Raisin' Some Hooligans

So I says to my kids "Its going to be time to go to the chiropractor soon."

So my kids say to me...

Blase - "Mom, can I bring my magic tricks?  How about the rope tricks?"

I answer that would be fine.

Stephen - "How about the street games?"

I am thinking, "Street games, what?"

So I says to my kids "What the heck are street games?  You are not going to play in the street when we get there."

So my kids say to me...

Stephen - "No, Mom, the games you play on the street to get money."

Then it all makes sense.  He means games of chance like finding the ball under the cup.  (Which he was doing for pennies the other appointment while I was getting adjusted.)

Now having the complete picture of understanding I says to my kids, "NO, you are NOT bringing  your street games.  You can't take advantage of those poor people who have to pay their bills.  Its not right."

So my kids say to me...

Cormac - "But Mom, we have to make a living somehow."

So I have nothing to say to my kids, but I smile and I shake my head and figure this is one for the blog.

Four Years Ago

Four years ago a sweet little boy joined our family.  He's a superhero kind of boy.  He's always ready to help his mommy and his daddy.  What a blessing God has given us.

Brech and his major present haul. 

 He is getting a big boy (twin) bed so he got new sheets in his favorite color - ORANGE.

 Every superhero boy needs a superhero cap and mask.

Fancy!!

New things for school from Gianna. 

 Star Wars toy from Cormac.

Color Wonder superheroes coloring pages and erasers which he ended up sharing one with all of his siblings.  He's so good to them! 

 A Star Wars dart gun.

 A movie with his favorite character - HONG KONG PHOOEY

 The Lorax movie and snacks from his Godmother and her family. (Thanks Mauri!)

 This is the superhero getting ready to shoot his mother.

 This is him laughing because he just barely missed his mother.

 Yummy cupcakes with a surprise filling.  They were like Ho-Ho's.

 "Happy Birthday to you.........."

 Using his superhero skills to put out the fire.

 Headed to church on his birthday.  Gianna loves her big brother.

I just want to pinch those cheeks and kiss those foreheads.  It should be illegal to have such adorable kids!!

Bit Chilly

We bought a new tent that is big enough for our whole family. 

Of course it had to be tested right away.  Saturday night the boys helped their dad set it up and then the four oldest spent the night in the tent with dad.

 It was 41 degrees when they went to bed.

It was 30 degrees when they woke up.  They stayed fairly warm in their winter sleeping bags.  I think they would have loved to spend another night out in the tent.  I am sure there will be lots of chilly camping nights in our future.  I need to come up with a good plan for Gianna before we can camp as a family.  I'm not sure how to keep her warm and safe yet.  Any suggestions??  

Computer Woes

I bet you thought I hadn't been posting because I was dealing with apples.

(I'm standing on a stool - I am NOT that tall!!)

Well, you are kind of right.  I have been dealing with apples.  So far I've made apple pie filling, apple butter, apple maple jam, applesauce, pickled crab apples, and crab apple jelly.  I haven't gotten through the apples as fast as I had hoped.  We are still doing school during the day so I'm canning in the evening and at night.

That isn't the reason I haven't been posting.  Last week was a rough week for computers at our house.  First the motherboard on our old desktop the boys use for school died and then my laptop wouldn't turn on.  The Dell service tech came to fix the laptop today (it turned out to be a plug-in issue with the cord) and we are shopping for a new school computer.  I have to say it was very odd not having a computer to access.  I did check email and such through my Kindle, but I couldn't reply or post on it.  I am so used to being able to look up a picture for the kids for school or print off a notebooking page.  We did have to change up our normal school schedule because I couldn't print off their school work.  Yikes - maybe I need to get a hard copy of some of these things we use all the time?

I'm back online and ready to post.  We celebrated Brech's 4th birthday over the weekend.  I'll put up some pictures in the next couple of days.  The kids also camped out in the back yard again.  So much happened for a change - and no way to tell you about it.  Typical.  I'll probably go another week before anything blog worthy happens now that I have access again.  :-)

Color Me Beautiful

A pretty girl coloring a picture. 

 A pretty girl coloring her hand.

 A pretty girl colored her lips.

Round TWO

A pretty girl colored her hand. 

A pretty girl colored her lips and said "Cheese!"

No more markers for school that day.

How 'Bout Dem Apples

 Some of our friends took us apple picking on Thursday.  All the apples you could pick for free.

 It was a blessing sent from God.  All the boys had a great time picking apples.

 Brech mostly picked an apple and ate it, then picked another apple and ate it.  His bag was not very full by the end of the afternoon.

 Poor Gianna was not feeling well.  I think she must have caught a cold in Michigan.  She has since past it on to Stephen and Blase.  We are feed our bodies with apples and elderberry syrup.

 Apples, apples, and MORE apples.

We didn't pick enough apples to first day, according to the boys.  They convinced Darren to take us back on Friday to pick more apples.  This time we were smart and brought buckets and boxes and an apple picker.

 Stephen was a bit too short to reach those apples.

So how many pounds of apples did we pick??

30??

good guess - try again

60?

another good guess - try again

100?

try again

HOW MANY???

225 pounds of big apples and 23 pounds of crab apples

How 'bout dem apples!

Off to make applesauce, apple pie filling, apple jam, apple this, apple that, apple every stinkin' thing I can come up with.  The boys are asking to pick more tomorrow.  Sigh.

A Quick Michigan Trip

So in the last month I have made two trips to South Dakota and one trip to the beautiful U.P. of Michigan.  I am not going anywhere next week.  Seriously.  I want to stay home for one week.  Better yet - TWO weeks.  Then I will consider taking another trip out of state.

It was great to visit our friends in Michigan.  The first night we stayed in Wisconsin about half way there.  Then the first full day we visited our friend, Anne for a bit.  Then we had a wonderful evening, complete with great food and wine, with Cormac's Godparents and their family.  We stayed there that night.

We made a quick trip to MI to see our new Goddaughter and attend her baptism.  Visiting with everyone else was just a bonus.  We attended the baptism on Saturday morning and spent part of the afternoon with her parents and siblings.

 She's a cutie and a keeper.

 We had a great view of the Menominee River from our hotel room.

 Way over there on the other side of the river is Michigan.  We stayed in Wisconsin since that was the only hotel rooms we could find.  It was it worth it for the view of the river.

 Gianna was watching her daddy and brothers walk to the river.

 Daaa dad

 All in a row....

 We saw them coming back and they saw us.  Gianna was super excited.

 We went swimming in the hotel pool with Darren's sister and her daughter Saturday evening.

 Brech and Emma were splashing the others.  After swimming we had pizza.  I stayed in the room and watched the kids while Darren visited with a friend of ours and his sister.  It was a great ending to a fun day.

 On Sunday we visited Gianna's Godparents and their family.  Ummm, weight limit??  NO WAY!!

 THEY'RE OFF!!!

 I can't remember how many they fit on there, but it was a ton.

 Gianna had a nice ride with her friend, Joseph.  

 Rex borrowed my camera to take a picture of "Paul Bunyan's ring".

 Rex had to show me the forts in the woods.

I just LOVE this boy's smiles. 

 This is a cannon - in case you didn't know that.

This was fort #2 and his favorite I think. 

This was fort #3.  He had a great time playing in their woods.  I think all of the kids are ready to go back again.  We must have been asked 20 times by Blase if we could move back again.  I'm sure that would make all of our friends out there super happy.

The ride home was long and painful.  Well, at least the first hour was painful.  Poor Cormac threw up 4 or 5 times.  I lost count.  We literally had to stop every 4 miles or so for him there for a bit.  He threw up the most near a town called Ralph.  How ironic.  After that he seemed to be ok.  We drove up through Duluth and by Lake Superior again.  We had such a fun time.  I wish we had been able to stay longer.  There is already talk about our next trip.  Thank you to all our friends who allowed us to invade their homes.  Please come visit us if you ever feel the urge.  I am more than happy to find a sleepy place for you and feed you too!!

It is good to be home.  As I was saying...I don't want to go anywhere for 2 weeks....or three....or four.