31 December 2023

 December was kind of a blur, and a very busy month this year.  I was not very well prepared for Christmas and it ended up being for stressful than fun for me, and overall was kind of flat for the whole family this year.  

We started the month with performances.  Rosebud's art was chosen for a show at the school district, so we went down to admire it.  Bobo's chorus had a Christmas concert.  He felt that they didn't have enough time to practice, but he enjoyed participating in chorus overall this semester.  It was really great to see him perform.

We did Cookies and Carols for three Sundays this year, since the fourth Sunday was Christmas Eve.  All the people from church that I invited initially chose December 17th, so I had to go invite a whole new batch of people for the 4th.  We had people from my work on the 10th, and we were unpleasantly surprised at how much they did not sing.  On the 17th we ended up with two sessions because there really was no way to host as many people as I had invited.  That went better than expected- we enjoyed both times!  My parents also came down on the 17th, so we got to spend some time with them on Saturday and sing with them on Sunday.

boys being awesome at an outdoor walk we did with Grandma and Grandpa

frosting sugar cookies:

One evening, we had a fire in the backyard, and then got tots from Sonic and went to see a spiffy light show in our neighborhood.  Rose Pink brought her portable radio/CD player and we stood on the sidewalk to watch it and dance to it.  It was a lot of fun!

Right as school was getting out, the flu struck.  Rosebud brought it home, and she had a pretty miserable Christmas because she was too sick to go shopping and too exhausted to really enjoy Christmas Day.  She shared it around, and we spent time at urgent care with Bobo (fear of pneumonia) and Nut Brown (to get an excuse for school).  Neither Bobo nor Nut Brown were well enough to go back to school when it started so they had extra time off to lay around the house and rest.  Mr. Brown and I also got to suffer through it.

Nut Brown amusing himself at the doctor's office

Once we were through with Christmas, we moved on to marking the twelve days of Christmas with the small treats that make those days fun.  And that was December.  It was really nice to have the week off between Christmas and New Year's.  No work, no school, no church... the vacation was wonderful, even if we were sick.

30 December 2023

 Rosebud learned how to do some very simple paper engineering at school and made a Christmas card for the family.

She hung it on the back of the front door (magnetic) and we opened it on Christmas Day as instructed. The snowman is sitting on a little popup block.

5 December 2023

Rosebud made a placemat for Thanksgiving dinner at school.  I was so charmed by the word search and the 'spot the difference' games that she included.  School definitely offers her opportunities that she would never have had if we were still homeschooling.

1 December 2023

One of the unexpected pleasures of public school is the joy of having other people recognize how awesome our kids are! Bobo came home with both of these items a week or so ago. His chorus teacher had just emailed parents asking for Kleenex, and I told him that she was now my favorite teacher so I was going to reward her with boxes of tissues. He thought that was pretty funny. It is such a wonderful thing to me when other people tell my kids how great they are. It's true and people who see it always raise my opinion of them!

30 November 2023

 Over Thanksgiving Rosebud and Bobo and I went up to visit my parents in PA.  It's about a three hour trip for us.  This is a picture of the kids in Grandma and Grandpa's old Dodge van.  (They thought it was pretty cool.)  We had a good time together.  They took us to see a play of "The Christmas Story", which Bobo said was boring.  However, we've been talking about it and quoting it to each other ever since.  Bobo got some shots in December and he went around saying, "That's my sore arm!" for a few days afterward.

We played games and went on walks and had a good time.  I'm glad to live closer now!

26 November 2023

Some lovely creations from Rosebud:

Also she found this card, and filled out the inside, and asked me to hang it on the fridge so that our family would be wished "happy days, because it's not just for holidays, it has 'day' in it" every day!

 

25 November 2023

More art from Nut Brown.  This is from when he was much younger, before any art classes.  It features video game characters from both Castle Crashers and Terraria.

 

24 November 2023

Some artwork from Nut Brown, created during 8th-9th grades:

 

22 November 2023

Guess who was one of the second graders chosen for special recognition at the monthly assembly?  Our beautiful Rosebud!

 

21 November 2023

 We picked apples this year (oh joy! oh bliss!), something that we have missed ever since we left Michigan.  It was wonderful, and the fruit is delicious.  It was fun to discover that Maryland people have opinions about apples and apple varieties in the same way that Iowa people have opinions about corn and corn on the cob varieties.  Rosebud wrote a poem when we got home.

20 November 2023

We went to the National Zoo on Veterans' Day.  We missed the pandas because they changed the departure date on us :( but I hear that President Biden may have successfully negotiated a potential return.  The zoo was very nice, but not the nicest zoo we've been to.  We did love the naked mole rat exhibit.

And we sat on lots of animal statues:

And re-enacted Abbey Road.  Because Rose Pink has been listening to a podcast about whether or not Paul McCartney is actually dead.

19 November 2023

Rosebud was selected to be one of four kids from her school with artwork on display at the county art show!  We're so proud of her!  She pays serious attention to her art, so it was really a pleasure to see that effort get rewarded.  Here she is with the artwork that will be displayed.  She had talked about this at home, and had even made another warm/cool color drawing at home.

 

6 November 2023

a poem by Rosebud