The boys took their final goose-pimply, purple-lipped swim last week before deconstructing the pool. Aside from our dining room table, the pool has been one of our best purchases; it was used constantly throughout the summer.

Here is a clip of Molly playing water tag with Jake. She hunts him down like prey, while he tries to stay away from her razor sharp claws as she paddles after him.

Molly is enjoying football season along with the rest of us. She comes out to practice three times a week and games on Saturdays. She’s good for licking excess sweat off of hardworking players’ faces.

We seem to have adopted a rambunctious little creature into our family. I think we will keep him and name him Jeremy.

Truth be told, this is how the oldest and youngest siblings bond. The oldest uses his creative resourcefulness in order to be entertained, and the youngest…entertains.

As soon as Jim earned his IFR pilot rating, Derek’s wish was to fly in the clouds for his 9th birthday flight. Derek’s wish was granted. You might say the ante has been significantly raised after this birthday flight…not only did they fly in the clouds, but in lieu of flying to Janesville for breakfast, Jim flew Derek, Jake, and Peter to Minnesota to watch the Air Force vs. University of Minnesota football game.

Here is a glimpse of the flight: (for you keen observers, you’ll notice that the pilot is shooting the video. The plane was on auto-pilot. And the propellor only looks freaky on video, not in real life)

They may have been the only Air Force fans in the stadium, but they wore their blue proudly.

It was a historic game because up until now, U of Minn never had their own stadium. They built one this year, and the game against Air Force was the first game played there.

The following weekend Derek (and Peter) enjoyed having family come out to the football game. We then gathered at our place for lunch and birthday cake.

I thank God for this second-born son of ours. He is a unique gift. I love how God is shaping his heart and mind and look forward to the next nine years of his life!

Let me begin by stating that I have never enjoyed football season as much as I have this year.

Throughout the past 13+ years of marriage, my dear husband has done a wonderful job of getting me excited for college football every fall. But there is nothing like watching your own offspring in pads and helmets lining up and hitting their opponents.

Peter’s first game was bright and early. The little bobblehead guy showed some signs of nervousness, but was clearly excited to play.

They began the game with the National Anthem (Peter is the shrimpy second from the right).

Lining up…

…for a big hit.

The little guy is holding his own as one of only seven 5 year-olds in the entire league! He can thank his brothers for teaching him grit.

Then Derek’s team was up. Where Peter’s coaches emphasize the goal as “having fun out there”, Derek’s coaches drive home the importance of knowing each play and winning the game. As an observer, guess which game provoked more stress inside?

#78. Jim’s high school number. As Jim handed the jersey to Derek before leaving on Saturday morning, he said he was experiencing deja vu. Just to add to the ol’ deja vu, Derek is playing the exact position Jim did–left guard on the offensive line.

I’ve been told that in this shot, he is reminding his o-line teammate that they are going to cross block.

I love this shot.

In this picture, it appears that the 3rd grader living in our house grew into a high-schooler overnight.

Alright folks, now what’s football without…cheerleaders?

The bows in the hair. The cute outfits. Don’t they just scream look at us? To their credit though, these girls are bright. While the boys are grunting things like “on two” and “hit”, the girls are chanting rhymes, spelling big words, and jumping at the same time.

A big thanks to our friends the Jachimiecs for coming to cheer the boys on. Derek and Peter were inspired to play hard knowing they had fans, and Jake and Jeremy appreciated having friends to play with during that time.

Remember those pictures at the back of Highlights magazines? The zoomed-in photos where you had to guess what the object was? Up close it looked like bubble wrap, but it’s really a snake, for instance.

Well here’s a toughie. Guess the object:

We could insert this as the first picture in Baby J’s baby book. A chronicle of him/her playing kicking, doing summersaults, and sleeping at the park.

Meanwhile Baby’s brothers brought their golf clubs and played a round of golf.

Ever the engineer, the oldest opted to make the mini-golf course for the others rather than swing a golf club.

One of the many reasons I love homeschooling:

Because we don’t take days off for teacher institute, Casmir Pulaski Day, etc., the boys do a half day of schoolwork on Fridays. The rest of the time is spent cleaning the house. It’s a beautiful sight to see four boys armed with rags, brooms, and vacuum cleaners.

Though it does not take long before some of them figure out the uncanny resemblance between a vacuum hose and a gun.

p.s. Jackie–although Nick doesn’t read this blog, please let him know that this post is dedicated to him :)

I have not been taking a whole lot of pictures of our school day. Come on, somebody needs to teach these boys their math. But I have a breather right now and wanted to share a few glimpses of school.

Now that we have completed nearly two weeks of school, I have to say that we are having a lot of fun. Yes, school and fun were just used in the same sentence. And one of our students is officially a middle-schooler…an unpredictable age, potentially wrought with an “I hate school” kind of attitude. But that is one of the beauties of homeschooling–figure out what makes a kid tick, and let him run with it.

So if you know Jake, you know what makes him tick: science. Science has been his love ever since he could say the word “space”. Now he says words like deoxyribonucleic acid (thank you, dictionary.com). Somewhere between then and now, he lost me.

This year, he is working through a science book which requires him to conduct a couple experiments per week, and it has become a highlight for everyone. Once he has his materials collected in the kitchen, he yells, “experiment time”, and the rest of the boys gather from near and far to observe and lend a hand when they can. Here is a photo log of a recent experiment.

I’m sure Jake would love to explain in more detail, but he basically poured layers of different liquids into a cup and dropped objects into the liquids to see where they would settle.

Bubbie narrated the entire process.

Finally, the write-up to summarize.

Meanwhile, poor Molly was forced to observe from afar. This experiment did not lend itself to canine help.