She has been waiting and waiting and waiting to be old enough to climb the rock wall…so when we were there today she remembered and asked to do it. Of course I said yes. Unfortunately she didn’t make it too far before she got scared and wanted down. Baby steps.
Buses always run late the first few days and today was no exception. But we were all there waiting on time…in the sun…and it was hot…so at about 30 minutes I sent Owen home to get me a celebratory drink! It really hit the spot!
Today Owen had his first orthodontic appointment—getting his mouth scanned for many thousands of pictures of his teeth/mouth to be stitched together so he doesn’t need impressions! Technology is awesome.
They also put on the two rubber band spacers to prepare for the expander.
We were supposed to meet friends at Six Flags water park (Hurricane Harbor) after the play date. Let’s just say things didn’t go quite as planned and I didn’t have the fun time I expected.
My friend eventually made it and we headed to the wave pool…which was an even bigger mess of humanity with less place to sit. And by this time we had three adults and eight kids. We tried to sneak into the new VIP section (since it was practically empty) but got called out within minutes.
The kids loved the wave pool and I let them swim for about half an hour but I was long done and we past rest to get the hell out of there. I have zero desire to go back and told the kids I hoped they entire it because we were going back. (And I was even looking forward to the lazy river.)
Papa has a slingshot to scare the geese away. The kids found out and both had a blast with it.
While Katie was fishing, Owen went out in a kayak with Grannie!
He did really really well and had a blast!
Then of course Katie wanted to go. We told her next year she could go by herself but this year she had to sit with Grannie.
We let Katie have a sleepover with Sophia for her birthday—I think it was the first “real” (non-family) for both. Both girls had a ball. We only had to tell them to quiet down once and I think there were both out by 10:30.
Katie picked bundtinis for her cake:
And walking her home in the morning!
I saw this super cool colored hair wax advertised online and went directly to Amazon to buy it. My hair has been fading and Katie has wanted more color than the pink shampoo I have been using on her. And this was very temporary—as in comes out in one wash. So we tried it! I did it Live on Facebook…which the kids thought was great fun (they are always intrigued when I do my Live LipSense demos so they liked being part of a video).
Here are our results… The kids loved it! Owen’s was much easier as it’s shorter, thicker, and much heartier. Katie’s was a mess because it is so fine and snarls easily (I’ll have to try hers later when it’s wet). But as something fun to do? I highly recommend it.
We’ve known for a while that Katie was very close to being able to ride without her training wheels so we decided that today was the day. She whined a lot at first but she did it! (There was actually a hell of a lot of whining and drama involved. Tom has much more patience with her than I did. #teamwork)
Big brother helping teach her how to get started on her own without a push from daddy.
She wanted to be the line leader.
We went around the same lake path three times. At one point, there is a fairly decent downhill section which she did not want to ride down because she was scared—and there was LOTS of drama—so, she walked it down the first time. We told her that if she managed to ride down the whole thing she would get a new bike and that would be her birthday present. On the second time around she walked down part of the way and then rode the rest of the way. And the third time around, I was riding next to her and she was doing really well and as soon as she reached the bottom she said matter-of-factly “I get my bike now” and off she went.
Katie really loves her new scooter and we went in half on one for Owen after he tried his friend’s scooter and liked it.
Why not wear a mask?
Amazingly, they were entranced. It’s always a crap shoot with older movies.
I had been up but in my room. I was impressed that the kids were being quiet. I went out and… Katie was so in bed (but awake). I asked where Owen was she she didn’t know.
I found him:
WHAT?! This kid never sleeps in. Maybe MAYBE until 7, but 9?!
Yeah, turns out he had been up earlier—he had been reading downstairs and even had breakfast!—but went back to bed!
And he had a guest in his room because my door had been shut!
She was a hot mess when it happened—she was afraid it was going to bleed like a bloody nose. I literally had to hold her and have her breathe deeply to calm down. But then she was happy!!
Getting her tooth pillow ready!
Katie had been wanting us to come eat lunch with her all year but it’s harder to do here because the school wants 24-hour notice!! Plus Tom is rarely off during the day—and if he is, it’s last-minute. But since he was going to be off for Owen’s Meet the Principal, we decided to kill two birds with one stone. I made sure to ask the teacher over a week in advance and she said she’d let the office know.
Fast forward to walking in and…we were not on the approved lunch list. WHAT?! Let’s just say it was a tense few minutes as the front office staff conferred with the principal to see if we could come in. They even called Katie’s teacher to confirm and she obviously told them yes and she had forgotten to forward my email. The assistant principal eventually came out and told us that our daughter shouldn’t be punished because the adults couldn’t get their crap together… So then it was off to the lunchroom with 100 kindergartners. YIKES!
When Katie saw us walk in she got all shy and red-faced! It took her a minute to get excited about us being there.
She has wanted blue lips ever since she saw I got blue LipSense. Today was finally the day and she LOVED it!
Well, he took part in a youth football league practice session at Northwestern University with the coaches of the league.
He has never played football before so it was totally new but he did really well. He wasn’t shy at all with the whole field of kids and immediately went up to them and started playing.
Post-football dinner with Dad.
I thought she might complain about having to write her name 25 times but she didn’t make one peep. 🙂 There was other drama of course, but writing her name went well.
We didn’t even know this place existed until a few weeks ago, so I found discount tickets and off we went! It wasn’t quite as exciting as I’d hoped it would be (and one of the rides was shut down) but the kids had a really good time so that’s all that matters!
His name is Thomas and apparently he’s one of four who love her and want to take her out to eat and who chase her. Hoo boy.
I had bought Katie some light pink shampoo at the same time I bought my dark blue shampoo, and I had Tom bring it back with him so we could do Katie’s hair. And boy was she excited!
Grayling has a beauty school where my mom gets her hair permed and cut so I went earlier this week for a blow out (it’s a treat for me since I suck at it—plus it was the first wash post-color and I thought why not let someone else deal with it?). Then I decided since everything was so cheap, I’d take Katie for her first basic manicure to see how she did (before I drop $$$ on a real manicure or pedicure). She was all about it. 🙂
Owen needed a haircut, too. He had decided to get the same cut as Brian Lewerke, an MSU Spartan player.
They’re a bit behind—I started at age 3! They were both excited to sit down and do it. Gramma gave them a quick lesson on how to hold the egg and kistka, but unfortunately both of them forgot and ended up grabbing the hot metal end…which is why you see tears on some of Katie’s close up pics. They both had fun and enjoyed doing two eggs—I was only going to watch but then couldn’t help myself and had to jump in and “do a quick egg” which of course turned into more time than I planned and I ended up sitting there finishing mine while the kids were done and outside playing. 🙂 (Note: The eggs are done but are still at Gramma’s house being varnished so the finished product photo will come later.)
I had some old eyeshadows I was going to toss but decided to let Katie have them instead. And boy did she have fun. Owen even got into the game…
As you can see there is no such thing as moderation. Six layers later: “Mom, I’m part Anna and part cat!”
And then Sophia came down and got involved.
And daddy even for roped in.
They’ve had tickets for months and have been getting more and more excited… Unfortunately it was coooold and required many layers but that didn’t hamper the excitement. 🙂
It was an exciting game, but unfortunately the outcome was an MSU loss in triple overtime… They ended their outing at Culver’s for dinner.
The primary classes had a costume parade. Of course it was freezing and Katie’s class was the very last one!
I thought she was just going to make up a story to go with the pictures but she was actually reading it! Of course she couldn’t read it all but she did pretty well.
I volunteered to help with Pumpkin Day in Katie’s classroom. I had no idea what would be involved but then I got the email saying we’d be carving pumpkins so bring a knife and bowl if we could. Hoo boy—I hadn’t carved a pumpkin in years…
The classroom was a bit insane (I don’t know how she does it without an assistant—we were spoiled with Owen’s class having one) but overall it went well. There were four moms total so we each had a group of six. We had to measure the pumpkin with blocks and chain lengths, write what the pumpkin felt and smelled like, weigh the pumpkin, see if it sank or floated…and then design and carve the pumpkin. In an hour.
As you can imagine it was pretty much like herding cats. It started with the teacher switching Katie’s seat with someone so we could be at the same table…and the kid completely lost his shit and was a crying hot mess because “he wanted his seat.” Really, kid? You lose it over moving seats for an hour? And then some kids couldn’t pay attention for more than three seconds. One had no idea how to draw an H (“we haven’t done that letter yet”). A few wrote their numbers backwards (71 for 17) but fixed it after I told them—except one kid who literally kept writing it 71 no matter how many times I told him it was 1-7 not 7-1. One kid wrote all his letters on top of one another. You get the idea. I’m not bragging when I say that Katie seemed among the most advanced in her group (able to pay attention, answer questions, write her letters and numbers correctly, and follow instructions).
This is a snapshot of mass chaos before we even started.
I didn’t take many pictures because I was very involved in every step of the way—plus I didn’t have pockets, remember.
Katie was the badge collector.
And then it was time to go home so Katie got to ride home with me. She had a good time and was happy I came.
We surprised the kids with a mini road trip to the Jelly Belly factory which is right up the road…And also surprised them with who was also there!
Getting ready for a train ride around the factory floor. It’s really just a warehouse.
Since it is a working factory we had to wear hats—they are very cheap plus I have a big head so it didn’t last long…but I had to keep it on. 😆
We were able to try whatever flavors we wanted. I tried margarita and pancakes and maple syrup. They were both tasty.
We spent about $50 on stupid jelly beans but we had fun. And I can honestly say I don’t need to buy Jelly Belly fudge again (it’s in the freezer so others can try it). 🙂
Illinois is weird and requires kids to have full dental and vision exams… Both kids checked out fine with 20/20 eyesight though each had a tiny bit of astigmatism that wasn’t worrying.
