While the weather encourages hibernation (at least to us Southern transplants), we never stop. A few things going on of note:
Bear got third place in individual and group kata at his first karate tournament!
Really, he's happier than he looks.
He also did an internship (more like job shadowing) for two days as a required project at his school for 7th and 8th graders. So his internship--at his instigation--was to shadow theology professors. My colleagues were very kind (he couldn't do it with me per se) and he really enjoyed it. He liked the college classes and mentioned he thought he could do the work. ;) He also interviewed a priest at our seminary on campus and the Dean of Campus Ministry. Last I heard, he wants to major in Theology, and double minor in Math and Communications. That's...creative....I guess we'll see.
Mouse is a cupcake baker!
She got some cupcake tins and a decorating kit for Christmas and we have had quite a bit of cake since. Good cake too! This mixes in with a cupcake recipe book and a series of girls books on a group of friends who make cupcakes for fun and money. Her first cupcakes were pineapple upside down cupcakes. Yum.
Jubilee Girl got a haircut! Pictures coming soon!
The Music Man has all kinds of things going on...more at the Adopting Alex blog!
Sporting Rachelle's knit hat!
Mudpuppy is three and bored. Well, not all the time, but he is a bundle of energy and taking it out on our living room. Yikes. Beyond that, he showed us he is learning to read. He began picking out words and reading them, and pointing to letters and doing the appropriate sound. He isn't full blown reading, but clearly he realizes that those words mean something, and he is determined to figure out what.
Matthew sporting his knit hat from Rachelle!
Finally, we had a great visit from Joanna and her family. Joanna is a person we had only met online but extensively that way!)--a young woman who made it her mission to get the Music Man a family. She and her family live in Canada and were in MN visiting relatives--and swung a little south to meet us. We had such a pleasant visit! And we were thrilled that Joanna got to meet Music Man, and he got to meet her.
Joanna and Alex.
We'll try to get more cute stuff up soon. Its all crazy around here, but there is an abundance of cute too....
I was very skeptical about Jubilee Girl's plans to sell hot chocolate on a cold winter's day...so skeptical that I let her and her friend (who shares her name) make the chocolate themselves by adding chocolate syrup to milk and warming it in the microwave. Didn't even bother to check the quality.
But lo and behold, apparently quite a few people are interested in some charitable (very charitable) patronage of a hot chocolate stand set up by a couple of seven-year-olds, because darned if they didn't make about $10 at $1 a pop. And those glasses were only a quarter full!
I was a little alarmed to see they were actually getting customers...especially when I learned they were planning to "wipe the rim" and re-use the cups between patrons! Ew! (Don't worry, I stepped in at that point.)
And here's a beautiful sight...a sleeping three-year-old:
