Ruckus

The boys' received the card game "Ruckus" for Christmas.  This has turned into a new family favorite.

It's a game that all ages can play, although the older ones are a bit more strategic.  It doesn't require any reading.  Some times, we play with teams to balance the deficit.  They love this game.  

S particularly loves playing games, so this is perfect for him.  It also doesn't take too long, so we can complete a game pretty quick, when he is feeling the need for some game time.

We have been keep track of the all time high score.  I had it until tonight.  

Even Miss K likes to think she is playing and steal the cards.  That always adds a new element.  

I would highly recommend this game.  Thanks Grammie!

Basketball fever

It is basketball season around our home.  

J and S are both playing basketball.  

It's a little insane trying to get them to practices, but we manage.  This coming weekend are their first games.

J is not the tallest on his team, which is amazing.  It's his first year playing.  There are two guys on his team that are really good, so we have some good guys to learn from.  

S is on a team made up of kids from his school.  That is really nice to know everyone.  In fact, both boys ended up with Christians as coaches, which is a blessing.

I have to admit that it brings back lots of good memories for me.  I played for over 10 years, and coached for a year.  It is fun to be able to share this with them.  I even thought about coaching one of them in the future.  (It's the mommy chauffeur that doesn't enjoy this so much.  It sure does make me appreciate my mother even more.  My mom was a saint!)

The bad part is that J is now in men's size shoes.  He wears a 7.5 in men's shoes.  Sigh.  Men's shoes are almost double the cost of little boys' shoes.  Let's just say that we spent a few pennies on his new high tops.  At least he found a solid blue pair like these, which is his favorite color.  

We will let you know how the games turn out.

Master bath redo

We are now working on our master bathroom remodel.  This was one of the few rooms that didn't get any work done on it when we moved in.  Now is the time.

Here's our current vanity.  The new one is on order and should arrive in a month.  It will be dark brown and several inches taller.  I will be so glad to stop stooping.

The bathroom needed some serious updating, but it also had some problems.  Long before we moved in, the toilet had been leaking and left unattended.  It did a lot of damage to the floor.  The linoleum has split at this seam and caused some permanent staining around the toilet.  I will be so glad to see that gone.

All the walls have this white paneling on them.  The previous owner was a smoker.  Every few months more orange nicotine residue seeps through these walls.  It's just gross.  I have cleaned and cleaned and it keeps coming back.  It is just nasty.  I will really be glad to see that gone.

We started to remove the paneling and this is the gorgeous wallpaper we found.  Stripes and dots!  Awesome!

So we have a great crew of wallpaper removers.  S and K actually love the job.  Go figure!

I didn't get any pictures of S, but he is quite the good demolition guy.  He stayed with dad the whole process.  

We still have more wallpaper removal and then floor removal.  Then we will wait while all the supplies come in.  Look forward to showing the "after" pictures.

Christmas 2013 at home

For the first time in our family's history, we stayed at our home for Christmas.  We had a wonderful time, but had to learn to make some new traditions.  

We learned to make a tripod from some boxes to take a family portrait.

What a good looking bunch!

The kids always smile better when one of us is behind the camera acting like a crazy person.  That is sure to get some good smiles.

Here's the sweet girl in her Christmas outfit from Nana.

It was the year of the baby doll for her.  She received a Bitty Baby, which she absolutely loves!

 The rest of the family got her baby clothes and accessories so she is all set.  She is such a good mama.  She takes her baby everywhere she goes.

There were lots of great expressions like this one from the boys.  They are so thrilled by Legos, Minecraft, and the Hobbit.

I cooked my first solo holiday meal and it turned out pretty well.  We ate a little later than planned, but that was minor.  We even ate on our wedding china.  The boys didn't really understand the significance, but it was nice just the same.

We had a good time just being together.  We watched a lot of Star Wars, built a lot of Legos, and ate a lot of good food.  Merry Christmas!

Miss K

Miss K is very talented in many areas.  She is developing lady like habits like carrying a purse.  We found this little purple bag at Wal-mart and she just had to have it.  She hangs it on her arm and toddles all over the house.

She gets excited about shoes and putting on her clothes in the morning.  She is definitely a girl.  

Never fear, she can play with the boys.  Here she is wearing the Incredible Hulk gloves.  

That's just what every girl needs.  The other day she was playing with a baby doll and a tank.  She will be a well rounded child.

She LOVES spaghetti.  Actually, I make it with rotini because it is easier to pick up.  Nonetheless, she loves it!

Remember how she used to be a picky eater?  Not anymore.  She still isn't crazy about vegetables and rarely eats meat, but she has found some favorite items.  She loves bananas, red bell peppers, raisins, spaghetti, cheese quesadillas, apples, oranges, and milk.  That girl drinks a lot of milk.  

And she definitely needs a bath at the end of every day.  

Fall soccer

It's that time of year again.  Fall soccer season has begun, except we only have 1 boy playing this fall.  I can't remember the last time we only had one kid playing a sport.  It's actually kind of nice not to be spend 5 hours at the soccer field, but don't tell the boys.  

J and S decided that they wanted to try basketball so they are sitting out soccer and waiting patiently for basketball season.  

W is playing in U10 division.  As always, I am so nervous for him when he moves up in divisions.  They base it on age and not grade, but he seems to be able to hang with the other boys.  Miss K stands on the sidelines yelling, "Go, go, go."

He has a fellow homeschool buddy on the team this year.

Their team is always short on players so he has played every position from goalie to forward.  

He even practiced in the rain!!!  I can't tell you how big of a deal that is for him.  He is like a cat and hates rain.  He just looked at me and said, "I am a man now and I will play in the rain."  Ha!  I guess daddy's "man training" has been paying off.  

Daddy has been trying to intentionally model or talk about "man" like behavior for the boys.  They take turns going to breakfast with Daddy and talking about these things.  I guess it's working.

He did inform me the other day that he is too old for a kid's meal.  They get so big so fast.  

First Day of School

So I am really behind, but here are our first day of school pictures.  Everyone started on different days, so we are a little staggered in our routine.

Here's a shot of everyone before the first day of home schooling.  It's our 4th year as a family.  We are switching our core curriculum and our excited about the changes.

W is starting 2nd grade.  He still loves super heroes.  All his school supplies have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Ninjago on them.  He's doing Saxon Math 3 and studying ancient history this year.

Big J is starting 5th grade, his last official year in elementary school.  Sigh.  He is starting an online math class, with an actual live teacher.  His class runs from 7:00am to 8:30am.  He is not thrilled about the class times, but other wise is enjoying himself.  

Here's S on his first day of Kindergarten.  He's going to the same private Christian school that W attended for Kindergarten.  Miss K had to join in the picture.

He loves his new dinosaur backpack from Nana.

He was really excited to go to class, until we actually arrived.  Then he froze.  He's been great ever since.  He loves the constant activity and seems to have made some good friends.  His favorite part of school is "chasing the girls, of course."  Oh my!

Miss K started Mother's Day Out this year.  It's Mondays and Wednesday mornings.  I haven't had a child start this early, but she is rather busy.  She gets quite busy when we are doing school.  She dumped 700 q-tips into the fan.  Another day she strung 300 jumbo sized cotton balls all over the house and into the toilet.  She has been enjoying school and comes home ready for a nap.  I think it's been good for everyone.

Our home school co-op started this week, so our schedule is very full.  I am teaching 2 Lego Simple Machines classes.  The boys all seem to be enjoying their various classes and meeting new friends.