homeschool swim team

This year was our first homeschool swim team experience.  The minimum age is 9, so Julianna is the only one who qualified.  

They practiced Saturday mornings for about three months and then the meet was held March 29. 

It was her first experience with any competitive swimming and she had a blast!  There were only two homeschool girls who wanted to join the team - but that wasn't too much trouble, just one more chapter in the friendship book these two have been writing for the past decade :) 

Proud of these girls, and their good attitudes about getting up early on Saturday mornings (they had to be in the water at 8am - that's an early morning for them!  thankfully practice was at a pool walking distance from our house!)

it's official (his first piece of Luke 4 artwork)

Well I knew this was just around the corner.  Luke 4 is official.

He worked on this last night while I finished dinner.  It was one of those crazier nights with guests for dinner and a late arriving husband and a meal which required quite a bit of last minute kitchen prep and that was before I decided to make a sponge cake to go with our strawberries.

but in the midst of all the kitchen shuffle Luke brought me this and I knew I needed a picture!  [Also, I was thankful he was busily occupied with stickers and for one of our guests who helped him get his letters on in the right order!]

dyeing eggs 2016

Sunday afternoon, time to do a little egg dyeing.

John Paul is getting ready to knock over that cup of egg dye, despite Julianna's attempt to help him keep it up right.  And that's why we dye eggs outdoors.  And only once a year :)

Now Lydia, she didn't knock over any cups of egg dye.  Or drop any eggs on the ground.  Or dye her fingers green.  It's amazing what an 8 year old can do!

And Luke.  He had himself a good time.  So did everyone else.  I just didn't capture many moments on camera.  (It was a fairly hands on afternoon, if you know what I mean.)

and just like that, Holy Week is here.  Snuck up on me this year.  If the skies stop dripping by Thursday we will be outdoors working on our Easter garden.  Last year I let the kids run with it and do it all on their own.  It didn't turn out exactly as I hoped, but maybe that's not the point.  Still, I'm feeling a little hopeful that this year's will look more like a garden and less like a pan full of brown dirt.  ha!

Luke 4

Luke loves to have his name written "Luke 3"... if it's his name on a piece of art he colored, or Mom is labeling paper cups at a party, or signing his name to a note, he wanted it "Luke 3".  When he tries to write his own name he even writes LUKE 3.  

but not anymore.  It's Luke 4 now.  

Too bad there's no one around to give Luke a helping hand with his gifts!  ha!  who says birth order doesn't matter??!?!!?

and somehow I missed a picture of him with his big gift.... his new (Isaac's old) bike!  He was delighted and so ready for a bike with peddles!    more on that later....

Much anticipated lunch date with Daddy.

Back home from lunch and off to his birthday party.  We walked the big kids to school (but I let Isaac skip because I am a softie and it was his birthday two days ago and 1st graders should skip school for birthday parties....)  then we headed on to a nearby mall and met some friends at a ball pit for a BIRTHDAY PARTY!

but first.... why not open a gift?  Yes! a tadpole catching net!  It's what his heart has been hankering for!

Birthday with friends and cupcakes at a ball pit with slides and a trampoline.  Four year old happiness.  See his shy sweet smile?!?

Then we picked up the big kids and walked home and he fell in the pond catching tadpoles (low point of the day).  I held his soggy hand and walked his soggy self back home where a new change of clothes helped immensely.  So did the sight of Daddy riding up on his bike and ready to help him get riding on his own new wheels.

And after bike riding practice it was inside for pancakes and we even had a few extra faces at the table (standard operating procedure on the weekends!) and it was off to bed for the weary birthday boy.

So after Luke went to bed Matt and I talked about lowering the seat on his new bike... it was as low as it would go and still not quite low enough.  Thanks to four zillion hours on his balance bike he's totally got the hang of bike riding.   But the seat was just not low enough for him to start and stop on his own.

thanks to our good friends for a good idea, the next morning Matt removed the seat, cut a piece of 2x4, chiseled out a small hole in the center, shoved it on to the seat post and covered it with a hand towel.  Add in plenty of duck tape and voila.... a seat that is the PERFECT height for a just turned 4 year old.

And now he's got it! The low seat is just what he needed and this boy is the newest member of the bike riding club.  Stops like a pro and starts with just the littlest bit of help.

Everyone is proud of little bro, and Isaac wanted a picture of the two of them on the bike they "shared".

but the biggest accolades go to John Paul who cheered for this little brother for the entire morning.  he certainly won the encourage-er award today!

We love you Luke 4!

the day he turned 7

He was super surprised at this gift!  A new bike!  So fun to surprise him with something he really wanted!  {this is approximately three minutes after he walked out of his bedroom and discovered the bike... hence the blurry eyes!}

He is a great rider, aggressive, brave, confident, fast.  And his bikes was getting too small.  And it seemed like a great time to add in some gears.  He's hooked.

His pick for breakfast.... roll up pancakes (kind of like crepes) with bananas, strawberries, and powdered sugar.

With his growing stash of cash (John Paul started getting allowance on his 5th birthday) he's able to fund his own birthday purchases.  This is a BIG DEAL in our family.  The middle bro picked Gatorade for both his brothers :)

This is a birthday picture but also very much an "every day" picture.  On his top bunk, reading... my boy reads hundreds of pages a week.  He has a voracious appetite for books (got that from his Momma.... and the many other Crissman readers in his family tree!)

After a bit it was time to change into his new ND gear and head outside on his new wheels.

Matt came home to meet Isaac for their lunch date. They rode bikes.  Obviously.  [Doesn't Isaac look really grown up in this picture!?!?]

Yum!

When he isn't riding his bike he is catching tadpoles.  The ponds in our complex are brimming and the nets are never empty for long.  The boys shoes and sleeves are constantly wet - and sweet Luke was our first fall-in-the-pond-casualty so far this spring.... fell in on his birthday, drenched from head to toe.  ack!

Still grinning big at his birthday dinner.  (He picked hotdogs, mac n cheese and Doritos.  My boy likes his groceries imported! ha!) (also, I don't think he's going to grow up to be a dietician.  But you never know...)

We love you Buddy!  I am so glad to call you mine!  Happy 7th birthday!

yesterday (just a few pictures)

I had Isaac practice writing some characters in a layer of flour spread on a pizza pan.  I think we'll do this again - he doesn't spend much time working on character writing, but we might do more if I get out the pizza pans :)

Luke is becoming a very diligent color-er.  He always prefers markers, almost always sticks to just one color (but often different shades) and has a very cute "serious face".  

At school pick up Julianna held the class sign and led her class as they marched out.  She is well liked by her classmates and enjoyed by her teachers.  I'm proud of this little girl of mine!

Pears for the walk home.

We almost always spend some time outdoors after walking home from school.  Sometimes I need to run in and pop something in the oven, and then I can head back out for a bit.  Yesterday this little neighbor (one of my favorites!) was outdoors too and he loved Isaac's tiger hat!  I mean, he LOVED it!  He would pat Isaac's hat, squeal, giggle, squat to get a good look at Isaac, squeal some more, laugh so hard he fell over, etc.

See that big grin of his?!?!  He is just the cutest little guy!  And he could not get enough of Isaac in the tiger hat!

Tomorrow is Isaac's birthday so we'll be celebrating all day long!  He's requested roll-up pancakes (kind of like crepes) with powdered sugar and strawberries for breakfast. Yum!

happy places

Guess who loves to cut lettuce?  (with a table knife, obviously)

This is Luke's new happy place while I cook dinner.  We might start having salad every night :)

Also, speaking of happy places, after a too long hiatus I decided it was time to go back to the International school library.  Not a moment too soon.  I'm now committed to getting there every other week before we quit school for the summer.  It takes a good chunk of time, and with our afternoons occupied with Chinese school time can seem precious.

But love for the library is precious too, so we're just going to push some homeschool to the side and make it happen.

It's a big birthday week here, so there will be plenty of happy in our home!  More to come...

pineapple on a stick

One of my favorite things about spring in our city.

juicy, messy, yummy.

and these pictures are all from last weekend... it's gotten a good bit chillier in the past week!

a soccer birthday party

[I'm in one of those grumpy internet moods where I want to quit everything that requires internet access.  ugh.  it seems that almost everything I tried to do today that required a functioning internet connection was a gigantic waste of time.  sigh....  but these pictures did finally load, and I'm gonna scramble to get some words on this post.]  

We celebrated Isaac's birthday last Saturday with a soccer party.  Originally I was planning to have it the weekend of the 12th but our weather was so amazing last week I changed the date on Wednesday!  I just didn't want to risk cold drizzle by waiting another week!  Our early March has just been incredible this year!

We gathered at our kids school field for some soccer fun.  

It was a large group, with lots of younger siblings and parents visiting and a fun time for just about everyone.  

Matt led some drills and then a scrimmage game.  Unfortunately during the game Isaac took a hard hit, bad fall, and got a concussion.  We didn't realize how bad it was at the time and he was back in the game fast.  And then did cake, and presents, and all with a concussion.  He is one tremendously tough kid.  

 

He told me during soccer season (last fall) that this is the cake he wanted for his birthday.  I got lucky in that a soccer field is the same dimensions (roughly) as a 9x13 :) 

You can see a shadow of the astroturf burn mark on his temple here.  But still smiling.  this is my Isaac

By midday he had collapsed into a lethargic lump on his Daddy's lap, and then threw up, and while his pupils were focusing/tracking his left eyelid was really droopy.  I called our emergency medical contact and they talked me through how to best help him.  

He was pitiful.  But by Sunday morning he was doing better and I think today (Monday) he is back close to 100%.  Isaac is one tough kid.  And he is almost 7!  can't believe it!  

I'm thankful we get another chance to celebrate him when his birthday-day rolls around next week.  He still says he had a good party, but he didn't like getting a concussion.  Which is reasonable. ha!

our new toy

One of our big realities is that our lives are full of people that come and go, come and go.

This fall we gained a new babysitter, Maja, who was a great fit for our family.  And she came complete with a little sister, Ailah, who quickly became a friend for my girls .  It is such a sweet arrangement because when Maja comes she always brings Ailah.... the boys get a sitter and the girls get a friend, which is a nice compromise for these in-between years when the girls are really growing up but still too young to babysit (in the evenings, and for longer stretches ... they do babysit for shorter afternoon bits of time).

And now Maja and Ailah are leaving.  Ugh.

Maja will be hard to replace, and I'm especially bummed because the "babysitter with little sister" arrangement was working so splendidly.

One silver lining is that Ailah gifted this new toy to our girls.  It's a hover board.  Runs on rechargeable battery.  (and it weighs 25 pounds, which is why it's not going home with Ailah!) Once you get your balance you control the board by leaning.  Lean forward = go forward.  Lean farther = go faster.  It's super sensitive.  The girls say "if you want to turn left just think about turning left, it's like it reads your mind"

They've gotten pretty good, quickly.

but little bro was bummed.  There is a minimum weight to make the hover board work, and he didn't weigh enough.  But what Isaac lacked in body weight he made up for in creativity.

I wish you could have seen the smirk on his face when he marched out of our house, wearing his backpack.  I took one look at his Cheshire Cat grin and knew what he had done - he loaded hand weights in his backpack to make himself heavy enough to ride.

Julianna helped him get on and get started, but he picked it up quick, and now he's off to the races (always with the backpack!)

And the little boys?  Well at the rate they are growing John Paul might make weight for the hover board before Isaac, but we have instituted a firm "no little boys on the hover board, backpack or not" rule.  John Paul is a bit of a danger to himself and others on his bike, the hover board seems like a bit much :)

And Luke, this boy might never leave his balance bike behind.  He zips and zooms circles around the hover-board-ing big siblings, earning shrieks of "Luke, watch out, I'm gonna crash".  What can I say? He fully embraces his little brother role!

the birthday day (for Matt)

February 28th marks the next round of birthdays here at our home.  Matt, then two weeks later Isaac (March 16) and Luke (March 18).

Much delight in gifting to their Daddy.  These boys are smitten.  Both of them are so precious when he is traveling.  They talk about him constantly.  No man is bigger, stronger, faster, better than their Dad.  

I tease Matt and tell him he better enjoy his hero status while it lasts :) 

Speaking of heroes... after our morning time we went to lunch with friends.  Isaac was already prepared for his little friend's afternoon Superhero birthday party.  

And we brought Julianna's large cookie cake out to the street side restaurant and sang and celebrated and feasted. 

Then Matt left for a long (road) bike ride and I followed the little guys around outside.  First up, a little work on the trees.  

Then we stumbled upon this chicken, recently purchased and on it's way to it's new home.  I talked to the lady who bought it and she said she was going to keep it as a pet since her son wanted a chicken?!?!  I thought that was a terrible idea but kept my mouth shut.  She lives in an apartment high rise.... a chicken pet?  

My guess is that thing is gonna be somebody's supper by the end of this week.  

More superhero-themed sword fighting.  Boys and sticks.  I cannot explain the attraction. 

See.  Boys and sticks. Exactly.  

Matt came home from his ride and we rounded up the children and headed inside for dinner and chocolate cheesecake dessert.  Yum.  And happy birthday.  

[I know, it's ridiculous that I didn't get a picture of Matt on his bike.  Next time.]