Sunday, November 24, 2013

Weekend Decorating

 Thanksgiving is so late this year and we are leaving early for our Mediterranean cruise early this December.  We decided to put up a tree today.  Our friends left Germany last year and gave us their 220V tree.  It is perfect for our short Christmas season.  
 Lincoln spent the weekend making this amazing creation.  He worked so hard making Santa, a reindeer, and a sleigh!  He has the best imagination ever!
Ethan helped make dinner tonight!  NACHOS!!  

Monday, November 18, 2013

The Writer


Ethan went to a sleepover on Saturday evening.  We got a babysitter for Link and our friend's daughter so we could go out to dinner.  Lincoln was so excited that he wrote out an itinerary for the night.  He let Emma and Ethan (the babysitter) vote on a board game, a video game, and a movie.  It was so cute!
Before the sleepover, Link did a little bit of Ethan torture to get him ready for a 
night away from his little brother/pest!  

Friday, November 15, 2013

Conferences

The fellas had parent/teacher conferences this week. 
   I like to ask them two questions before their conferences.  
                         1) What is something good your teacher is going to say about you?
2) What is something that she may say you need to work on?  
 Ethan:  She is going to say that my behavior is good and I am good in Math.  She is also going to say that I need to slow down and check my work.
His teacher had him lead his conference, so those are actually things that he put into his presentation.  She did agree with him though!  :)
Lincoln:  She is going to say that I am a good reader.  She is going to say that I need to slow down.
He was also spot on.  She had a little more to say about his behavior, but overall it was a good meeting.  Her exact words were "no red flags."  As soon as we left her room, he asked what that meant!  :)

Monday, November 11, 2013

Prague finale

 Sunday started off so sunny and and lovely!  Our first stop was to see Prague's dancing house.  
It truly looks like it is dancing.  
 Here's the whole gang!
 The weather was great and the boys were itching to let off some steam, so we stopped at playground right near the river.  
 We made sure that we didn't bring our dogs, wine, and marijuana to the park!  
 The park was basically a giant ropes course.  It was really cool!  


 This pic and the next one were taken from the park.....what a view!

 We walked a bit and found a street performer juggling fire.  The boys were entranced!  The day before we saw a giant bubble maker girl.  This city had lots of street performers.  
 The city also had lots of graffiti and street art.   
Next we had lunch.  While we were eating it started raining....and didn't let up for the rest of the day.  
 We decided to let the boys do some souvenir shopping. 
 Lincoln wanted some nesting dolls and this place had thousands of them!  
 They even had a Pirates of the Caribbean nesting doll.  Who would have thought????
 We were cold, wet, and more wet!  We found a coffee shop and sat until it turned dark.  
 After sitting in the heat drinking hot chocolate we were happy!  
We decided to go explore the city at night.  
 GROG??  Lincoln spied this sign!
 After seeing Prague at night, our cold rainy yucky afternoon was worth it.  



After the morning playground time, we walked by a restaurant with a picture of a rice dish.  It looked so good.  We were fairly close at dinner time and decided to give it a try for dinner.  After sitting down with the menu, we learned it was an Uzbekistan restaurant.  The food was delicious!  
We made it a fairly early night and started day three at Aqua Palace.  It was a big water park.  We all had a great time before our drive home!  This Prague trip was fantastic!!!  

Prague day one

We went to Prague for the long weekend with the Grogans.  
 This city is beautiful!!!!
 Our first stop was the Prague castle.  
We took a self-guided tour.  
 The castle cathedral was magnificent.  There were amazing stained glass windows and lots of GOLD!

 The castle is perched above the city.   We were able to get some great views!  

 It was really fun having our friends on the trip.  
 The boys were very silly!
 We found this awesome sugary bread at a festival early this summer, and haven't seen it since.  Apparently, it is a Czech thing!  It was all over the city.  To the left of Nate's head is a big roll of it!
 We crossed St. Charles bridge and took some more pictures of the castle.  
 We walked to the Old Town.
 The boys studied clocks this week.  
I took this picture so they could show their teacher the astronomical clock.  
 The highlight of the trip for me was the Folklore dinner Brianne arranged for us.  
 They picked us up late (7:15) and the show was 2 1/2 hours (hence Link's face).   
It was LATE, but we had such a good time!
 We enjoyed a traditional Czech dinner, dancing, and singing.  
They encouraged audience participation, but Ethan was the only one who participated.  
He tried out the horse hair instrument.  
 It only cost us 3,500 krone.  It was so funny paying with thousands this weekend.  


Friday, November 8, 2013

Honesty

This fella has been a STINKER this week.  He received his first four at school for being disrespectful and a host of other things in class!  He was punished by losing video games and dessert for a week....both punishments of his choosing.  
He also started swim lessons this week.  Last night, when swim lessons were finishing up, his coach offered him a piece of candy.  He told his teacher, "No thank you.  I am not allowed candy this week because I am being punished."  I was SHOCKED!!!  I told him that I was so proud of his honesty.  He told me that I would be even prouder because he told one of his special teachers and a friend that he couldn't accept candy this week.  
Now if he would just practice that self-discipline with his behavior!!!!

Gold Medal Winner

 We were invited to Ethan's Honor Roll Ceremony!  
We were super excited that he received the Gold Medal for all A's!
   His brother has been a little pistol and had a lot of negative attention this week.  
Nate and I realized (a little late) that poor Ethan does not get his share of attention.  
He is such a good boy and makes great grades!  
He worked hard this quarter and deserves a lot of praise!
Here's a funny story from him this week.  He LOVES humorous books and TV shows.  His favorite books are Big Nate and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  His favorite show is Jessie.  Lincoln wanted to try a new show on Netflix.  He was getting tired of Jessie.  So, I asked if either of them if they had seen Good Luck Charlie.  Ethan replied, "Yes, it another one of those laughter shows."  
So, we may start calling all comedies "laughter shows."