Christmas

Sylvia's been too busy to update the blog, so I'll put a few words on here.

The Christmas season has been fairly busy for us as usual. I've been working hard to finish up a lot of jobs, and got them all finished! I've been relaxing quite a bit the last 2 days. Just what the doctor ordered. Nancy has been very busy with church planning. She and pastor Clayton have been working hard to develop a lessons-and-carols service for Christmas Eve (tonight) and Christmas morning service. We've got a large number of instrumentalists playing for both. I'm particularly excited over one college gal who will be singing a couple solos and in a quartet. She's the daughter of one of our members, now home from college, and she has the most beautiful voice! (And remember, this is coming from someone with two degrees in Vocal Performance.) I'm just about giddy to hear her sing "O Holy Night" tonight.
The choir is also well prepared on a few pieces, and the brass group should also be very good. It's going to be a beautiful service, and we give all the glory and honor to God our King for the gifts of music he has bestowed on us and for us.

My parents were here for a few days this week, but are now in Florida with my older brother. My younger brother arrives this afternoon, and will spend Christmas day with us. Then on the 26th, we all leave for Florida, but Noah will stop in TN to pick up his wife from an airport, and then perform a gig before joining us in FL on the 27th or 28th.

Last week the flu bug hit our family, and all the kids but Sylvia got it. It was a mild strain, though, and most of the kids only threw up once or twice. Glad to have that over early this year, and not share it with family as we have in years past.

Right now the kids and Nancy are cleaning house, and I'll soon be finishing the Christmas letters and doing a few home repairs. Wood box is full of good seasoned hardwood, sun is shining, frost is on the ground, and we're all really looking forward to the next week of rest and family.

We hope your Christmas will be as merry and loving, and give God all the thanks and glory!

A Typical Peterson Schoolday

School starts at 8:30 with mostly independent work. It's Knut's turn for the piano, I help Gloria with her violin lesson, Mom helps Thor with his schoolwork. Cecily usually starts her piano practice at 8:00 and practices until about 8:30, or else she goes over to Shady Oaks at 8:30 to practice there while Knut uses the piano at home. At about 8:45 or later, Gloria goes downstairs to do her other schoolwork with Mom and I start working on Spanish.

9:00 is Circle Time. We gather in the living room to sing hymns, or as we've been doing lately,  practice Peterson Family Singers or Lyceum Choir pieces for upcoming concerts. Then we move to the great room to work on Bible memory, read a chapter of whatever read-aloud book we're doing, and do History or Science. Mondays and Wednesdays are History days, for which we all stay together. Mom will read the lesson aloud as we all answer questions in our workbooks, and then some of us have map work and For Further Study questions (according to age). Tuesdays and Thursdays are Science days, and since Knut and I each have a separate Science program, we leave to do other schoolwork rather than listening in.

Around 10:45 is the optional snack break, then back to independent work. Thor and Gloria practice the piano sometime between now and lunchtime, and I practice piano and violin. (Not simultaneously.) Cecily does her flute practice and Knut and Thor each practice their trumpets. 5 pianists, 2 trumpeters, 1 flutist, 2 violinists... makes for a lot of practice time. :)

After lunch the younger ones are usually done unless they haven't been focusing. Cecily usually just has a little bit to finish up, and Knut is generally finished within an hour. I... am not. :(

That's the structure, but it doesn't always work. Bjorn and Rosemary can play quietly somewhere else in the house or sit quietly and listen, but they don't always like to be quiet... and when we don't see them or hear them, it usually means they're up to something. Some of their latest escapades (during school or otherwise) have been:

-Finding candy, hiding behind Knut's bed, and eating it
-Going into the Lego room and having... fun... destroying things
-Dumping spices from the spice cupboard all over the kitchen
-And pretty much wreaking havoc wherever they go.

Let's just say that they can make school interesting! :)

Or sometimes this happens:

Rosemary: Bi'cut! Rea'book!
(Rosemary climbs onto someone's lap and shoves a book into their hands)
Mom: And now we will read Biscuit Finds a Friend.
Sylvia: It has extraordinary educational value about the behavioral patterns of dogs and ducks.
(Someone reads the book to Rosemary)

Fun Quotes

Hope this makes you laugh. :)

In a large auditorium at university, the lecturer began by saying, 'If you can't hear me up at the back, put your hands up.' A row of hands went up...

Duct tape is like the Force; it has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the world together.

Two cows were standing in a field. One cow turns to the other and says, "Moo." The other replies, "I was just about to say that!!"

Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was...resisting a rest.

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Some poems rhyme,
And some don't.
There are three kinds of people in the world: people who can count and people who can't count. I would fall into the latter category.

A balanced diet is a chocolate chip cookie in each hand.

Life is like a corn dog, I don't know why, it just is.

If Life hands you lemons, make grape juice. Then sit back and watch as the world wonders how you did it.

I am a nobody. Nobody is perfect. Therefore, I am perfect.

What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

Practice makes perfect... But nobody's perfect... so why practice?

My mind works like lightning. One brilliant flash and then it's gone...

I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying. -Oscar Wilde

I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger...then it hit me.
75% of all Internet quotes are fake. - Abraham Lincoln.

I'm not talking to myself. I'm having a parent-teacher conference. -Homeschool Mom
To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." -Elbert Hubbard

"The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense." -Tom Clancy

"Failure? I never encountered it. All I ever met were temporary setbacks." -Dottie Walters

“Wear the old coat and buy the new book” -Austin Phelps

I’m not random; you just can’t think as fast as me.

Honk if you love Jesus. Text while driving if you want to meet him.

Some people blame our generation. But do they ever stop to think who raised us?

Homeschooling didn't make me weird. I'm just a weird person who happens to be homeschooled.

My high school reunion happens every time I look in the mirror!

Knowledge is Power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be Evil.

Note: These quotes are from various places around the Internet. As far as I know, none of them are copyrighted.

A Special Thanksgiving

Our family has one very, very special reason to be thankful this year! And I mean VERY VERY VERY special!! :)

It has to do with cuteness... and something very small... and something very special... and something very exciting.. and something that means we need a new car... :P





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Yes, this is an announcement saying...



Another baby is on the way!!!!! 

He or she is due June 19th, Thor's birthday! However, as this family has yet to have a baby born on the exact due date, Thor may not be sharing his birthday after all. :)

Plans

For the next month or so, I expect to be very busy, so I will schedule a few blog posts for in my absence. They will appear...

November 24: "A Special Thanksgiving"

December 3 "Fun Quotes"
December 10 "A Typical Peterson Schoolday"
I may or may not pop in and post a couple other "newsy" posts from time to time, depending on my availability. However, considering I'm somewhat behind in school and don't really want to be doing schoolwork all summer this year... don't count on it. ;)

First Lego League

First the big news: The Robo Raiders have advanced to Regionals!!!

Next the other news: We found the camera memory card! :D

Pictures at last...

 Joe the Cow

 Robo Raiders table

 Dividing up the candy :)

Joe the Deflated Cow and Knut the Comedian with his Llama

The Robot Runs!

Robo Raiders ready for their turn

Pep talk

Robo Raiders' second robot run

 Cameron and Jon at the table; the rest of the team on the sidelines (only two people were allowed at the table at a time)

Scores for the Robot Runs

 Knut the Very Happy Cow

Knut the Cow getting hugs from his teammates

"Cow Eggs"

The Cow and Jared posing for pictures

The Cow was very popular... he was photographed numerous times by numerous people and even interviewed! I didn't get to hear the cow being interviewed, but Knut told us most of what was said, as he was in the cow suit at that time. :)

...

(At the end of the interview:)

Commentator: Do you have anything else you'd like to say?

Cow: MOOOO!!!!!!

Drama/Lyceum/Etc.

The drama performance went really well yesterday! :) The dress rehearsals were very crazy, though... one of the lights smashed, a costume got torn, several props were missing, etc. Ms. Jo stopped the rehearsal at one point to pray that God would take care of everything... and He did! There were a couple problems with lighting during the performance, but other than that everything went very well! :) I just can't believe it's over. This semester has gone by so fast!

Lyceum is over, too! This was the last Friday of the semester, so now we won't have it until February... if it works out to have it this spring at all. It was a wonderful semester, though... Mom had more than twice the usual number of people in Lyceum Singers... thirty total! We had our first Lyceum Singers "concert" a couple hours after Lyceum ended. It was outside of Dr. Jazz, a restaurant in Lebanon owned by a family whose daughter is in Lyceum Singers. There was a Victorian lamplighting festival happening that night, and we were singing about an hour before the "official" performers were due to begin. Our program took much less time than we had anticipated... only 15 minutes! It sounded wonderful, though! ;)

Note: The FLL post is postponed until we can find the camera memory card with all the pictures.

Last week Grandpa had a heart attack. This week Knut set the lawn mower on fire. What will happen next week?!

The title pretty much says it all.

Yes, Knut set the lawn mower on fire today.
Yes, it still works.
No, he did not do it on purpose.
Yes, he was on it at the time.
No, he was not hurt at all. (Praise God!)
Yes, life around here is very, very, very, very, very, very, very interesting at times.

Thank God that Papa was working across the street and could run over and put out the fire in time to save the lawn mower! :)

And, to answer the questions Papa put to me as soon as he had the fire out,
NO, I didn't get pictures; I was busy spraying the burning leaves with the hose!
And YES, it's going on the blog! :D

[Post about Knut's FLL competition coming soon; right now I need to go finish school. ;)]

Grandpa is home from the hospital and doing well! :)

Praise God for his mercy!

Grandpa had a heart attack early this morning.

Grandma called 911 immediately, and the paramedics were there in a matter of minutes. If Grandma had waited longer to call 911, or if the ambulance had been slower, or if... (insert other factors here), Grandpa could be in heaven right now. Praise God that none of the "if" factors happened, and that Grandpa is recovering just fine. Prayers would still be appreciated, though. :)

Mom and Grandma drove to the hospital this morning at 4:15, and got back around 8 when we were all waking up. We were a little surprised to hear the news. ;)

*insert interesting post title here*

Lots of things that have been happening lately: (note: after this post, don't expect another for at least a week; it's going to be reeeallly crazy...)

We actually watched the last game of the World Series! First time for everyone except Papa. :) We don't have TV, so we got it streamed from the Internet...

It was actually really fun! We celebrated the Cardinals' victory with cookies. ;)

Knut took the camera to Lyceum last week and got some crazy pictures between classes and during Drama. Normally he wouldn't be allowed to take pictures during Drama, but they were rehearsing "the chase scene" of his play for the entire hour-and-a-half class period, and Knut (horrors!) is not involved in "the chase scene"! It might be a good idea to not post those pictures except with specific consent from the people in them. ;)

This is Vern. He is a glorp.

STAY AWAY FROM VERN.

That is all you need to know.

There is an annual free Halloween parade/costume contest in our town that we always enter. Ever since we first entered, four years ago, there has always been a Peterson in a prizewinning entry. This year we carried on that tradition...

Thor and the Claytons dressed up as pirates and put together a pirate ship out of big pieces of cardboard, two red wagons, and some black cloth for a sail. Their entry was amazing... and consequently they won FIRST PLACE in the "groups of 2 or more" division!!

Other entries...

Gloria dressed up as a butterfly

Knut and I dressed up as Ninjas. Both of these pictures are of Knut since I was the one behind the camera. ;)

Papa dressed as a cowboy and entered only after tremendous urging. :) Cecily and Rosemary entered as English Princesses, but sadly I don't have a picture of their lovely costumes. :(

That evening we were planning to go to a concert, but we were mistaken about the time. After some friends called us to let us know that THEY were running late we found out our mistake... and so for about five minutes were rushing around FRANTICALLY (and I mean REALLY FRANTICALLY) trying to clean up, get everyone out of costumes and into regular clothes, and get in the car and buckled up. Unfortunately we forgot about makeup... and so Thor went to the concert wearing eyeshadow (at least his scars and beard got washed off!) and Gloria went to the concert with lipstick, blusher, eyeshadow, light eyeliner, and face powder. :)

Speaking of makeup, I found out before the parade that it IS possible to apply mascara with your mouth closed. I don't wear any makeup, so I had always heard (and believed) that it was not possible... but when I put it on as part of my costume, I stubbornly kept my mouth shut. :) Random fact for you.

Stuff that is going on this month and next:

Peterson Family Singers is actually starting up again!! We have a concert scheduled for this Monday, so we've been rehearsing whenever we can to get ready.

Knut's First Lego League group has their competition in a couple weeks, so we hardly see Knut anymore! He's at FLL meetings almost all day on Tuesdays and after Lyceum on Fridays, as well as doing research and work at home for their project. Mom and I got to watch their skit/presentation a few days ago and it was really good! The team has definitely improved since last year.

Lyceum ends in a few weeks, and on the last day of Lyceum the older choir will be singing at the Lebanon homecoming. Also, the SCCCHE Christmas concert, at which both choirs will be singing, is December first!  Mom informed me yesterday that I will be accompanying one or two of the younger choir's pieces. (Yikes! :O) Peterson Family Singers will be doing a piece or two at the concert as well.

The Lyceum Drama performance is sometime in late-ish November... I can't remember exactly when; I think it's a week after Knut's FLL competition. So, that means that soon we'll be down to the wire trying to get our blocking taken care of. There are three plays this year; Knut and I are in different plays. Knut's play is having lots of trouble with blocking ("the chase scene" ;D) and my play has some very difficult period costumes that we're making without much in the way of patterns. I'm not sure about the other play, but I'm sure they're having their difficulties too! :P However, I'm sure the performance will be wonderful... with Ms. Jo (the wonderfully amazing director) it always is!

Bright Lights is still going, and so Cecily and I have meetings pretty much every other week. I also have a leaders meeting once a month, and do some emailing with my small group co-leaders to get agendas/accountability partners/etc. figured out. ;)

School... is my life right now. Other than Bright Lights, Lyceum, Drama, music, reading, working, the computer, and sewing, of course. ;) Cecily, Thor, and Gloria usually finish by lunchtime unless they're not focusing, so school doesn't take up too much of their day. Knut's schoolwork is beginning to take longer (and he's stopped teasing me about how long my school takes... I wonder why??), but he still usually manages to finish fairly soon after lunch. His FLL homework takes up a bunch of his time, though.

Cecily and I have been working at a public school (after school ends) almost every week for the past couple months. One of the teachers goes to our church, and she often has us help out when her class is finished grading students' work, cleaning off bulletin boards, making copies, cutting things out for projects, etc. It's interesting to work there because we get to see the kinds of things they're learning and the kinds of resources they have access to. I must admit that the resources (huge copy machines... smartboards... lots and lots of construction paper... PENCILS WITHOUT ERASERS CHEWED OFF BY THE BABY!!!) wouldn't be unwelcome to us (although we may not be able to fit the copy machines in the house anywhere :P), but then, lack of this kind of resource sparks such creativity (not to mention frugality) that maybe it's actually better to not have them. We could use more "whole" pencils, though... but that dream will never be fulfilled until we no longer have anyone in the house under the age of 3. And I'd rather have the babies. ;)

I have a sewing job for Grandma Joni that I need to have finished and shipped before December 1st. She wants 12 aprons to give to her friends for Christmas, and 7 of them she needs before December. So I guess only 7 of them need to be finished and shipped before December 1st, but I'm going to attempt to ship them all together. Let's see if that works... ;)

The monthly SCCCHE meeting is next Thursday, and all of us will be attending.

Mom and I are coordinating a farewell party for a wonderful family in the homeschool group who will be moving away this month! :( We're not sure yet when it will be.

Church: Choir rehearsal is Wednesday nights for Papa, Mom, and me, and then of course we all go to the  service on Sunday mornings.

Anything else? Um... I'm sure I'm forgetting something... but I'm ready to stop and I'm sure you're either tired of reading or you've just skimmed over most of the post. :) I'll not prolong your agony any longer. Hopefully you are now sufficiently convinced that we are busy and are willing to accept that as my excuse for probably not posting too often in the next few week, neglecting the Daily Family Insanity, and then not giving my lovely repertoire of excuses when I start posting "regularly" again. :)

Rosemary

Rosemary Faith Peterson

 Nicknames:

-Rosebud

-Rose

-Rosy Mary, Merry Rosy

-Blondie

-Goldilocks

-Blue Eyes

-Cuteness

-The Baby

-Angel

-Li'l Nut

-Sweetie Pie

Etc.

Personality:

-Friendly (most of the time)

-Pretends to be shy sometimes

-Crazy

-Silly

-Excited

-Happy

-Independent

-Mischievous

-Loves hugs

-Loves being tackled :)

-Loves being loved!!

Hairstyles

Cartoons

The Socialization Question

Most homeschoolers get this question a lot. Now, I don't mean to slam anyone that asks this question; I know that often it's asked out of genuine concern. However, it's very easy to make fun of. :) So, here's my answer (which sounds quite impressive when spoken aloud!)...

"But what about socialization??"

"I think it exceedingly unsatisfactory that the preponderance of the population is uneducated as to the outstanding and highly superior social capabilities of homeschoolers. Rather than remaining in a single location for the duration of the day and failing to interrelate with others except intermittently, and that merely amid scholars of identical or at least comparable age to oneself, as do public schoolers, those privileged and fortuitous enough to be homeschooled have the exceptional opportunity to experience “the real world”. Homeschoolers learn to interact with sundry ages and circumstances. However, numerous homeschoolers possess one significant social deficiency that does occasionally detract from their societal experience with public schoolers. The vocabulary of a homeschooler is often significantly more extensive than that of a public schooler. Consequently, conversation may be slightly hampered as the homeschooler is compelled to elucidate the meanings of the majority of his or her words. However, this is only a trivial handicap to be surmounted, and quite inconsequential when weighed against the tremendous social benefits of homeschooling. Um… does that answer your question??"

I haven't had a chance to give that particular answer yet, so I'm looking for opportunities... :D

Camping Post #5

Geocaching
The Travis Petersons hadn't ever done a geocache before, so Papa decided that they needed to, and looked up geocaches near where we were. He found one that he liked the sound of, and decided that we would do it.

We started out, following the GPS on Papa’s iPhone. We were pretty excited, because it sounded like a neat cache, and were also feeling quite adventurous (well, most of us were). However, we were feeling pretty tired by the time we came to some kind of road… and discovered that we were at the end of the part we were supposed to drive (if we happened to have a 4-wheel drive). Now was the beginning of the hike. There were a few people feeling slightly tired, but others were still full of energy. Knut was carrying Rosemary on his shoulders and still going strong! We kept on going. I took Rosemary for a while, but Knut was the one that carried her most of the time. We weren’t just on a hiking trail; we were jumping over fallen trees and rocks, skirting poison ivy, avoiding thorns, and climbing uphill all the way. And “all the way” was a really long way!

Finally, we got within 300 feet of where the GPS said the cache was… and just couldn’t find it! There was poison ivy all around (Papa seems to have some on his arms) and many people were tired out. Most of the little ones needed to use the restroom, everyone was tired, and Rosemary was past her limit and ready to throw a tantrum at every provocation. And we still couldn’t find it! Finally I and most of the others gave it up and sat down to wait for Papa and the boys to find it. They kept on looking and kept on looking, but they couldn’t find it anywhere! Papa wasn’t getting a very good signal on his iPhone, so his GPS wasn’t working properly. Finally Uncle Travis and Mom started calling him to say that the little ones were folding. (And the really big ones were too, but of course they weren’t admitting that ;)) At last, the boys and Papa gave it up. We met up with them again and were about to go back, when…

Papa’s iPhone (with the GPS on it) ran out of battery power.

So, we started heading back in the general direction of the campground. Once again, we were not on a hiking trail. And there were certain people who really needed to use the restroom. Almost everyone was exhausted, everyone was hungry, and Thor and I were excited. :D We were quite a bit ahead of everyone else, except for Sloan, Cecily, and Gloria, who kept up with us pretty well. Thor and I remembered quite a bit of the landmarks we had passed, but then we came to a place we didn’t remember. Everyone else caught up to us, and then we kept going in the same direction, when I called everyone over.

“It’s a path!”

It seemed to be a fairly wide hiking trail, big enough for an ATV. Thor and I started running up it, and after going a little ways, I called back on my radio, saying, “Hey guys, I think we’re headed back to civilization!” There was no answer, so I called again in a couple minutes, but once again, there was no answer. That’s when I noticed that my radio was turned off. Uh-oh, I thought, They’ve probably tried to call us on the radio before now, and we didn’t hear, and now we’re in trouble. I immediately turned it back on and tried calling them again, but there was still no answer. Thor, Gloria, Cecily, Sloan, and I stopped and waited while we kept trying to contact the rest of our group on the radio. They got to where we were at last, and found out that our radios were on different channels. Anyway, after we got that straightened out, we were persuaded by Uncle Travis to take a “short cut” and go off the path. We did so, and promptly got separated again. I guess some of us kept forgetting that the others were really tired, and so those of us who weren’t so tired wanted to keep going and see if we really were going the right way. Anyway, the people that weren’t so tired located the path again, and then stopped to wait for the other people. The other people called us on the radio awhile later and asked where we were… they had not found the path again. Anyway, we finally got the two groups together again, though the tired people were a little annoyed with the amazing people who had found the path because the amazing people had been getting too far ahead. Genius is never fully appreciated.

After that we all stayed together… we were almost back to the campground anyway.

At almost 4:00, we got back to the campground! Needless to say, everyone was starving and ready for lunch. And certain people were also ready for naps. ;)

There were only two bad parts of the adventure:
#1: We didn’t find the geocache. :(
#2: No one really appreciated Thor’s and my wonderful achievement of getting us back to the campground! I guess they were too tired. ;) And like I said earlier, Genius is never fully appreciated. :D


Later in the trip we tried two more geocaches, but couldn't find either one of them, either! Now Aunt Margaret is convinced that all geocaches are fakes. :D

Camping Post #4

Videos

Starting a fire

"It's wet!!... Oh."

:D

In the car
Note: This one is pure insanity. You might not want to watch it. :P :D

Camping Post #3

Setting Up Camp

Pitching the tents

Cecily entertaining Bjorn and Rosemary

 As we were getting out of the car, people from nearby campsites were staring at us. I wonder why??

Don't ask me how, but Papa managed to get all of these camp chairs in the car AS WELL AS two tents, about a dozen sleeping bags, everyone's luggage, and the food. He's pretty amazing. :)

 Isaac and Rosemary hit it off at once

 And this is Camryn.

 Uncle Travis and Ethan attempting to light a fire with flint and tinder... eventually they used flint and tinder and a paper towel drenched in bug spray and were very pleased with themselves. :D

 The boys watching Papa spray the fire with bug spray

 This is Camryn with a wig on.

 Mom setting up the "dining room"

 The camp

 Rosemary

 Bjorn

 Making jewels by... coloring rocks... with... crayons??

Okay, very... creative. :)

Camping Post #2

In the Car
Car travel is always "interesting" for our family. :) Praise God, we didn't have any serious carsickness this trip, which is a MAJOR blessing! As long as we don't have any sickness, car rides can be pretty fun. We usually listen to a book on tape, or some music, or sing songs, or tell jokes. This time I had a list of some of my favorite random quotes and read them out loud. They kept us laughing for quite awhile. Papa even mentioned one of them at choir rehearsal on Wednesday! :P :D  Knut is always a fun person to have along, what with his jokes, llamas, weird conversations, funny faces, and made-up songs. Sadly he won't let me post a video of one of his songs, so you'll just have to take my word for it that it's funny. Knowing Knut, though, you can guess that pretty easily. ;)

Thor, Gloria, and Bjorn sat together in the backseat. They were great travelers, and hardly had any fights at all. They had a lot of fun playing together and were really good about sharing toys and snacks around. They were actually pretty quiet, too, which was really nice! ;D Thor was so good about taking care of the littler ones and keeping them entertained.

Knut sat in the front seat between Papa and Mom, and Cecily, Rosemary, and I sat in the middle seat. The middle seat is the "power spot"! :) It's the control center of the food since the coolers and boxes of snacks are there, it's the place that has reasonable access to all other seats in the car and is therefore in charge of what toys are passed where, and it's by the baby so the "middle-seat-ers" have the responsibility of keeping her happy. But when there are two of us, it's not at all difficult to get it all done!

Camping Post #1

We're back! :)

(Obviously) There wasn't Internet access at the campground, but I did have my laptop along for schoolwork purposes (high school... :P), and it was also useful to type up blog posts on a Word document and save them for posting later. :) So, there will now follow a short series of camping posts over the next couple days!

We stayed for 3 nights at the campground: Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. It took us 6 hours of driving to get to the campsite, and 12 to get back! The reason for this is that we drove a bit out of our way to meet a friend of Papa's that he got to know over Facebook, strangely enough. :) We went out to dinner with him and then hung out at a nearby park while he and Papa talked for a couple hours. Then we got back in the car and drove until about 11:30 to get home.

While at the campsite, we occupied four tents:
Tent #1: Papa, Mom, Thor, Bjorn, and Rosemary
Tent #2: The Girls: Sylvia, Camryn, Cecily, Sloan, and Gloria
Tent #3: Uncle Travis, Aunt Margaret, Isaac
Tent #4: The Boys: Knut and Ethan. (Thor would have been with them, but it was a tiny two-man tent and he preferred to share with Bjorn and Rosemary.)
THIS KNOWLEDGE MAY HELP WITH UNDERSTANDING FUTURE POSTS!!! (Just to explain why I explained this.)

One of my latest "obsessions" is collecting quotes. Book quotes, movie quotes, quotes from family members and friends, weird quotes that have no known origin, it doesn't really matter to me... but my family members know that anything funny they say might possibly be going on the blog. Some of them intentionally say more funny things, others don't care one way or the other, and still others ask after everything they say, "Is that going on the blog??" and are delighted if I answer "probably". :) During our camping trip, the period of time when all of us girls were in our tent at night and still awake became "quote time"... Sloan, Cecily, and Camryn would say random funny things and I would be typing them up as fast as I could. (My typing speed has probably increased over our camping trip...) Many of the coming Daily Family Insanities will be a few of these. What was really funny was, after I would type up a weird conversation, I would often have trouble remembering exactly what they said, so I would ask them to go through it again so I could check and make sure it was word-perfect. Sometimes I would be included in these "conversations" and I'd forget and have to ask them what it was that I said!! 

Like a good homeschool Mom, Mom had to tie in some History with our vacation. :) She brought along a Civil War-era book on tape that took place in the general area where we were camping: Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt.

The following conversation happened at the beginning of one of our hikes...

Mom: we can pretend we’re Daniel Boone… um… exploring.
Me: Why? Because it would be interesting? Comparatively, that would be boring! (After all, Daniel Boone didn’t have 11 kids with him!)
Mom: Well… I had to tie in some history like a good homeschool mom. Now I’ve done that; I can check it off my list.
Me: That’s going on the blog.

Camping

We will be gone on a camping trip with the Travis Peterson family this weekend and possibly Monday and Tuesday as well. We're leaving Saturday morning, which means after we get home from Lyceum tomorrow we'll need to start packing and loading the car. Or at least attempting to load the car. (2 adults + 7 kids + luggage + 2 tents + sleeping bags + camping and cooking gear + diapers and other necessities + snacks = one VERY STUFFED CAR!) We're not even trying to bring food; there's a Wal Mart near the campground and we will go grocery shopping. :)

Question: How much do 9 people eat when they're on a camping trip with cousins, doing all kinds of activities and working up gigantic appetites?
Answer: Way too much to fit in a limousine already crammed full of kids, tents, and STUFF. :)

Happy Birthday Bjorn!!

Bjorn had his 4th birthday party on Sunday!!

He opened his presents at lunch, which is the only time I got pictures...

The birthday boy in his royal attire 

Inside his "house"

 

A sword made by Knut

Bjorn's presents were popular with other kids, too...

Grandpa admiring Knut's craftsmanship

Dinner was the big party. Altogether, there were 22 people not counting Petersons... and only 2 of those were under the age of 11; most were teens or adults! Bjorn likes "big kid" friends. :)