Little Boys Sleep

Little boys do the funniest things. This is how I found the youngest boys sleeping the other night. What is it about having your face covered up? Isaac is the first on in the doorway, head covered by the extra pillow. Aaron was a little more sophisticated in his head covering, he chose a book of dinosaur proportions.

It just does not look very comfortable nor safe. Needless to say, the head coverings were removed and the boys were gently tucked into bed. Now the chances of them getting awakened by the uncomfortable cold floor and wanting in bed with us was diminished.

Thanksgiving Competition

It was a fun Thanksgiving day here. We were once again blessed to be able to share it with our dear friends Doug and Jean who are our surrogate family here. This makes it a three year tradition so we had to raise the bar in terms of the post meal festivities. Last year it was the Blockus game and Pictionary on our easel (always entertaining with drawings from the younger members of the family). This year we decided to incorporate one of our favorite "winter" activities, Dixie Cup creations. It is one of those games I pull out when all else has failed and desperation sets in.

We started by dividing into 4 teams. We were competing in three categories, creativity, strength, and height.

Here is Aaron standing by their creation when it was close to done. His team consisted of himself, Scott and Isaac as an observer, he was more interested in grazing on some sweet morsels on the counter.


Here is Zach and Doug's masterpiece in progress. Can you tell they were going for the height award?


Hannah and Jean were another team. They got real creative incorporating duplos. The rules said we could use anything in the house to build our creation.


Here is Elizabeth and me working on our own unique design. Ours included two of my favorite things as our theme, coffee and chocolate.


NOW FOR THE FINISHED (or not so finished) PRODUCTS

Scott and the boys: "Dinotopia"


Jean and Hannah's: "Safari"


Doug and Zach's: "Skyscraper"


Elizabeth and Carrie: "Coffee Time"

I'm So Floored!!!!

Yes, we finally blew our blood money earned from our regular donations at Biolife with phase one of our floor installation project. The pictures below show the step-by-step installation of our new laminate floor that separates our "living room" area from the rest of the great room on the ground level. Phase two will include tile throughout the kitchen, dining room, and hallway.

The First Dance

Well Hannah has attended her first junior high dance, much to her parents hesitation. I mean really, why do we push hormonally enraged pre-teens and teenagers together in a dimly lit room and say please dance around and touch one another! Is there really any intelligent reason to do this? I am admittedly getting old but I would be open to hear any rational explanation as to why we put young people in this situation. If dating is for the purpose of finding a husband/wife and if physical touch is as dangerous as dynamite for adults, should we really be putting our kids in a situation to play with such hazardous materials? Seriously!

Off my pedestal. We were reluctant to allow Hannah to go to the dance until she earned our trust in two situations. The first was when a young fella called the house wanting to talk to Hannah. I answered the phone to hear silence and then a nervous, "Can I talk to Hannah?" I politely asked, "May I ask who is calling?" Silence. Then a soft voice says, "a friend." To this I promptly replied, "Unless you identify yourself you may not talk to Hannah." Hannah smiles from across the room, loving the response apparently. More silence. "Um this is _____." In the background Hannah is telling me she does not want to talk to any boys. Trying to be polite I tell Hannah that she must take the call and tell the young suitor herself. Hannah proceeds to take the phone and tell ____ that she doesn't want him calling her. The not-so-gentle tone she was using continued as she walked down the hall and I wondered if I should address her lack of manners when she got off the phone. Very quickly I decided that the very unusual tone for Hannah was tolerable in this situation. If she wants to be blunt with the boys, I think I am ok with that.

The second vote of confidence came when Hannah told her dad in a car ride alone that there was a boy who asked her to go to the dance with him, to which she declined the offer. The fact that she brought this to her dad on her own initiative is exciting. In light of these things we allowed Hannah to go to the dreaded (my own word) dance.

What is really funny is the stories when Hannah returned. Hannah's role at the dance ended up being one of a counselor. She first reported that she had a great time and then shared "but" there was a lot of crying. Crying? It turns out that there were a lot of broken hearts, a misunderstood comment, and turned down boys that brought about the tears. Should I reiterate that junior hight dances are absurd? I looked at her slightly pink eyes and asked yer if she had been crying too to which she responded, "Yea Mom, a little because they are my friends and I care about them." My tender hearted firstborn, aww. Hannah's best words of advice to her girlfriends was something like (paraphrase because my memory is failing) who needs boys anyway, we don't need husbands yet so forget the boys. I love this girl!


Little did we know, Dad was capturing the return. Letting Hannah in.......



If only I could remember what was being said here. I told you my mind is going. You can use your imagination............



Hannah telling about the tearful sagas.......



My conclusion: The hard work pays off & dances be gone!

Costume Time

The Sterner kids love to dress up any time of the year so a day dedicated to costumes is a major hit at our house. This year found us recycling some old costumes, finding one 10$ bargain, borrowing from the church wardrobe, and lastly one example of fatherly creativity.

Here is Zach and "Frank" made of a two belt system, wood, Dad's clothes, the Shimada mask, and Aaron's pants. People really seemed to like that one. The other two big boys are two of Zach's friends. Elizabeth is a miniature bride, Isaac is Darth Vader, and Aaron is once again a Dinosaur. Where is Hannah one might ask..........





Well, here is Hannah. She left early with 3 of her friends and two of their moms. Her smaller group could comb the neighborhood much quicker than the above big group which also included Mom, Dad, and two other friends of ours who yearly join our chaos. Hannah was also a bride. A little too much of a blast in the future for my comfort.




A better look at Zach's costume.




The following pictures are from the Halloween parade at school. Notice Aaron in the background.




Aaron continued to find his own things to do instead of watching the parade.




Here is Elizabeth and "Elvis."







This is what she looked like at the end of the parade. There were a few minor wardrobe issues, her tights were about 3 sizes too small and wanted to drop to her ankles. Being a woman is so much work.