Kevin’s Vent

Montessori Dayspring of St George puts on a Christmas play each year to help children in Africa. My oldest two were in it, and they both did a great jorb. Here are some clips from it.

The girls all started school today, and they looked so pretty with their new outfits. They were all quite excited. It is Alaina’s first day of school, and we were a little worried, but she is excited to be a “Big Girl” and was out the door right behind her sisters. Good luck, Little Ladies!

I’ve found that my Mom and Dad are a lot more wild then they were when I lived at home. I suspect they’re able to relax more now that they don’t have to be “good examples” all the time
Last week we caught them partying with our hidden camera:

Our little four year old Alaina pushed her chair over while she was sitting in it this afternoon and somehow managed to split her chin open. She now has a bunch of stitches in the underside of her chin. Big sister Natalyn accompanied Alaina and I to the ER and even watched most of the gory work with suitable questions for the doctor – “Why isn’t it bleeding more?” and “What happens to the stitches you sewed up on the inside?”.  Maybe she has a career in medicine

Of course all the discomfort was forgotten when we finished and they got treated to huge ice cream cones. We spent the evening  playing in the river downtown next to the library, with Alaina never even acting like she had gotten hurt. The resilience of youth…

There are few people in the world that have the honor of having “Groke” as their last name. I was contacted last week by a previously unknown Groke who wanted to know if we we’re related. My church encourages us to find our more about our ancestors and I love the challenge of hunting down information, it’s like the biggest puzzle in the world. So here’s what I know about the Groke name:

From what I’ve been able to find, there are two main groupings of Grokes in the Americas, one set from Germany, and one from Great Britain. The German group came over in the late 1800s and settled primarily in the Wisconsin area. The British Grokes  came much earlier, and were concentrated in the Pennsylvania area.

My Second Great Grandfather, Johann Heinrich Paul Groke immigrated to America from Germany in 1888 and spent the next 30 years as a tanner in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Here is a breakdown of his posterity. Edward William Groke is my grandfather. If you are related to anyone on this list, please let me know

I thought that St George was the desert, but so far tonight we’ve gotten several inches. The kids sure had fun – okay, I did too

I was kind of bummed that there were no pictures of Katie in the last post. I had one that I wanted to use, but it just had a lot of distractions in it. Too many to fit the rules.

The other kids are in the corner, the path runs through it, there is a lot of grass, a lot of leaves, and a really small Katie. Now my purpose was showing Katie enjoying herself in the leaves. So I needed to fill the picture with purpose. The first thing I did was crop it. A nice tight crop on her that showed the leaves, but not too many. I found the strong colors of the leaves and grass actually detracted from my purpose, so I switched it to Black and White. I think the finished product is definitely a picture worth keeping!

We went up to New Harmony for Halloween this year. They had a Trunk-Or-Treat at the church with a hay ride and the kids and us had a great time. Thanks for you help Aunt MaLynda!

Our Ballerina Alaina,  Princess Bride Arial Katie, Vampire Natalyn and baby Witch Alaina getting ready at Grandpa’s House.

Alaina, Aunt MaLynda and Katie on the hay-ride.

Count Grandma passing out candy

We got there early so did some real Trick-or-Treating before it started.

Um, my toe hurt so Meg and MaLynda did the hard work

And it wouldn’t be complete without a narssasitic shot of me, SuperDad: