Thursday, September 25, 2025

Dentist

The kids had their back-to-school dentist appointments & everyone had x-rays & no one had cavities, so that's a plus: 


No pics of Amelie, who took the longest, though!

Jim's got a juvenile delinquent tooth & they recommended orthodontics. You can see the adult tooth is coming in sideways and not growing down to push the baby tooth out (the baby tooth is the one that's just hanging out there all by itself). The dentist thought they'd want to pull the baby tooth & then do braces to pull the adult tooth down as it is "stuck." There were also many dire warnings that his current brushing & flossing routine was not going to cut it with braces on. 

 You can see the wisdom teeth really clearly on this one, too: 


K Pop

Leah has been listening to K Pop on repeat - due to the K Pop Demon Hunters movie on Netflix that all of the 3rd graders are obsessed with. 

It's about a super popular (fictional!) girl band in Korea called Huntr/x, whose members are secretly demon hunters. Then a rival boy band called the Saja Boys (who are actually secretly demons!) comes on the scene. 

There was a singalong showing at the movie theater and Leah & I went (& she & the other kids in the audience sang along to every word). It’s catchy!


We wore matching dresses (from Easter):

Sam keeps making fun of me because I’ve been singing the soda pop song.

She made a Rumi costume & wore it to Tyrps camp one day: 

I think it gets the spirit: 



Wednesday, September 24, 2025

 Teen Birthday Interview

(As Nana Jana let me know, I did the interview & then forgot to publish it! Here it is!) 

Jim's birthday is tomorrow! We are doing the interview now because it's the weekend! For his birthday meals, he chose a maple bacon doughnut for breakfast, smoothies for lunch, and Pappo's pizza for dinner. We're going to Sparky's tonight for ice cream. 

  1. How old are you? 13. No I'm 12. I'm turning 13. 
  2. What is your favorite color? Green. 
  3. What's your favorite possession? The Switch. 
  4. What is your favorite game? Silk Song. What about game that's not a video game? I like chess. 
  5. What is your favorite song? Probably "Ash in the Sun" by Vundabar.


  6. Do you  have a favorite animal? Armadillo Lizard. Is that what you said last year? They will forever be my favorite animal. 
  7. What is your favorite book? Or just a good book that you've read recently? Amercius.


  8. What is your favorite movie? Or just a good movie that you've seen recently? I liked Scott Pilgrim
  9. What is your favorite TV show? I'd say Adventure Time.


  10. What is your favorite thing to eat? It's hard to beat burgers.
  11. Where is your favorite place to go? The movies
  12. Who is your best friend? Grant.
  13. What is something you learned last year?  I learned how to sew & thread a needle.
  14. What is something you'll learn now that you're 13 (or this year in 7th grade)? Some Algebra. I don't understand anything but I have an A. 
  15. What is your favorite subject at school? RTI (study hall). Actually English. 
  16. Who is your favorite teacher this year? Mr. Hanselman. Is that your English teacher? Yeah. 
  17. What is something that is hard for you to do?  Give Leah a piggyback ride. 
  18. What is your favorite thing to do? Give Leah a piggyback ride.
  19. What is your favorite thing to do with friends? Go to the movies. So I don't have to talk. Actually maybe the pool. 
  20. What do you like about Me (Mom)? Nothing. No don't write that! Um. I like that you didn't marry for looks. 
  21. What do you like about Dad? I like that he was very ambitious with his marriage. 
  22. What do you like about Amelie? We can talk a lot. I don't know. She talks a lot. She's very nerdy. Is that a good thing? Yeah. 
  23. What do you like about Leah? She's very cute and ugly and I love her. 
  24. What do you like about yourself? I can play a lot of instruments. 
  25. What do you want to be when you grow up? A dictator. Actually, maybe a musician, I don't know. Or a president. 

Here's the picture from smoothie lunch (they were not being very cooperative with the photo, but they were getting along!!) 

And from dutch baby pancake breakfast!




Thursday, August 21, 2025

Permit Driver

 Amelie passed her permit test! First try!

She was not prepared for the questions about her height, weight, eye color, and zip code, however! To be fair, those were not in the book!

We drove very, very slowly around the middle school parking lot!

And then, a couple of weeks later, the real permit came in the mail (not just the paper copy): 





Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Glasses!

 Jim got glasses. He picked these out, out of all the possible frames: 


He kept saying things like, "WOW." "I can see!" "It's really blurry without these," "That's, like, so much better," and "I can read that over there!!" and then "Why are you laughing at me??" 





Tuesday, August 19, 2025

First Day of School 2025

 Happy first day of school, everyone!

Amelie's a sophomore at Hickman. She gets to sleep in a whole hour later than the other kids. And, miracle of miracles, the bus was exactly on time today (for the ride to school). 


Jim is in the 7th grade at Jeff Middle. 


Leah's in 3rd grade with Ms. Bashem again at Ridgeway (unit C!) She's the only kid who was VERY PARTICULAR about her first day outfit. I did (cruelly) prevent her from wearing a pony tail of fake purple hair. Maybe later this week! Ha!

Sam got up at the crack of dawn & bought fresh donuts for breakfast. 

Here's to a good year!

Swift Nature Camp

Like I said before, we did a whole lotta camp this summer! Jim especially! He spent 3 weeks at Swift Nature Camp in Wisconsin. They also did the photo uploads so we could somewhat stalk him on Facebook & he sent 2 letters home (& I think one more to Nana Jana). 

He flew on an airplane for the first time to get there: 

                                                                                           

There was a pig named Bubba who ate the leftover food scraps from the mess hall: 


This was from polar bear swim - Jim says it was very cold when they swam in the morning - though it doesn't seem very polar bearish to me in late July!

I asked what was under Jim's shirt & he said it was a pillow for a skit for vespers. They were doing the Lorax & were the big backs who speak for the trees.  


Jim, wearing a flannel shirt & swim trunks. (Apparently we forgot to pack his second pair of swim trunks so he just had the one pair.) 


Jim was on the vespers committee. "The trees are elders, we must respect them." 

Clowning club: 

"This is probably some kind of game. We did a lot of like, camp games." 


This was when a guy came to the camp & talked about animals. He had a lot of turtles. 

Board games club: 




You had to push the ball with your nose: 


This was at the nature center - learning about ornithology. 

They canoed over to the island on the last day: 

This was at opening campfire. I asked why Jim was wearing the skeleton hoodie & he said it was cold.  

It looks like Jim has an escort of armed guards: 

Gaga ball: 

More Gaga ball: 

On the right: 


On the left: 


Sam had big car trouble on the way up to get Jim, so I had to rescue him! It was nice to be able to go pick Jim up together and see his cabin and some of the camp, though.