Of course as soon as I tried to get a video of her she stopped riding.
Category Archives: Katie
Our very first note from the nurse.
Katie got bonked on the nose on the playground.
Sophia before school!
Sophia comes down before school a few days a week since her brother has to get to preschool at the same time and they can’t be in two places at once. Katie thinks it’s playtime but we literally only have five minutes so I had them wait on the porch. 🙂
The baby is going to school.
Katie set up the lunchbox and baby saying they were going to school.
Daddy at the bus stop!
Since he was home, he came to surprise Katie at the bus stop! She loved it, of course!
Cat cuddles and kid cuddles
Half-time break!
Maggie loves the front yard!
She especially loves being out with us.
Sparty’s opening day means…
Our first family cuddle here!
I think he loves his ATV.
Remember me saying we wanted to try to give the kids experiences instead of stuff? Yeah, well, we also agreed that bigger things instead of lots of little junky stuff would be good, too…so we let Owen decide if he wanted to spend his birthday money to pay half of an ATV. (We had wanted to get them the power wheels but Owen is too big. A neighbor has an electric ATV that Owen loved so that’s how we got the idea.) He immediately agreed so he gave us all of his remaining birthday gift cards and still owes us about $100.
He was ABSOLUTELY GIDDY.
Unfortunately, it arrived like this so Tom had some work to do.
This is how she was playing outside before school.
The school gang.
They ride separate buses but arrive at about the same time so everyone is always at the stop together—or at least together in Stacey’s yard as we all head to our houses.
The neighborhood squad car wash.
I finally found the perfect leggings for us!
Katie’s first kindergarten work!
Sassy school outfit for day two.
Bubbles before bedtime
The besties are home again!
Just as with Owen I have to physically get Katie off the bus. The bus driver called their names over the radio/intercom and then they have to tell her their name and I have to give her my name and she checks the list. I’m assuming this will get slightly less involved as time goes on and the bus driver learns who we are.
As soon as they got off the bus they crossed the street together (holding hands).
I didn’t get much info out of her about her first day before she was asking if she could go play at Sophia’s house (yes, after she got play clothes on) so I sent over this craft project:
She did say it was fun. I told her she would have to tell us more about it later.
I’M FREE!!!
Both kids are officially at school full time!! No tears…just excitement!
Katie’s first day of Kindergarten!
This is an idea I saw somewhere and decided to do for Katie…she will wear this shirt on the first day of school until she’s a senior in high school!
BESTIES!
There are only three kids at the bus stop!
Katie is in the seat right above SCHOOL.
Doing homework
Katie’s kindergarten open house
Mrs. Valentine
The huge playground (one of three!).
Getting to check out a bus!
She went straight to the very back seat!
That’s a “bike path” on the right. The raised circular structure on the left is for a specific game (Owen’s school has a smaller one).
Back inside to check out the cafeteria (no pics) and the gym! She made a beeline to the rock wall!
Waiting for her friend…
Katie had gone to see if Sophia could come out and play but she was having quiet time but could come out in a bit. Katie decided to just sit and wait.
Last campfire before school
We wanted to have a fire with Papa and Grannie but needed some firewood so we actually found some free on NextDoor… Yay!
The kids caught a few lightning bugs (it’s in there, trust me).
After we made s’mores we got the fire going a bit crazy.
The kids finally settled down and were cuddling of their own free will.
Then they were trying to read by bug light.
Blue Man Group in Chicago!
I’ve always wanted to see Blue Man Group and when I mentioned it to Grannie she said they’d like to go, too…so it was off to Chicago!
Photos weren’t allowed during the show so this is all I got beforehand.
The kids absolutely loved it and they immediately asked if they could see it again. 🙂
Edited to add some googled pics of what we saw:
Crazy woman driver!
She loves her new power wheels! She was chasing Papa around and then driving crazy circles around the yard.
Happy 16th Anniversary!
Waiting for Tom to get home and enjoying the weather on the front porch.
Of course we had to start with a traditional anniversary selfie. 🙂
Our dinner of choice this year was…sushi! This was called the Willis Tower and had layers of crab salad, sushi rice, avocado, spicy tuna, and a few sauces. You ate it with a spoon!
We couldn’t decide between three rolls so let the waiter choose for us. Why yes, that IS gold leaf on there (right).
We wanted dessert and were trying to decide where to go. Our waiter, knowing it was our anniversary, said he’d give us a mochi on the house. We’d never had it, but were game to try it—all we knew is that it would be strawberry flavor. This is what came out: it was strawberry ice cream on the inside. It was tasty but not quite what we had in mind. (I Googled later and learned that mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of mochigome, a short-grain japonica glutinous rice. The rice is pounded into paste and molded into the desired shape.)
So we headed toward home and somehow ended up at The Chocolate Sanctuary where we both indulged in our own desserts! (We rarely get dessert and when we do it’s shared between all for of us.)
Tom had Pecan Bourbon Crème Brulé (Jim Beam infused crème brulée with toasted pecans, topped with toasted meringue and Sanctuary caramel) and I had S’mores Dark Chocolate (Dark chocolate flourless cake with toasted meringue, cocoa graham cracker sable, cocoa graham crumble, Sanctuary spiced caramel, and cocoa-candied bacon).
We may also have let it known it was our anniversary (the couple across from us was celebrating their 38th!) so we may have also indulged in free champagne and raspberry chocolates. 💕
And then this was waiting for us when we got home. (Well, they actually weren’t quite finished when we walked in so we were forcefully instructed to go wait upstairs!)
The kids helped Grannie make rice krispie treats (decorated with our cake topper!) and they drew and colored a sign. They were so excited to surprise us.
It’s kind of hard to see, but they drew and colored lots of wedding-related things (my ring and flowers, the train, the cake, the horse and carriage) as well as some of our favorite things (Petoskey stone, a saw, dolphins). We loved it! And then of course we had to have a bite of still-warm rice krispie bars!!
It was a good day. 🙂
Aquatic Center Fundraiser
Papa and Grannie took the kids to the local aquatic center for a school fundraiser while Tom and I went out for our anniversary. I sent them with our waterproof camera!
Sibling play time
She was trying to brush his hair and he was having none of it. So she just sat on him.
After which this ensued.
