The kids put on a gymnastics show!

They were busy busy busy in the basement this afternoon and they finally told us they were putting on a gymnastics show. So we went down before dinner. This is what we saw…

At the top of the stairs:

Gymnastics show 6:00–6:30pm

Gymnastics show 6:00–6:30pm or 6:30–7:00

At the bottom of the stairs—see it?

Directional arrow!! 🙂

Another arrow!

The stage…

…and labeled audience seating area.

Afterwards we went to look at the label on the bounce house:

And then we noticed this afterwards (not sure how we missed it):

I :heart: these kids!

Snow Day 6: Flight

I had to get them out of the house to burn some energy. Thankfully it wasn’t crazy busy when they first opened.

She really catches some air when she jumps. It’s VERY impressive!

Owen catches some decent air, too!

Katie really wanted to play basketball with the kids, but they were older and weren’t interested in giving her a chance. The few times Owen gave her the ball, she immediately handed it off to someone else. 🙂

Katie’s fall really looks much worse in slo-motion.

A little bouncing. 

The place where the kids have swim lessons (and Owen had his summer activity camp) had an Open House today so people could swim and bounce for free to test it out. The kids have been asking to bounce, so we thought it would be a fun thing today. Owen loved it, but Katie was pretty much a mess. There were A TON of kids there (including a lot of rambunctious and NOT well-behaved ones which made everything worse) and she had a fit on every bounce house because there were “too many people” — except it was mostly her fault because unless she was the only one on the ladder, she would stop wherever she was and then as the kids would try to get past her and she’d get upset (and if she’d just have kept going up the ladder, they would have gone up behind her and things would have been just fine). So…we didn’t stay quite as long as we anticipated.

Walking and watching

Katie loves to bounce in the bounce house…except she wants you to watch her. 🙂 So whenever I walk on the treadmill, she bounces. She’s actually a riot to watch—with jumps and kicks and tossing big soft things around. Tonight she had to run and get her bear so they could jump together. 

  

Afterward, heading upstairs:
Me: Katie, you did awesome in there!
Katie: I know, I had awesome kicks!

Getting right into things!

Owen wanted to open his presents as soon as we got home…and Katie really wanted to help. She had a hard time accepting that these were OWEN’S PRESENTS and there were none for her. But he’s a nice brother so he let her help on a few.

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Then we took a little break so I could go walk on the treadmill and they could play on the bounce house…and also so Owen wouldn’t blow through all his gifts in the first day!

Afterwards, I noticed Owen was wearing a new Minion #selfie shirt and I asked if he knew what a selfie was. He said no, so we took this picture:

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And then he grabbed my phone and took this:

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Back to the gifts! 🙂

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Katie’s 3rd Birthday Party!

Daddy and Owen went to pick up the cupcake cake and the pizza before the party!

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We surprised the kids with a bounce house borrowed from friends!

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Owen testing out the Frozen stick-on earrings!

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Everyone had a good time and the bounce house was a success!! I’m losing my mind, though—I didn’t take a picture of the decorated table OR the food table! 🙂

Fun with Atlanta friends!

We stopped to see our good friends in Atlanta. It was actually Bodi’s 6th birthday weekend, so they had a bounce house set up for the party the next day and the kids had fun in that! (It was also a Ninja Turtle-themed party, so that’s what the masks and weapons are for.)

But first, the boys about 4.5 years ago (November 2010):

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And today…

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Trader Joe’s, fish, pizza, escalators, and bouncing!

Tom wanted to go to a fish store to see what they had—and of course the kids wanted to go…so we all went! On the way there, we saw a Trader Joe’s (which we hadn’t been to here yet) so we stopped to pick up a few things. I tried to get Owen to push the kid-sized cart and he was having NONE of it and turned into a grouch. Fine. So then we hit the fish store and the kids loved that but then it was almost lunch time so I searched Yelp for something close by…and we ended up at a really yummy pizza place at the Springfield Mall! Well, then since we were at the mall, we decided to check it out (we hadn’t been there yet, either). And that’s when Owen discovered the escalators. Well, he had been on them before but this time he LOVED them. And he’s old enough now that he will go on them without us…which he did. A few times. 🙂

Katie wasn’t too sure and held daddy’s hand pretty tight.

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This was Owen’s third and fourth trip around the escalators. Like mother, like son…I remember doing the same thing with my cousins Lisa and Lori (though at a little bit older age) at the Saginaw Mall! 🙂

And then as we were headed to a store I wanted to briefly look in…we ran across a bouncy place. YES. IN THE MALL. So in we went…and let the kids run wild for 30 minutes! (Contrary to what you see in the pictures, there were a bunch of other kids there!)

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As a last special thing…on our way out, we stopped to get frozen yogurt!

Bounce bounce!

We went over to Mitchell’s for Virginia’s birthday and the kids loved the trampoline!

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Caught in mid-air:

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Daddy does the bouncing:

Katie saw this bike and wanted it and made a beeline for it. Of course she couldn’t reach the pedals but she had fun sitting on it and being pushed in it.

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Both kids had A BLAST running around the big yard and getting on and off and on and off the trampoline. Virginia held Katie while they bounced and I think she liked that the best!

The kids got to stay up WAY past their bedtime because they were having SO much fun (and because we were visiting)…

Jumping Birthday Party

We had a birthday party for one of our best friend’s kids at the bounce house place today.

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Being goofy on the bounce house:

How she eats pizza:

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And how she eats a cupcake:

Around the time we wanted to leave, we couldn’t find Owen anywhere. Tom and I each took a turn looking (and there’s only so much you can see without actually going into the bounce houses yourself) and neither of us could find him in the throng of kids. Turns out, he was in the under four area playing with blocks. Yep, it was time to leave! But a great time was has by both kids!

Happy 5th birthday, Owen!

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We had Owen’s 5th birthday party at one of the local gymnastics places. We invited his entire class (16 kids) as well as our friends. Half of his class RSVPed (of which two asked to bring other siblings, which was fine) and I was annoyed but honestly pretty impressed that we got a 50% response rate. However, of those eight that RSVPed, four didn’t show…two of which were the ones that asked to bring extra kids. 😐 So that cost me extra because I opted to go with the 25+ kids plan (which allowed for another employee to be scheduled) because we were right on the line with RSVPs and I figured we’d likely get some that would show up without having RSVPed. So we ended up with 15 kids total instead of 23. Oh well, it’s only money, right? And Owen had fun so that’s what matters, right? But he did have fun so it’s all good!

Ursula made the awesome Ninjago cake!

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When I called Owen over to see it (he was out playing) he said “It’s Jay!” (Of course, he was right, Jay is the blue ninja.)

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Owen with two of his classmates, Tanner and Braxton (who I’ve posted pics of before). You see that Owen really isn’t the same size as the rest of his class. 🙂

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Katie having fun running around:

Katie was very interested in what was going on in the bounce house—but we put her in with the kids and she screamed. So she was content to just peek in for a bit.

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I showed Katie how to hang on the bar and she loved it! She’d hang and swing then drop off—over and over.

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And then she got in the bounce house because it was fairly empty:

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Back at the bar showing daddy her tricks!

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The birthday boy in the middle of the parachute!

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And here’s a 6 minute video of the parachute fun (pretty much for the grandparents). 🙂

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Each kid got to do their own thing in the middle of the parachute balloon. Owen did a spinning twist.

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A few last runs before leaving…

The last pic of our best friends for quite some time—our friend Tom is deploying next week and we’ll be moving this summer…

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As Ursula was getting the cake packed up to go, Owen saw that the head was off to the side and was VERY concerned that it wasn’t coming home and kept asking about it. We assured him Jay was coming home. Then he saw Ursula carrying it to her car (to bring to our house) and he was concerned that the cake itself wasn’t coming home at all!

Overall, it was a great party for Owen’s first REAL birthday party (not just something at our house with a few friends or family). 🙂

Mystery Trip #6

First we had the beach with Gramma Jean. Second we did the playground. Third we did a movie. Fourth we did a different playground. Fifth was photos with Santa at the mall. I think that brings us to number six (though I should ask Owen—he’d know for sure!)—Jump In Jax, an indoor bounce arena. We met friends there for a play date and he was off like a shot. Luckily he takes care of himself because I have to stay near Katie to keep her corralled in the under 4 area.

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Then I tried to at least get one picture of Owen. 🙂

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I also had to have a little talk with Owen… He kept coming back to play in the toddler area with the blocks. Seriously? The kid I have to tell at least three times a day to stop jumping on the couch isn’t jumping on the bouncy things? I told him it’s okay for a few minutes—if he wants to come play with Katie—but otherwise he should be BOUNCING. We’ll see what happens the next time. 🙂

Birthday Party

One of the playgroup kids had a birthday today. When telling Owen what house it was at, I told him “where you had cake and there was a waterside.” So we get there and as we walk in the front door, you can see straight through to the back yard where they have a bounce house set up. Owen was EXCITED. Before I know it, he’s in front of me pulling his shirt off and asking if he can be naked—I’m guessing he thought it was a water slide! I explained it was just a bouncy house (NOT a pool!) and he didn’t need to be naked. 🙂 Thankfully he was still excited!

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A bouncy good time!

We decided to give the bounce place another try since some of the moms were going. Owen HATED it before but that was two years ago so I was willing to try it. I explained it would be like the big water slides but without water. He seemed interested so I kept my fingers crossed.

We walked in and once he saw everything, he was almost vibrating with excitement! YAY!

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There was a toddler (under 4) area and Katie spent some time there…

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But she really wanted to go with the big kids!

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Playing with Owen and some other guests:

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Taking a break on Katherine’s lap:

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He’s a blur!

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