The One Where the Mom Does a Show

For the past 3 years I've had the privilege of working at Zimmerman High School helping to produce their musical. This year we did Seussical the Musical. It was such a great show. I love high school kids. Their energy and talent never fails to amaze me.

In another week I begin work at Princeton High School directing the One Act Play. This year will contain an extra dose of fun because Austin will be in it!

The One Where We Are Thankful

This was a Thanksgiving filled with family, love, happiness, and sorrow. We have so much to be thankful for. We also had reason for our sorrow. Our pastor's wife, Karol Pruett lost her battle with cancer. Our sorrow lies in that. Karol ran a good race and finished that race in the arms of Jesus. We are thankful for that. She was an amazing woman who will continue to impact lives for generations to come.

Our Thanksgiving also held many happy moments. On Thursday we celebrated in Milaca with Mark's family, and on Friday we celebrated in Waconia with my family. Austin and Noah had many hours of fun with their cousins.

Wes and Bev have made a point of turning their basement into a fun zone. They have a dart board, air hockey and a carpet ball table. This year was our first ever Thanksgiving Carpet Ball Tournament. The competition was stiff, but Austin garnered a championship victory. I was proud of myself when I took 2nd place in the competition.

The boys also had fun goofing around with Alex & Brittany. Brittany likes to keep things calm by playing board games, but the boys always end up in wrestling matches that shake the whole house.

It has become a tradition to meet up with the extended family for bowling on Thursday night. It's a fun way to catch up with cousins that we don't get to see often enough.

On Friday we headed for Waconia to celebrate with my parents. Austin and Noah are always excited to see Uncle John and to show him their latest gadgets. He is always appropriately impressed. We had fun taking family pictures together. After many hilarious outtakes, we ended up with a few decent shots where everyone is at least looking in the same direction!

We ended our day on Friday by playing BINGO with the kids. My grandma Potras started this tradition when her grandkids were small. Whenever the cousins were all together, Grandma used to gather all of her grandchildren at her huge dining room table for fun filled afternoons of BINGO. She always went to the "five and dime" and bought prized for us. She made a huge presentation out of each prize won. With each prize we felt like we had won the jackpot.

When Austin and Noah were small, my mom decided to carry on this tradition. Austin and Noah have had the fun of winning dollar store prizes and having special "kid" time with Grammy. This year, Johnny was able to play his own card. It was fun to see the numbers increase at our own family BINGO game.

The One With the Tree Fort

Mark's energy and talent never fail to amaze me. I've never seen anyone who can get more done in a single day than Mark. He recently decided to build a tree fort for the boys. He used his creativity and talent to design a fort made primarily of wood we had on hand. Whenever he had a free night or a few hours on the weekend, he and the boys would head out to the woods to work on the fort.

The result was a cozy fort complete with ladder and trap door. It has already been used for a sleepover. Mark made it large enough for a pop-up tent. It has also been used as a place to have school. There is nothing more relaxing than sitting high off the ground with a gorgeous view and a good book in hand.

I look forward to all of the fun adventures this new space will provide in years to come!

The One Where Austin is in a Play

His first official High School activity! Now that Austin is in 9th grade, all of his extra curricular activities are done through Princeton High School. The Princeton school district makes it very easy for homeschoolers to join extra curriculars. In September, we gave Austin the choice of football or the fall play. Much to this momma's delight, he chose the play!

The play chose was "The Matchmaker". After auditions, he was given the role of Joe, the cabman. It was a small role. Perfect for his first time on the high school stage. His character is drunk for a good portion of his time on stage. The director, Maureen Palashewski, said she gave him the role because..... he played the best drunk.

It was fun for all of us to have friends and family come to see the show. Mark's parents, sister, and niece all came for the show. My mom and several of my best friends also came.

Austin had a wonderful experience with this show. He is excited to audition for One Act Play Competition in a few weeks.

The One With the Cousins

Family is one of the few constants we have in life. Cousins are an important part of family life. Mark and I both grew up with dozens of cousins. I have such happy memories of racing around my grandma's house with my cousins. My kids also have fun with their cousins. Instead of dozens of cousins, they have only four. A total of four.

Thankfully the cousins make up in quality what they lack in quantity. Alex and Brittany are 17 and 14. Noah and Austin have fun playing with them on a peer level. They have fun browsing Facebook together, or shooting each other with airsoft guns. When we went on a family cruise, they had a blast exploring the ship together.

Johnny and Sophie are 3 and 1.5. Austin and Noah are very entertained by their antics. Even though there is a spread in age, Noah loves entertaining Johnny and being the "big kid" around him. They both like to just watch little Sophie. She's just so darn adorable that they laugh at anything she does.

We love our family!

The One at the Science Museum

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit is what finally prompted us to make a trip to the Science Museum of Minnesota. These scrolls are rich in history, power, and culture. The exhibit was very impressive.

I would have stayed for hours reading and absorbing all of the information. Alas with a 14 year old and an 11 year old, things didn't work that way. Austin found the display to be interesting, but was ready to move on far more quickly than I was. Noah poked his head into the entrance and promptly declared it to be boring. I guess you can't win 'em all!

When we finished the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit we toured the rest of the museum. As a science lover, Austin found many things to hold his interest. Noah always loves hands-on activities. Most of this museum is meant to be explored in some way.

I found it especially impressive that the museum is full of volunteers who explain the different displays. We went into a biology lab where the boys learned how to identify micro-organisms. The woman who helped us was a retired college professor. Her enthusiasm for the subject was contagious. We all learned from her!

There were many things we left unexplored in the museum. That was fine with us because we purchased a membership to the museum so that we can visit as often as we like.

The One With the Ducks

Every summer we raise Mallard ducklings. They are the perfect temporary pet. We order them in the spring. They come to us as fluffy little puff balls and leave as beautiful creatures who fly high in the sky and journey hundreds of miles.

Our ducks have given us countless hours of entertainment. When the ducklings are little our dog, Lego becomes their mother. She takes it upon herself to make sure they are safely huddled together under her watchful eye. She worries over them and even gives them a bath!

It is such a wonder to watch them transform from soft, downy covered babies to beautiful feathered birds.

As they grow, they learn to eat cracked corn out of our hands. They are a wild animal, yet they become somewhat tame. If we are calm, they will let us pick them up and hold them and stroke their beautiful feathers.

They become so used to humans around them, that they become lonely if aren't nearby. One morning I was home alone and didn't go outside for a few hours. I heard quacking at the front door and peeked out to see that the ducks had taken it upon themselves to come visiting!

This year we adopted our own sort of "duck call". When the ducks were free ranging in our yard we would yell out, "Duck, duck!". They would answer back with a quack and come waddling in our direction. Now that they have have answered the "call of the wild" and moved themselves far away to the pond in our yard, we can still shout out to them and hear them answer back from the water.

Soon these ducks will fly away to a warmer location. They may come back to this spot next year, but they will never be tame again. We look forward to next spring when we can raise a new batch of babies!