marie and eva twinning braids

when easter meets april fools

luna playing find it

bucket percussionists at neighborhood chalk party

Chris and the girls in Florida

This was a make-good trip from when I took the boys to Lego Land.  And Eva got her braces off the day before they left!

Not sure what it is about Hooters and Florida for Chris?  GREAT parenting to take your daughters here though.  

We Hansons love Disney.  

Whoa?  That's totally an Eva-made ponytail on Marie.  There's no way that can be a dad ponytail?  

Hello brothers who aren't here.  

And hello mom who isn't here.  

Apparently it is much easier to get reservations for 3 people versus 6 at Be Our Guest.  

This was a fave of the trip.  Come and buy some crap!

Chris thought he better get them to Sea World before there is no more Sea World.  

I can't even imagine how magical it is to get to do this as a little girl.  My 8-year-old self is jealous of my kid!

Spring/June 2018

 Meet your newest Dairy Queen-on-52nd employee!  15 year old Eva K Hanson!

Ellisyn and Travis visiting our favorite DQ employee. 

A nearby, quick bike-ride away!

Fishing trip break at Graham's Island on Devils Lake.  Halle (invisible) and Luke (10) in the hammocks.  

#nannymom    Things we do to kill time.  

Getting trucks to honk at us.  

Poppin' tags at the thrift store.  $4 rollerblades.  

#nannymom

#nannymom

 summer siblings

 Oh, how I hate crafts.  Oh, how they love them.  

 I'll give you 300 snowcone stands in exchange for one craft.  

The Quams visited for Memorial Weekend.  

Erika and Ginger, 

Marie, Kendall and Kirby

Cheers to summer!  Memorial weekend.  

And cheers to the new Green Egg that Chris Hanson purchased.  Cheers to Erika cooking WAY less until the new-egg smell wears off.  

Chris made brisket for Memorial Weekend.  I really don't remember him ever waking up with a Hanson-baby in the middle of the night?  Sleeping in a sick baby's room?  Definitely not.  But sleeping on the patio outside with the mosquitoes to monitor the temperature of his brisket?  You got it.  

We had the Bevils over for Green Egg food.  She complimented me on my perennials.  I laughed and said 'which side of the house do you think I planned and which side Chuck planned?'

These are what your eggs might look like if you support local farmers.  Thanks Chase Nelson for our fun, farm-fresh eggs!

What could make 4 siblings sit on the same couch and laugh together:  The classroom books that their fantastic teachers create.  I can't imagine how much work goes into these books!?!?!  Well worth it for a never-before-seen photograph I'd say.  

 Uh-oh.  The Easter bunny was tricky on April Fool's day....

 Eva and Kaitlyn attempted tennis this year.  Much fun was had!

 This, my favoritest lamp ever, made it 10 years with Luke.  The lamp finally met its demise when Luke wanted to, not even shoot because that's not allowed, DROP Nerf gun bullets in a sibling-ambush as they ascended the stairs.  He became tangled in the cord.  And siblings were not even present; this was target practice.  I had him pay me for the broken lamp.  He reminded me that he had already paid for the giant crack that Chris had previously super-glued....double payment.  Sorry not-sorry.  

Another great Luke-moment of the spring was when he pulled this out of the piano bag.  WHY!?!?!  Well you see.  The alterations place is next door to piano lessons.  And this sports bra was an expensive one and just needed a minor repair.  So I dropped off the kids at piano, but forgot about the sports bra that needed to be dropped off and out it came with the books.  

 Football on the couch all day doesn't appear to count as screen time?  Neither does history as Megan Markle weds Prince Harry.  

 I don't craft or project very well.  I clean and organize.  But this is a project Chris and I completed together and I love it.  

Ginger and I took an online course about well-being.  This course included a quiz about our character strengths, 1-24.  #24 for myself was bravery.  Clearly I'm brave about being in public in terrible outfits without make-up on or my hair combed.  But taking risks is NOT in my wheelhouse.  So I decided to branch out and try a Neighborhood Chalk Party.  It was very fun!

Our very nice neighbors offered for us to use their driveways for the Chalk Party.  Three different sets of neighbors for 3 different Hanson-kids who didn't get to use our own driveway.  I didn't even know which kid was going to which driveway or what they were going to draw.  But somehow, the NDSU-drawing kid ended up in the UND-fan's driveway.  Sorry Karniks!

Eva won third place in the people's choice voting.  

 Travis drew a big iPod.  

And Travis was not letting go of the birthday party quite yet at age 13.  

Scary Mommy

Parents, You Don’t Need To Go To All Your Kids’ Games

By Erika Hanson

“We should really get together for a drink? I could really use a night out,” says every mom I’ve ever met.

“How about Tuesday?” I ask. But her 10-year-old, Charlie, has a baseball game.

“Thursday?”

Another game.

Wait a second. Do YOU play baseball? Oh, just him? So you’re just watching him?

This weekend perhaps? We could go out as a couple? Oh, your brother and his wife are finally coming to visit you? They took a week off work, purchased plane tickets for their three kids and themselves, boarded the dog and rented a car all to come see you? That’s fantastic! You’ve complained about how they never come visit you for so long — great to hear.

Oh… Clara has soccer: games and weekend tournament, plus practice. And Charlie has two baseball games, plus practice. Of the 6 nights they’ll be here, you have sporting events to attend 5 of the nights.

By now, we’ve all read enough to know that our kid probably isn’t going to be a professional athlete. We jokingly say that we know this fact, but part of us still wants to believe it might happen. We’ve seen enough ESPN to remember the players who thanked their moms for coming to every game.

“WHAT IF THAT’S MY KID SOME DAY AND HE DOESN’T THANK ME!?!?!”

Look, it won’t be your kid.

Even the odds of playing a sport in college are pretty slim. According to the NCAA statistics, the estimated probability of your kid competing in college athletics is very small. Males: 3.4% of basketball players, 7.1% of baseball players, 6.9% of football players. Females: 7.1% of soccer players, 7.4% of swimmers, 3.9% of volleyball players.

So face it: it’s highly unlikely that they’ll be publicly thanking you on Draft Day. But I wonder what the chances of your kids being at a wedding/funeral/holiday with your brother, sister-in-law and nieces is? I’m guessing a lot higher. Maybe that’s the skill they should be practicing more?

We all saw The Blind Side. She went to all of his games. So must I!

I’m quite sure that if your kid does,in fact, beat the odds and go pro, your kid will not feel sad that you missed an occasional game to volunteer, develop a friendship, spend time with your brother and sister-in-law and nieces, or help in the community.

Imagine how much pressure going to every game puts on a kid. Are they playing to entertain you, or because they enjoy the sport? In a viral post, Rachel Stafford wrote that there are “6 words you should say today.” I’ve seen this shared over and over again on social media.

The six words are this: I love to watch you play.

How much pressure is that for a kid? I’m a kid and you love to watch me play so muchthat you never go out with friends, you never have date night with dad, you never volunteer, you rarely cook, you schedule my siblings’ meals/free-time around my games/practices, you never entertain because the house is always a disaster because you’re at every game…that’s a lot of subconscious pressure on a kid.

Oh, but you’re the volunteer coach? How can you skip? Kudos to you for stepping up and coaching. You deserve a chance to skip the game and have a parent who never misses a game do the coaching.

Look, I love watching my kid play. But he needs to be playing because he loves it. Not because he looks up in the stands and sees my smiley face bursting with joy over watching him play. He needs to see me putting those less fortunate above him occasionally by my volunteering in the community. He needs to see me having a life outside of his sporting events every now and then.

Marie is so emotional after catching a Northern at Devils Lake