catch-up

Honestly, Im so behind. 

Life has been busy as usual. 

And we've had some very cold and icy weather. 

This house is ready for spring! 

And trampoline jumping!

But Im getting ahead of myself...the past weekend we spent a lot of time in the gym for Lauren's volleyball. Her team did so well. And I had a great time watching. I may become the mom that people have to tell to sit down and quit pacing and yelling!
I'm also learning a lot about this sport that I never played in high school.
Lauren is a setter...I've got that position down now I think. ;)

They ended up getting 3rd place in the tournament. 

Afterwards she went out for a late late supper with her team and Jordan and I found ourselves waiting up till after 10:30 for her!
A new era indeed.

The younger brothers and sisters of the girls all band together, share electronics and laugh during the long tournament days. Their turn will come soon enough. 

School is off to a great start this semester. 

I changed up our math and language arts curriculum after Christmas. 

I was just not happy with the other. 

And this change has proved to be the perfect fit. 

Also, Im getting to use my first love...teaching writing. 

Here are pictures the kids made with our river/streams/lakes unit. 

They loved learning about the different types of animals that live around these bodies of water...especially platypuses and the venus fly trap! 

We wrapped up our unit on Germany with some help from the Kirkpatricks in cooking an authentic German meal...complete with snitzel, spatzel and of course...football appetizers cause the playoffs were on! Melanie was great and let Lauren help with much of the cooking.
The kids decided the meal was a hit!
Thanks again guys!

In other news, Melanie and I challenged each other to tackle Spring Cleaning/organizing
our houses this month. 

Its been a ton of work but I love seeing the results.
And of course its more fun with someone to keep me accountable and joke around with about the things we are finding!

 Here is an example of some of the fruits of my labor.
This is our toy room/school book/supply storage. The underneath of that desk (where the phone and 3 computers sit or charge, wii remotes charge, also home to the roter, eternal hard drive and a light) had some serious ELECTRICAL CORD ISSUES. 

It drove me nuts. I can see it from where I sit on the couch in the evenings and it made me burn.
No more.
Clean. Hidden. Organized.
Awwwww.

Spring cleaning also got me my new DYSON!

Of course amidst all this stuff there is still fun.
Sullivan is very into potions right now. We pulled out a kit that we haven't used in a long time which he got LAST christmas.

Cant you just feel the excitement?

Ok, it was a bit of a let down but he still enjoyed it. 

And these two got bored with that pretty early so they were wrestling. 

Love them. 

So with that I feel somewhat caught up and Im vowing again to blog more!