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.

We got him out.

Today I got a text from Amanda asking whether I could come home for lunch a little early.  Apparently Nathan had locked himself in the van.  This was no surprise to me.  Every time we walk past the van, he points and grunts.  He loves to stand in the front seat and pretend to drive.

When I got home, Amanda said that she had just convinced him to press the unlock button.  She showed me the above picture.  Obviously, he wasn't scared at all.  He was having a ball.  Another Nathan John adventure.

Merry Christmas

Mom got the boys a video camera for Christmas.  Below, you can see some of our most recent creations.

Girls Day Out

This week Amanda took the girls for a special day at the Children's Theater Company production of Cinderella.  A wonderful time was had by all and as you can see from the pictures below, everyone looked beautiful.

Happy Halloween

Things have been flying at the Minnesota Gammons house.  So much so that we decided to punt on Halloween costumes.  The kids all pulled something out of the play room the morning of.  We had a great team even still.

We took in a pretty good haul.  I said to some coworkers that Halloween is one of the only holidays where it pays to have six kids.  We'll be eating this candy until Christmas.