Lyceum Singers party

These past few days have been a whirlwind! The SCCCHE concert was Thursday, I had my Bright Lights leadership meeting on Saturday, and Sunday was church, the Mascoutah Community Christmas Concert, and Knut's FLL finals. Knut's team was in fourth place in the robot runs and got an award for the best solution to their biomedical issue! They didn't advance, but I heard that it went pretty well! We weren't able to be there since we were singing at the Mascoutah Christmas concert, but he says that their team did great! :)
Tonight we had our Lyceum Singers party, and we went caroling. We were only expecting a few people, but the house was full! Almost everyone showed up with their families. The time went so quickly it seemed like only fifteen minutes instead of almost three hours! Now we're wishing that we could do this again next week. :)
Right before the party we had a little excitement. Thor was riding across the dining room on one of our little blue scooters when it tipped over. His nose bled, his lip was cut, and one tooth was knocked loose. Mom bundled him into the car quickly to go see the dentist... half an hour before people were supposed to start arriving. I came downstairs after doing some tidying to be met by Cecily giving me Mom's hurried instructions to feed everyone supper and finish setting up the dining room. She explained what had happened and I groaned. Why does everything happen just when you need things to go smoothly? Papa arrived home soon afterward. Mom had called him right before she left, and he had met her and given her the cell phone in case she needed to call us. Cecily, Gloria, Bjorn, and I had dinner after saying a prayer for Thor, and Papa and Knut did some work outside. Fifteen minutes before six, Papa and Knut came in to have dinner. Ten minutes later, they were still eating and the first knock was heard at the door. I'm afraid we were a little inhospitable and left our guests sitting in the living room while Cecily and I frantically cleaned up the kitchen and everyone else ate. :) With the next knock at the door, Mom and Thor came in with the guests. Thor's lip and nose were swollen and red, but he was (more or less) smiling.
After that everything went smoothly. Papa gave a couple house tours, and everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time. Some people had some trouble finding their kids when it was time to leave, but I think everyone went home with the right number of people. :)

Switching Rooms

We've done some major moving of furniture in the past few days, right after our cousins left. We bought a new bunk bed and a crib for Rosemary, and switched around all the beds. The queen bed which was in Gloria's and my room we moved down to the guest room in the basement. We moved all the other furniture out of that room and put in two sets of bunk beds. That is now the girls' 'dormitory'. The bottom bunk of one set of bunk beds is empty until Rosemary is big enough to sleep there. Well, it's not exactly empty... in the meantime there are a couple hundred of Cecily's and Gloria's dolls and stuffed animals. Don't ask me where they'll put them all when Rosemary starts sleeping alone. :D

 Top: Cecily

Bottom: Rosemary... right now, stuffed animals and dolls

 Top: Sylvia

Bottom: Gloria (the cute little monkey)

In the 'fishbowl' room which used to be Cecily's and Bjorn's, we put the other bunk bed and one of our old twin beds which was in storage. That is now the boys' 'dormitory'.

 This is actually quite a big room! It didn't seem like it with the big bunk bed right in the middle. 

 Top: Thor (who is very pleased about that)

Bottom: Bjorn

Compare this picture to this other picture when this desk was Cecily's. Boys' minds and girls' minds tend to be rather different when it comes to what they want on their desks! :)

As for the room which used to be Knut's and Thor's, it is now a lovely sitting/dressing room for the girls with our dressers, Cecily's desk (which used to be mine), a bookshelf, and our instruments and music stand.

Our 'wanted' wall with Christmas 'wanted' lists, pretend 'wanted' posters for criminals, and advertising posters for help with homework or buying old toys or whatever. This wall is in the girls' sitting room, just because that's where we found a single wall without a window in it or furniture against it. The boys can put things on as long as it's approved by Cecily or me.

Cecily wants a swivel chair for Christmas... in the meantime she'll pretend

Cecily gets my desk because it's too big and heavy to bring up to my new office!!! Yes, I (hallelujah) have my own little office in the attic loft! It's unfinished, with plywood floor and just the paper cover of the insulation for the sloped ceiling, and the big air conditioner unit is at one end, but do I care? In a way I'm glad that it's so unfinished because that means I don't have to worry about scratching the floor or staining the walls! :) We also use this office for a CCC meeting room, and had a meeting in it today! I haven't finished moving up furniture and rugs and 'beautifying' it, but here is what it looks like right now (with the chairs from the meeting still up there):

Papa built a beautiful ladder just two days ago for me which is absolutely wonderful! It attaches with metal 'hooks' so I can lift it up to unfasten it and move it to a different place in the opening as I want. And yet, it's very sturdy and reliable! Thank you so much, Papa! :)



Preparing for Guests

Yay!!! Our cousins, aunt, and grandparents should be here within the next 2 1/2 hours! Papa and Mom had commitments at church, but we (Sylvia, Knut, Cecily, Thor, Gloria, and Bjorn) are waiting at home for our guests. This afternoon we've done a lot of preparation for their arrival! Gloria is moving from my room to the couch in Cecily's room so that Camryn can sleep in her half of the bed. Bjorn is moving in with Thor and Knut in their room (Ethan will sleep there also) so that Sloan can have his bed. So we'll have a room for the biggest girls, a room for the younger girls, and a room for the boys.

As well as getting beds and rooms sorted out, there was some housecleaning, cooking, etc. to do.

 Mom offered $1 to anyone who would clean the upstairs bathroom. Knut gladly volunteered! Personally I don't think it would be worth it, but if he's happy, then I'm happy, too!

The younger girls' room: 

Making Sloan's bed

Gloria is quite pleased with her bed!

Making Cecily's bed

 Before...

 And after. What a difference!

 Before...

 

 and after. Once again, what a difference!!

 Before...

and after

Camryn's and my room:

Before...



and after, except for putting the prettier quilt on the bed and putting away the ladder

The boys' room:

 Note: what looks like a spiderweb of yellow string is actually stun lasers.

 Don't worry; they would never actually kill us... because we would never actually go in there through the 'stun lasers'. :D

The armory