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!

Thanksgiving weekend!

We had a sweet Thanksgiving celebration, and rolled some Christmas fun in to the weekend too.

These three brothers pooled their cash to buy a floor hockey set.  It is everything their hearts ever wanted and they were delighted to be playing with the big boy cousins.  Several weeks later this hockey set still enjoys daily use, and I'm thankful that the injury count has dropped dramatically since I instituted a "you must wear thick gloves or mittens" rule.

While the boys played downstairs, we enjoyed a lefse making party in the kitchen.  It wasn't quite as easy as anyone was expecting, so the girls enthusiasm waned pretty quickly :(. perseverance is a trait yet to be developed I guess.

But Matt and Grandma lasted till the end and it was a fun time for everyone.

We feasted all weekend long.. yum!

And enjoyed a little play-acting too.  A surprise shark attack unsettled the Pilgrim ship, but everyone managed to survive the first winter and it was a friendly tribe of Indians that arrived to help plant the corn in the spring.  good times for everyone.

We watched football, pieced together a 1000 piece puzzle, decorated gingerbread houses, sat and visited and ate and just had a great time being together as a family.

Oh, and there was a LOT of game playing too.

Really a fun time to all be together celebrating two holidays rolled into one.

Thanksgiving week

Matt started his Thanksgiving week off right with a Vikings win, at the Vikings stadium, with a few of his favorite Vikings fans ;)

This was a super fun way for him to finish a trip to Minneapolis where he caught up with a bunch of friends and family.

Back on the home front we were getting ready for a short week at school.  Lydia was the "science in a sack" student for her class which meant she brought home a bunch of supplies and books full of potential "experiments" to choose from.  We had a great time looking through the books and settled on a demonstration of the surface tension of water.  I was missing my science minded hubby but a Youtube video helped out!   Monday morning she did the demo for her class.

She also worked on her thanksgiving tree.  I especially love the "China" and "America" leaves right in the center.  That pretty much sums up how most of us are feeling these days as we look towards finishing our time in the States.  Both places right in the center of our hearts.

We had a mild week and I told the kids it looked like our snowman was on a diet.  Today he's reduced to a small lump in the yard.  But I loved watching him disappear, and I love those sunsets, even when they come earlier and earlier each evening!

Wednesday was a half day of school and we partied that afternoon with a Christmas decorating fest.  Oh I was missing home with our ornaments and our decor, but I'm so thankful to be living in a place with Christmas cheer for us to enjoy - a tree and lights and plenty of decor to brighten our living room!  We brought our stockings and a few other Christmas essentials from Asia and once the stockings were hung I was feeling much better!

Luke? He's feeling pretty good about the tree!  And when we settled in to read a few nights ago John Paul said "it's so good to sit next to the tree".  I agree buddy, Christmas lights change the entire living room!!

Thursday morning we started a big weekend of family fun, which deserves it's own post when I get all the pictures!

swimming in West Fargo

Whoa!  This was a big weekend for the girls.  They have participated in some swim meets in Asia, but nothing on this scale, ever!  I'm just proud that they got out there in that big (brand new) swim complex and found their teammates and dove in.

There were definitely a few "deer in the headlights" moments - ha!  I'm thankful for a fellow mom who has graciously walked me through the new-swim-mom process and kept me from floundering, at least most of the time!

Once the girls located their friends on the team, and found their coach, and got in the water for warm ups they were in the groove.  The pool was packed with swimmers during warm ups!  I couldn't believe how many kids there were!  The most popular event (50 free) had 19 heats of swimmers!

Here's Lydia in lane 2 (second swimmer from the bottom) at the start of the 50 back.

And Julianna (randomly in the same lane) at the start of one of her races but I honestly can't remember which.

Between races with their swimming buddies.  They really had a great day!  and the boys played hard in the stands, and really enjoyed watching the races too - especially the older boys who were just so fast!

One more pic of Lydia!

And then it was finally over and we drove home and everyone was pretty wiped out from a long day (the girls and I left the house at 7am!).  We all collapsed onto couches with noses in books to reset our energy banks (except Luke, who opted for an audio book).  A late lazy dinner of peanut butter toasted bagels and our day was over!

I'm not sure how much longer he will be happy to sit in my lap and read so I'm enjoying it now!  and taking pictures to prove it!

One more swim meet in a few more weeks and the girls time on the Wahoos swim team will come to an early end - but we are enjoying it while it lasts!

pre-swim meet week

Julianna and Lydia are gearing up for their first swim meet this Saturday - they continue to enjoy swimming and now that I'm mostly sharing the driving with a fellow Riverside mom who's 6th grade daughter also swims it's even better :).

On Tuesday the girls had a mock meet (in-house races) to prepare for Saturday and they came home feeling confident and ready.  I'm just impressed with the coaching staff and their definition of success and the attitude with which they lead the team.  

As soon as swim practice was over we drove over to school for Turkey Bingo.  Y'all, it was so fun.  There was a big crowd and the room is full of classmates and parents and teachers - and with kids in so many grades it seems that I have a connection with just about everyone :)  The girls and I got there a bit late and it does my heart good to walk into that room and see my boys spread among their friends and my girls run off to join their buddies, and I'm just so thankful for this school for this season!

And our family held our own in the bingo competition too - Lydia won a game of 'four corners' bingo and I won a Bingo and even though we didn't come home with a turkey, we were pleased with our pockets of prizes!  

When my bigs were younger we played a lot of bingo (I may or may not have called it "math class") but we haven't played much in recent years and I'm motivated to get our bingo cards back out again.  Sure, it's low strategy (arguably it's no-strategy)... but it's a lot of fun!  

the weekend {girls edition}

Friday after school Jan and the girls and I started our trip to Minneapolis (with a pit stop in Fargo to get Kaelynn and Kristi).  We snuggled into our hotel beds and went to sleep with a forecast for a beautiful Saturday.

and it was!

After breakfast we drove to Minnehaha falls which was absolutely beautiful!  It was starting to freeze over and if I lived anywhere nearby I would make it a goal to visit once a month for a full year.  I bet the scenery changes with each season and I'm not sure which one would be the prettiest!

There is a really pretty park area with paved paths and stone bridges and it was fun to explore!

Then we were off to the mall and we did it all!  Lunch at Rainforest Cafe, a trip to the aquarium, a ride on Fly Over America (I highly recommend it!) and a little shopping too!

Hmmm......

We even "ran into" one of Matt's cousins at the mall and I was so thankful we got to see her (and the baby boy just waiting to be born)!  Special treat.

Grateful to get to do this trip with these ladies!

the weekend {boys edition}

So our girls/boys weekend was really fun for everyone.

Friday night Matt took Isaac and Simeon to the hockey game and they were thrilled - six rows from the ice and the Hawks won the game and it was basically everything Isaac was hoping for and more!

I was so excited for Isaac to be there and even checked the score throughout the game because I knew he was going to be so pumped every time the Hawks scored!  Grandpa watched the little boys here at home which was perfect because late night hockey for the 5/6 year old crowd is a once a season kind of event and they got their game in October - ha!

Then Saturday morning Grandpa and Matt and all three boys headed to Fargo for some basketball watching

and gun shooting

and bear meat eating

and other manly events :)

Everyone liked the bear, especially John Paul.  He even makes bear faces while eating it!

and then it was a dark drive home, with some tired bears in the back seat.

(This might be the third time Luke has fallen asleep in a car - I was glad Matt took the time to document the event.  For the first 12 months of his life Luke screamed the entire time he was in his car seat, and I mean the ENTIRE time, from the first click of the buckle until I took him out.  It added a nice layer of stress to every car trip and was yet another reason why I mostly just stayed home - screaming infant plus newly adopted toddler for a grand total of five children ages 6 & under meant that I wasn't incredibly mobile!  Luke did stop the screaming, but even today he is not a mellow child.  John Paul, on the other hand, is a rock solid car sleeper and the family all-around sleep champion.)

And all those little people grew up and our 5, 6, and 8 year old boys had a dream weekend with their grandpa and dad and uncles and much-admired cousins!

a few from the week

Well we went from record setting highs in mid October to record setting lows in early November.  It's been just perfect for us.  I guess we like records :).   Our entire fall was gorgeous and it felt like a special gift just for us to see all that sunshine and so many beautiful days on end.  And now? To have snow play for days is just what the kids were hoping for.... talk in the van on the way home from school mostly centers around recess and snow forts!

Our school days are still a huge blessing to all of us, though Julianna did mention it will be good to get back to home schooling!  It's always good to have a little break - for mom and the kids - and it's good to want to get back to schooling together too.  I have a lot of book ordering to do before we are ready to start up this spring!

Last weekend we celebrated getting through a big chunk of catechism memory.  I've so enjoyed this question and answer format and it's thick, meaningful theology that I'm thankful to have stored in my own memory and glad to be putting into these little hearts as well.

And then Sunday was our kids second children's choir performance.  We still remember the songs they learned last time we were in the States - hand motions and all.  So it's good to have a few new ones to add to the repertoire.

This weekend we are splitting the family - girls and I headed to Minneapolis with Grandma and Kristi and Kaelynn, the boys have their own plans here and in Fargo.  Isaac is counting the hours until tonight's hockey game - he was hoping and praying for hockey tickets and a friend offered theirs last weekend!  Such a sweet gift for Isaac!

to the sledding hill

Friday we celebrated our day off school with a morning trip to the gym for basketball and swimming and then an afternoon hosting Matt's aunt and uncle.  Such a treat to have them visit us here and I just loved watching my kids animatedly telling Aunt Bev all kinds of Asia stories - and hearing some of her own international travel adventures.

Then Saturday we woke up to plenty of snow and perfect temperatures for sledding!  It was gorgeous!

Luke was in his snow gear by 9am!  ha! He's getting more adept at getting all his stuff on, and when I asked him what his kindergarten teacher does with 12 little ones needing gloves he very seriously told me, "Mom, she's been teaching a long time.  She only does one glove."

Side note: it's not the only thing his teacher is doing that's working... my little Luke is rocking kindergarten and the big sibs are holding their own in their classes too - such an encouraging night for Matt and I at parent teacher conferences last Thursday.

So we played in our own backyard and worked on a snow fort and freshened up our snow man and then headed for the sledding hill.

That's Matt, John Paul, and Isaac on the big sled.

We invited our neighbors to go along, and then of the fifteen or so other people at the sledding hill, we knew some of them too - small town love!  Lydia and Isaac joined in and helped build a jump at the bottom of one route and everyone just huffed up the hill and slid back down over and over and over again.

It was so pleasant out and even with a few dramatic face plant landings we stayed out there for almost two hours!

I love weekends even more with the kids in school!  The time together is so precious and it was especially fun to wake up to all that snow.  Now it's Sunday afternoon and another week on the horizon...

candy night

We haven't chosen to do much when Halloween rolls around but this year we were in America and decided to jump in and collect a little candy.  The kids and I went to our neighbor friend's for play, then dinner, then a raid on her dress-up box and out to ring doorbells.

I texted this picture to Matt and he responded "which ones are our boys?"  It was great fun - Casey and I laughed and laughed watching these kids run up and down the sidewalks.

{Isaac is the red ninja, John Paul a ninja turtle and Luke is spider man.}

Then it was Wednesday, first day of November and the day Matt was coming home!!!  And it started snowing midday and I was not in the mood to think about a delayed flight but he landed in a light snowfall a little before 10pm and we were all together again! yay!

Thursday was early dismissal and the kids bundled off to school eager for recess and an afternoon snowball fight with Daddy!

It was perfect timing for Matt to be home - afternoon snow play, and a day off school on Friday too!

We also had to establish a few snowball ground rules, and hitting someone else in the face (intentional or otherwise) is not going to go over well.

John Paul's disgruntled face is the result of being sent to the snowball fight penalty box for firing a poorly aimed snowball :)

We lit a fire and roasted some marshmallows to celebrate the first good snow dump of the season.  Delighted!