Awana Games 2010

I don't know who was more excited about these Awana Games. Isaac was on a team with his buddy and had a great time. Daniel talked Mom into letting him have the camera to be the official photographer for the day. Both boys had a blast. Isaac was so proud of his performance and Daniel is so proud of his pictures. The top photo is everyone's favorite photo and those action shots can be a bit of a challenge.

A little side note observation that I thought I would share. Joel arrived at the very last second to watch the games. He kept an eye on every single kid on the floor. He figured out which team was going to win based on the athletes on each team. He pre figured scores...you know for fun. He was sitting rather close to a few other men watching their children. Before long all four men were playing along. When their children were on the floor competeing they were very attentive and cheered very loudly like proud fathers do. But when their attention was not needed, they were back to their little game. Joel had a great time at the games and I must say he was pretty close on most of his calls. I guess boys will be boys no matter how old they are.

Photo credits: Daniel Boiten

Frenchship. (Which is a play on Friendship)

Two weeks ago we were eating French chocolates. We were listening to interesting stories about life in southern France. We were using heavenly triple milled French soap that smelled amazing. We had French wine, and we were speaking French. Oh la la!

We were not in France, we had the pleasure of meeting Madame Martine Liquet. She is a teacher in France and she traveled to the US with 14 exchange students from France. She brought us gifts of chocolate, soap, wine, key chains and traditional red scarves that are worn during a festival in the Bayonne area. We sent her home with measuring cups and spoons to help her make a few new recipes from the US.


We had such a great time with Martine. By the time she left, we all thought of her as family. We are all happy that we got a chance to learn about her culture, her cooking and her family. It was also interesting to hear about her views of America.




Here is a list of everyone's favorite aspect of Martine's stay with us.

• Joel - Listening to her tell us about her home and her views of Spain as well.
  
• Heather - Her new recipe ideas and talking to her about parenting.
  
• Amanda - Spa time with Martine and how she compared the US to France.
  
• Nicko - Learning about a new culture and having her stay with us. I also liked it when she got so excited about meatloaf.
  
• Daniel - I LOVED listening to her accent because it was so different and listening to her stories. She has a good sense of humor.
  
• Isaac - Playing Apples to Apples with her when she won.
  
• Alyssa - She gave me a hug goodnight every night and she was so nice.

Martine, you are always welcome with us. Please come back soon. Vous etes toujours bien venu avec nous. Veuillez revenir bientot.

Frost

So many times we think of getting a frost in the spring when it can harm our tender new plants. Also in the fall when we want to hang onto our veggie plants a bit longer, we take sheets outside and cover things up so the frost will not harm anything.

In Wisconsin, a frost when there is snow on the ground is a beautiful thing. Imagine all the trees covered in glitter and sparkling when the sun shines on it. I cannot do this justice with my camera, but I had to at least try to capture a bit of nature's magic.










Isn't there something about a weeping willow tree that takes you right back to childhood? Weeping willows make the perfect house when you use your imagination. The dropping branches provide the perfect hideout when you need to get away from the crowd of kids. The buds in the spring are so exciting. And now look at all the sparkles you can get from them in the winter.





This is a picture of the empty lot right next to us. We love our lot for family football games, Bocci Ball, Frisbee, snowmen, climbing trees and all sorts of other things.






And since this is a winter themed post, I am adding a picture of the kids and their snowman they built last week. I don't think I will get too many more opportunities to post winter pictures as spring seems to be on the way for us.


Amanda, Daniel, Frosty the Snowman, Alyssa, Morgan the vain dog that wants to be in the picture, Isaac, and Nicko.