good-bye Kindergarten, good-bye 1st grade

Today Matt and I helped host small good-bye gatherings in each of the younger boys classes.  Isaac wasn't interested in help, so we bought some treats and he ran his own show in his classroom.

John Paul's face tells you everything you need to know about his experience.  My boy was excited to be the center of attention! ha!  His classmates asked really great questions ("How do you say unicorn in Chinese?") and he's had a great semester with these buddies.

and Luke!  I wondered if he was too young to start kindergarten, and honestly we thought about not enrolling either of the little guys, but I'm so thankful we did.  And Luke is rocking the whole deal!  He has just thrived in this place with these people, and his teacher is more than I could ask for!

I also got to pop in and thank the cook who has provided breakfast and lunch for my 5 every day this fall.  Y'all, that's 50 meals a week she served to my kiddos!  You better believe she's one of my heroes (and also the State of Minnesota, which funded the eating! ha!).

I had a long sweet lunch with friends and then picked up the kids, one teary-eyed and red-faced already, and it was just the next-to-last day.  Tomorrow will be a doozy.  Bye to school, bye to Grandma and Grandpa, hello to the van for the next few days.

Even though these departures just get harder as the kids get older, we will cling to the truth, that it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.  And cling to the ultimate Truth, that we were created for eternal relationship, and that painful goodbyes point us to the one who will never leave.

Christmas program

This school continues to be a source of tremendous blessing for our family.  To think this is the second time that our family has received such a gift!  And now we'll start talking about "next time" and wonder who will be in what grade then :)

But first, the Christmas program.

Our elementary schoolers had been re-living the program practice for weeks so I wasn't surprised when I recognized the music, and even the specific lines in the program!  They were all just so excited to be up there performing.  Isaac (who detests a shirt with buttons and was tempted to be ornery about it) beamed the entire time.  When it was over he told me, "I just couldn't stop smiling from my insides."  Pretty impressive for a night in a button-down shirt, huh?

All four of ours are up there, see them?

Then after a brief intermission, the middle schoolers took the stage.

They were so good!  I loved hearing them sing, and mostly I love that these people were such a significant part of Julianna's fall.  To transition to middle school is no small thing, to do it in a new country and coming from a home school context is a pretty big leap.  And she has just rocked it, in many ways thanks to the amazing support of her teachers and classmates.

It is a K-8 school, but they do a great job separating the middle school from the littler ones, and Julianna is heartbroken to leave this place.

At the end of the Christmas program I got this picture of Luke with his prayer partner.  Luke ADORES his prayer partner, seriously adores him.  And it's such a sweet relationship to see blossom. I think the highlight of Luke's Tuesday was that he got to ride in the same car as his prayer partner to the Christmas program rehearsal :).

I have a picture of Julianna with her prayer partner too, but I'm missing the other kids.

Surely in the next few days I'll have a post with a huge photo dump of all these precious people!

Sunday night birthdays

Last Sunday night we celebrated Julianna and John Paul's birthdays with the family.

Huge treat that Andy and Kristi were able to drive up and be with us!  There are tears at the goodbyes but we are overwhelmingly grateful for all the time that we do get to be together - what a gift!  

My little guys will probably always think these big boys are rock stars :)

When present opening rolled around John Paul was asleep on the couch, sweet little guy had been battling a fever (and really I think most of us have had a touch of something this week), but Julianna was ready to celebrate!  John Paul did rally for the gifts, but it wasn't much of a rally.... sigh.  

And we said our goodbyes, and started in to the final week here in ND.  Full of many amazing people and events - it was going to be a biggie!

Saturday Dec 16 (our family Christmas, and then afternoon fun too)

We set aside yesterday morning to celebrate Christmas as a family.  And I'm so so glad we did.  In the midst of all that is swirling around us, it was a sweet gift to have a long slow morning (that lasted till 2pm!) to just be us, with some gifts, and a lot of time to play together.

First gift this year was for mom ;) a badly needed new wallet that I'm so glad to have!! 

and this is always my favorite part of Christmas - watching them with the gifts they pick for each other.  The little guys are still solid Dollar Tree shoppers, but there are a lot of treasures to be bought there, and they do a great job with limited resources!  And the older kids are learning to pool their resources when they need to, and investing a bit more in sibling gifts and really picking up some perfectly-tuned-to-the-recipient gems.

Lydia and Isaac knew the colored pencils they bought were exactly what Julianna wanted!

and Isaac is probably 100 pages into the 2017 Nat Geo Kids Alamanac - he cannot keep his hands off this gift from Julianna (that we both knew he would be addicted to!)

Matt (new hat) and the gift-ers :) 

Star Wars hats for the little guys (yay Lydia!)

We spent the rest of the morning opening every package and putting together every craft and it was so fun.  

And I loved having this centerpiece at our lunch table as something a little extra special!

Matt and I went out to do a little shoveling and Luke was the only kiddo who could rip himself away from his gifts to join us. He LOVES this snow pusher and did a number on the driveway, the sidewalk, and the neighbor's driveway and sidewalks too.  

Then it was out to the Snyders and we filled their house and yard with kids and laughter and boy will I miss these people something fierce. 

The temperatures have been perfect and these kiddos play outdoors for hours!  

Two John Pauls in a snowy tree house!

I think the ski goggles are snow ball fight eyewear protection? 

And these may be the snow ball fight instigators?!? 

Hungry and back inside for dinner.... the girls, 

and the boys.

Sweet sweet families that we delight to call friends.  

a party for an almost-12 year old

So Julianna has a knack for celebrating all month long when her birthday rolls around :)  And she's worth all the party too!

This year she'll spend her actual birthday riding in the car - I'm not sure how we've managed to schedule it this way, but over our 4 most recent cross-country drives we've hit John Paul's birthday, my birthday, and now Julianna's.  And you know, it's not the best way to spend a day, but we are all together, and that's pretty special.  So we will have gifts wrapped and packed on the top of the luggage heap, and I've tucked away a little birthday banner to hang in the van too.

Still, we needed a party with friends before we hit the road - she had a going-away celebration with her youth group friends on Wednesday night, then a school friends party on Friday.  For a girl who hasn't been in town long, she's managed to collect quite a few friends - and she's helped by the fact that these little ladies were in her life 3 years ago too, it helps to return to the same church, and same school.

She has adored being in youth group, just loved every single minute.

And her school too, such a sweet spot.  Friday afternoon I picked up 7 very excited 6th grade girls and we headed for home.  I had arranged for the school's beloved art teacher (and also the leader of the art club Julianna's been a part of) to come do mini-make overs for the party.  Mrs. E is a make up artist who does weddings and her work is beautiful!  The girls had a blast!

The girls treated Mrs. E like a rock star.  They hovered and marveled and just adored every second with her.  It was awesome.  

and then we drove to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner - and they bounced out of the van, "We feel like princesses"... luminaries on the walkway, fancy plates at the table, sparkling juice for their glasses! 

They played pass-the-present, decorated gingerbread men, talked and laughed and giggled and talked some more.  

And we had birthday cake too.

This is a really sweet group of young ladies and it seems like lavish blessing that Julianna got these months with them!  And a birthday party too.

ack, December is going quick!

Wow, I'm already behind and the month is just getting going!  In some ways we are feeling the time crunch (we leave next Friday) but honestly for now it feels manageable and I'm thankful for that.  whew.

I am still doing some home school ordering, still finishing some teacher gifts, still planning Julianna's birthday party, still thinking about how one of these days I must tackle the packing process but most of the tasks have at least been started, though few have been finished ;)

Our kids are snow lovers.  That's Lydia and Luke working on a fort with the sun setting behind them.... last week they got a lot of work done but boy was everyone happy to see Daddy back in town and they had a few things they were needing help on in the yard!

Saturday morning we had to delay our snow play while the girls swam their second and final swim meet with the Red River Valley Wahoos.  This team has been an incredible experience for both of them and I'm just so thankful.

Pretty big deal to be diving off the UND blocks!

Lydia looks so little up there!  I've loved watching the way the girls respond to their coaches (as opposed to their parents!)....  there is definitely a time and a place for both roles in the life of a child!

That's Lydia again, winning her heat!  Both girls are beginners and not winning the entire age group event, but it's super fun to win your heat regardless!

And big time to swim in a big time natatorium with scoreboard results too.

Swimming on a team with Jessica has blessed our whole family so much.  Matt and I really enjoy her parents, her younger sister is Isaac's close friend in 3rd grade, and I've been grateful for all the ride sharing to and from practice!  Their family came over for pizza and snow play after the meet.

And then that night Isaac had a UND date with his Grandpa.  Men's basketball this time.  And my devoted fan can rally and enjoy himself even with a loss (which is an important skill to develop!)

And now we dive into another week.  Isaac's teacher is coming to dinner.  There is still cooking and cleaning and laundry to stay on top of, and I'm almost done putting off the packing process.  The sound of luggage zippers is in my near future!

Dec 8th sunrise

Wow do I love living somewhere the sun is a constant companion, not an occasional blessing.

This scene only lasted for a few short minutes and it was over.  The days may be short (very short!) but a gorgeous sunrise is stunning, even if it doesn't show up till almost 8am.  And with sunset arriving about 4:30, I'm enjoying every second of daylight :)

snowy Monday

Well this was a fun way to start the week!  A sky full of falling snow and a noon dismissal!  We went to Grandma and Grandpa's for the afternoon and enjoyed ourselves immensely!

The attempt to get all 5 in a train on a downhill sled run was only moderately successful, but fun nevertheless.

And when the sledding ended, it was dump truck time.

Today after school Isaac and John Paul didn't even come inside.  They just dropped their backpacks by the door and went straight to the yard.  (On snowy days they typically dismiss the younger elementary kids in snow pants and boots so they were dressed and ready!)

Julianna was out right after the boys, and then Luke too.  A yard full of fresh snow is pretty great stuff and these guys played hard.

A little before 5pm I glanced out the window and discovered my boys were doing their own version of snow removal... unfortunately their efforts were a tad misdirected!  I poked my head out the front door and congratulated them on all their hard work.  Can you imagine how many shovels they toted to build that size pile in the middle of the driveway?

Unfortunately, our van wasn't designed to clear that size snow drift, so I had to break the news that the mountain wasn't permanent.  By this time our neighbor had also texted, "ummmm, do you see what your boys are up to??"  We both laughed.  Thankfully it's nothing a shovel couldn't handle - though I wasn't originally planning to clear snow while the oven preheated!
 

pet potential?

So for homework John Paul had to fill out this chart.... "Good Pets" and "Not Good Pets".

It might be my favorite thing he's ever written :)

{and yes, I helped with basically all of the spelling!}

those waiting room magazines

We are definitely in the pre-leaving stage when the to-do list keeps growing, no matter how quickly I cross things off!  ha! One biggie? dental cleanings for everyone :)

I called the dentist and asked if we they could work us in to their cancellation slots.  Thankfully the dentist is located 4 blocks from the kids school, and two afternoons this week I pulled kids out a few minutes early, got them settled at the dentist, drove back to school to get the rest of the kids, back to the dentist to wait for the patient to finish, etc ... it's a bit of juggling, but I'm thankful for great dental care so easy to access!  And I've got a few more kids to finish up in the next two weeks.

These guys are newbies to waiting rooms and they were plenty impressed with the magazines stacks! So much to choose from - they bounced in on afternoon #2 and went straight to the racks to pick their reading material!