Let The Music Play On

Every other year, the school has a band concert that includes all the bands from 5th grade through high school. It is so fun hearing the step by step progression of the bands. The fifth grade band was adorable. The high school band was amazing and all the of bands in between were incredible. I wish they did this every year.

Here is Isaac playing his little heart on the clarinet. He looks so calm. You would never know he had been so excited and so ready for this concert for days ahead of time. He memorized the entire information newsletter regarding the concert. At dinner he told every one where they needed to go and what room they should report to. Then he told Joel what time we needed to pull out of the driveway to be at school on time and he told me which lens to put on my camera to get good pictures. Is this the same kid that tries getting on the bus about once a week while leaving his lunch bag and clarinet on the driveway?





Here is Daniel doing a bang up job on the trumpet. They played In The Mood...which was the first song played at our reception when we were married. Love that song! Thank you to the entire 8th grade band for picking a song that I JUST LOVE. Thank you to Daniel for practicing it a lot so I could hear it over and over and over again.




And here is Nicko. I love watching Nicko listen to music. He shoulder dances. Big, tough, strong, male bopping away to the tune of big band classic is just not something to be missed in my book. I know that he will probably be horrified that I shared this on a blog. Sorry, Nicko. You just don't know how entertaining you are to watch!



And poor Alyssa had to sit with Mom and Dad while she watched the boys. She reminded me about 4 times that next year she can join band and she is going to be playing the flute. She loves the flute. She can't wait to play the flute. (Funny she said the same things about the piano and that seems to have lost some of it's glamor and excitement.) She is really going to work hard at practicing so she can be really good at playing the flute. ;-) She is in such a rush to grow up and do the things the boys get to do. Sigh.

Coming to a Galaxy near You...

We were invaded this weekend. The kids brought the Legos out and took over half the family room to build, display and TEST their creations. We started out with a pile of Legos that quickly spread.



This is Daniel's awesome car. He designed it to flip and keep going. Joel and Daniel were giggling like little girls as they built a course for the vehicle. I did not get a picture of the course or the boys 'playing cars.' Too bad.



Alyssa built a landing pad for our awesome space ships. The landing station came complete with a crew of really cute Lego men.



We had so much fun. I made my own space ship. I started out just building something to make the kids happy. Then I revised it and had to rebuild it. I created a Space Rescue Vehicle. It is a tow ship for broken down space ships. So here is the empty ship.



The back end opens to let the broken down space ship in.



And here it is with the rescued ship.



Here is the happily and safely rescued space ship. Our fleet of SRV's use the latest technology, training and research to set industry benchmarks in the space rescue field. That is Joel making fun of me. But I don't care. My secret to an awesome SRV? It's color coordinated. :-)




One last shot of my awesomeness!




Here is an interesting side note. We have not purchased one piece of Lego for the kids. These are all Joels Legos from his childhood. I think that is so cool. I wonder how many generations of play we can get from a tote of Legos.

Snow and Wind

I love winter. I love a really good snow storm when we are all at home and in front of a fire. But just as good as a snow storm is the beauty that the storm leaves behind. We did not really have a snow storm, just a few inches of snow and some wind. School was not canceled and life went on as usual, but this morning, we had a beautiful surprise.



As soon as the sun came up, the trees turned back into ordinary, naked trees. But it was so amazing while it lasted.




The snow almost looks like sand dunes, but it sparkles in the sun.



Now the sun is out. The snow is sparkling and it is sort of cheerful. The best part is that the sun is melting the snow off the driveway now. :-) That is really cheerful! Happy Winter Everyone.

Feed The World

FreeRice.com is our new favorite place to hang out on the internet. For every question you answer correctly, they will donate ten grains of rice to a needy child somewhere in the world. If you can answer ten questions correctly that is enough to feed one child. I am not quite sure how they figured that.

They offer several subjects and they also have different levels for each subject so this is something that anyone can do with just a few minutes of free time.

Here is a link: http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Warning, it can be very addictive. Once we start, everyone is fighting for a chance to answer questions and it is usually awhile before we stop. Have fun and enjoy a free way to give.

The Beach

We love the beach and a few days of warm weather was plenty of time to let us enjoy the beach to it's fullest. Alyssa and Megan had a lot of fun running in and out of the waves. We had strong rip tides while we were there so they had to stay in the shallow water, but they still had fun.


Nicko decorated the surf with pictures he drew with a shovel.
Aunt Janna treated everyone to an hour's rental of a beach bike. The kids loved it. Even Grandpa and Joel tried it out. Thanks Aunt Janna, it was lots of fun.
What a happy group of kids. Nicko, Matt, Daniel, Isaac, Megan and Alyssa.

Joel, Isaac, Daniel, Nicko, Matt, Gerry, and Gary.
Building sandcastles are a rite of passage.
The water slide at the condo was fun for the kids. The pool water was freezing cold but the kids did not care.

Christmas in Florida

This year we spent Christmas in Florida. We were so lucky to be there with Grandma and Grandpa Boiten as well as the Uncle Gary, Aunt Janna, Matt and Megan. We had a great week of weather. Plus we were all in the same great resort, thanks to our very wonderful neighbor. Check out his website at the bottom of this post. This is the view from our condo of a beautiful sunrise.

We were really in need of some time off when we arrived in Florida. The very first night we arrived we unpacked and sat down to play a few games while we waited for the pizza to arrive. The kids loved having their cousins around to play with. So, we played a lot.


This is a shot of the kids getting ready to go visit the miniature golf course.




We brought the boy's kites along. They had a lot of fun with them on the beach.

I stayed in the condo and took pictures from the balcony.

Joel and Grandpa are ready to help with untangling lines, advice, and the lift off.

If you are looking for a get away, check out www.VacationCondoGuy.com. You'll find beautiful properties, great rates and Jim is a great guy to work with. The site is still under construction at the moment. As soon as it is up and running I'll let you know. ....I know you're curious!

Disney World

Grandma and Grandpa gave us all an incredible Christmas present this year. They bought us each a ticket to Disney World. I don't care how old you are, Disney makes everyone a kid at heart.

We arrived early and had to wait to get into the park. So of course it was the perfect time to take lots of pictures.
Space Mountain was the favorite ride of the day. But all the rides were a hit.

Here is the group after a big wave hit them on Splash Mountain. Joel and Daniel are in the front row, followed by Grandpa and Matt; Isaac and Nicko; Megan, Aunt Janna and Alyssa are bringing up the rear. Smart girls as they probably came out the driest. Uncle Gary, Grandma and I stayed on dry ground. Someone had to take pictures!

Here are our tough, masculine men in tea cups!


With all the rides, counting heads, and figuring out what to do next and how to get there, we had to take a few breaks.



Here is Nicko on the Dumbo ride. All the kids waited in a LONG line for this ride. Lucklily Disney World was planning ahead for us and had a nice little cafe right next to the ride so Mom and Dad could sit down and take a break while still keeping an eye on the kids. This was one of the last rides of the day and the light was definitely fading.



Here is a bit of Disney World wisdom that I thought was pretty cool from the Alice in Wunderland display.





Finally, a bit of whimsy. Isaac was amazed with these green sculptures. He has asked several times if we can buy a boxwood bush this summer so he can try something like this.