Snapshots of my Life

Basil the birthday boy!

Today is Basil Frankie's 9th birthday. 9. Wow.

Right now Basil is enjoying soccer, and he is pretty darn good at it, too! He did discover many of friends were playing flag football this fall, but he had already signed up for soccer and we said that was enough for now. Boo, parents.

He is reading up on WWII as often as possible. Basil and Jameson must get their love for history from their Grandpa Dick and Grandpa Ausk. One day he came home from school and was sooooo disgusted. He had picked up some history books in the library at school to check out, but the person helping in the library that day wouldn't let him check them out because they weren't part of the reading program at school for which the kids earn points. Well, if you can imagine, Basil wasn't going to let this injustice go! Basil: "Can even imagine it, Mom? A kid wants to read a book and they won't let him?" Oh, he cracks me up! Well, we got that solved, he was able to check out his WWII books the next week (he has a great teacher), and Basil is now happy.

And he is loving his Bobcats!

A couple of week's ago, our whole family went to a Bobcats game in Bozeman. This was the first time we had all gone to a game together, so it was a great experience for everyone. To add to that, Aunt Mary Ann and Uncle John were able to pull some strings and make the game even more memorable, especially for Basil. He got to shoot the cannon off at the kickoff of the game!!

Our whole family got to be in the area of the cannon and watch Basil. He was pretty tickled. So were we!

What a fun day!

 

Back to school, back to blog

 

We're four weeks into school and things are going great. Here are the kids on the first day of school, on the porch of the new house (yes, more about that later). Jameson is in seventh grade, and we have now nicknamed him "Joe Cool." Nelson is in the fourth grade. He has a wonderful teacher, actually they all do this year. We are so lucky! Basil moved over to Nelson's school this year and is in the third grade. He is loving it. All but PE, because he doesn't like to wear tie schools and he just can't believe they are required. Basil's quote for everything: "It's not fair." No, he didn't wear flipflops to school on the first day, he just slipped them on for the photo! And Giarratana is now is school, too. Kindergarten. Finally. She adores school.

The kids all walk the 2 1/2 blocks to Jameson's school each morning. Nelson and Basil take one bus to their school, Giarratana takes another. It's a great setup. We are loving our "city life."

I grabbed a quick video of Jameson and Gi going to school this morning. I recently got a new iPhone (!!!!) and am experimenting, also known as embarrassing my children. I hope it works out (sidenote, I started this post two weeks ago. It took me that long to figure the movie thing out. And this is the best I came up with, so click the link and the movie will be there. Anyone who can help me do better is welcome to. Geez!): Download Medium

And, on really good days, Giarratana gets to take a special mode of transportation to school...