In the Morning

In the morning, when I am about to head downstairs to begin my day, 

I run into a lineup of cellphones and ipads that the boys lay out.
I sort of love it.
It's really nice that they don't keep them in their rooms at night.

Orchestra Night

 

Teens, Teens, and more Teens

We have had a real uptick in teens lately.  Now with Samuel here, and the four Danish students, we have even more. Here are a few shots from some recent teen activity. 1.  PING PONG. In the dining room. Actually, it's a game called Jungle, and it is quite popular.  The video is of the group still in the game after a few rounds.  2.  This is a group shot and everyone here just finished watching Les Misérables. The upcoming Very Merry show is Les Mis and they were all interested in it because almost everyone seen here, minus a few, will be trying out for the play.

 

Sugar Season

We went to both Kuba and Anders 3rd grade teacher's home this past weekend.  Mr. Mike owns a house with a lot of land in the country and on the land, there are a lot of maple trees.  He now taps them and makes syrup.  We wanted to take Samuel to see the process and it was really an amazing experience. We helped schlep sap and we learned details about the season and process of sugaring. The lighter amber syrup is early in the season, and the darker robust syrup is later in the season.  The sap has to reach a certain temperature in the boiler #7 to be exact, before it turns into syrup. The thicker syrup collects at one end of the boiler pan and it's easy to open the valve and let it run out.   Mike sent us home with 2 different grades of syrup and a jar of homemade raspberry jam. When we got home, Samuel whipped up a batch of pancake batter and we all taste tested all that we were sent home with.  The jam was amazing, and the darker syrup was our favorite.  DELICIOUS! 
 

Unexpected Igloo

We had a very late in the season snowstorm with wet heavy snow.

Perfect for Samuel to inspire an igloo making adventure.

Here they are!

 

Ping Pong?

We've been playing a lot of ping pong, because Samuel is pretty darn good at it and we are all determined to get better at it!   But as is always the case, after a long time of playing sometimes you can get a little bored.  This happened, and then I noticed the boys playing ping pong - not with paddles, but with a metal mixing bowl and a Rubik's cube!  SO CREATIVE! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day 2023

It was a fun St. Patty's day this year at home.

We started with shamrock socks for all, and ended with a large family dinner with Peter, Jen, Kaj, Mormor, Dave, and Sandy.  Corned beef and cabbage and the works.

Followed by some rowdy games of Ping Pong.