Valentine's Fever

I told myself early in January that I was just going to buy Valentine's this year. Easy. Nothing to it. Until I went to Target and tried to find Valentine's. Nothing appealed to me. Then I came across the idea of making a s'mores snack mix. Easy. 

 The only trouble was Noah was sick for the first half of Valentine's week. Then Levi and I got sick. Somehow, both boys were healthy on Friday so they got to enjoy their Valentine's parties at school.

 Levi put festive heart stickers on his Valentine's...

 Noah did not! :-)

Someone has been sick in our house for a full week now. Ben has been the only one to stay healthy - although he's fighting off a cold...hopefully that's all it is. I spent the entire day in bed yesterday. A full Saturday wasted. And Valentine's Day nonetheless! Last night, all four of us were on couches and Noah was the only one fully awake at 7pm. Pathetic. 

We even got to help Noah get his schoolwork done - that was a first. I don't think Noah's missed school for being sick for a couple of years! Crazy. 

Hopefully, the fever Levi has today will go away and we can be done with this nasty bug. I think we're all ready to get back to life as usual, to stop coughing, sniffling, aching and moping around the house.

Noah's 9!

It seems impossible, but it's true, our first born is 9 years old today! 

We've come a long way in nine years. It's incredible how fast it's flown by, we've learned so much by being Noah's parents. Daily we try to teach him the things he needs to know to navigate life, but often I think we learn more than he does.  

 It's interesting to watch him grow up. To see what he's interested in, what topics grab his attention, what activities and people are interesting to him. His personality is shining through as he makes his own way.

Today hasn't been the kind of day we planned. I've been sick for days and so is Levi. There is no birthday cake, we barely got his gifts wrapped. The trip to Wichita to buy new cowboy boots isn't happening. The dinner out with family isn't happening. Yet, he's been OK with it. We've promised to make sure and celebrate his birthday with cake and candles and friends and family. Thankfully, he has been mature enough to go with the flow. Getting cards and money in the mail, gifts from family at church and the few gifts from us has made his day. Plus, Ben gave up his Sunday afternoon nap to take Noah to play basketball - can't beat that! 

Happy birthday Noah! We love you!

Basketball Wrap-Up

Noah's first basketball season wrapped up on Saturday morning. It didn't work out for his team to play their scheduled opponent so they ended up scrimmaging the 5th grade girls team. It was a surprisingly good game!

 Noah's team improved so much over the course of their season. It was easy to see the improvement of skills and understanding of the game in each boy on the team. It was also fun to watch them have fun together.

 Noah really enjoyed being coached by our friend Pat. Lucky for Levi, Pat was open to letting him do some practicing with the team and allowing him to sit on the bench during games.

 The 3rd grade boys kept up with the 5th grade girls on Saturday, and they almost won!

 It'll be nice to have one less thing on the calendar now that Noah's basketball season is complete,

 but I will kinda miss watching these goofballs each week.

Creating

Our boys have never been overly interested in coloring or being crafty. Occasionally, I've been able to persuade them to do a coloring or painting project with me. But it's almost never been something they've taken on all by themselves. Lately, with only a little prompting from me, Levi has begun to show off his artistic skills. We bought him a set of oil pastels for his birthday and a big sketch pad.

 Lately, he'll randomly set himself up at the dining room table and a little while later he'll proudly present us with his finished artwork. Clockwise below: a dude listening to music on headphones, our house during a snow/ice storm, the cover a DVD, and a blue bird. It also helps that the boys have a fantastic art teacher at school.

A couple weeks ago, Ben and a buddy of his moved my grandma's piano into our sun room! It's been wonderful to have a piano, especially my grandma's piano. They actually moved it to our house on the morning of the day she died. 

 I love the early evening light in the sun room.

 The F below middle C hasn't worked for years. But just today a local piano expert came over to tune the piano and he fixed that pesky F. What a relief, plus the piano sounds much better, too.

Levi manages to practice piano like he's supposed to most of the time. But he really enjoys simply sitting down and making up songs. More often than not, his made up songs/chord combinations sound amazingly good.