Little Drummer Boy Parade

A few weeks back For King and Country had an outdoor concert at a drive-in theatre here in town.  We opted to go because they used cars as barriers to the different groups and it was outside.  We also couldn't pass up the price of admission for one car when we have a van full of For King and Country fans. 

During the set the band did NOT play the song the twins wanted to hear.  M and Big E brought their drums to play along with "The Little Drummer Boy" as it is their favorite song ever.  I mean, they know the different version by the first drum kick and request the song by version.  (Yes, they did that this morning as we were finishing breakfast.) Anyway, when the stage went dark M (being a good 3.5 year old) just collapsed.  He had held out hope ALL SHOW LONG that the band was going to play his song.  Then, ENCORE!! The band was playing his song.  He strapped up his drum and went for a walk.  There was plenty of space between everyone and he and E started drumming on their toy drums with the band.  It was fantastic.  Several other little kids kind of joined in so they had a sort of parade going down the aisles.  GMan tried desperately to stop them, but the twins did it anyway.  I didn't take pictures because I was both laughing and apologizing for the interruption.  No one thought it was an interruption though and instead Chris said you could hear people pointing at "The cutest thing ever" as the parade wound by their vehicle.  It was fun, something that could only have happened outside, and a great bit of fun for M.  Here are a few pictures of the drummers before the concert really got going. 

Blackberries!

It is that time of year. The time when M turns himself black with blackberries.  Our own blackberries were done before 4th of July, but now we've got some from our CSA.  M & Big E go with me every week to pick up veggies just to get the blackberries.  M will even tell the other kids that the "blackberries aren't any good" simply so that he gets a few more.  He eats them the first day or so then decides that I need to turn them into blackberry jam which he then eats with a spoon.  Here is M super excited about having a black tongue from the blackberries.  He was upset when it started to fade, so he ate more jam.

Not a lot has been happening here though.  We are starting to have restrictions re-instated so that's been interesting.   

School has been ramping up. We are on to the next great adventure of homeschooling.  The bigs picked the homeschool curriculum last spring after we tried a couple during the school shut down.  Now we are fully on board with the program and ready for the group to meet the end of August.  As it is the end of July that doesn't seem so far away all of a sudden.  Schools here just announced that 1st quarter will be mainly done online so the kids are happy with their decision.  Chris is both excited and a bit scared, but that's to be expected with any new adventure like this.  Hopefully we can find some poor soul to help us with piano.  

15 Years!!

Chris and I had our 15 year anniversary this week! It was a very subdued event with the lack of theater.  We were supposed to see Hamilton and it got cancelled in time for us to find nothing else really to do.  

Summer is rapidly approaching and we've had an interesting one so far.  We have managed to make it to the lake a couple of times for swimming which is nice since pools aren't really open yet.  I've been running/walking and biking a fair amount.  

Working from home has been an experience this year.  We've done a fair amount of it and the kids aren't quite sure what to think of my going back into the office.  I currently go a few times a week and it is fairly straight forward.  The new measures in place are hopefully to be short lived so we will see.  

Extra Time

Since there is a bit of extra time these days, here's a quick update. 

Nothing really is going on with us.  We are using this "shelter-in-place" as a way to trial run homeschooling.  We've thought about it off and on for years now and currently have no choice.  It is quite taxing to have to do both "school" stuff, especially as the kids would rather do the homeschool stuff.  They apparently like having multiple recesses during the day and getting to do things that interest them.  It is taxing though because we get little else done.  I'm working remotely and helping to "watch" the kids when they are in the office on the computers, but that's the extent to what help I can give during the day.  We occasionally have school after dinner even and it is a bit of fun.  Hopefully we will decide which way we actually want to go soon.  Hopefully we get to go back to school, but we very well may not looking at the other countries currently in some form of lock down like we are.  

We've had some fun with the mud and other adventures outside in our backyard.  Currently very grateful to not have to be shut in a small apartment but where we do have a yard to play in for the kids.  Also very grateful for having four children as they can do a lot more as a unit of children.  They get into a lot, but that's okay, they are kids. 

Annual Southern State Tour

We just got back from a trip through the southern states.  It was a 10 day trip and we had 2 2 year olds telling us "I go to ours house" for the drive home.  We saw a LOT of family and had a LOT of fun.  These are just a few of the pictures that we took the last few weeks of December.

We find ourselves looking at a new year with new hopes.  We hope/pray that Carolyn can walk easily and pain free.  We hope/pray that A can get by without medication and control herself enough to stay in the gifted program.  We hope/pray that GMan stops telling his teacher how she is wrong every time she turns around even if he knows he is right with the information he is giving her.  The twins we just hope/pray continue to grow like they have been.  We hope/pray that Chris gets the basement done as it will make finding childcare significantly easier with an extra bedroom as it looks like we need an au pair.

We also have a van that decidedly does not like to take the Southern State Tour.  Last Christmas we drove to Florida (well Carolyn did with Alexis and twins) and half way down the transmission started acting up.  We got back to STL by the grace of God.  It ended up being a blessing as the warranty we bought for the van paid for it since it hadn't even met mileage for needing service to the transmission and the warranty company couldn't argue with us on that.  This year during some massive rain in Dallas it started making a weird grinding noise when turning left.  Then as we drove home we noticed that the front drivers panel was dented pretty good.  We believe that it got hit sometime overnight while it was parked on the street the last night we were in Dallas.  We've got a cool red scar on it now and Chris managed to get the dents out enough that it runs and won't destroy the driver side door or the tire.  :) 

That basically sums up our new resolutions/prayers for 2020.  Well I need to go to bed to go back to work tomorrow for the first half day of 2020. 

Wait what?

I didn't realize it had been a bit since I posted anything here.  Since I have nothing better to do atm I'll say a bit.

Currently Big E has a Toddler Tibia Fracture.  He got it going down the slide during spring break.  He's slowly getting back on it but he says his leg hurts and he looks great in his cast. A took to drawing on the bright red canvas as soon as he came home with his new accessory.  It is supposed to last 4 weeks with no water...  But we are finding he's already destroying the cotton padding by insisting on playing in the dirt and trying to walk.  We will see if he lasts the 4 weeks.

A is almost out of 2nd grade.  It has been a whirlwind.  We've had a difficult teacher who didn't want to work with us really.  We've also been doing OT for her this year since October.  She goes once a week and it has helped with some of her issues.  It is just nice knowing that she does in fact have a medical condition that we aren't entirely crazy about her needing help.  Now to get the school on board.

GMan has decided he's going to give A and Big E a run for their money on trying to get attention from mom and dad.  His favorite way is through is five finger discount he seems to attempt at friends houses and by climbing our pantry and storage shelves. 

M is a Lightning McQueen addict.  He can spot Cars from a mile away and then become ADAMANT that he gets said Car.  It doesn't even have to be "queen" it can be "mater" or "cruz".  He also is fixated on "eyes" (sunglasses) and will wear them regardless.  And yes they must be upside down.  His hands also MUST be clean.  He can have mud from head to toe and not able to put anything but mud in his face but will need clean hands.

Neither of the twins are talking well and they continue to fail at getting help because they understand so much.  For example they are supposed to be saying three and four word sentences and we randomly get a word here and there that is distinguishable.  The best sentence we've gotten though was at twin gymnastics when M said "Me help E". 

Other than that there hasn't been anything new.  We went to FL for Christmas and had a blast.  Picture below of all of us on Christmas day (I think) and we were at the pool.  I got to run on the beach.

Running season is coming up for me.  I've got a race next weekend.  I'm doing my first marathon!  It will be as part of a relay but I'll cross the marathon finish line and get a medal that has "marathon" in it.  Maybe that means I'm prepping myself to run an actual marathon. 

TaeKwonDo is going well for both GMan and A. GMan is a green first and A is a red first.  She has black in her belt and is soooo close.  GMan is getting there. 

Photo Dump

As always May has been busy.  We've done a lot and here are the pictures to prove it.