FL '14

This winter has been long and difficult.

Like most years past, Amanda began looking for flights to Florida and/or California in January.  Like most years past, we decided that we just couldn't make it work this year.  Then my brother texted me and said that he had spring training tickets to the Twins and that they included passes to on-field batting practice.  We had to make it work.  So we bought flights and began to plan.

When we got there, Tricia and Alex and their family surprised us.  They had driven down and were staying with Joe and Carrie.

So we had lots of cousin time.

As always when I'm in Florida, I wanted to spend my time either at the beach or the pool.  We got to do a lot of both.

The Twins experience was great too.  The boys got autographs from Tony Oliva, Jason Kubel and Joe Mauer.  The day was so hot though, that after watching batting practice all morning, we only made it through the third inning.

We were so thankful for the chance to get out of the snow, see family, relax and be together for a whole week.  FL '15, anyone?  We'll see.

Experts' Night

One of the things that you miss with homeschooling is the chance for our kids to present some of the things that they are excited about or have learned to a larger group.  One way that we have recently scratched that itch is through our co-op's experts' night.  It was a fun night for the boys to be able to make a collection of their knowledge and present it to parents and other kids who came to their table.  (Think science fair.)  Ben and Matthew focused on hermit crabs.  Caleb focused on coin collecting or numismatics.  It was a lot of fun to watch them all interact.  Great job fellas.  You must have a really great teacher!

Caleb's Recital

It's been too long.  I'm back though with a few posts.

Caleb had his spring violin recital last month and it was great.  It is wonderful to watch his progression.  Check out the two videos below.