Visiting the cousins

In October, Mr. 3 and I left the older boys and David at home and
headed out to meet Baby M and see the cousins. It was a great weekend
and now Mr. 3 always wants to know when he'll see the cousins.
Luckily we'll all be together again for Christmas!

Piano Guys

For St. Nicholas Day this year the boys received fleece-lined long
underwear shirts for hockey, wool socks, and tickets to the Piano
Guys. We love the Piano Guys - Steve may be why Mr. 5 is playing the
cello and they are by far Mr. 11's favorite music to play. So last
Tuesday, our piano guys and our cello concert had a fantastic time
seeing them in concert.

Surprisingly all the gifts were a huge hit. Mr. 9 reports that with
the shirt and socks he is not cold at all on the ice!

Shark on a roller coaster

Mr. 11 filmed a movie last movie last week.  There's some rather good editing including putting in a holographic image of the villain Loki.  However probably the best line in the entire film is:

"I have them in my hands now."  Maniacal laugh.  "I am sending my greatest minion - a shark on a roller coaster."

Cue Mr. 5 in shark costume green-screened riding a roller coaster while roaring.  Hysterical!

Shhh...

In the past week Mr. 3 has seemed to grow up more than he has in months.  On Saturday he sat through an entire Christmas concert without yelling, throwing something, or running away.  This is major progress.  He sang, he clapped, and was rather delighted to be there.

Yesterday we were headed in for the Lessons and Carols service at our church.  David and Mr. 9 were at hockey so the rest of us cleaned up dinner and set out for the train.  Mr. 3 refused to ride in the stroller but happily ran alongside Mr. 11 and Mr. 5 enjoyed the ride (he had a rough morning and was happy to take a turn in the stroller).  Suddenly he stopped and put his hands up and very seriously told us in his whisper voice  "Shhh...  Baby Jesus is sleeping."  He looked at us for a few more seconds and then took off running and laughing down the path.  We arrived at the station and found out that they were actually bussing from Alewife to Davis to Porter to Harvard.  This was going to take awhile.  We ran up to catch the shuttle bus.  Mr. 3 told me at each stop "Next stop Kendall" and then laughed when I told him the right station.  Mr. 11 read him books, rapping his way through Green Eggs and Ham and singing his way through Where the Wild Things Are.  I think half the people on the train were laughing.  So although we were late, we made it in time to see our friend S talk and had a rather enjoyable trip.

When we got home Mr. 3 was very excited to tell us all about the Christmas story.  He told us that the shepherds came and the angels were singing and that Mary was Jesus's mommy and God was Jesus's daddy.  Pretty good for someone who was only speaking in 2 word sentences in the spring.  

Accidental tackle

Mr.5 was playing with a friend in his room when his friend came out crying.  When er asked Mr. 5 what happened he told us "I tried to use kind words but I misspoke and it kind of turned into as tackle."

Halloween

Sorry it's so long after-the-fact, but here's the best all-four shot we could muster:

Captain America did finally regain his strength and fighting spirit however:

I think it was purely coincidental that we recreated one of my favorite blog posts of all time:

Family pictures

We decided it was about time we got some pictures taken of this crew since there haven't been any professional pictures taken of us since we were a family of 6.  My friend Amy is the Amy Murgatroyd of Amy Muratroyd Photography and agreed to take our pictures.  Despite it being Friday evening after a long week (meaning her subjects were a bit tired and grumpy) she managed to get some pretty great shots.

The back to school disease

We have had quite a week of illness.  Mr. 3's nose started running over the weekend which led to his typical wheezing.  Unfortunately it got worse and worse as Monday progressed and ended up with us in the ER Monday night.  Luckily steroids turned him around (and led to him sitting on the floor in the living room at 3am singing and playing cars while his parents lay on the couch and wished for sleep).  Mr. 9 had a cold last week and has a residual cough that is taking a while to clear.  And Mr. 5 and David both developed fevers and felt pretty terrible.  Mr. 5 seems to have recovered quickly but David is still down for the count.  Mr. 11 and I are the remaining hold-outs.  We're keeping our fingers crossed for good health!

Mr. 5's first day!

Mr. 5 started Kindergarten today! He marched in without a second glance, after comparing backpacks with best-friend J, who also started today. End-of-the-day report said that the day rated 4.5 stars out of 5, with a great puzzle-constructing team, and an exciting tour of the library.

The only thing that kept it from being a 5 out of 5 was that he painfully collided with a bigger kid on the playground. Funny enough, Mr. 9 said that his day was a 9 out of 10, the only downside being that he had to visit the school nurse for a bloody lip earned when he... collided with Mr. 5 on the playground.

Good to know that these brothers are continuing to take care of each other at school!

After 6 days, we finally have all four in school.  Here's to the year!