Everyday life.

Just a few snippets of everyday life.  Today I walked up the stairs to find this:


Stuart is doing a book for Which Way USA.  He loves them and has been completing many of the state books lately.  Marcus was reading a book he borrowed from Stuart.  Here's the loan slip.  Yes, Stuart rarely remembers to capitalize anything.



Spike has taken to sleeping at the foot of our apartment stairs.  The boys jump over him all the time.

 

Halloween costumes!  Stuart was thrilled to finally be Robin hood.  Marcus, inundated with change lately, chose to wear a costume he got for Christmas almost two years ago.

 

Smith Rock camping, 4th of July at the beach

These first pictures are taken by Stu.  He took the kids camping (again) while I was at the OHEN homeschool conference at the end of June.

 

Stu printed this next one and put it up in his office.

             

These next pictures are from the 4th of July.  We were both taking pictures, so I don't know who took each picture.  We went to the beach and it was about five degrees too cold to be comfortable.  But the kids still managed to have a good time!

               

Picture dump from the last two weeks.

We have been busy, and we have been with friends.  That makes posting pictures on the blog more difficult, as not everyone wants their kids' pictures all over the Internet.  So here's the best I can do with cropping non-family-members out of pictures.

Crown Point:

 

Running down the ramp at Crown Point, as all good boys should do.


 

Stuart's happy that he and his friends discovered a mud hole.

 

How happy?  Pretty happy.

 

Marcus was happy until he got mud all over his face.

 

Marcus making a sign during school...

 

...Stuart doing his math...
 

...Marcus and his responsibility chart...

 

...and with his "magnet guy", the best toy ever during school time.

 

Everyone was mugging for the camera on this homeschool field trip, but I'm only sharing my own kids' crazy faces.

 

Rubber ducky race.  After I took the picture I did move the duck so that the water would hit it.

 

Stuart dancing in his seat during a talk on bees.
 

Marcus geeking out over his yellow hands during a color class.


Stuart building a castle/volcano with friends, friends removed from picture.

 

Stuart trying to juggle.  We were camping with friends at a house in the country.

 

Climbing just outside the Mosier Twin Tunnels.

 

Sitting and looking cute, also outside Mosier Twin Tunnels.

 

Showing off new homeschool group shirts that they were allowed to print for themselves.  We have some really great and generous families in our homeschool group.

 

Because I love taking pictures of Stuart in midair.

 

Marcus just relaxing and enjoying the day.



We have had many, many good days lately.

Christmas in 20 pictures or less

I have tried to keep Christmas down to one post, and twenty pictures.  Let's see how I did...

This picture is actually from Christmas Eve naptime.  Marcus (who rarely naps anymore) was discovered sleeping sideways in his top bunk.  He had apparently dragged the bean bag chair up the ladder.  From this picture you can only see Monkey Isaac and Blankie, but Owl was also in the chair.  Marcus said they needed their own place to sleep.



Picture of the Christmas reveal!  Taken by Stu.  Not the best reveal picture ever, but the subjects were being all normal.  Stuart is just a sweetie.  Marcus I had to wake up, because it would have been torture to make Stuart wait any longer.



Is this better?  Marcus was a little excited on Christmas.  Once he woke up.



I got up early enough to get a shower and dress beforehand, but not enough time to do my hair or face.  I guess it was better than pictures in rumpled pajamas.



Marcus playing with his new bowling set....



Marcus trying play with his new Perplexus Rookie, while it was still in the box.



Stu's dad got an iPad!



Marcus was super-thrilled to get more Bob Books.



Immediately he selected a book, sat down on the couch, and read it himself.



Meanwhile, Stuart is on his knees, on the floor, reading a book my sister sent.  We had to do the whole book together later in the day.



Marcus has moved on to an Elmo book, I think also from my sister.  My kids love books.  Also they love to leave stickers stuck to the floor.



Stu is a professional at acting thrilled with gifts.  Here's the pro in action.  This present he actually asked for, though, so it's sincere.



I got some Gold Toe socks for Stu at Costco.  He liked them, so I bought more.  He said, "Wrap them up and put them under the tree."  So I did.  Only a pro like him could be so thrilled about socks he already knew he was getting!



Again with the books.  Not sure where this comes from.



There weren't as many pictures of Stuart, but here is one of him opening an RC car.  One of three, all very different.  He was tooling this baby around the house just an hour ago.



Marcus in his pirate costume, about to play his new keyboard.



We went to Mass, but didn't get any pictures of us dressed up.  Mostly the camera sat dormant as we had fun.  Mom, you always complain that there aren't any pictures of me.  Here's another one, after we got home.



Stuart out playing with the new Ezy Roller.  Thanks, Mark and Anh!



Christmas dinner, my plate:  fresh ham from the pig we bought a few months ago, mashed cauliflower, and cranberry sauce.  There was no point in making a huge meal or piling a bunch of food on my plate.  I had been nibbling all day.  Half that meat went onto the kids' plates, too.  Later there was pumpkin pie.



All in all, a very nice Christmas.