swim meet 2017

This was a big year for my swimmers - Julianna back in the pool and soooo confident compared to last year!  I think that was my favorite part!  And Lydia!  year one! (minimum is 9 years old ... next year I'm hoping Isaac is on the team too!)

And, another fun tidbit!  It worked to FaceTime Matt for two of their races.  I would call right before the swimmers got to their lanes, he would watch the race, and then I'd call back later for the next race! It took a bit of texting and some communication blips, but it worked.  (We didn't really get to visit with him, for one of the races he was in a meeting and not supposed to be on his phone! ha! and for another race he was on a bus and I have no idea who that guy is but I'm sure Matt will fill me in when we get a chance to visit....  The time change has made communicating a bit tricky - we did squeeze in some FaceTime with the family today and I'm staying up late tomorrow night hoping for a nice long chat just me and him - for the first time since he left! ugh.)

Here they are after their first races...

Then Julianna got 1st place (in the second heat) for her 25 breaststroke.  She was plenty pleased with that!

My favorite picture of John Paul from the day :)  It's a lot of swimming!

We had just enough homeschool swimmers to send a 4x25 relay team!  They were just pumped to be in the race!  (Lydia and Kayleigh swam 'up' an age group to make a full relay.)

The entire day is so well run and I'm just grateful Homeschool athletes are invited to participate!

And after their race! holding their ribbons and watching the boys homeschool team race!

My little ladies have such sweet friends and I'm so thankful for these girls (and their mamas!)

And then we loaded the van to head back into town and this somewhat weary Mama pulled out one last treat to top off a fun day!  But whew, I was exhausted (and I had a schedule phone call that evening too!)

yay for another successful swim season!

just jumping in

I have half-written posts about both boys' birthdays, and their birthday parties, but I'm missing many photos.  As my phone gets older the photo quality is getting worse, and I often find myself reaching for Matt's phone to take a picture.  Which works great when he is around, and then he's gone and I don't have the pictures!  ack.

Last Monday was the prettiest day we have had in months! Sunshine!  We scrambled through some school and then took beach towels outside and I read-aloud in our history books.  (We're making steady progress .... reading about Abraham Lincoln's childhood now, then on to the Alamo and Harriet Tubman.)

Unfortunately the sun and warm did not stick around and we continue to slog through an unseasonably cold March.  High of 52 yesterday, and brrrr, it's a chilly wind.

Matt was home Friday so we canceled home school and played Ticket to Ride (the kids' birthday gift to Matt).  These guys are really getting into strategy games.

Now we plow into an incredibly busy week.  The girls' bible club helped lead worship this morning.  Then after a quick lunch we went to see a piece of Julianna's art that was displayed in an International Schools art show downtown.

That's her owl.  'Hoot' is the name of her piece :)

Tomorrow is our most "normal" day for the week ahead, and Mondays usually kick my tail!  Then Tuesday it's the swim meet and off to the races (literally)!  I hope to do a lot of posting this week!  We shall see!

oh. And Matt?  it's a big week for him too :)

5 at the allowance table!

In our family 5 is the magic age to start receiving allowance.  So now there are 5 kids at the table when the banker (Matt) starts passing out the cash!  

I stay out of the fray - allowance is just between Daddy and the kids!

Everyone gets their "age" amount in RMB.  So Julianna tops the charts at 11 RMB (about $1.50) a week, and Luke is new to the table with 5 RMB per week.  They are responsible for dividing it between spending, saving and giving (with the littles getting some extra supervision in this area).  The older three have wallets with three compartments, the little guys have a separate bank for each category of cash. 

And the deal is that they can spend their spending on anything they want, but purchases that dig into the savings need to be okay-ed by parents.  Together we look for opportunities to invest their giving.  

We don't use allowance as "pay" for chores.  We give allowance to provide opportunities for them to grow and mature in their ability to handle money.  {And they do help out at home.. often, and sometimes even willingly, and increasingly they are doing things without being asked!}

So fun to see them all growing in this - and to see Luke so proud to become a member of the allowance-receiving kiddos club!

[On this particular day Matt was passing out the big bucks - we try to do allowance on the weekends but he was a week behind and heading out on a big trip where he would miss two consecutive weekends, so those girlies are holding bulging wallets! ha!]  

a Wheels Birthday Party

Sunday afternoon (the day after Luke turned 5) we hosted a Wheels Birthday Party.  It was perfect for our wheels loving, roller blading crazy Luke!

He already told me he wants a wheels party again next year!

all boys.  all wheels

Daddy of the year.  Leading stretches before the races!

Relay time.  John Paul enjoying a one of the perks of being brother to the birthday boy... captain of team two.  Luke has already specified that next year he wants Isaac to be on his relay team (he's got a competitive streak, and big bro is a sure asset to any team!)

Gifts and cupcakes.

Inside with a few friends and already digging into his Lego gifts.

and wearing his new Star Wars t-shirt as pajamas :).

It was a good day for my FIVE year old boy!

Luke's 5th birthday

Good morning birthday boy!  Your big day is finally here!

Oh he was so excited for this day.  He'd been practicing signing his name "Luke 5" and counting his gifts for weeks!

And he had a pile waiting for him!  Lego and Star Wars and Nerf weaponry!  Whew!

Oh, and a hockey stick!!!

The men of the family, ready to get tough!

Luke adores Isaac.  ADORES.  He's constantly saying and doing the same things that Isaac says and does and (thankfully) Isaac is mostly pleased by his adoration and mimicry.  Sure, they have their scuffles, but it's so sweet to see this relationship grow.

Birthday date lunch with Daddy.  And then a trip to the sports store to spend some of his birthday money on a water bottle for his bike.

Back home in time to help with the cake and dinner prep...

Many many happy hours spent around this table.  Oh how I love having everyone around the table and the silly (and significant) conversations that happen there.

Woohoo Luke!  That's a pile of older siblings!  And they are all so good, so very good to you!

Our youngest is 5!  whoa.

And he even squeezed in a little play time with his new gifts before bed.  A sweet day for my baby boy.

Happy birthday Luke!  I can't believe you are FIVE!!

one Wednesday

We moved our every other Thursday library trip to Wednesday (so as not to conflict with Isaac's lunch date with his Daddy on his birthday!)

A Wednesday trip had some fun twists.  Like no little boys :) ha!  They are at school on Wednesday mornings.  And we saw our good friends.... books are better when you have a friend sitting in the chair next to you!

Without the little two it was easier for me to do some of my own browsing (mostly a new stack for Luke and John Paul) and also help the girls with some research.

They are writing essays about a place.  Julianna picked India (she's really into India these days)... and Lydia picked Rocky Mountain National Park.

Seeing as how we were sitting in an international school library, right smack in the middle of Asia, you won't be surprised to hear that books on India were plenty, books on Rocky Mountain National Park were scarce.  Thankfully we got some solid info on Trail Ridge Road and elk from the World Book and we also have some good stuff here at home that we collected last summer.

Later that afternoon (when my big kids were at local school) the boys and I walked to a nearby grocery store to look for some sliced ham.  Unfortunately, it wasn't there.  sigh.  But we had a very pleasant walk and threw rocks in the river and we will eat ham another time, huh?

The forecast says we are really going to see warmer temps this week and I'm going to be very tempted to wash the big winter jackets and get them put away.  Or maybe just put them straight into suitcases because the next time we need cold weather clothing we will be in America!

We came home from our walk, rounded up the rest of the siblings, ate a quick dinner and left to drop the girls off at their club.... got through the traffic with minimal difficulty and as soon as we walked in the door I started the oven preheating for Isaac's birthday cake and a few loaves of pumpkin bread (his request for his birthday breakfast, which was coming up the very next morning!)

Isaac's birthday

My middle-middle, the middle-est of the pack.  And he is EIGHT!

Isaac and the brothers - and Isaac and the sisters (told you he was the middle!)

Loving his Legos, and the follow-the-clues to find his birthday gift game, and for his birthday date with Daddy he asked if they could just hide in our bedroom and lego-create together :). So Matt brought KFC home and they lego-ed.

Isaac is so very fun to have in our family.  Hockey and soccer and biking (only sticking to the paved routes when absolutely necessary).  And he's a crazy reader, reads hundreds of pages and then tells me all about it -

Evidence that he's growing up - received a Swiss Army pocketknife and lights his own birthday candles!

He was so fun to celebrate!

Happy 8th birthday Isaac!  We love you!

catching up

Well I've gotten way behind.  And there is much to update!

These girls and their sweet friends are swimming for Team Homeschool this March.  It's Lydia's first year and she is doing great!  I'm proud of them!

Hilarious advertisement we saw at the mall one night. What in the world is Mattitude?  [Matt did NOT want to pose for this photo but I insisted.]

Birthday packages arriving!  Excitement levels are running HIGH ;)

Sunday afternoon strategy games.... this is our second cold, rainy Sunday afternoon.  Last week we made hot chocolate and played Settlers.  (check out Julianna's competitive face)

Mom and Dad sent some new UNC gear - (and we had a few nice warm days to wear them!)

hockey puck in the pond.  oops.

And most recently?  John Paul finally spent his birthday money!  A (knock off) Lego Millennium Falcon (see the Star Wart box!).  This has made my boy SOOO happy.  Lydia and Isaac are also very involved, and Matt has spearheaded a role of 'construction coordinator'.

The box arrived while Dad was out of town and oooooohhhh was Momma so glad that he was scheduled to get home that very evening!  They started building as soon as Matt had his shoes off and Matt even woke up early the following morning so he would have time to build with them before he had to leave for work!

So thankful for this fun project (that they are still working on).

This is a big birthday week - we had a party for Isaac yesterday and then his real birthday is Thursday and then Luke on Saturday and his party coming up this weekend.  woohoo!

40 Matt years

February 28th Matt celebrated his 40th birthday!  What a gift to have this man in our lives, he is definitely the family hero and we are all smitten!

That's 40 candles - quite a glow, huh?  I love this picture!

Matt has big 40th birthday plans to climb a 20,000 ft mountain in late June.  I'm so excited for him to have this opportunity - he's deep into making arrangements, choosing a guide team, etc.  It will be a 8-9 day trip with multiple nights on the mountain at different camps before they attempt the summit.  It's the perfect way for him to celebrate 40 years!

And his actual birthday week we had lined up 4 different dinners (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) all in celebration.  But the week turned out different than we expected and we spent quite a bit of time and energy addressing some new challenges and plans got derailed.  ugh.  Thursday (the day that just the two of us were going out to dinner, which was cancelled) I was pretty frustrated, but with the gift of two weeks behind us, I can see that God really did redeem a lot of those missed opportunities.  He also has one last birthday dinner (with a bunch of guy friends) re-scheduled for later this week - so in the end he's definitely stretched out the celebrations!  ha!

The biggest celebration is definitely coming up this June, and I am Oh-So-Hopeful that he gets to set foot on the top of that mountain!