forecast.

Snow and sickness

Those have been the themes of our lives lately, its that time of year.  With the sickness once one person gets it we all get it.  Luckily that is now behind us and maybe the snow too!

We have been hit with blizzards one after another.  Snow and ice and it has been months since the weather has been above freezing.  The kids are always home, and always hungry.  Last Thursday Pax brought us the biggest snow this year at nearly 2 feet and Last night Sam left us with a couple more inches but the good news... the 10 forecast is in the 40's!!!  Yes this stuff can finally melt.  We have 2 cars stuck in snow immobile at the moment.

(Two days since I started writing this)

And in that time we had a terrible ice storm.  I left for school one morning extra early (7am test day, with errands to run before hand) and congratulated the kids as I was leaving hurrah, for today!  The first time you will have a full day in weeks!  The day before we got more snow, light snow, at least compared to the week before.  Which ended up in the kids having a two hour delay.  As I was leaving Jay said becareful we are supposed to get an ice storm.  I had checked and it was not expect till later so I cheerful drove off.  Less than 5 miles it started freezing rain and my car was sliding all over the road.  It was scary.  Buses full of the older public school students were already being transported.  I was having a terrible time driving so I slowed it down and waited to text only during red lights.  But I made it to my school and when I went to put up the wipers they were all ready frozen.  I figured the buses taking the kids or in the case of mine their van were and big heavy vehicles.  That they would all be okay.  But as the buses and vans started sliding and accidents were all over the roads the canceled and delayed school after it had opened and kids were on their way.  It made for a logistical mess of everything.  But eventually mine went to school, by the time I left school it was fine.  And that was the last snow/ice day we have had lately.  Thank God!

And the best part it has been in the 50's the past 2 days and is supposed to be even warmer tomorrow!  Just in time to melt all the feet of snow for Mondays new storm  :(

I thought last week was the end but I guess not.  Howevere here are some pictures to enjoy in your nice warm place.



Faithy in her house as it started snowing.  They love to play in it.  And I spend an hour dressing them for it each time.



Her house a little later and it still came down



The backyard became grounds to many large forts.  Although you can not see it as they are white against white.  The whole world we know is now and has been white against white for so long.  It is times like this I wish I could have beautiful colorful flowers delivered to cheer us up.  But you know with all the snow I had so many friends complain how they did not get their valentines day flowers till the 18th!  I am still waiting on mine....I might be waiting a long long time too. ( I got nothing for valentines day!  zero, zilch, nada, nothing, except from my mom, lets wait and see how my birthday goes  Not even a text or a coffee, no wine, no nothing.) carrying on...



The girls playing in a break of sunlight.  Baby cakes really does not like the snow.  And I cant even tell you how many feet or inches they are on top of.





14 Fir Street





lots of snowmen have been built



And some of my favorites have been on instagram if you don't follow me go ahead my name there is karen_huse but I believe you can find it through a link to the left.  I love instagram and have turned more towards that but sadly I have been lacking in pictures there too.



the girls were so sad about their cozy coupes



The ice falling from the trees looked like sugar crystals


Just because of all this snow does not mean life still has to go on.  And here Faith and I had to take a very early drive up to the state capitol.  We never made it because of incredible traffic accidents and conditions but we caught a beautiful sunrise.

Me on my way to school, yes cross country skiing it



no snow days for me, well at least not a long time ago.  Haha these 3 are OLD pictures of me from Norway.  Yeah a snow day there?  Didn't happen we had school. We skied to it the had fun on then slopes afterwards.  Good times!!




Yes I am sick of all this snow but I have also got quite used to it.  We feel warm in days above the single digits.  Thankful on days we get no more.  We now laugh at when they forecast under 6 inches.  But the end is in sight.  And we welcome spring.

School Christmas Tea

December 20th the lower El had their winter tea.  It was another fun time that never fails to disappoint.  I can't believe next year there will be no lower El Christmas tea for us.  As Evan is moving up to Upper El and Brendan will be in childrens house not there yet.  So this was special as it was Evan's last one.  My parents came up to watch and help out with the tiny team.



Evan performed on the piano this year.  He has really improved and was happy to play Jolly Old St. Nickolas.  My video taping skills are not perfect.  I could not get it to focus in this clip.



He also read haiku he wrote



And the whole lower el sang some songs for us.



I can't believe how little they look when they are all standing up there on stage.  Precious

Here they are with rock those jingle bells.



The best part was when the invited the families up to sing the holiday hop with the kids.  The tiny team was in heaven.



Brendan wants to be like his big brothers so much and for him to get up there with Evan made his day.  Plus it was fun to dance and sing.



Again this video is not the best I kinda cut off Minal and Evan's head.  They were in the view frame of the camera but then when I downloaded it...oops.



And after it was all over there was cookies.  Which Faith was more interested in then pictures.





Evan and his friends.

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.

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 :)

First Steps

Again back tracking to before the kids were out of school but I do not want to lose these moments.

June 4th I took the tiny team to the boys school for a picnic.  The babies love to go their and have lunch with their brothers.  Their school thankfully has  times constantly we can go and join them for lunch.  But this lunch was special.  It was after the moving up ceremony.  In Montessori you stay with your class and teachers for 3 years at a time.  This year Gregory was moving up from lower el to upper el.  But something I did not know is one of his main teachers is moving up with him.  Yes a teachers he has grown with and learned so much with for the last three year will now be one of his teachers for the next 3 years!!!  I love it!  She knows him, his learning styles, his quarks, God is so good and has provided him such a great person to continually help him grow.

I did not get to many or really any pictures of the boys.  I spent most my time chasing the girls.



As well as a friend of mine, his daughter was also more interested in playing than watching her brothers.  They are all great friends and his 3 fall in the missing ages of mine.  They love to play.

But I did get one of them and Evan's ostrich.



He worked hard on the ostrich report.

I laughed at this one.



This was the boys motorcycle.  From when they were the same age as baby cakes.  We gave it to the school years ago and lo and behold here is Gracie riding it 10 years later!  maybe it is not the same one, but it looks just like it.

It was such a nice day the weather was perfect, not hot, not cool, not windy like it often is at these picnics just wonderful.  And babycakes wanted to take advantage of the warm weather and soft grass to take a few first steps!

Yes she is the youngest one I have had start to walk.  She was 10 months then.





She had no need to be nervous because she had the tiny team ready to catch her if she would fall.





Pretty Faith



And her pretty butterfly dress.  She is in a butterfly stage now she love them.  I wonder if we could be moving on from Dora?  I don't think so.  She knows the Spanish word for butterfly, mariposa, thanks to Dora and me.

Oh sweet Gracie, she got the hang of it but since then has not really "walked" much.  Steps here and there.



All my kids started walking at a year or just after.  Ironically all at Massanutten and we will be going there again in 19 days for her 1st birthday.  It's hard to believe she is almost 1.  It however will be harder to keep up with her once she is off and running.