Sunday, January 31, 2016

January Highlights

January was pretty busy, mostly school-related, but we had some fun outings too.  (And, of course, Kylen's birthday was a big highlight!)  Kylen has a new regular activity!  Now that he can drive, he plans to visit the Kroc Center weekly to practice basketball.  He started last week and really enjoyed it.  The exercise is great, and there's always the bonus of running into friends.

We have an informal tradition of getting together with my uncle's family early in the new year.  We've met at restaurants, but this time they offered to host!  We had a wonderful time as always.

A highlight was playing ice hockey on a mini rink they set up in the backyard.  We were lucky enough to be the first ones to test it out with them.  It worked great!


They spent about as much time lying down as standing, but it's all part of the fun.


Besides dinner, they served delicious snacks, including these fantastic, juicy pears from their visit to Seattle.  They really were amazing.


We played Quelf and King of Tokyo.  I can't look at this picture of my uncle without chuckling.  LOL!!!




Unfortunately, I missed getting video of my uncle acting out this card, but it was hilarious!


My cousin put tape on his glass.  Why?  Because apparently his dad kept drinking it when he wasn't looking.  Funny!!


On our first day back to co-op, we decided to eat breakfast out as a treat.  We woke up to quite the winter wonderland!


Old European.  :)



Kylen was required to create a trifold for his country in his continents and cultures class and give a little presentation.  He chose Romania, his father's native land.  :)


We had my brother's family over for dessert and a little belated gift exchange.  They gave us the most perfect family picture.  It's hanging in our living room and goes perfect with our Valentine theme.

Thanks to a friend for an awesome new dessert recipe!  Cream cheese squares: yummy and easy.


Aren't they sweet?  :)



Friends had us over for dinner and games, and the electricity went out while we were playing Bananagrams.  It was AWESOME!!!  Ours rarely goes out here, so it was fun hanging out in the dark and playing by candlelight.  :)


Here is a potato person Kylen did in biology lab.  They had to discover traits as they went.  His has a pink ribbon, because he found out it was a girl.  Doesn't it have a lot of character?  He was quite proud of it.


That's a few highlights from our January.  It looks like February is going to be a quieter month, and I don't mind at all!!  :)

Friday, January 22, 2016

Our Boy is 16!

We celebrated Kylen's birthday at Laser Quest (third year in a row?): three games and lots of fun!  Greg and Kylen each got a first.



The Terminator!

He opened cards/gifts from friends the next day.



On his actual birthday, he got the day off school . . . one of the little perks of homeschooling.  He slept in and spent the first half of the day playing video games.  Greg left work early, and we drove to the DOL to get his driver's license.  Guess I won't be spending as much time in the backseat!

  

 
 
First picture was pretty lousy, but the place was almost empty, so it wasn't a big deal when Kylen asked for a retake.  :)
 
We officially have a second driver in the family!!!
 
 
We ate dinner at his favorite restaurant, Red Robin.  Tried their new boneless wings with teriyaki.  They were delicious!
 
 
A funny, as we were headed home: I decided to turn on the radio.  Soon after, the song "Backseat Driver" by TobyMac came on.  None of us had listened to it through before.  We just about fell out of our seats when we heard the lines: "Been backseat my whole life / Now I turned 16 so it's time to drive."  LOL!!!!!!!
 
Back at home, Kylen opened a card from us and small gift: a new shirt!  He loved the card.  :)  And the shirt.  It says, "I find your lack of logic disturbing."
 
 
 
But it didn't stop there.  The following morning, friends treated us to breakfast out!  Wasn't that nice of them?  I sure thought so!
 
 
 
We love our sweet boy.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Happy 2016!!!

We'll be back to full school days and our normal schedule this week, which means I'll have almost zero time to blog the next two months.  We'll see what happens.  Meanwhile, I'll see some of you on Facebook!  =)