A random sampling of pictures taken throughout the month of April...
Elise took down the wallpaper border that has been up since...ahem...before we moved in. 5 years ago.
It's nice enough to play outside! Bring on the mud pit!!
Moritz & Valentin stayed with us for several days while on their U.S. tour--they are choirboys from Graz, Austria
My boys!
Pretty impressive group of redheads, no?
So glad I don't spend money on fancy toys when a rain barrel and plastic table leg serve so many purposes! Here as a cannon...
Happy 11th birthday, Mason!
So...Sammy was swinging from our stairwell and fell and whacked his head. Diagnosis: slight concussion. After an ER visit (glad Aunt Lori was here to watch everyone at home!), we were sent home with instructions to watch him. Fortunately, nothing more came of it.
Photo bomb! Nice one, Luke.
Aunt Lori came to visit! And fortunately no one was lost at Ikea. Haven't lost one yet! (At Ikea...)
Sammy got his Wolf merit badge! I'm wearing my special merit badge jacket--Mason has my right lapel, Sammy my left, and there are two pockets, one for Lincoln, one for Trevor.
Elise takes an extraordinary amount of selfies. I should dedicate a post to them, but I might run out of storage space...
Mason and his best buddy, William K, are officially Boy Scouts! They crossed and signed the bridge!
This past year Mason, Sammy and Lincoln have been singing with the North Star Boys' Choirs, and have grown to absolutely LOVE singing. They also love being part of something bigger than just them, and I love that the choirs reinforce what I teach at home--they train polite young men. As Trevor says, as he runs to open a door for me, "Boys' choir boys are gentlemen."
There are three choirs, beginning with the youngest: Music Magic, Cadet and Viking. Lincoln joined Music Magic in January, as soon as he turned 5. I use the word "joined" as "became the sole member of the choir". He absolutely loved going to choir with Francis every week!
Sammy and Mason joined the Cadet choir in September (as did I--as the accompanist), and at the beginning of the year were both invited to move up to the Viking choir. Knowing of the busy concert schedule and 3-week summer tour, we opted to keep Sammy in with the Cadets. I stopped accompanying except on a substitute basis after Ruth was born.
Mason moved up with the Vikings, and has absolutely LOVED learning all the music and harmonies (he sings Alto 1). They have a repertoire of well over 20 songs that they have memorized, from "The Holy City" to "Dixit Dominus" to "Over the Rainbow". They sing in several languages and truly sound like angels! They sing at church services all over the NW metro area, more Sundays than not. I'm not crazy about all the Sunday concerts, but it has been educational for all of us to attend different church services.
The final concert was May 18th--the day before Stephen's graduation. I'll have a link to the entire concert soon, but here is a sneak peak...
A couple of Cadet boys who sang in Music Magic last year joined Lincoln so he wouldn't be singing alone. When the boys came on from the wings there were lots of "awwwwww"s to see little, tiny Lincoln marching in front, as confident as anything!
Sadly I didn't get any video of the Cadet Choir (poor middle child!), but they sounded beautiful as well!
The week after the concert (Memorial Day weekend), the Cadet Choir did a mini-tour up to Duluth. They ate at restaurants (of course treating everyone there to a concert!), sang at a church service, visited Lake Superior, stayed in a hotel (with a pool!) and got to ride the big tour bus. I was a little nervous to send Sammy away for 3 days, but he had a fantastic time! Every boy is assigned a "tour buddy". Sadly, Sammy's tour buddy got pneumonia, so he joined another buddy group for a three-some. :) They had lots of fun playing games on the bus and seeing the sights. Don't they look sharp in their travel uniforms?
Lincoln was finished after the concert and Sammy after his tour. Mason is still rehearsing with the choir, only he's in Arizona at the moment! Once he gets home (July 1), I'll help him tell his stories here!
