Early Christmas for Andy!

Back in July, Andy talked to his cousin's husband about going to the MN/IA football game this October.

Well...time got away from us, I thought it was just "talk", Andy said it was "for real"...yet our schedule had filled up like CRAZY. AND...tickets were sky high. We ix-ney'd the the plans. Oh well...bummer bummer...another year.

As the date approached though, I had a fabulous idea....1 week before the big game, I text'd my brother asking him if he had any pull to get tickets....turns out, tickets had come back down to face value and yes, his friend could get 3 tickets. Sweet!

We surprised Andy with a trip to MN...a very quick trip, an early Christmas gift!
Of course, there was 1 potential kink...the day before we were to leave, Ava was sent home with a possible case of pink eye! We went to the dr, got the drops and she was good to go...kind of....aside from her fever that lingered.... :( But she was a trooper and she was fever free when we hung out with our cousins!

Our first stop on game day was to our beloved Mall of America. Andy got new work shoes and we took a peek at the bow display at Nordstrom (go Grandma!)...and also stopped in the Lego store to gaze at the Lego creations. Amazing.

We then trekked over to Megan and Tony's where my Dad was waiting with the big girls--Dad and Andy left to pick up Tucker for their traditional "pregame meal" of 5 Guys and the girls had lots of fun playing with Penny (she loves to pull hair!) and showing Aunt Megan Ellie's flute! (Aunt Megan used to play the flute!) Colin and Oscar were VERY busy playing on Oscar's swingset!

While the boys were at the game...

The girls (and Oscar and Colin!) hit the Minnesota Children's Museum. We were so surprised when Maggy and the Gorden girls showed up--it was so much fun to spend the entire afternoon with cousins that we rarely see! We had loads of fun...we LOVE the museum in St. Paul!

One of the funniest moments of the day though, was when Oscar came up to me and pointed at this gorilla cut out that you see in the photo below. He said "Is that my Dad?!" It was so cute, I had to have him pose by it for a picture! :)

Another memorable part of our day was the very long hide and seek game the girls played....the game in which Jayna and Grace were hiding so well and didn't come out for what seemed like forever. Not sure that is something either one will want to repeat...we were worried...but the girls really had fun together...as did the boys! Speaking of the boys...can you see both of them in this photo below?

It was a fun 36 hr trip....not so fun for the Andy and the Hawkeyes, but fun relationally! Next year will be a better football year....right, Andy?

1st Grader gets her OWN Bible!

Look at that beaming 1st grader! (And her fan club as well!)
Ava and her Sunday School class received their very own "big kid" Bibles in church...and how grown up they all felt!
It was sweet seeing all the kids inspect their new books...and listen intently to Pastor Harry as he spoke to THEM (and not the parents!).
She was beyond thrilled to find memorized Bible verses and read them herself to me...

Thank you, Jesus, that our children LOVE God's word so!

1st day....again!

On September 28, Ellie re-started her 5th grade year at our neighborhood school, Spring Road.
The end.




Of course, there is more to the story.
The short story is that her old school was just not a good fit for her.
The longer story includes painful stats like:

• 1 time in 5 years, someone asked HER to sit by them at lunch.
• No one wanted to play with her at recess....they wouldn't say no (school rule), but would just stare at her until she left the group.
• In 7 years, only 1 friend brought a safe birthday treat...yet that same friend brought something "more yummy looking" for the rest of the class.
• While we had most of the girls over to play, never was she invited over to play at other girls' homes.
• In 7 years, she was only invited to "whole class invited" parties. Yet there was a time in which a friend had an "all girl Christmas party" and excluded her.
• Lies were spread about Ellie....and very hurtful words were spoken to her face, regularly.
• She was talked about behind kids' backs.

Bottom line was "It's too much...I can't take it anymore."....that was spoken to us through tears as she explained what it was like to not be included and be the target of hurtful words.

We couldn't let her endure it any longer. We did our part, she did her part....we gave it more than a good try and we still carry sadness about what we HAD to do...for Ellie's sake.

BUT...the story is not done!
Spring Road has been WONDERFUL for Ellie....it has surpassed any expectations we had!
She is thriving....she has friends...she is playing the flute...she knows neighbor kids now and even rides the bus home from school! She was invited to a birthday party...a party in which not everyone was invited! The smile has returned to Ellie's face and she bounces through life with new purpose--our Ellie has returned!

We recently attended her conference and the first statement her teacher made to us was "I LOVE having Ellie in my class!"

Thank you, God....all is well.
The end.

PS....the above picture was her 1st day at Spring Road...but it just so happened to also be "Pajama Day"! What a crazy day to start on...but it turned out to be WONDERFUL! It was also a 1/2 day and it was a great way to ease into a completely new environment!

Girls Night Out BSGC Concert!

These girls LOVE to sing.
End of story.
...........

This year, both big girls are part of the Badger State Girl Choir...and let me tell you...it has been a labor of love, coordinating "mega music Tuesday". On Tuesdays, we have piano lessons at the house from 3:30-5pm and then choir is from 4:30-5:15 and 5:30-6:30. We are all music-ed out by bedtime!

The day of the concert was beautiful....The girls spent the early afternoon at dress rehearsal and then we all enjoyed an early dinner followed by the primping of the hair, complete with sparkled hairspray....(for the girls)
For Colin....he obsessed over having Grammie time playing games and then also played "sneak away the girls choir accessory"!

The theme of this fall concert was "Girls Night Out".
There was 1 Glynn who was a very cool cucumber....and the rest of us were nervous nellies....Jayna had a very large solo with the Prima choir group. We know she can sing...but in front of that many people for that long? She did AWESOME...we were so proud of her--it was really fun.

And, it was Ellie's first concert with the BSGC....and yes, for her too, it was really fun.

To hear a snippet of "At The Hop", click HERE.
To hear "Girls Night Out", click HERE.
"Girls Night Out" part 2 is HERE. (This is a shaky video--but you get an idea of the large amount of girls in the choir!)

And to hear Jayna....HERE is part 1.

And part 2, the actual solo, is HERE. Go Jayna!

And if you are ever feeling like your house is too quiet....please, stop by our home....between the piano, flute, 2 choir girls and Rockstar Colin, it is nonstop music around here!

Grandparents Day 2011

Grandparents Day at school...

A special event that is SO hard on people like us who don't have local relatives...
Some years it has been the Grandma Glynn show...
And this year, due to crazy schedules...it was the Grammie and Grampy Gorden show!
And kudos to them....Ellie's school had Grandparents Day 4 days after Jayna and Ava's school...what a crazy week that was!

At NHCS, there was a special chapel in which the children sang for the Grandparents (and parents!) and this Glynn (of course!) LOVED it:

and THIS Glynn had her first experience singing with the "big kids"...and she also LOVED it!

For your listening enjoyment:

The 1st graders singing "You Are My Sunshine"....click HERE.
"Do A Deer"....click HERE.
"God Bless America"....click HERE.

With NHCS, we have a tradition to always go to lunch after Grandparents Day at Fuddruckers. After lunch, Grammie and Grampy took Jayna and Ava to see "Dolphin Tale" at the theater. They had a great afternoon.

Ellie also had a special day with Grammie and Grampy--her morning did not include any parent activities...but I am told that Grammie and Grampy did get to attend PE class...and that GRAMPY danced the polka with Ellie! Wish I had a video of that one...

Ellie also had fun with Grammie and Grampy after school dismissed--we ate lunch at Culvers and then she and G&G went to Manderfields for dessert and to Barnes and Noble to browse the books!

Thank you, Grammie and Grampy for attending both events!

Aunt Rebekah Visits!

Aunt Rebekah was born on November 17 (Yes, the same date as Ellie's birthday!).
Rebekah, aka "Bekah" to Colin, is 12 years old...
And yes, she is Andy's sister...the last of the adopted 3 Glynn children.

This fall, Andy's parents went on an anniversary/missionary trip to Indonesia...for almost 3 weeks and we GOT to have Rebekah stay with us! The excitement level was SO high, there were countdowns until she arrived, and worries that she was leaving too soon, and then on the last day, tears of sadness. We really enjoyed having Rebekah here!

Rebekah took over Colin's room...and Colin slept in the closet in our bedroom! I wish I had taken a picture of it--it was very cute, actually. His toddler bed mattress fit perfectly and he slept quite well--it was very quiet and dark in there!

The day Rebekah arrived, I asked Ava to go make her a door sign--all of the Glynn kids have their names on their bedroom doors. This is what Ava made for her--and she created it 100% by herself!

Our life took on a whole new spin with another family member...Ellie commented "Mom, this is where you try out having 5 kids!" Another friend asked us "What kind of relationship do you have with her--brother/sister or more like a father/daughter relationship since she's so young?"

I learned that 4 kids is plenty loud. ;)
And, each day she was here, it was like Christmas overload. TONS of silliness, tons of giggling...the girls really got into having her! But...she was tons of help too--my favorite was that she took it upon herself to keep the dishwasher empty/reloaded. I miss that!
This was typical breakfast--Rebekah loves being with family and even though she wasn't rushing off to her school, she always wanted to be with the kids as much as she could.

And, there was TONS of fun to be had too....
Rebekah got to meet our neighbor girl the same time we did and all the kids got along well.
Colin got the most time with Rebekah and he just adores her--below, he is wearing a huge "cheese sombrero" at the Cheese Store where Rebekah was buying some Wisconsin gifts. And the bottom 2 photos are from the mall--one day, we had to run an errand to the mall and both Colin and Rebekah took in the fun of sitting on the mall rides!

Rebekah is homeschooled and was very diligent about getting her work done...but she was also very conscious of doing it when Colin and I had to go to an appointment or when Colin was napping--she wanted to take in every opportunity to be with us that she could!

Below was the sight I saw one day as I was working on the girls' school's auction at my computer. I was madly typing in teacher wish list items and as I turned around, I was serenaded by the 2 guitars. As you can guess....Colin LOVED this.
One Saturday afternoon, Andy took all 5 kids to a local park. Rebekah happened to look down on the pavement and saw "Jim & Margie" (Andy and Rebekah's parents' names!) imprinted on a brick! How fitting... :)

Below, you get a glimpse of the bond that these 2 November girls share. They both are on a swim team and Rebekah even got to take in a few practices with Ellie. Here, Andy snapped a series of photos of them trying to "chest bump"....too bad Ellie is many inches shorter than Rebekah... ;)

Rebekah was game for ANYTHING...and I think she really enjoyed her time here; as much as we enjoyed her being here!

And while she visited, she taught us some things about being "older". We learned there are these cool round speakers you can hook your ipod or mp3 player into...and hear your music without headphones! Amazing....we had to order one! She and Jayna LOVED spending alone time together and sadly, I have no photo of it...just memories! Often, though, they'd be up in Rebekah's room listening to music. Again, special bonds being made!

All in all, the almost 3 weeks went very fast....we did some really fun things....and made lots of memories! This photo below was taken the last morning she was at our house...

We miss you, Rebekah!!!

First Swim Meet 2011-2012 Season

October brought the first meet of the 2011-2012 swim season.

We LOVE the FONDY Aquatic Center in Fond du Lac, WI. LOVE IT. Nice, clean, "cool" spectator seating, quick meet, beautiful gymnasium area for resting between events. We prioritize attending the meets in Fondy!

Ellie did good for only having 2 weeks of practice under her belt...her relay team rocked (I LOVE watching relay swimming--there is so much loud cheering, so much excitement, and the swimmers always swim super fast!) and she improved her times for her other events.

For your swimming enjoyment, you can view Ellie swimming in her relay HERE and swimming the breaststroke HERE. (This one is long, but if you watch the turn after the first 25, you can see an area that Ellie really excels in--her streamline after a turn is WAY long and just beautiful.)

Fall Leaves!!!

The Leaves Are Falling Down....The Leaves Are Falling Down (come on, sing with me!)...Autumn is in the air, The Leaves Are Falling Down!

Last year was the first year we had to rake all of our leaves in this house....and I believe we filled around 20 black garbage bags of leaves...we had leaves coming out of our ears. We had piles to jump in, Andy mowed them up to mulch them smaller....the kids LOVED them....and Andy and I had a bit of anxiety about them last year--would we get them raked before it got cold? How would we tackle the job? Etc etc. It was all the unknown and in the end, it wasn't so bad.
This year, we did get leaves....

But, something strange happened.....we didn't have as many leaves to rake. It was odd.
Andy mowed A LOT, mulching them down often....and there were many nights where THIS
was the sight/sound to be heard in our yard. Anyway...we took care of our leaves and waited for the cold weather. Sadly, the mower has been put away and winterized....and yet, as of this writing (December 30, 2011), we have no snow and we could use another mowing thanks to the neighbors who did not care for their leaves like Andy did. Oh well. Fun for the spring!

BUT...back to the leaves that actually fell down...
We had a Friday afternoon where the weather was perfect--mild, yet warm, but not hot...and Andy took full advantage of capturing the kids playing in the leaves.
In fact, I don't think we had another perfect day in which kids could wear summer clothes and enjoy the crunch of the fresh leaves!

As you can see, Colin took his role of "class clown" seriously....and took every opportunity to turn a chore into a Wiggles dance fest. Ava joined in, happily! :)

And while we love the leaves....there is something just wonderful about the leaves being raked up...something fresh and clean...and knowing that the wonders of fall are just around the corner!