Katie did this again!
Category Archives: Kids
Katie’s first blood draw!
She went in for a possible UTI (it was negative) but while we were there discussed her frequent nose bleeds and the doc said we might as well get her tested for blood clotting disorders as the first step… She did great! That test was negative, too.
Aaaand they’re with Grannie!
Tom took the kids to the airport this morning for their spring break flight to Florida! This was their first trip flying alone, though they had a flight attendant babysitter (for an additional fee, of course).
They had a few snafus (Owen forgot his meds so they had to turn around and then it took forever to get to the gate due to the clueless United employee helping them) but they made it.
Cirque du Soleil — Crystal
Another Vettix event!
Katie & Ivy
Katie’s coliseum
It was a group project for social studies and her group won second place out of all the classes!
Wait what?
They’re getting along?
Titanic!
We went to a Titanic exhibit today! It was neat to see reproductions of things (dinnerware, rooms, grand stairwell, etc.) as well as a few actual pieces. It was a little crowded so I didn’t take many pictures.
Different menus for different classes:
And we got to walk along the first class promenade:
At the beginning we all got a card detailing the life of a passenger. You find out at the end of the exhibit if your passengers survived—and all four of us did (which I thought was crazy)!
Then it was lunch at The Cheesecake Factory and then home.
OMG Ivy really?!
Band concert!
Can you find Owen?
Katie’s got braces!
She is less thrilled than she looks.
More pup cups!
Plus this is what we’d look like with three Bostons!
Happy 2nd birthday, Olive!
She got a homemade pup cup!
Katie helped me organize this hot mess!
My bathroom closet desperately needed attention and Katie likes organizing so I had her help me. I got rid of a bunch and reorganized and now my closet is functional again.
She bought her own iPad!
She had an old one that was handed down to her but it was too old to do what she wanted so we told her she could buy a new one if she had the money. She thought they were much more expensive than it was, so she actually had most of the money for it! She used Christmas money from Gramma Jean (which I had made her save) and found a bunch of money stashed in multiple places. Of course she didn’t want to do chores to earn anything (because that’s not fun) so we had some discussions. But she was able to get it pretty quickly.
Happy 15th birthday, Owen!
I think this is the first birthday we’ve been apart and I couldn’t get a picture, so we’re throwing it back to your first birthday…and last week!
10 years ago today
Babysitting Jules
A sushi jazz night!
Pre-concert dinner at Kura Revolving Sushi Bar! I’ve always wanted to do one of these and we definitely had fun! Our drinks were even delivered via robot!
Amazing seats (third row!) for Branford Marsalis at North Shore Center for Performing Arts. Thank you Vettix!
Movie night
Cheering at a college game!
The cheer team was invited to cheer at halftime of the women’s CLC game! They did a good job!
Just chillin’
Schwalm Christmas 2023
A Christmas surprise!
Since we missed going to Grayling for Christmas since Katie had Covid, we surprised them in Lansing for the Schwalm Christmas! We decided at about 10am that we could make it…and walked in to Beth and Jim’s as they were finishing dinner! SURPRISE!
Bah humbug.
Katie tested positive for Covid (her second time!)—she even took two tests. I blame the cesspool of middle school. Tom and I are as boosted as we can be so fingers crossed we don’t get it.
She was super upset and crying when we got the results—she really wanted to go to Gramma’s house. I’m just glad we decided to test her at all because we thought it was just a cold.
This just makes me smile.
How does this always happen?
You know how I told you how Owen always manages to be behind something at a concert? The stage was empty when I got there. I had my pick of pretty much any seat in the auditorium. And this still happens.
We can never see him well
Owen had a jazz concert tonight. We could barely see him from our seats because he was behind a music stand. We can’t even see him on the photo that was published on Facebook.
Can you spot him?
That said, they sounded great and he loves every minute of it!
It took three tries
Here we go again.
Look what I found on Katie’s phone…
A YouTube account.
Sigh.
I guess I technically knew about it because I’d heard her and Owen talking about posting things and about how many views they had (I think they were having a competition). But long story short, there more videos on her account than I’d thought — not quite as bad as her TikTok account but still some things I didn’t like — so we had a rational discussion. She could keep the account but had to change her username and delete some of the videos.
I’m hoping that this will give her enough room to feel older without being dangerous.
Time will tell.