Gossamer

This evening Mari had her second showing of Gossamer. It is a one-act play that she is participating in as part of the Iowa High School Speech Association’s annual competition. Districts were a couple of weeks ago in Oceola and her group qualified for State, which was hosted today at Valley. They will find out on Monday if they make it through to the All-State competition. There are no photos during the show, so we must settle for before and after.

The stage
Mari with her eye make-up.

PS – Mari’s show was on Friday night and most of the acts and shows were on Saturday. We spent most of the day there enjoying the various acts: short plays, improv, radio production, tv production, musicals, readers theater, choral reading.

Christmas Lights

We hung some christmas lights.

Mari always insists on doing the roof work and Lucia and Rose like to join her on the roof. Mari wants to do the high part above the driveway, but after doing it myself the first year we lived here, no more.

Only Runner

Elliot was our only runner at the conference cross country meet this afternoon. It has been a rough season for all our kids because we have had several colds and Mari has been dealing with an abdominal strain, or something of that sort. We all had a cold in September that I know took me a while to recover from. Elliot had the cold and Andrew is still coughing and unable to run. Hopefully everyone can get healthy and have a strong finish to the season.

Homecoming

Andrew and Mari went to Valley High School’s homecoming dance today.

Mari
Mari, Leila, and Frankie
Claudia and Andrew
Andrew’s Group, including a lot of his friends and cross country runners
Group Selfie

August 2021

  • Working on the deck railing
  • Bike ride for Rob’s birthday
  • Patio planning
  • Andrew Senior Pictures
  • Andrew Senior Pictures
  • Senior Picture Moms
  • Ian and Andrew
  • Night Swimming
  • Coloring at Elsie’s
  • Mari and Hope
  • Ice Cream
  • Crushed rock for the patio
  • Mini Golf
  • Triathlon
  • Susan and Rob in the pool
  • State Fair
  • Working on the patio
  • Lemonade Stand
  • XC Campout
  • XC Camput
  • Elliot first day of school (9)
  • Mari first day of school (10)
  • Andrew first day of school (12)
  • Lucia and Rose first day of school (3,1)
  • At the bus stop
  • They got on the wrong bus the first day of school, and went to the wrong school
  • Andrew at first XC meet
  • Elliot at first XC meet

July 2021

  • Gray’s Lake
  • Lucia getting her ears pierce
  • Working on the deck
  • Clive Festival
  • Deck Stairs
  • Giant Waterslide
  • Giant Waterslide
  • Our pool is not the right color
  • Garden Vegetables
  • Fireworks at the Anhalt’s
  • Worlds of Fun
  • Froghopper
  • Dance Party
  • Mary, Mari, and Luke went on the giant swing.

Minneapolis Soccer Tournament

This weekend we headed to Minneapolis for a soccer tournament for Mari’s team. We watched a lot of soccer and spent a lot of time hanging out with friends.

Mari must be out there somewhere.
Susan, Lucia, and Rose took a morning off to visit friends: Hope, Sarah, Susan, and Jen.
Saturday was my 40th birthday, so we had a little party in our hotel room.

Happy Birthday Mari!

It was a low-key birthday for Mari this year because there is a lot going on. The Reagens are out of town and soccer is still in full swing as Mari’s team preps for a tournament this weekend.

For dinner we went to P.F. Chang’s. Andrew was working, so he couldn’t make it.
Cake

Mari turned 16 this year and is already driving herself to school and some other school-related places. She gets up around 6:30 and school days and we wake her up around noon on off-days. She likes to play soccer, read, and spend time on her phone. Her favorite app is TikTok. She watches some shows including Grey’s Anatomy and Outer Banks. For Friday night pizza she insists on Papa John’s. I think she goes to bed around 2 when there is not school.