School with Luke

Recently I've been telling anyone who asks that home schooling Luke by himself is a breeze.  It usually takes us an hour to get through everything and then we have the rest of the day to read books, go on errands, take naps, etc.  Well, today I have been proved wrong!  

Before everything fell apart, Luke was being funny and cute and saying things like, "Can I just do this page when I am smarter?"  After awhile though, he kept repeating the same phrase over and over again from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Something about Tootles.  I had to send him to the stairs for a timeout twice, and the last time he wouldn't be quiet.  He kept screaming, "Mommy I am quiet!"  over and over again.  The next step - his room for 1 hour.  I knew there was going to be resistance.

He finally did go up the stairs after I threatened to call Joel who could easily come home to administer some discipline.  But the screaming continued, punctuated with, "You're the baddest Mommy ever!  Mean, mean Mommy!"  I'm not taking it too personally since he regularly changes who is the "baddest person in the house".  I'm sure he will be onto someone else soon.  The reward of all of this?  An hour where I can read and rest on the couch.  I wanted to record this in writing before I get older and look back to say how the kids were always so good, they never gave me any troubles :)

Nanna's 60th Birthday Celebration

This past weekend we traveled to PA to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday.  She had no idea that we were coming, I even called her while in PA to wish her a happy birthday and I had to pretend that we were home. My brother and sister also came along with their families, which meant that my kids got to meet their newest cousin for the first time! They loved Natalie and Amelia especially couldn't stop holding her.  We met on the steps of the courthouse during Fort Ligonier Days, an annual event that my mom likes to go to.  It was cold in the morning.  Here are some pictures of my mom when she first saw us:

This is my favorite!

Here are some more pictures from the morning:\

Waiting for Nanna in the cold, got to keep ourselves warm...

A lunch picnic with Daniel and Sarah.

Amelia eating her apple dumpling (which, in my opinion, was terrible).

Finally, here are the rest of the pictures, most of them of Natalie since she is so cute at 9 months

The cake - which was so good.  My first dessert in awhile.  Followed up by Ben & Jerry's the next night.  Now I have 4 more weeks to wait :(

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Natalie all bundled up.

Amelia loving on her cousin.

Emma wanted a turn!

My mom with Daniel and Sarah - she closed her eyes 3 times for this picture!

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Ross with his darling girl.

Mia and Daddy, post-cake.  The sugar was kicking in at this point.  We had to leave the restaurant with 5 hyper kids who continued to be hyper in the parking lot near the street.  Needless to say I was in bed by 7:30 that night.

Family Tree

Emma had her first real school project last week.  She was to create her own family tree.  It could be in any shape, it just had to include some basic information.  She decided on a layer cake with each layer being a generation of her family.

I think she did a great job with all of the glitter and confetti!  And if you are reading this for its historical content, we don't know Al Robbin's real birthday.  It's make-up.  But, he was a WWII veteran and a survivor of the Attica Prison Riot in NY.  Emma shared that information with her class as what she learned during this project.

I've been waiting 3 years for this...

We finally got a new dishwasher!!!!  We bought our old one about 3 years ago and it has been the loudest appliance I have ever encountered.  When it was running, you definitely could not talk in the kitchen.  I can't tell you  how much frustration we experienced over trying to talk and the other person saying, I have no idea what you just said.  I knew that it couldn't last too long, it was too loud and kept grinding.  Well, last week it finally died.  It would fill up with water and then... nothing.  We tried 3 different times just to make sure.  It was definitely done.

Joel was great at going to Sears on Sunday night after a long trip back from PA.  He bought the only Kenmore dishwasher that they had in stock (in our price range, did you know some dishwashers cost thousands of dollars?  I mean, do they do the cooking for you too?).  He started working on installation that night and got up early Monday morning to finish it.  He has done this 3 times now, and each time he says it's the hardest appliance to install.  But - this time it only took one extra trip to Home Depot to buy an additional part.

The new dishwasher is amazing.  It fits SO many more dishes, it has 2 sprayers, and a little place for rinse aid.  You can talk right in front of it and the other day I fell asleep on the couch while listening to it, it was like a waterfall.  I have tested it out and put really dirty dishes in it that weren't scraped at all, and they came out beautifully clean.  I hope this one lasts much longer.

Here is the old Tappan one.  If you ever see anything made by this brand, run the other way.

Here is our new Kenmore!  

Luke

Joel has been really busy lately on his office.  It's a tiny part of our pantry that he's converted into his own space for studying.  Luke has been a huge help!  He can even hammer in nails by himself.  Here are some pictures of him helping Joel:

And this is after his best soccer game ever!  4 goals :)  

He can't wait for his next game, he's #14.