When Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum take a bath.

Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

Well, at first I thought we had escaped Moscow unscathed by this little virus. I had never heard of it until we moved to what amounts to a petri dish of a college town. It was going through numerous families in the kid's school, and Greta got it last week (although so far her brothers all seem unaffected). I watched cautiously, knowing that if they did get sick we should say in Idaho.
All seemed good until Monday morning here in Woodburn when sore throats and dots appeared. Luckily three of the kids are practically unaffected, and you would never even know Zane has it (he's playing as loudly and boisterously as ever), if you didn't look at his hands that I pictured. Signe and Karsten are already over it. Gunnar is having the hardest time with sores in his throat, and is mostly drinking soothing Papa shakes. And so far it has left the adults untouched, which from what I understand is normal. I suppose it is a good week to have lots of rain, since we are mostly stuck in the house anyway!

Another U of I volleyball game

Signe poses with Joe Vandal and a bunch of 6th grade classmates and their younger sisters and friends.

Nice hat, dad. (back row, middle)

Karsten throwing rocks into the Snake River.

Zane has some sleeping buddies.

Speech meet time is here again

Signe, Gunnar, and Zane all earned superior scores in the Logos speech meet a couple weeks ago, and Gunnar and Signe had the highest scores in their respective categories in their class that allowed them to proceed to the inner-school speech meet today (3 other schools also participated). Zane had recited the Great Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-7, Gunnar did Paul's address to the Athenians from Acts 17:22-31, and Signe recited a speech Elizabeth I gave in 1588 before the invasion of the Spanish Armada.
It's remarkable that Signe, now in her last year of elementary, has been able to move on every year since 1st grade; most kids don't even get to go once. The past couple of weeks she has been driving us crazy with "just let me practice saying it one more time!!! Pleeeeeeeaaaaaaase!!!!!" until Nick and I insist that enough is enough - go to bed already, child! She takes it very seriously and this is something she enjoys doing every year. Her intensity has paid off, and she was for the second time one of a handful of students picked to recite her speech again in front of everyone at the closing ceremony. Recording during the normal judged speeches isn't allowed, but I did video her later presentation. I'll see if Nick can post it. I giggle every time she quotes the queen with "I have the body of a weak, feeble woman..."

A big night for Gunnar!

Nick had to miss the end-of-the-year pizza banquet for Thrashers tonight because he flew into L.A. for a conference. After every game the coaches vote for who they thought were the best players on the opposing team, and at the end of the season the votes are tallied up. Named after the founder of the league, the top 5 players are named to the "All Hays Team", and Gunnar got a t-shirt for earning this honor.

At the very end of the night a trophy was given to the "ultimate Thrasher", which is not an MVP award (that would be Tyson Izzo hands down), but rather for the kid with the best attitude and work ethic. Gunnar was honored with this award for the Silver Thrashers (3rd/4th grade team), and Ezra Sandmeyer, another Logos kid, got the award for Black Thrashers (5th/6th grade). And Gunnar's coach Andy Kiblen, who really did a terrific job, got the coach's award.

I'm really proud of him.

Now let's hope the Cubs can just hold on to their lead and win the World Series tonight!!

Sent from my iPhone

Trick-or-treating

Last night we were joined by cousins Jerome (the Jawa) and Greta (Irish step dancer). The girls had to be dropped off early at dance class, but the boys brought in a monstrous haul of candy that is only tempting me to gluttony and cavities. My favorite part of the night was watching Karsten hold Jerome's hand between houses, because it was a little tough for him to see in the dark. At one point Jerome walked right in to the back of a parked truck and fell flat on his rear, but he jumped right back up with a cheery "I'm OK!".

Fall Carnival

Last Saturday at the carnival we brought Hermione Granger and a bunch of Star Wars characters. Thank goodness Nick didn't dress up this year and embarrass everyone - his stint as a Lucha Libre fighter last year was, well, not subtle.