World Fair 2015

The 6th Grade World's Fair was last night at Maxwell's school.

He and his team were assigned the country of France.

They researched, made a poster, and brought French food

to share with the other students and their parents.

Maxwell brought creme brulee. His teammates brought

creme puffs and crepes. The boys dressed up like mimes

and made people mime to get their food. 

The creme brulee was easier to make than last year's

baklava for Bentley's Greek table.

I hope that if any of the other kids do this in the future

that they will get Italy. I will buy pizza. :)

ps - I got to use my Silhouette to cut the letters for the board!

(Of course he didn't tell me he needed them till the morning of the fair.)

Rocky Day

One of Jonah's Christmas presents was a coupon for

3 hours with a puppy from Puppies for Rent.

It took us nearly a month, but today he got a puppy!

He picked out a little black Australian Shepherd/Border Collie

named Rocky. The kids didn't have school today,

so we asked for the puppy from 2-5. Both Jonah and 

Max went outside to wait for the puppy's delivery.

At about 2:15 Rocky arrived!
He was a little nervous, but it didn't seem to take
him long to warm up to the kids.

He chased them all over the yard for about 45 minutes,

and then he slept for almost an hour. Poor puppy.

When he woke up he went right back to chasing the kids.

Greg and Kristina stopped by on their way back from
Idaho, and Greg was smitten.

Alton woke up (with some help from his noisy siblings)
about 30 minutes before Rocky went home.
And right before Rocky fell asleep for the 2nd time.

This time the kids sat around him,
waiting for the rental people to come back.

Maxwell and Jonah each got one last hug,
and then they turned the puppy over.
They were pretty sad to see him go
(they had tried to convince their parents
to adopt Rocky, but their efforts were fruitless).

It was pretty fun to have a puppy for an afternoon,
but it was a little difficult for most of us to let him go.
The kids plotted ways to "lose" Rocky so that we
would have to pay the company for the puppy.
Then they would "find" him and we would
HAVE to keep him. I'm glad they didn't
put their plan in motion. :)

Weekend Review

Alton loves to organize his toys.

Jonah bought himself a snowboard at Target.

Luckily we have a little snow left in the front yard

for him to practice snowboarding.

Bentley's team played (and won) again yesterday.

He had six points, one steal, and he cut off two passes.

Max's league didn't have games this week,

but he "got" to take a four hour placement test for Jr. High.

I bought a new dress and no one got married!

That's unusual enough that I feel like it warrants a blog mention. :)

Alton likes to keep an eye on Milo - he loves his brother

and wants to be like him. :)

RUBY ECG

Ruby had her 8 year well check earlier this week,

and she once again talked to the pediatrician

about some chest pain she has. For the past couple of

years she has complained about episodes where

her heart hurts. The doctor thought it was unlikely

that she has a heart problem, but sent her in for

an ECG just to be sure. This morning I checked her

out of school (something the kids LOVE) and we

went to the hospital for her test. The test itself was

pretty easy, but she didn't like it when they took

the stickers off after the test - it was like ripping off

a bunch of band-aids. Everyone was really nice,

and both Ruby and Alton got two suckers each. :)

On our way back to school we stopped at 

Jamba Juice - Ruby loves smoothies, even

when it is cold outside. We should hear back

from the doctor sometime next week.

Apple Pie Anniversary

15 years ago John and I went on our first date!

Today we ran an errand together after dinner,

and I made an apple pie that we ate in between

weights and basketball. :)

We really know how to celebrate. 

Christmas Pictures 2000-2014

I am very slowly getting our Christmas decorations

put away. The upside to this delayed de-decorating

is that I took the time to scan in all of our Christmas

photos. We've taken one each year and it is fun

to see how our family (and our home) has changed.

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

We really didn't get a good picture in 2013

OR in 2014. At first I chose the top picture

to frame, but we switched to the bottom one.

2014

(the lighting is terrible, but everyone is looking!)

Basketball Begins 2015

The basketball season started yesterday for

Bentley and Maxwell. They are on different teams this

year. Max is on a team with his school classmates

(in the past he has been on the neighborhood school

team) and his coach is our friend, Mike.

The 7th and 8th grade players had to try out for

teams, and Bentley ended up on a team with one of 

his friends from baseball (and the nephew of a friend

of mine from home although that doesn't really interest him).

Bentley's game was during nap time for Alton, 

so I missed it but sent the camera. John and the kids

brought back some pictures for me.

Here's hoping for a fun season!

The spectators brought spy gear and Sesame Street books.

:)