Marcus's extremely late birthday questions

Anyone still out there.  I may be late at getting things done, but, they get done.  Case and point: yearly birthday questions.  I recently got Marcus to fill some out for me.  ( I got Cale to do his too, but, I may have misplaced them-oops.) Anyway, for your enjoyment, here is the most recent Q&A with Marcus.

Marcus, what is your favorite....

color?....purple

fruit?....banana

cereal?....Frosted Flakes

thing to eat for breakfast?...pancakes/waffles

thing to eat for lunch?...calzones

dessert?...cake/cookies

drink?...Dr. Pepper, vitamin water, Body Armor

movie?...Spiderman Into the Spiderverse

thing to do outside?...jump on trampoline

animal?...dog

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I'm only 15

Back to school 2017!

If you follow us on social media, you will know that the kids, except Kinley, started school on Tuesday.  So far, so good.  I would say the biggest challenge is getting ourselves back into the school bedtime schedule.  Summer was great.  We stayed up late. We slept in lots.  Now, school reality has set in.

Cale and Marcus left first.  Cale is in 7th grade and is taking honors English, honors math and honors band-French horn.  Marcus is a freshman and his classes include AP World History, Spanish, Biology and band-trombone.

The second round of schoolers included Kella (1st grade, Mrs. Sears), Ewan (5th grade, Mr. St. Amand) and Liam (3rd grade, Mrs. Lodge).  They were ready to go and had all met their teachers the night before.  Ewan actually had his teacher back in 3rd grade for some of his classes.  Kella's teacher is new to the district and somehow, Liam's teacher has never had a Shaffer in her class and Liam is the 4 kids to go through the elementary school.  How is that even possible?  

Good news, everyone had a great day.  They loved their teachers and were happy to go back to school the next day.  The trend is holding and routine is getting easier to slip back into.

Here's to a great year!

Happy birthday to Marcus! (in July)

Our Marcus turned 14 way back on July 7th.  He got to enjoy his actual birthday at Boy Scout camp and then celebrate at home on Sunday.  Then, the next morning, we sent him off the soccer camp with the high school soccer team.  No rest for the teenager.  

Things that I appreciate about Marcus include how patient he is with his younger siblings.  He is definitely the most patient of the kids.  This makes him be a good teacher/demonstrator to the littles, too.  I see this in karate classes when he gets to help the children in there learn their katas.  I also like watching his sense of humor develop.  He really enjoys some of the same shows that Andy and I have always liked to watch.  Marcus is steady and responsible and I know I can trust him to watch his younger sibs if I need to run some errands.  He enjoys playing his trombone.  He is working toward promotions in karate (to earn his purple belt promotion book) and scouts (Life Scout).  This fall, as a freshman!, he will be taking an AP World History class-the only AP class at school freshman can take.

Here's our boy!  Yes, we wrapped his presents in brown bags and paper.  

The one thing he wanted-a smart watch.

Also, cool shades.

Ice cream cake!  Seriously, this was the easiest, most low-key birthday ever.  Dinner was at a youth group get together at a park.  We picked up the cake on the way home.  So easy. 

The yearly "baby" picture with Dad.  

And the "let's see how much taller I am than mom" picture.

Jazz Band, song #2

Chameleon arr. Victor Lopez

8th grade band, song #1

This was a piece that Marcus played at All-Region band back in the fall.  The band directors really liked the arrangement and got it for the 8th grade band.  The music is so familiar, it made the little ones sit up in their seats and pay attention to the music.

8th grade band, song #2

8th grade band, song #3

The band director said he wasn't sure if the kids would like this piece.  Turns out, they loved it.  I know this came out when this group of kids were like in preschool.  I wonder if the kids were thinking, "This is the music of my childhood." 😊

instrumental solo/ensemble contest

More than a couple weeks ago, a week after Cale's vocal contest, our middle schoolers were back at the same place, this time for instrumental solo/ensemble contest.  Cale's first year and Marcus's third year-because they have a pushy momma who thinks it's a great idea to perform in front of other people. Cale did a solo and did an ensemble with the other 2 6th grade French horn players.  Marcus did a solo-he never did get around to finding some friends for an ensemble.  Once again, I had the privilege to accompany both of the boys' solos.   

Cale performed Surprise Symphony.  A nice, short, 2 page piece. I may have forced him to practice every night to make sure he could hit all the notes.

Cale's hard work paid off-gold rating for his first time out!  I know he was very relieved.

My dear Marcus picked a rondo by Mozart.  This piece was originally for French horn (maybe Cale will play the piece one day).  It was a fast piece that had eight! pages of accompaniment for me to sweat through.  And, I did. 

An attempt at an artful picture. 😄

Ah-brothers.

Marcus's hard work paid off, too-another gold rating!  I wish I could say his accompanist played as well as Marcus did-that would not be true.  Thankfully, the accompanist does not get scored although I did tell Marcus that if he picks a piece like that again, I will not play for him.   

And the 6th grade French horn ensemble.  They sounded great in warm-up, but had some challenges during performance that earned them a silver rating.  Can't say they were happy, but I think they were all glad to be done.

As was I-glad to be done with solo contest for the year.

Basketball season draws to a close and I finally post some pictures

Basketball has eaten up a great portion of what used to be our "free time". 5 out of 6 Shaffers here are participating/are done participating in basketball this season.  Admittedly, I am sporadic with my picture taking and more sporadic with posting pics here, or anywhere else for that matter.  So, be prepared for the onslaught of pictures.

Here we go.  These may or may not be in some sort of order.

Ewan-looking spiffy in his travel jacket.  He loves this thing and wears it all the time.  Fun fact: Ewan, Marcus and Cale all picked the number 22 for their basketball number.  If I had my stuff together, I might have tried to force those three to take their picture together in their uniforms.  Didn't happen.

For fun-Ewan's team got to play a game at Banker's Life Fieldhouse-where the Indiana Pacers play (and, for more fun, they went to and actual Pacers game first-Andy took all our boys to that game).  I got to take Ewan and enjoyed watching him play.  He also scored 4 or 6 points.  I can't remember-but I know he was the highest scorer on his team that day. (Side story-I drove our big van and parked it in a tiny, old parking garage that we barely squeezed into.  When we left, I got one of the employees there to back the van out and bring it down to the first level for me.  I think they just wanted to get rid of me.)

On the court.

Passing the ball in.

Kella wanted to play basketball this year.  She is on one of 6 kindergarten teams.  She is probably the smallest person on any of the teams and definitely the most fancy dressed for practice.  

These 2 are random photos from one of Marcus's games.  Look for the 22.  He played on the "b" team this year and had a good time and a good season.  There are just 2 weeks left with one more tournament.  It's an "a" team tournament, but Marcus was asked to keep playing with a chance of maybe playing in the tourney.

These are all Cale.  They might have been playing the same school as Marcus was.  I don't know.  Look for the 22, red hair and orange, knee-high socks.  That's how I figured out which boy I was looking at.

We spend time taking selfies during the games. 

Some more of Cale.  This was his last game of the season.  The 6th grade season is shorter that the other grades.  Cale played on the "b" team, too, and did a great job.  Personally, I think he should have played on the "a" team.  But, I am not the coach.

Another selfie interlude.

These are of Marcus's last home game and last "b" game.  They are in a backwards order.  Just how I uploaded them.  I had the sense to get out my phone to get these pictures.  Potentially, one of the last games he plays in ever-if he doesn't make the freshman team next year.  

Ewan's travel team.  Their regular season is over.  The team finished the season with 1 win (in the last game).  They get a Sunday off and then the next one will be the start of the tournament.  At this point, I do expect them to not win and advance.  A totally different position than what they were in last year, when the team (made up of several different players) won the whole post-season tournament.  But, Ewan's had fun and it's been a good experience.

Rec league is still going strong and will for most of February.  Ewan, Liam and Kella are all playing in that league.  These games take up our Saturday mornings for now.  Hopefully, that means I will get a couple pictures to share here in the future.