Spring Band Concert

New Windows

Birds keep flying into our new window. They aren't used to our clean windows...Here is one trying to regain his balance.

Baseball Tournament This Past Weekend

Levi's team came in second. He played well....he batted .500 and made some great plays at 2nd base.

Rained Out

Levi's tourney was cancelled today so he got to go play his flag football game instead.

He threw for a touchdown. Caught a pass for a touchdown. Caught an interception. Threw for a two point conversion. It was his last football game of the season...which is fine by me as it is an extremely cold (47 degrees) and wet spring.

Driving Grandpa's Miata

Ethan and Levi's Band Concert

Baseball Tournament Here We Come

Rain and thundershowers forecast. 45 degrees. Wet and chilly. Baseball tournament here we come. Three games today. Whew.

No drama

Levi's coaches wife told me last night that his coach really likes Levi. She said he told her "Levi's a great kid. I really appreciate that I don't get any drama from him." I think by drama he meant crying, pouting, head down, complaining, emotional outburst, etc. Some of the kids are quite dramatic.
Levi saves his drama for home. (Just kidding Levi.)

I agree. If I was a coach, I would want Levi on his team. He's a great kid.

Thursday's Game Against Mr. Hood

Levi's team played last night in the rain. I was sure the game would be cancelled but it wasn't. I left Nan, Ethan, and the little boys home which ended up being a great decision.The area around the field was a swamp. The team lost but didn't seem too upset. Levi was just glad to get back in the car and turn the heater on.

He has a tournament this Saturday. Games at 10:30, 1:00, and 6. I have an umbrella. I think I need a rain poncho for this weekend.

Triple

Levi hit a triple in the 5th inning last night. It was his best hit of the season. His team beat Centennial 10-8. It rained for the last 3 innings. I think I need to buy an umbrella.

Baseball This Week

Crazy baseball schedule this week...Practice Sunday, Game Monday, Practice Wednesday, Game Thursday, Tournament Saturday and Sunday. Next week schedule is the same. I think their coach figured they will play about 20 games in the next three weeks counting their 2 tournaments. Whew!!! I better get myself a comfortable chair and couple child harnesses.

Off to the Holy Land

Todd is off to Israel with a group of students for 3 weeks.

Phone/Internet Problem Solved

For over a month now, we have been struggling with phone and internet access. The internet cut in and out which really messed up emailing. If the phone rang, the internet stopped working if it had been working at all. We thought that Todd had messed something up with the phone line when he re-sided the back of the house. We kept trying different ways to fix it. The last 2 weeks our phones have not worked at all and with Todd going out of the country for 3 weeks, I didn't want to be without our phones or email. So we finally called Qwest. A man came over to check things out...and found the phone line toward our alley and in the neighbors backyard had been damaged. He brought the section of phone line to us and said "In my 20 years, I have never seen this." He showed us where the line had been struck by what he was guessing might have been a bullet or arrow. A hard focused impact hit the underside of the phone line and popped the wires out the other side of the plastic casing. He was able to fix it and Todd was vindicated. It wasn't his fault. And we didn't have to pay a bill for the repair. Yippee.

Rain and Baseball

This week is the beginning of the official baseball league season. So far we have had one rained out game and one rained out practice. Tonight Levi has a game scheduled for 6:00. Will it be played?

Shooting Hoops

Guess who won?

Same size feet

My kids think I am weird...especially since I made them pose for these pictures. But I wanted to document this moment...four of us have about the same size feet. Now that is weird to me. Actually I think Levi's are a little bit bigger than the rest of us and he is the youngest. Aren't feet funny looking?

Flag Football Saturday 5/24

Levi scored a touchdown on the first play. On the third play of the game he had an interception. And on the fourth play he threw a pass for a touchdown. It was a great start to a game his team ended up losing. Oh well.

Todd saves the day!

Todd is our splinter remover. I don't know why but all our boys frequently get splinters in their hands.

Chess Protegy

These photos weren't posed. Ethan has been reading a lot of chess books and working on his strategy. And Cente imitates whatever the big boys do. I heard Cente humming and talking to himself at the table and snapped these pictures of him. He started off making regular chess moves but by the end, his pieces were crashing into each other and he was making explosion noises.

Growing

Ethan has grown almost an inch in less than 2 months...

Natalie's Soup

Broccoli Cheddar

New members of our farm family

Levi's latest American History Project

Levi made this for his history class at the charter school. Actually he talked his sister and mom into helping him a bit. He thinks this is a another girl project he has been tricked into completing.

Sad is the day...

Our trampoline has been dismantled and readied for the dump. Some of the hardware rusted and it became completely unsafe. So now we are trampoline-less. The kids jumped on it every day so we are missing it as an energy outlet.

Duets

One of the reasons Levi loves flag football

He gets to be on his great friend's team.... Above he is running along side Jonah after he scored a touchdown.

Flag Football Today

Teacher Natalie

Natalie has decided she is going to teach Cente. So far he has his colors down pat, recognizes written numbers to 10 most of the time. He made a lego T and brought it to me on his own and said "I made a T." He colors page after page in his coloring book. Now if she could only teach him to obey.

Guitar Boys

When Ethan and Levi play their guitars, Cente rushes to grab his. Unfortunately, he sometimes annoys the big boys and gets moved off the couch to the floor where he continues to play... he might be a blues player when he grows up. He has the look.

Boys helping Todd

Work on the House

Todd's Spring Break project.

Cats

I am taking Levi tonight for his birthday. Natalie is going as well. We have seats on the orchestra level near an isle where the cats run down. Should be lots of fun. The kids haven't seen this one yet. I picked up brochures for next year's Broadway shows and operas. "Les Miserables" is coming as well as "Mary Poppins" and "South Pacific". I am also considering season tickets for the opera. I may get three tickets and just rotate who goes.
Yesterday, Natalie read T. S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" in preparation for tonight. Levi's assignment today is to read it as well.

Dry

We are celebrating a no-diaper, accident-free, dry-bottom day for Cente. Hopefully it will continue on into the future.

Spring Break

We are staying home this spring break so we will probably be doing some spring cleaning. Here is our agenda for Spring Break:

Natalie:

Paint Natalie's room and help paint the little boys' room

Take her Driver's Permit test at the DMV

Help Mom with Spring Cleaning

Ethan:

Watch as many NCAA Basketball playoff games as mom will allow

Yard Work

Make Rootbeer from scratch with kit

Clean out under his bed

Levi:

Watch games with Ethan

Go to "Cats" with mom - a birthday present

Flag Football practice

Build a birdhouse

Help with the Spring Cleaning

To be or not to be....

We have enjoyed "Julius Caesar" so much that we are going to continue on with Shakespeare. Oregon Shakespeare Festival is performing Hamlet from now until October so we will read it and then go watch it in Ashland sometime this summer. They are also performing the musical "She loves me" which I love so we may make it a double show weekend when we go.

That time of year...

When Levi was heading out the door to practice a couple days ago, I told him I would have him play baseball even if he wasn't any good (which he is) because..."You're so cute in that uniform ." He didn't appreciate my encouragement.

Diagramming

Six months into the school year, I have finally admitted to myself that our grammar textbook is lame. It is boring, which I don't have a problem with except that the point of boring in this textbook doesn't seem to be retention. So boring for the point of being boring is not okay. Therefore, I have decided to commit the rest of our school year to diagramming. Whoopee! I love to diagram and it brings me a perverse delight to pull out the whiteboard and call to the kids "Time for diagramming" and then hear their groans from the far corners of the house.

Beware the Ides of March

We decided to read Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar" this month. Natalie's literature class is going through it, so I decided to read it with her and the boys at home as well. We are learning lines such as "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears..." I have a children's book that illustrated the storyline and for some reason the boys are always turning to the stabbing scene.

Reading this play in March has some benefit. We are able to, in hushed and mysterious tones, warn each other to "Beware the Ides of March." I think I will plan an "event" for March 15 to really bring it home.

Happy Birthday 3 Year Old Cente

I am not great about getting 11 kids looking at the camera at the same time. Cente and Marcos's brother, Julius, came over for his birthday breakfast. Julius is on the far right and he just turned 5.

I have the world's best daugher

Natalie is a dear. She helps me around the house without being asked. She sees things that need done, and just does them. She is quick to forgive an offense. She never carries a grudge. She is diligent and industrious. On Levi's birthday, she gave me a present with a little note thanking me for being such a good mom to all my kids. Of course, it may have been a little jab at Levi...she also wrote that as Levi's mom, I especially needed a little appreciation gift for parenting him these 11 years.

We love these boys so much!

Our lives are crazy busy with changing diapers, picking up duplos, giving baths, wiping off sticky fingers and faces, cleaning up marker sketches on the wall, folding lots of little socks, reading "Go Dog Go" for the hundredth time, singing "Jesus Loves Me" and saying "Say please....say thank you....obey!" Homeschooling a high schooler, middle schooler, and 5th grader with a 2 year old and 3 year old has been either a complete disaster or a creative masterpiece of juggling and time management depending on the day.

Some days I ask myself what in the world have we got ourselves into... we had no idea we were walking into this adventure when we signed up for foster care 18 months ago. It is a weighty thing to fall in love with these boys and know in the back of our minds that they could be taken away by the whim of a DHS worker. It is good to trust in the sovereignty of God.