Blood, sweat, tears, & cursing are all needed for a quilt

This quilt was the product of two grandparents, one parent and hundreds upon hundreds of hours spent in a variety of activities with different shirts.  It's a wonderful way to remember all the different events that Chris has enjoyed over the years.  

Brand new Bearcat

 Today Chris attended Bearcat orientation at UC.  It was another milestone along the journey as he prepares to transition to college. 

Guitar lessons

 This year Lucy completed one year of Mozart Strings which introduced our household to its first stringed instrument, the violin.  Recently Sabrina has borrowed a couple of guitars and started to strum along.  She's taken a few lessons from cousin Zachary but it remains to be seen if she decides to stick with it.  

Pops has contributed an electric guitar to the growing number of instruments in Sabrina's room.  We shall see where this goes ... 

Watermelon Flashmob

 

On June 19th at 6:55 p.m., 7 Hoeben grandchildren showed up unexpectedly on the front porch of our house.  This was an opportunity that was not to be wasted so after some quick debates, we decided to have a Watermelon Flashmob on the Brown family back deck.  A few things to remember: 

• When trespassing through people's yards, be sure to prep Mary because she will ask questions
• Make sure Sadie goes potty before you undergo any top secret operations
• Practice your get-away driving routes so as to avoid breaking any traffic violations (looking at you, Annette)
• Use a clean cutting board to slice up the watermelon  ("Why do these watermelons taste like onions!?!?")

I hope we get to do it again soon!

Cosmo is born

Every so often the kids do something to remind you of how young and precious they still are. On Saturday I agreed to take Lucy to Build-A-Bear in exchange for help with preparing the house for the onslaught of girl cousins coming over that evening. True to my word, Lucy and I went to the mall on Sunday afternoon to spend her gift card. She fluttered about the store selecting clothes for her existing bears when she changed course and decided to pick out her own, new teddy. She selected the bear and after having him stuffed, she proceeded over to the birth certificate computers where she promptly named him Cosmo. The whole process reminded me of how young she still is and I'm glad for the memory.

BITR Cold

 Tonight for Christopher's Senior Engineering project, he demonstrated his invention called "BITR Cold" which stands for Brass Instrument Temperature Regulator.  When he was playing his brass instrument in the cold during the end of marching band season, the players would have to constantly blow through their horn to attempt to keep it warm so that it wouldn't sound flat.  To prevent this problem, Chris and his partner Diego invented a device that will attach around the mouthpiece and take temperature readings to determine if air inside the horn needs to be heated up.  If the temperature falls below a certain range, the BITR will heat up and regulate the temperature to try and keep the instrument playing at a proper tune. 

Last band concert (almost)

Christopher's last band concert (almost) was last night at Ryle. He had the honor of playing on the stage with his sister Sabrina for his last piece which was a collaboration between Gray Middle School and Ryle High School Wind Symphony. More photos to be posted later.

Sweet Jazz Festival

 Last night we had the honor of listening to the Ryle Jazz Lab and Gray Middle School Jazz band at the Sweet Jazz Festival.  Both Chris and Sabrina played the trombone in their respective bands demonstrating their prowess at their brass instruments.  

Chris is a senior so this is one of the last concerts as a student in Boone County schools. 

I picked these for you!

Visit to Middle Creek

 For my birthday we took the family down to Middle Creek Park in Burlington to check out the sea of Blue Eyed Marys in bloom along with the wild hyacinth, and Virginia blue bells.  

Easter Vigil

Happy Easter! Jesus Christ is Risen!

Happy Birthday Sabrina!

 Sabrina had a very busy birthday weekend.  On Friday, March 3, the power was out due to a massive windstorm that went through the entire State of Kentucky.  We listened to Annette read from a book while eating our dinner together in the candle light.  When the power came back on, the kids wanted Annette to continue reading the book which was sweet.  

On Saturday, I went with Sabrina to The Black Goose where we got some mocha's and looked around the shop.  Then we went back to Ryle to and took a few laps around the parking lot in my truck.  

Before heading home we mixed in a little bit of tomfoolery by dropping off a giant parking cone at Granny and Pops house because of the wind taking out the old basketball goal. 

That evening we went to a Cyclones Game where she got to sing the National Anthem along with 70 other members of the GMS choir. 

In the afternoon on Sunday we drove down to Aunt Dette's house in Georgetown to visit with some extended Howard family.  

Dinner on Sunday was with Grandma and Grandpa Hoeben to celebrate Sabrina's birthday.

Shooting Clays with Hoebens

We gathered to compete for the traveling trophy this weekend. Clara performed better than she anticipated but alas her uncle Paul defeated her and won the trophy. This was the first year that Lucas was able to shoot and he did reasonably well. Emily was with us observing from a distance.

Sweet 16

Clara turned 16 yesterday, the same day as Sabrina's Confirmation. We enjoyed a late night ice cream gathering to celebrate her 16 trips around the sun.

Confirmation for Sabrina

Sabrina was confirmed today at St. Timothy. Her sponsor was a friend from choir, Karen Yunker. Coincidentally, she was confirmed on her sister's birthday.

Once every ten years

Trimming the bushes on the side of the house was over due. Last time it happened was in 2013 with Mark Brown's assistance. So since this has only happened twice in 10 years, I thought it was worth a post.

After the bushes were trimmed, the trimmings were taken to an undisclosed location where they will be turned into kindling by the sun. ^AH

Marquis de Lafayette

For Lucy's bottle history project, she had to make a head resembling Marquis de Lafayette. She had some help from the family when there was an unexpected snow day called at the end of January. Her research and speech was just as impressive as her bottle.

One rope -> two kids -> three contestants

Lucy and Sabrina were tugging over the rope when Gus decided to get in on the action.

WYD Pilgrimage Begins

Tonight we attended the first meeting of Christopher's World Youth Day Pilgrimage. There are 28 people from our Diocese planning to make the trip in August to Portugal to see Pope Francis. They'll get to visit Fatima and experience the universal church as an estimated 2 million Catholics descend on Lisbon. It sounds like an incredible time and Christopher is excited to attend.

Snow Couple

We got some snow today that was perfect for making snow people. These two popped up out front.