Congrats Illini!

Congratulations to the Illini on winning the South Padre Island Invitational Tournament and starting the year at 6-0. This team has played with a lot of heart and is beginning to erase some of the pain from last year. They have been in a lot of close games and have found a way to win. I'm not saying that they are a great team, but they are a team you can be proud to support. Go Illini!

Maisenbacher House

November 22nd - Excuse me, there is a house blocking the road! On Saturday after Brandon's basketball game, we drove downtown so I could show the kids the house in the middle of the road. They relocated this old house in order to save it from being demolished due to the Springfield Clinic expansion. It started off as an interesting story with the house being moved through town. Now the story has changed into a political hot potato. The city helped pay for part of the move, and the mayor was asking for more funds to complete the move to the new location. An old building was demolished to create the new home for it and there is not a foundation built yet for the house. It has to be off the wheels it is on now within 30 days, but now the funding for the foundation is in jeopardy. There have been many stories in the SJ-R on the house (October 7th, October 9th, November 11th, November 19th, November 21st, November 22nd). I've added two videos from the newspaper on the preparation of the move and the actual move below my pictures.

Video of the preparation of the move.

Video of the move to the new location.

Native American Day

Brittany had her Native American day at her school. Angie went to help out while they did lots of crafts and had a fun day at school. Since there hasn't been any bad repercussions from Brandon's Native American Day from last year (NCAA ban, protesters camping out, etc.), I let Brittany participate this year.

Brittany sporting a big smile for the camera.

Brittany making her traditional Indian pasta necklace. (I really learn a lot about Indians that I did not know!)

I didn't realize that Native Americans used to play bingo. I guess that is how they started getting into the casino industry.

Thanksgiving Play

November 25th - Brandon had his Thanksgiving Play at school today. He was Massasoit, Chief of the Wampanoag in the play of The First Thanksgiving. Everyone did a really good job in the play. I have the video of the play below divided into three clips. Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

Opening of Play

Thanksgiving Play - Clip 1 from Brian Turner on Vimeo.

Brandon's part and bulk of Play

Thanksgiving Play - Clip 2 from Brian Turner on Vimeo.

Final Credits of the Play

Thanksgiving Play - Clip 3 from Brian Turner on Vimeo.

Mr. Yellow Belt

November 19th - Brandon had testing this past week in his karate class and has now earned his yellow belt. He has practiced really hard. He was really excited that he got his belt and is looking forward to many more to come. Congratulations Brandon!

Circus Time

November 15th - While I was at the Illinois - OSU game and the Chief performance, Angie and the kids went to the circus with the McKeowns. Angie said that it was not as good as it had been from past years, but it was still a lot of fun for the kids. Brandon and Maddie rode ponies that you can see on Janet's blog, while Brittany and Melanie rode an elephant:

Waiting to climb on the elephant.

Here we go!

What's a circus without a bear riding a bicycle?!?!

As an added bonus, here are photos from the 2006 Shriners Circus:

Turner Halloween Party

October 25th - Since we were going to be out of town for Halloween and the kids were going to miss the traditional trick or treating in the neighborhood, Angie decided to have a Halloween party at the house for the kids and some of their friends. Originally we were going to have outside acitivites, but that weekend it turned really cold and we knew we needed to bring it indoors. Angie planned out various activity stations for the kids that they won prizes at each one. We had the infamous pumpkin bean bag toss game, along with the musical pumpkin, halloween bingo, craft table and many more. The kids had a lot of fun on the evening and really wore me out. I had to keep a close eye on the kid that dressed as a Cub player as I was concerned about him choking!!!!!!!