First Day of School

Is it just me or do they not look that excited? We had a good first day. I was prepared to get NOTHING done today. The kids surprised me and ended up doing almost a full day's worth of work. That is good considering we started late and had to look through all the books before they could do any work. Tomorrow will be a good day too, I just know it. The only problem I am seeing (besides not enough mommy to go around) is that Brech thinks he should be doing school too. I don't have a single workbook or plan for him. I see now that he is going to need some "school" too. Maybe I can convince him to just color a page here and there. Doubt it.

New Friends

Last weekend we took a mini-vacation to Minnesota. It was a quick trip, but well worth the time and energy to get there. We left Friday after work and drove through most of Wisconsin. The boys always enjoy staying at a hotel, but they were sad there was no time for swimming that night.

Saturday morning we drove to Rogers, MN and stopped at a Cabelas. Darren did some stocking up on re-loading materials while the boys and I looked at the stuffed animals. We also took time to visit the home furnishing section. Blase and Cormac had a great game of checkers while the rest of us waited in comfort on camo covered chairs and couches. Blase ended up spending some of his birthday money and bought one of the checkers games.

We continued onto our destination of Long Prairie, MN. My dear friend from my teen years, Jessica, and her family live there. I haven't seen them for over 6 years and Darren has never met them before. We had a great time! The boys enjoyed making new friends.

One of the most exciting things was getting to swim in their pool.

Cormac and his new friend. They had such fun together. Cormac is still talking about his new friend and how his new friend should come visit him for his birthday and how Cormac wants to go visit his new friend next weekend and how his new friend has play guns and on and on....all in one breathe. He is one excited boy!

The other "most exciting" thing about their friends' house was the go-cart. Here is Rex getting a ride. The boys are trying to convince Darren that they need a go-cart too. Blase is talking about saving his money for a go-cart or maybe Legos. He can't decide which is more important at the moment.

It rained the night was stayed. The kids had planned to have a camp out, so instead they had a camp in. They slept in the garage and had a party. Personally I would have rather slept anywhere but on the floor. Boys can be so tough if ask me! Maybe next time we visit them the weather will cooperate so they can camp outside.

Here is Blase having a last minute turn on the go-cart. We attended Mass with them and then spent the morning at their house. Not only did they give us a place to stay the night, but a wonderful breakfast as well. They spoiled us!! My boys can't wait to go back. Gianna doesn't mind one way or another at this point, but I'm sure she enjoyed being passed around. She doesn't get held as often as she thinks she needs to be here.

We also attended a graduation party for a friend of ours. The boys had a great time as did I. Some of my brothers and sisters were there as well as my sweet Goddaughter Bella. It was great to see everyone for a few hours. Stephen, Rex and Cormac all feed the goats. I had to give my city kids a lesson on feeding animals from your hand. Rex was too funny as he called them deer. Some day I will have a goat or two and Rex will have to milk those "deer".

Gianna, Aunt Mauri and Bella

It was crazy how much Bella has grown. Gianna was almost a pound and a half heavier at birth, but now Bella is bigger than she is. I just love Bella's chubby cheeks! They are just right for kissing. I thought it was funny how we dressed the girls in basically the same color without knowing it. I am so glad we took time to take a picture.

Garden July 2011

Here are some pictures of the garden the end of July. Our garden is not doing as well as it did last year. I should be sad about that, but I'm not. I guess after all the canning I did last year it doesn't bother me to have a light year for a change. I am excited that there are many zucchini blossoms. I don't mind making the jam and I have requests from my boys and Andrew for more. The cucumbers are doing good, but I'd rather they do bad! I was hoping the tomatoes would produce ten times more than last year - not the case! Boohoo!!

Just Another Thursday??

The boys are taking swimming lessons on Thursday for 6 weeks. I am not used to going somewhere every week at a set time. I haven't been to violin lessons for a year now. I'm sure I will get used to it in time for lessons to be over with!

Blase and Stephen "showing off".

They are already learning new things. Cormac is by far the child who needs the most work. He is almost deathly afraid. He must take after his mother!!

Brech had a good time watching. He wanted to go swimming too.

Believe it or not, Brech Earl took this picture. Too cute!

This was the day before our mini-vacation. What do you do before a vacation? Do you pack? Yes. Do you load the vehicle? Yes. Do you make sure the house is in decent shape before leaving? Yes, maybe no. Do you clean up pop off the walls, floors, coats, boots, shoes, carpet, door, hats, and everything else in the way?? Not usually.......

Can after can of Coke all over! Not what I needed to clean up before a vacation! I wish I could have left it, but I doubt that would have gone over well.

It managed to go all the way into the school room too.

Do you see the orange cap in the corner? Hit. Do you see the window at the top of the picture? Hit. Do you see all the white baskets? All hit. Every boot, shoe on the floor - hit. Every coat on the walls - hit. Oh man!

Blase's 10th Birthday

Blase's actual birthday was full. We didn't do too much that morning or afternoon. In the evening the boys had their first swimming lessons in a LONG time.

Here they are all ready to go. As it turned out they were not even ready for the first level of lessons. We switched their lessons from public to semi-private. They all have lessons at the same timefrom the same teacher. We are hoping that will help with their hesitation some.

During swimming lessons I took Brech and Gianna shopping for Blase's presents. Then we met up for supper at one of Blase's favorite restaurants. It was a good night for him. We ended up getting home very, very late so the poor kid didn't even get his presents wrapped. I literally asked his brothers which present they wanted to give him and then we handed them to him. He didn't even get them inside of a Wal-Mart bag.

I don't think he seems to mind a bit huh??

He was spoiled, as usual. He even got some money in the mail from both sets of grandparents and from Uncle Dirk and Aunt Twyla. He ended upspending part of his money on a big checkers set from Cabelas. Blase is trying to convince us that he can spend the rest of it. He has no idea what he needs to buy.

Here is the birthday boy with all of his loot. The fan is mounted on his bed for these hot summer months. The clock alarm has woke us all up at some point. The minnow net doubles as a butterfly net. The candy is gone, shared with brothers (and mom). What a great birthday - with NO CAKE. The following Sunday we had yet another party with some of our friends. We decided to have the birthday cake then.

We had ice cream cone cupcakes (not pictured) with ice cream on top. It was very good. The cupcakes were for the little kids so I used them as the "birthday cake". He was extremely spoiled by the Rivards and received a Nurf gun. There was quite a bit of talk by brothers about inviting the Rivards to THEIR birthdays next time. :-)

Long, long time gone

I bet you thought I would never post again?! Its been one of those times in life where life got in the way of everything else. We have had a great couple of weeks. If you recall - we were preparing for a couple of parties. Since then its been busy, busy, busy!
Busy or not, there is always time for school. Darren did a simple science experiment with the kids. I think its one of the first times he's done an experiment with them. They were super excited and had a million questions for him. I'm so glad he knows the technical details as I would have just said "It does this, just be happy we tried!" If you look at Blase you will notice one of his birthday presents. He wanted a top hat for his birthday and he received one from our friends, the Ostermanns. When you have a homeschooling mother you have to word things differently. When Blase asked for his top hat he was commenting on how he needed one for his magic show, but don't worry Mom because it can be used to play Abraham Lincoln if we wanted to. He's a smart one huh??
Back to the science experiment - Blase was having a great time watching. I'm sure Darren had something funny to say about the balloon.
This is my 3rd attempt at getting all of Darren's face into the picture. No matter which direction I tried, he would always conveniently hide behind the balloon.

School in the summer can be SOO fun!

Waiting for the next blog post can be so frustrating. Its almost as long as waiting for a chance at the bathroom at our house!!

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