What a Little Bit of Snow Can Do!

By this time of winter, we've usually had a few good periods of snow!
Certainly enough to cover the lawns and roads.
But up until the first week of January...nothing!
No white Christmas!

At first nobody cared.
But after a staring at brown lawns and bare branches for so long, everyone started wishing for snow.
My philosophy...if its going to be so cold, then at least we should have some snow to make it pretty!

Finally, on January 7th, the snow started to fall.
And the reaction was pretty intense!
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

It got a little heavier and by dark, there was enough to shovel.
Ivan and Jenelle were entrepreneurial and decided to shovel for Dad to make some money.

 (Pounce didn't make any money...no help at all!)

And since that snow...nothing else!
The temps warmed up and all the residual snow is gone.
It's been great for driving and no shoveling, but we do miss the look of winter.

What's it like to be Ivan!?

You are incredibly talented at Lego creations!

And never give up hope that you will win a Lego creation contest one day!

You are proud of your ridiculously messy room!

And laugh when your dad dumps your laundry basket out on your floor for photographic effect!

You wear shoes that are falling apart, ducted taped (at school much to my horror!) and drawn on!

You order a club sandwich that leaves you so full, you draw your nightmare on the "to go" box when you get home!
"Club sandwich attacks boy!"
(but are thankful the next day that you brought home the leftovers because now you're hungry again!)

You wrap your Christmas gift to your mom in such a way that makes her love you even more!

That's how cool it is to be Ivan!

Basketball Season at St. Joe's

Ivan decided to give basketball a try this year!

I was excited for him.  

Originally he said he wasn't interested, but then he came home one day and said he was going to do it!

This past summer he and Donald went to the local elementary school a few times to "shoot some hoops", but with the exception of that, Ivan had never played a day of basketball in his life!

There were several weeks of practice and learning before the boys played their first game. 

Most of the boys had never played on a team before, but many of them had been playing basketball outside at recess for a lot of years.

Ivan definitely came to the team with the least amount of experience.

#30

To be honest, there was quite a bit of this...

 and some of this...

But for #30, not a lot of time on the court.

Ivan's a pretty content guy, but he did grow discouraged.

Thankfully, we are blessed with coaches who listen and want each kid to have a positive experience and come back for the 8th grade team.

They listened to Ivan and gave him more opportunity for learning and scrimmaging during practice so that he felt more confident when he was put in the game.

They made him feel like he was as valuable as any player.

So how did the season end?

Ivan scored his one and only basket during the last 40 seconds in the last game of the season.

The "mom" crowd erupted in cheers (and I squeezed out a few tears)!

Ivan reacted very casually and said it felt "pretty good"!

I'll bet!

After the season and winter break are over, they get the parents and boys to play a game of basketball.

I did my time during Hannah's volleyball years so it was Donald's turn!

It was a fun game to watch!

I'd say there was a certain size advantage for the adults...one in particular!

And then there's the Father/Son aspect of the game...

He knows Dad is out there...

 He's getting closer!

After their hard work, they were rewarded with cake and trophies!

These are the only reason Jenelle came along...

So proud of you Ivan!
You finished your first season of basketball - even though it was tough at times.
And you were rewarded with a trophy and the recognition of being the most improved player!

Catch up Christmas

I've been pretty bad with the camera lately - especially during the holidays this year.
Maybe it was the lack of snow that failed to motivate me or the fact that I was so seriously behind on so much of my shopping/baking/preparing, etc.
But usually I have more "Christmastime" pictures to add to the blog.

I managed not to delete the ones I did take this year though (unlike 2 years ago), so there are some from our Christmas morning to share.

There were fun gifts under the tree for everyone!
Santa left Hannah a cool record player and an awesome giant pillow!

Jenelle was in panda heaven this year!

And for Ivan, it was a Lego and Dr. Who Christmas
(thank you Silvers and Granny and Grandpa!)

Donald made our Christmas fire.
Its been so unseasonably warm this year that we haven't had many opportunities to make it worthwhile for a fire.
But it was a cold day on Christmas and it made the house cozy and warm.
Once Dad started the fire, he taught Ivan how to tend it and keep it going.

So...

We made our messes...

 played with our new things...

 and just hung out together.

Merry (belated) Christmas!

A New Year!

No blog resolutions this year, but I do realize its been a long time since I posted anything.
I anticipate 2014 to be full of blog worthy activities, so I thought I'd play a bit of catch up (Halloween in January, Christmas in July...my usual style) and see if I can't keep on top of things.

I left off in Fall...
This was the first Halloween in the past several that I don't have a Sentz/Baumbach group photo.
Hannah and Jack had their own activities this year.
Hannah got together with a group of her friends to hang out and go trick or treating.
She and several of her friends were wearing masquerade masks.
The one she chose was so pretty its still sitting out on her desk!

Ivan went as Bilbo Baggins!
I was pretty surprised we were able to pull together the pieces that he needed for his costume.
The length of his hair added to the Hobbit look!

His feet actually looked cooler when he took off these ridiculous socks I made him wear to the school carnival (thanks a lot Mom!).

Donald's wedding band made a perfect "One Ring to rule them all"!

Almost from the beginning of the school year, it seems, Colin and Jenelle began hatching an idea for their costumes.
They planned on being an elderly couple...Jenelle would be the old man and Colin would be the old lady.
Renee and I were surprised and impressed that they stuck with this idea and pulled it off...in amazing fashion!!
Jenelle will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think their names were Henry and Frances.

Seriously awesome!

So that was what I thought was all of Halloween.
But after I started looking through my camera, I saw something quite terrifying...
Horsehead Man...

...in really eerie photos!

Don't worry...it turned out to be Donald and Hannah "horsing around".
(yep...pretty bad pun!)