T'was the 10th Birthdays!

T'was the night before the 15th, when all through the house

The 9 year old creatures were stirring, with two tired Moms.
The packages were My Little Ponies wrapped with care,
In hopes that May 15th  soon would be here.

The twins then were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sweet cakes danced in their heads.
And mamma in her sweats, and I in my robe,
Had just started decorating so we could soon see our pillows.

 When 0530 clicked on the clock, the twins woke us with chatter,
We sprang (drug) from the bed to see them smiling with laughter.
Away to the kitchen they flew like a flash,
While we bumped down the hall way and grabbed a seat fast.

The smile on their faces and the twinkle in their eyes

Gave us warmth and joy inside.

When what to their tearing at paper should appear,

But an iTouch cover, and two Nurf swords were here.

With new toys from each other, opened and touched,

It was time for our gifts

More rapid that Santa they dressed in new cloths

And posed for this picture as I said, SMILE Jo & Cole

Now Eat, now, Vitamins! now, Brush Your Teeth!

On Lunch Packing! on, Bed Making! on, Shoes and Socks!

To the front door! to the bus stop please run!

Now hurry! Hurry! Don't be late for school!

As the bus drove away without the twins,

I realized we had to take 5 dozen cupcakes in.

So loaded the truck with Cole's bass in the back,

Away to the school with their sugary snack.

And then we saw smiles in the hallway

As we walked to their rooms.

But we dropped them off quickly and I turned with a jerk, 

Jumped in the truck to head off to work.

They had a normal day, including Strings after school

And of course all those cupcakes left over we brought home like a fool.

A bus ride home with each a friend in tow,

To eat dessert first, before dinner don'tcha know.

Their eyes-how they twinkled! Their dimples how merry!

Their cheeks were like roses, though some comments were scary!

They sucked in some air and started to blow,

and blew out their candles, took more than one go.

Quickly we ate as we rushed out the door,

to head out for dinner, sushi was in store.

We had friends gathered and grandparents too,

15 sushi rolls were ordered and then consumed.

We didn't get chubby or plump like a jolly old elf,

but laughed and enjoyed the time in spite of a rush.

As we hurried through dinner to load up the boys,

And headed to their Strings Concert to wrap up the night.

(you will need to view this video at our actual blog)

We filled the front rows with the same dinner group,

And enjoyed Cole's playing, and applauded with pride.

After helping stack chairs, we climbed in our cars,

Headed home with the Grandparents for more sweets.

 We finished their day with much love and more cake,

And to our pj's we flew as we were all tuckered out.

They heard us quietly tell them as we kissed them good night,

"Happy Birthday Cole & Jo, we love you, now turn off the lights!"

 

(Most didn't even rhyme, but hope you enjoyed the read and their day.)

Happy 10 Years Old!

May 15, 2003

(Jo left, Cole right)

May 15, 2012

Happy Birthday to our wonderful children!

(And yes, Cole is the same height as Jo for the first time ever! 

Just took him 10 years to do it.)

May we keep moving forward.

Jo and I made it to one of Derian's last track meets and, my, oh my, is she a good distance runner!

She threw the mini javelin and ran the 400 with a heck of a good kick on the last straight stretch which gave her a personal best.  And an Aunt who now owes her an ice-cream.

Cold and wet day but worth the trip.

Lit the Fire Pit!

Hot dogs and smores with Ian (neighbor).

Love eating outside as the hotdogs just taste better.

Sunshine & Rain

With a little rain and sunshine the kids played a bit outside.

Cole jumping his bike while Jo hand painted a stick with mud.

(Yeah, we don't know why either other than it's her imagination and she is just darn funny)

Doug too is enjoying the sunshine.

And the fact we are all outside more often.

Baseball Season.

Cole at 3rd base and batting.

Jo doing things she loves during a game.

Walking around and doing anything else but watching the game.

Cole is really playing well at catcher this year.

Always hustling and working hard behind the plate.

He is very serious this year too.
Cole: "I'm mad at my team, they are in the dug out laughing and smiling!  Don't they realize we lost again!!!"

4th Grade Track Meet

The kids participated in a track meet and did very well.

Cole: 2nd in 50m, 3rd in 400m & one participation ribbon.

Jo: 2nd in 400m, one 3rd, two 4th & one 5th in I don't know what.

Year 10 just around the corner for these two!

April Wrap Up

Oh, my wife, what a fashion beauty she is.

She created her very own capri's.

Now if she would just wear her baby blue rubber boots we would have a complete outfit.  Oh, and don't think she won't have that combo on at some point!  I'll blog it when it happens.

Temperature at 85!

Already had the sprinkler out to water the kids.

We hear you must water them as it helps in their growth.

World renowned violinist ~ Midori

Cole's strings class was visited by Midori, originally from Japan and has been performing since she was 4 years old.

Also with Midori was Moni Simeonov from Bulgaria.

They each played for the strings class and then the class played for them.  Midori & Moni spent about a half hour instructing the class including playing with them.  Incredible to have such talent teaching and playing for the kids.

The local news station was also there which was really fun for the students.

Cole was asked if he could be interview about his experience and of course he said yes!  He does love to talk.

(I have attached a recording of the news bit, please click on our actual blog to see it along with Cole playing Star Wars at home for you.)

We had to record the 5:30 / 6:00 & 11:00 news so Cole could see if any of the stories were different each hour.  Cole was happy they got his name spelled correctly too.

Cole: "I spelled my last name to them saying 'hyphen' in the middle, not a space and look they got it right."

Baseball

Last practice before our first game and it was a Parent against the team game.

Cole is playing short stop, third base and catcher this year and Oma is again behind the pitching machine.

Opening Ceremonies

NO RAIN!  It was a beautiful day out for the Opening Ceremonies.

The boys marched in looking proud and a little embarrassed at the attention of marching in front of everyone.

The first pitch of the season was thrown out by Lois Youngen.

HOW COOL IS THAT!

She played as a catcher in the AAGPBL from 1951 through 1954.

(All-American Girls Professional Baseball League)

I just wanted to shake her hand, touch her?  Living History.

Eugene Marathon!

Nope, didn't run it or even walk it!

However we tried to support some close friends who have been training for months to run the full 26.2 miles!

We all jumped up around 7am to start working on their sign.

Yup...we were all up...

Ok, three of the four were up coloring.

And we finished in time to do a donut run and get out to the bike path.

Around mile 19...

And here they are!      Jennifer, Kristin, Jen and Tracy.

Smiles and happy to see them and us.

We moved to the other side of the river to cheer them on around mile 23.

 Look, they are still smiling as we waived, cheered and encouraged them on.

Our sign was a hit with many of the Marathoners.

Only a few here and there said we were teasing them with beer.

GREAT JOB Thirsty Beavers!

You earned those medals along with your spirits!

Inspirational to everyone.

April Showers to end the month.  Kind of fitting!

Bring on the May Flowers.

March & April

Snow in March?  Really?!

I woke early and saw the snow and knew the kids and Oma would have a snow day from school.  I tried to go back to sleep but just couldn't do it I was so excited seeing how much we had on the ground!

So I got up...

(our back yard around 0530)

...and went for a walk keeping to the middle of the streets as I could hear trees cracking and watched branches crashing to the ground.

Our street in the wee morning hours!

I LOVE THIS!

I was finally able to wake the family and in no time we had all the kids in the neighborhood helping create our Snowman named Bob.

Oh, I had to call into work stating "I am not going to make it today as I have to build a snowman."  Yes, I really called in stating this.  I was only asked to take a photo and bring it in.

And after building our early morning Bob what did I do?

Nap!  Dang, I was up early, and building a snowman is hard work!

(yes, my face is under the blanket to keep the light out of my eyes)

I also made footprints in our neighbor's clean undisrupted snow covered yard to take this photo.

Spring flowers had already bloomed when our snow came.  Just beautiful!

New Food

Jo went grocery shopping with me and asked how a cactus leaf tasted.

No clue?

So we bought one and after some surfing the net and watching some videos on how to prepare this food we gave it a try.  Interesting, not bad and different were our comments.

I GET AN AWARD, MOM!

Jo came home with a note stating she was going to receive an award during lunch, voted on by students in her classroom.  Jo won the "Kindness" award.

What we didn't know was that Cole also won a Kindness award in his class.

Certificates, necklaces and smiles for both!

CONGRATS YOU TWO!

I did hear Cole explaining to a friend of ours that the Principal doesn't really sign each of the certificates.  That the Principal signs only one certificate and then they make many copies of the certificate adding each kids name to the "copied" ones.  Cole thinks this is kind of a "rip off" really.  Cole: "I mean, it's suppose to be special and she doesn't even really sing my certificate".  Funny the things Cole notices and thinks are unfair.

Jo, oh Jo

Here she is playing two pieces of music for you.

(If you don't see the 1.30 second video added to the email post please click on our actual link and go to our website to watch)

Doug & Leroy

Doug has a new friend next door named Leroy.

We have been letting them meet slowly as Doug can be kind of bossy around other dogs.

But they are getting along great and both finish their play tired and wet from tumbling in the grass and I'm sure slobber from each other.

Jo & Cole: "Mom, can I have a knife for my birthday?"

(See the thumb?)

Me: "Um, don't think I need to think about the answer any longer."

The nice thing about this accident is that Jo actually wanted Cole's help trying to stop the bleeding, accepting some loves from him and needed him around as I was about two blocks away from the house at the time.  We also learned that we need to teach them how to do basic first aid.  Things like pressure on the wound and proper cleaning.

Meet Lucy! (The famous red head: Lucille Ball)

YEAH!  We have bough our tow vehicle so we are another step closer to a small camp trailer.

Yard work vision.

The kids helped me move five plants with five more to go to help clear out an area so we may set up a garden.

Saving all the plants as we can fill in other parts of our yard.  Well I should say, we hope the plants like their new home and decide to continue living.  I was very pleased as the kids worked over three hours just digging / hauling and cleaning without complaining.  Oh, I had the blow up before we started so maybe that helped. Me: "It's going to be hard work, it is hard work and that is why I need your help without complaining. PLEASE"  It was sort of that kind of blow up.

Jo wasn't done yet as she still wanted to plant flowers in our front box!

We sure look forward to seeing this grow as well.  Should be beautiful.

Busy times and looking forward to more as baseball has started, Jo's piano recital around the corner. 

(will she actually play this year)

Happy SPRING to all you BS Groupies!