Volleyball Official

Nicole got her first paying job.  She's babysat a few times, but it's really not her cup of tea.  She found out that the high schoolers could be paid to be the junior high volleyball officials, and she signed right up.  Did a good job, too.  Of course, the job's over already, because other students are reffing the remaining home games, but she reffed both games last week and came away with $60 for her effort.  Pays better than babysitting, too!

There's always one ref up on this platform and another ref standing on the floor at the opposite end of the net.

She didn't hesitate to take the "up" position the first night when the other student said she didn't want it.  I love how confident she is.

She's now done both positions and I'm sure will do it again for next year's season.  She's also shown an interest in doing some reffing for basketball.  I think she's found another niche.  Especially if it's a profitable one!

Volleyball Season

Junior high volleyball had their first game last night.  They didn't win, but for their first game, they did a great job.  After it was all over, I realized that my camera was not focusing very well so all my pictures are a little blurry.  Luckily, I'll have lots of opportunities to try again in the coming weeks, so I will do better!

I would normally crop this photo down so you could actually see the main subject, but it's too blurry to do that, so you have to just believe me that that's Ellea serving the ball!

Basketball Boy

Our youngest has now been bitten by the basketball bug.  The girls didn't start  playing until 5th grade, but this boy has talked us into letting him try out the "peewee" basketball program in Cottonwood.  He has spent the last two Saturdays with the high school boys' coach and players learning the ins and outs of the game.

And  now for the next few weeks, Glenn gets to coach a team of eight 2nd through 4th grade boys every Saturday.  He's a good dad, that guy.  Should be interesting.  Stay tuned...

Ice Cream and Games

 Part of our fun day with Grandma involved ice cream at this fun little shop that has a cupboard full of board games, a whiteboard table that you can draw on and another table that is a checkerboard.  We started out playing a fun game called Headbandz, and then Morgan and I tried our hand at checkers.

I thought I knew how to play checkers, but I was actually sorely out of practice.  Apparently, Grandma is a checkers guru and was able to guide us and remind me of the rules.  Of course, that meant that it was really Morgan and Grandma against me, but it was fun.  I'm way too competitive to worry about beating my 9 year old son at checkers!  Ugh!  Now I feel kinda bad!  We didn't actually finish the game because checkers can go on forever, apparently, but we had a good time.

Ellea found the backgammon board and grandma showed her how to play.  I also used to know how to play that game, but my memory is more like a sieve than a vault.  Everything leaks out!  Oh well.  Someday I won't remember anything, and then I won't feel so bad about having forgotten bits and pieces!

Legal Action

This is how kids feel about my blog sometimes . . .

www.babyblues.com

Oh well.  What can I say?  Thankfully, you can't take your mom to court for posting embarrassing pictures on the internet.  At least, I don't think you can.

Monday Fun

The kids and I were determined to do something fun on our Monday off from school this week.  We decided to head to Grangeville and hang out with Grandma for a few hours.

After some yummy ice cream, we stopped at the waterfall for pictures.  We took similar pictures about a year and a half ago.  Kids grow up too fast.  I'm sure you know that, but I just had to say it again.

I considered bringing my good camera along, but decided against it.  I'm really slacking lately with being the mom who takes her camera everywhere.  I need to work on that.  Luckily the girls always have their iPods handy and they take decent pics.

 

Group sledding

We had lots of fun sledding over Christmas break, but it was especially fun the day we had a couple friends over and did some creative group sledding.

The snow was hard-packed and super fast that day, but also not very forgiving.  Every run was upwards of 20 miles per hour!  Luckily we didn't have any big wrecks which can really damper the fun factor!

Let me give you a PUSH!

Glenn came up with some of the crazy group sledding ideas.  Going down the hill backwards?  No thanks.  I'll drive the snowcat!

I pulled out my little point and shoot and took some photos and videos.  I was disappointed with taking the video from the top of the hill, so I tried driving the snow mobile while videoing.  Tricky, but possible!  Probably not terribly safe!  Do not try this at home.

Cousins at Christmas

We met my brother's family for our annual Christmas event.  We had a wonderful dinner at a local Italian restaurant, and then took in the lights at locomotive park, as always.

We always take a cousin picture in the park.  My suggestion to gather them around the doggy poo bag dispenser was not well-received.  Actually a couple of the kids thought it was funny and gathered for a pic, but sometimes I have enough common sense not to put everything on my blog.  Sometimes.  Not often enough for some of my kids, but sometimes.

We settled on taking a picture with these lovely ice skaters.  Don't they have beautiful form?

Sledding Fun

We've had a lot of fun times on the famous Poxleitner sledding hill so far this winter.

A big group went out sledding prior to the Christmas party and an intrepid group of sledders also went out after the festivities.  Night sledding is always a good time.

The kids are so spoiled with getting a ride back to the top of the hill after every run.  They have no idea how good they've got it!

We've taken friends out sledding a couple times, too.

We don't have much snow, but we have enough.  It's packed hard though.  If you crash, there's no soft landings.  Thankfully we haven't had many crashes this year.  Yet.

Guitar Boy

Found a video of my boy playing guitar at our Christmas party.  He looks a little unsure of himself, but gets a few chords in there.  Not bad for his first time playing with someone!

The video quality isn't the best, but someday when he's a famous rockstar, it will be worthwhile.

Kaufman Band

After a fun-filled gift exchange that's full of thievery and stealing, we all settled in to listen to a little Kaufman music.

Morgan even got in on the act with his little guitar.  Phil's been helping him learn a few chords for the past year or so, so they played a song with only the chords he knows and he played along.

It may have been a little overwhelming to keep up with the big boys, but he did a great job.  As a mama bird, my heart swelled with pride at my little boy playing with the famous Kaufman band!  Okay, maybe not famous, but pretty darn good!

Piano Duet

We talked Ellea into playing a little Christmas music for us at the Poxleitner Christmas Party.

Then, we convinced her to let Christina sit down and play the accompaniment part.  She was skeptical, but she succumbed to the pressure.

It was tricky to play it together in front of a crowd for the first time, but they got through it.

And had a little fun doing it.

Pudding Pictionary

Every year we try to come up with a fun party game for our Poxleitner Christmas party. Last year it was Red Solo Cups.  The year before, it was all about noodles and ping pong balls.  This year, we tried Pudding Pictionary.

Yup, that's right.  We spread out a small container of chocolate pudding and drew in it.  It was fun to play in our food.
 

Even the little ones got to try it.

And taste it!

Look at that concentration!