Adam - Our Artist

Today Adam was honored at the opening ceremony for Manitowoc Public School's Youth Art Month.  He received an outstanding achievement award for his still life.  This picture doesn't do it justice - it's simply amazing!  It'll be on display at our city's art museum for the next month along with lots of other fantastic artwork from students around the city, and then I'm taking it to get it framed.

It looks tiny in the picture, but it's about an 11x16 picture - there was a display below it so he's standing a few feet away, but he was so proud of it I had to get the picture!

I wish I had a picture from our birthday celebration with Carol yesterday.  We had a wonderful day together and I hope she enjoyed the day as much as we did!

Carlson Duet

Isaac and Adam went to a Solo & Ensemble contest today and played a duet together.  What a fun day - we were able to enjoy lots of wonderful music!!!  Isaac also played in his school's jazz band and did a duet with his buddy.  The judges gave lots of great feedback and gave 1's to all of the boys' performances.  Here is a link to Isaac and Adam's duet...  I hope this works!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvsH9rykE0U

 



Football

Adam is playing football this fall!  The coaches have been amazing and I'm impressed with the program and ... He loves it!  I have a feeling we'll be spending many fall evenings going to football games for years to come!  He's number 37.

Adam is top, center in this picture.  Ryan tells me he was playing defensive end : )
 



See number 37 in the middle?  That's my little boy having fun!

Sweaty and smiling after winning 30-14.

 

 

 

Confirmation

Today we celebrated Isaac's Confirmation!

He chose Revelation 1:8 for his Confirmation verse.

"I am the Alpha and Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was,

and who is to come, the Almighty."

Isaac wrote a faith statement and this is part of what he wrote:

On the day of baptism, God opens His arms for you to join Him in His kingdom and on the day of confirmation you accept the invitation with gratitude.

 So blessed to be surrounded with family!



Swimming Success!

Here's a link to this morning's announcements at Isaac's school. Read down at the bottom about the JV boys swimmers! http://manitowocpublicschools.com/WilsonJunior.cfm?subpage=211780

Congrats Isaac!

Kings & Queen of the Hill

There are so many posts I want to make before the end of the year but there are only a few hours left and I am certain I won't make the deadline. So instead I am posting this picture and a few random thoughts from our adventures in the snow.

1. The boys were talking about being King of the Hill. I love "our" boys because they shared the Kingdom - even with this little queen.
2. I cherish my relationships with my cousins. I am especially grateful for my cousin, Ryan. He is a great man and I would be blessed to find anyone so wonderful in my life (Joy - you are wonderful too!). We have known each other our whole lives and I am so thankful that we still keep in touch despite the miles and the great big lake in between. During our snow adventure Ryan ventured outside without the proper snow gear because he wanted to keep an eye on his boys. He encouraged fun, kept the boys warm, and carefully kept everyone safe without making a big deal of it. He even carved stairs into the snow mountain so that Queen Alaina could reach the top. Seriously, a wonderful person.
3. Not everyone eats snow - but they should. The Queen immediately began filling her belly with fresh crisp cold snow. She just wouldn't stop and when she fell over face forward into the snow she just stuck out her tongue and took advantage of the situation. It's a great life lesson that I am learning.
4. I love the snow - just love it - especially for how it makes everything white. It clears the visual noise - you can even see how it does this in the picture. It reflects light and it is makes me think of the word "clean" (I know not all snow is clean - there even is acid snow!) Most of all I love it because of this verse:

Isaiah 1:18 (AMP) Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though
your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red
like crimson, they shall be like wool.

And this is the thought I leave you with as we head into the new year.

Baritone Boy

Adam is so excited to be starting band this year!

This past summer we made a visit to the music store to try out all the instruments and his face lit up when he tried the baritone! I knew this was the instrument for him instantly. The band director gave me a baritone to bring home for him while I was volunteering at school and he was thrilled when he got home and discovered it!

He sounds amazing!

He's a Workin' Man!

Since we first looked at our home, I've been wanting to cut down two trees/overgrown bushes by the front door. Adam has been asking when he could cut them down for me -- he was excited about doing the job himself, plus he keeps telling me that the house needs more curb appeal! I told him today was the day and he ran off to grab his choice of tools and began chopping the first one before I could even find my camera. Here's a before picture of Adam working while Ryan and Isaac supervise. The one he's working on had been as big as the tree on the right. Adding another branch to the pile ... it took Ryan two truckloads to haul all the remains to our city compost site.

He loved how much he was sweating and how dirty he was getting!

One of the two root balls. I helped him dig ... that was work! The other root ball was too big for Adam or me to lift ... thank you Ryan!

After! It looks so so so much better!

Thank you Adam!!!

Happy Boys!

Adam thought long and hard how he wanted to spend his birthday money and much to my surprise he wanted to buy a futon for his new bedroom! He saw it at Target and the price was amazing (it's part of their dorm room collection) so he made the purchase. I was amazed at the quality and he's so proud of it! He has the table Grandma Carol made for him and Isaac in front of it so they can build with Legos together. Usually there are Legos all over the floor too but Adam wanted to clean his room before I took the picture! They've spent many hours here using their imaginations together.

Thank you Linda for the Blockus game -- it's a huge hit and I recommend this game to everyone. Adam was the winner of the first game and I know they're be plenty more : )

The winning board ... Adam was blue, Isaac red and me green.

Be prepared for a Blockus challenge!

Love, Joy

Blokus

I gave Adam and Isaac the game Blokus for their birthdays. Hope they love it!

Welcome To the Double Digits!

We had fun at family camping. It was a great time also for Adam to celebrate his first double digit birthday. Most of the rest of us have been in double digits for some time.

Adam and Isaac were checking out the greenbacks in his birthday card.

2010 Ping Pong Olympics

Firstly, I want to thank Joy for organizing the 2010 family camping (a.k.a. Cousins Camping).  It was so nice to be able to drive up and not have to worry about anything.  That was a real gift to me!  Joy also started a fantastic tradition - The Ping Pong Olympics. It was a blast.  We were having so much fun that the folks at the campsite across the road asked us if they could buy a ping pong ball from us because they wanted to partake in the games as well!  Like a great sportswoman, Joy gave them the ping pong ball free of charge!  Way to represent Joy.  They returned the ping pong ball in the morning and insisted we also take their professional grade orange ping pong ball. I love the community in action.  In the picture above Ryan and I were trying to bounce the ping pong into the plastic cups from a fixed distance.  The ping pong ball had to bounce once before it entered into the cup.  We then had to retrieve our own balls.  It was a battle to the end when I had a lucky hop off of a piece of gravel and landed the ball in my cup.  Victory!

Adam and Isaac had a great competition trying to blow the floating ping pong ball in one cup into another.  Isaac made swift work when he landed the ball in with a huge breath like that of a dragon! 

Linda must have been practicing this at home - look at her technique.  She edged out Carol but Carol received the best splash caught on film award! 

Umm.  What kind of face is that?  Ryan schooled me in one swift blow.

 

Winner!  Addy!

Faith really held her own!  She loved her prize:  beautiful smelling lotion!

Look at the concentration on Adam's face - it is unparalleled.

Winner! Joy!

Berry Bounty

The boys and I made signs and this is one of mine.

We are have wild strawberries in abundance on our property and we are looking forward to these cultivated blueberries and wild blackberries. We have raspberries too, but they don't look the best so I didn't include those.

Goodbye school -- Hello summer!

Isaac and Adam had a great school year. The end of this year is bittersweet as Isaac is moving from the elementary school over to the junior high. On the last day of school there was an awards ceremony and Isaac was busy getting his name called quite often! He was one of the 6th graders to have earned the Citizenship Award each year and was given a special honor. Adam has gotten it each year too! Isaac also got the Presidential Award for Academic Excellence. I was so proud of both boys!!! Here's Isaac with his best buddy Zack. They're such great kids!

Here is Adam and his amazing teacher Mrs. Behrendt. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect teacher for him -- what a lucky boy! I also loved volunteering in her class -- she and I always had so much fun together! Maybe too much fun! Those are tears in her eyes as she was having such a hard time saying goodbye to all the kids. What a blessing she is!

The last day of school. Every year on the first and last day of school I've taken the boy's picture on our front porch. In the fall we'll be taking the picture in our new home!

And now summer is here! On Saturday I picked up my nieces Cailin & Maren at the airport in Milwaukee. They're here for 2 weeks! Hooray! My brother Mark will fly in on Saturday to spend next week here too. The cousins have been having so much fun together. The weather has been yucky so we've been having indoor fun. We went shopping for fleece fabric and they all worked together making these blankets for each other. What a great keepsake to remember this fun time together.

Happy summer everyone!

Love, Joy

Happy Birthday, Isaac

We met for Isaac's 12th birthday in Green Bay. The birthday boy............ and

his brother were treated with a hot fudge sundaes.

What a fine young man you are Isaac. Your infectious smile will always win my heart. Happy Birthday!

The pool is open!

We knew beautiful weather was headed our way this week so we set up our pool on Sunday. By Monday morning it was full and the solar cover on. Yesterday the boys took their first plunge ... into the chilly 68 degree water!

Adam was the 1st one in!

Isaac was next!

We've been loving the warm summerlike days here! Today when they got home from school they headed straight to the pool (now with balmy 74 degree water!) to cool off after track & field day at school. The pool is open for the summer and you're all invited to take a dip!

Love, Joy

Super soccer player

We enjoyed watching Adam in action at his soccer game last Saturday. His team won 5 to 0 with one of the points being Adam's surprise long distance kick. It was fine.

New Year's Wishes

We got together today and made some New Year wishes for each other. Can you see the sparkle in Isaac and Adam's eyes? We had lots of fun together today. Happy New Year everyone!

More from the best concert ever....

We sure did enjoy the concert today. Isaac you did a great job playing the slide trombone and your singing was wonderful. We are so proud of you

School Concert

We really enjoyed experiencing the concert!