christmas day with boys

A day spent in jammies.  Seeing the bounty that Santa brought this year.  Double checking that no coal was left in the stockings.  Unwrapping gifts from family and friends from around the country.  Superheros.  Legos.  Mighty Machines.  Playing playing laughing.  Snacking snacking snacking.  Pizza and lobster tail.  A good day.

christmas eve day

A tradition has formed over the past few years to spend Christmas Eve at the Muhly's, do our gift exchange between families and with Grandpa, and have a nice meal together.  Richard started the day by having the kids help cut and decorate gingerbread men- they turned out very cute and very tasty.  The boys picked out two to leave for Santa that night, and I suspect Santa enjoyed them.

At Susie's house, we opened our gifts from my dad, revealing beautiful boots for Susie and I, a suitcase for Ben that he had been asking for, Lego's for Owen and some outdoor gear for Richard.  The Muhly's gift to our family was a big surprise- a trip dogsledding for this weekend when we go to Mt. Bachelor.  That will be a first for us and should be a very fun experience.

Susie cooked a turkey for dinner with other quite yummy gluten free accessories. The kids put on plays and sang for everyone and had a great time exploring their new toys.  Off we went to Christmas Eve service.  When we returned we prepped for Santa's pending visit and had the official reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas."  Two very excited boys fell asleep finally in Owen's room, while I beat Richard and Dad at Scrabble.  Barely.

merry christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!  We have had a wonderful year, and looking forward to a couple of weeks to enjoy as a family.  My dad has arrived for the holiday safely, the house is decorated, the presents are (mostly) wrapped, and the letters have been sent off to Santa.  Now we can relax, munch on the cookies that keep arriving at the house, enjoy Pandora Christmas songs, update the blog, and watch some Christmas specials.  

Owen turned seven in July, and is in second grade at Zion Lutheran School.  He loves school- science most of all- and his friends he's had there since kindergarten.  We all enjoy his teacher, Mrs. Straub, and how she integrates fun themes- like sharks- across all the lessons.  She is also a science lover.  Owen is doing Cub Scouts again this year, with Richard as his Den Leader.  He started piano in September and is really enjoying it- especially the Christmas songs.

Ben turns four in January, and is in pre-school at Zion.  His teacher is Miss Jo, an enthusiastic young teacher who loves songs and plays the ukelele.  Ben is thriving at school, doing great with letters and numbers and has shown some impressive pre-reading skills.  We still keep in touch with his good friends Natalie and Valerie from his last school, but he is also meeting new friends in this class.  Ben is a ball of energy.  His current interests are super heros.

Richard and I are still at HP, Richard's making ink and I'm making big printers.  I traveled to Germany this spring for our big trade show and got to see Mallorie Kumpf there.  We took our annual trip to the East Coast to visit our families in Virginia and Vermont this summer.  We did a few camping trips this summer, including one to Diamond Lake for some boating and fishing.  In October, Richards sister Nancy got married and we flew to Boston for the wedding and to see his family.  Richard had the honor of walking Nancy down the aisle.  Susie's family lives 0.1 miles away, and Owen and Ben love to play with their cousin Laurel.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.  Thank you for peeking into our year!

singing in the holiday

The last week of school, both boys sang in the Christmas holiday with concerts.  Ben's was Wednesday morning.  The pre-school and pre-k classes led the weekly service with lots of beautiful songs.   The highlight was the Christian 12 days of Christmas with a slide show of drawings the kids made.  My favorite from Ben was this one, labeled on the back "Joseph, alien Mary, Baby Jesus, and a camel".  The kids were fun to watch, both during the performances, and to see how they choose to entertain themselves while they had to sit on the steps during the sermon.  Three and four year olds are awesome.  (we saw lots of underwear and bellies).

Owen's Christmas Pageant was Wednesday night, with the kindergarten through 8th graders.  They had a play which was mostly the Christmas story, with a little bit of West Side Story thrown in.  Owen was supposed to wear cowboy gear, which our K-mart luckily was able to provide.  Owen sang a dozen songs and was just wonderful to watch.  They did a great job.

We had a surprise on Tuesday morning- Corvallis was covered in snow.  Not enough to miss school, but enough for playing in and building snowmen.  Richard and Ben built a big and little one Tuesday afternoon.  After rains that night, they got smaller in size the next day and the rest of the lawn melted.

christmas mariachi? absolutely!

Susie, Russa, Heather, Andrea and I went to see the Indigo Girls performing with the Portland Symphony a few weeks ago.  While we were there Russa saw the promotion for "Fiesta Navidad"- a Christmas performance of Mariachi and the Symphony- dubbed a feast for the eyes and ears.  Russa was fired up to go, and I thought it would be fun.  She booked our families rooms at the River's Edge- a
hotel in South Portland, at the end of the cable car line.  We got a late start Friday night, since the boys first went to the Cub Scouts movie night.  We got up to Portland around 10, and Owen and Andrew had a sleepover (which didn't turn out to have much sleeping).  Saturday morning we made our way to OMSI and we all enjoyed exploring the museum and the planetarium show.  Russa, it turns out, has great hair for the static generator experiment.

That evening we took the cable car to dinner at a diner downtown, a place that worked out great for a party of 8 including 3 picky kids.  We got lucky with a break in the rain and enjoyed the walk through Pioneer Plaza stopped to see Portland's Christmas tree.  Russa had gotten us great seats for Fiesta Navidad- we basically had our own section in the balcony.  Slumber parties took their toll on Owen, Andrew, and Nicole and the 3 of them were asleep about the same time the concert began.  Those of us who stayed awake enjoyed a couple hours of beautiful Mariachi music, both traditional and Christmas songs.  At the end of the second half, the symphony left the stage and then the serious mariachi began.  Seemed like everyone in the audience knew the songs and were singing along.  Who knew there was such a following in Portland!

We enjoyed a Sunday morning brunch on the river before heading home.   It was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit and enjoy the culture available in our state.

december is here

December is here, and we began getting ready for Christmas.  The first picture is of Ben at his new friend Sterling's birthday at the Wacky Bounce.  Ben, Sterling, and the new Natalie bounced for a full 2 hours and were bright pink and laughing the whole time.  Ben helped Richard and I set up and decorate the tree.  Laurel came by later and also spend an hour or so putting up ornaments.  Richard and Owen found a break in the rain and put up our outdoor lights.  Richard had gotten our annual giant wreath, and it was lit up along with our new evergreen in front of the house.  The house looks beautiful for the holiday season, and just in time for me to host supper club (an elaborate affair for 5 girlfriends).

The boys paid a visit to Santa at Storybook land, and both agreed to sit on his lap (I think this is a family first) and told Santa what they wanted for Christmas.  Ben is hoping for Batman things, and Owen would like some Legos.  They've been pretty nice so chances are good Santa will be paying them a visit.  We have had Santa on auto-dial for the month, calling if Ben doesn't go to sleep or doesn't listen.  But thus far all calls have been cut short by a plea from Ben that he will behave.  Only a couple of days left, and I doubt he will be getting coal.

november culture

Owen and Ben performed for Grandparents day in the Zion Chapel right before Thanksgiving.  I have video's which refuse to be posted- in short, both did a great job.  Ben sang with the pre-schoolers 3 songs accompanied by Miss Jo's ukulele.  He knew all the hand motions and did a wonderful job.  Owen sang several songs with the 2nd through 5th graders.  He also did lots of hand motions and was wonderful.  Our neighbors Owen and Ruth joined the boys for grandparents day, and got to spend the morning in Owen's classroom learning about what he does in school and watching the class put on a Thanksgiving play.    Richard went to Ben's class and they had a great time doing some crafts.

After Thanksgiving, Owen had 2 exciting events.  His boat won "most colorful" in the Rain Gutter Regatta at Cub Scouts.  Owen had designed and painted his boat this year and it looked great.  Next year, he may win the speed contest, now that he and Richard know the tricks.  After that, Owen had his first piano recital.  There was a little drama leading up to it, as we didn't know he was going to have a recital so soon and he isn't fond of performing.  But after some negotiation, he decided he wanted to play.  Bruce Wayne, supporter of the arts, showed up in the chapel for the performance.  When it was his time, Owen just walked right up there and played his two pieces- Yankee Doodle and Good King Wenceslas- like someone who's been playing for a lot longer than 2 months.  We were both SO proud of him for being so brave and for playing so well.  Piano has been really wonderful for Owen.  Between piano and Cub Scouts, you can really see his growth in self confidence and pride.

rice for thanksgiving

We drove NE for Thanksgiving to visit the Rice's in Richland, WA.  Owen and Ben were super excited to play with Jackson and Henry for a weekend, and we were excited to catch up with Kristi and Joe- AND to meet baby Kate.  We wanted to be sure to meet her before we missed her being a baby.  Joe prepped for our visit by baking a dozen pumpkin pies.  He and Kristi made a wonderful meal for Thanksgiving.  The three older boys played together the entire weekend- Wii, computer, games, and gossiping in the bedroom.  It was a 3 night sleepover and resulted in some tired but happy kids.  Ben liked playing the their toys and enjoyed watching baby Kate.  I got lots of baby cuddle time in, plus catch up time in with Kristi.  We went to the local parks with the boys, where Owen and Henry conquered Mt. Richland, and payed a visit to the Richland history museum.  We did a little shopping and drank a lot of coffee.  In all, a wonderful trip to see a wonderful family.