Week 18

Time for Dance Photos! I decided to try playing photographer again this year. In the middle of the chaos of trying to get 16 two-three-and-four year olds in one place at one time I was regretting my decision. But we got it done and the photos aren't half bad.

Later in the afteroon on Friday the kids went back to the rest home to help hand out flowers after their Mother's Day program. Gram was playing her accordian when we got there, so we got to enjoy that for a few minutes before the kids were put to work. All those "grandpas and grandma's" just love the kiddos, who got all dressed up for the occasion.

Mother's Day took up pretty much the entire weekend. We spent Saturday morning with Sam's family. Then Wyatt made good on his promise of giving me a date night when I did his taxes so we dropped off the kids with him (at Mom's house haha) and Sam and I went to the movie and dinner. We also decided to stop by the Outlets while we were out and picked up some Sketchers Shape Ups for me for Mother's Day. We took the kids home, and the three of them (the kids and Sam) locked themselves in Ty's room for a little pre-mother's day planning before bedtime.

Everyone was up bright and early on Sunday. I got to lounge in bed pretending to be asleep while listening to the gang prepare breakfast (pink waffles) that they brought in to bed for me. Kaitlyn had the cutest little card and magnet that she had made at school. Then I got to lounge around some more while Sam started in on lunch prep. My mom and dad came over for ham, twice baked potatoes, and homemade rolls (that the kids helped roll out). After lunch we took the kids to the park. Then I spent the rest of the day lounging - seriously, didn't have to lift a finger to clean up dinner or break up fights or anything I didn't want to do. Ahhhh. Why can't Mother's Day be more than once a year? :)

The final highlight for the week was Kaitlyn's field trip. She was dead set on me going along to help chaperone so of course I complied. We went down to the This is the Place State Park (it's pioneer stuff.) The kids enjoyed it, though it was a bit more educational than they would have liked. But the kids were all surprisingly well-behaved (all things considered) and even the crazy, crowded, loud bus ride won't deter me from volunteering for another one...maybe. :)

This is Kaitlyn and her friends Sydney and Violet.

Week 17

Where did spring go again? We've had storms and cold temps for most of the week. That translates to a good part of the week spent indoors wishing we were outside. And not much else. We spent some more time going through boxes, reorganizing and getting rid of things we no longer need. We had a meeting with the recruiter. Kept the house clean and the kids mostly happy. Once the storms stopped we spent a couple of days watching the crew assembling the new neighborhood playground, which is going in right next to our house.

Kaitlyn had her final soccer game on Thursday. She has improved so much since the first week. And she loves playing. So it's a little bittersweet that it's over. But we're ready to move on for a while - it was pretty time consuming. Now it's full steam ahead into the end of the school year and on to summer.

Week 16

Family time over the weekend included Saturday morning at the pool. Errands on Sunday morning, then an outing to the park.

We had to, of course watch the last of the NASCAR race. See the concentration? They were watching replays of a wreck :)

Sunday afternoon was spent organizing the garage. Monday I was still on a spring cleaning kick and washed windows, restained the back porch, and refinished the kids' picnic table. The bad weather hit on Tuesday and the rest of the week was spent inside doing not much of anything. Sam was home for the week so we took an afternoon and sorted through most of the stuff we've been storing under the house - ending up with a truck full of stuff to donate. It's so nice to be getting to the end of our Spring Cleaning list. Hopefully the weather will get back in the spring spirit here soon.

Week 15

We finished up the week of Spring Break with a fun weekend. No dance Friday meant that Kaitlyn and I had time to help the residents at the rest home make cards (Mom is the Rec Director there and suckered me into it). Kaitlyn is great with them and had fun. I on the other hand thought it was harder to do than get a group of 2 year olds to accomplish the same activity. While we were helping Ty got to be Grandpa's buddy.

In the afternoon the kids and I went to the park. Saturday I went to lunch and shopping with a friend so the kids and Sam did a little shopping of their own and had some more park time.

On Sunday we met Sam's family at the Planetarium and Grandma and Grandpa Jackson treated everyone to the 3D movie about the Hubble telescope. Science and documentaries and really not my thing but I had a lot of fun watching Ty trying to reach out and catch the stars. I was surprised that he wore his 3D glasses almost the entire time.

We couldn't leave the Gateway without visiting the fountain. The kids love it. No idea why we didn't think to pack an extra change of clothes.

Kaitlyn lost her 2nd tooth on Sunday night. Looks like the tooth fairy pays very well for teeth. Kaitlyn thinks she is now "rich."

Back to normal life Monday. School, lots of playing outside (and yard work) during the good weather, which lasted until Thursday. Then we got snow but it melted again by the afternoon.
Ty had a bike accident on Tues - of course it was the one time he insisted on wearing his cowboy hat instead of his bike helmet. As you can see, he got right back on the bike - with the helmet this time - as soon as we had him cleaned up. Then he was so exhausted he fell asleep - that would be the 2nd of 3 naps this week. Outside time must wear him out.
And of course soccer games on Tuesday and Thursday.

Week 14

Spring Break! Actually it's not as exciting as it sounds. We pretty much did nothing. Not that I didn't think about it. But we can't go on vacation right now. And though I THOUGHT maybe I could plan at least one fun thing a day, in the end I was just to lazy to make a list and carry it out. I still think Kaitlyn had fun so that's all that really matters.

I put off blogging about this week for much longer than I should have but I'm trying my best to remember what we did. Kaitlyn got to play with friends ALL DAY LONG both Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I did pull out a fun little surprise for them - a kids cookbook and fun measuring cups and spoons. The first recipe we tried (due in part to being limited to what we had available for ingredients) was what Ty calls "mile face" (smile face) sandwiches. And um...Thursday. I'm not sure what we did in the morning but we did spend some time at my mom's house in the afternoon so we could sew the sashes on the dance skirts.

We had some decent weather this week. The kids were very excited to play with their bubble stuff and had it out more than one day.

Week 13

Easter weekend was a busy one this year. The kids started the celebrating on Friday with an egg hunt at the rest home after dance class. I'm told they enjoyed it. I was off shopping with Bonnie, who was in town for the weekend.
The weather was horrible, with cold and snow and mud. So all the Easter Bunnies hid the eggs inside. Wyatt and Bonnie did an egg hunt for the kids at Mom's house on Saturday. They even had some glow in the dark ones hidden in the window-less rooms in the basement which I thought was a cool idea. Ty, on the other hand, didn't get that they glowed and kept turning on the light.

Saturday afternoon we decorated a few boiled eggs. The kids always enjoy that and this year we were (for once) able to keep the miss to a minimum. (does everyone know the whisk trick? I just learned it this year) I almost wished we had done more than 6. But Sam and Kate are the only ones that eat boiled eggs so it would have been a waste.

The Easter Bunny showed up in fine form on Sunday. We had eggs hidden all over the living room and kitchen and all kinds of fun stuff in the baskets, including new soccer balls for the kids. Once we had collected and emptied all the eggs we headed down to brunch and another egg hunt with Sam's family.

Whew. That's a total of FOUR egg hunts in one weekend. Plus Rhonda dropped off a basket for the kids too. Can we say candy overload? I think we have twice as much as we did on Halloween!

PS - still kicking myself for not pulling out the camera and taking a photo of the kids all dressed up. By the time I thought about it they had been wrestling with their cousins all day and were a mess.
Oh and the rest of our week? Typical. Normal. Blah.
And will someone PLEASE make it stop snowing?!?

Week 13

Our first crocus was blooming this week - yay Spring!

Then April Fool's hit - and the trick is on us because after 2 days of non-stop snow the yard once again looked like this. This photo was yesterday during the small amount of time the sun peeked out. There is at least another 4-6 new inches out there this morning. Looks like the Easter Bunny may be hiding eggs inside this weekend.
(Same lamp post, different angle - I wasn't gonna leave the porch! lol) Kaitlyn was pretty much the only one that got a kick out of April Fool's Day. She came home from school talking about it and "tricking" us every few minutes. Her idea of a trick is misdirection. As in: "look Mom, a purple bus!" "April Fool!" After the 300th time it wasn't funny so I declared April Fool's Day over on the drive home from soccer.

Yes, I said soccer. Kaitlyn played her first 2 soccer games this week. She loves it! They won their first game on Tuesday, despite it being utter chaos. It's so funny to watch such small children, drowning in their brand new uniforms, gamely running after the ball, not knowing much of anything about the game. :)
They have games twice a week for the next 6 weeks (minus Spring Break). Intense. I don't get why they don't have actual practices on top of games. But oh well. Kaitlyn is enjoying it and seems to be learning just fine on the field. We just tell her "always watch the ball" and "it's ok, you don't have to be nice when you play soccer."
She scored her first goal yesterday (one of two for the team that day, didn't win that one)!
She had her dad outside with her, practicing as much as she could the few days before she started games (I love the way she always wants to be prepared for things) and I'm sure they'd be out there very day still if only we had some bare grass.
(don't adjust your screens - they really are day-glo yellow uniforms! They're much much brighter in person)