This is a lot of what she does while Owen practices (and the other team doesn’t need their goal):
Category Archives: Katie
She was just too cute this morning in her new shorts.
Getting what she gives!
She loves brushing my hair and always asks me to do so. I rarely let her because when it’s curly, it’s painful for her to do so. Today I was babysitting for a friend and he wanted to brush her hair!! And she didn’t like it because he was pulling her hair. I enjoyed explaining to her that’s why I say no when she asks me.
When you go to the bus stop forgetting Katie put a tiara on your head.
I may or may not have fought (and won!) my first ever Póke Gym.
I may or may not have fought (and won!) my first ever Póke Gym, thanks to the gentle prodding of a new friend Caitlin who was also fighting at the time. 🙂 It didn’t last long but I did it. Twice, even! Owen will be so proud. And yes, I may be getting slightly more hooked on this silly game. 🙂
Of course, this wasn’t planned—we just went to the “goose park” (as Katie likes to call it) to play at the playground. There happened to be a Póke Stop right there so that was convenient to grab balls and potions and such while the kids played. Then we walked down to the marina (the geese!) and there was a gym there… After Caitlin assured me I couldn’t possibly hurt anything in Owen’s account or kill his characters, I agreed to fight the gym. I didn’t know what I was doing, but she said she didn’t, either, and nothing bad would happen. Okay, then… And she was right. We had enough potions to heal everything and it was kinda fun. But I did have to laugh knowing that Owen would totally know which Pókemon to use to fight the best and I was just pointing and poking without any knowledge whatsoever. Good times.
Two family selfies
As we headed off for Owen’s Lego build, we tried two selfies. Sometimes they’re awesome, sometimes they’re just okay. Today was just okay. 🙂
First day off the bus as a 2nd grader!
Katie was so excited to be waiting for him. As soon as she saw him she was yelling “Owen!! Owen!! OWEN!!”
He did say hi to her…
And then he saw daddy and bypassed her without a second thought. 🙂
Katie had wanted to put on her matching shirt for him (if you recall, she had her ballerina skirt on this morning).
Sittin’ on burgers!
After the Lego build, it was off to Red Robin for dinner!
Daddy and Katie shenanigans
Daddy came home early today and that usually means some shenanigans.
A bunch of Then & Nows
Even with the amount of pictures I take, I’m still surprised when I have almost identical shots—without posing—that will work for Then & Now collages.
Seriously…we are cuddling on the couch and I’m scrolling through Timehop and see the pic on the left. So of course we have to do a Then & Now!! I mean really, what are the chances that we would be cuddling on the couch? It rarely happens. But it did. 🙂
And I took the tongues-sticking-out photo before I scrolled through and found the old one.
Last one: Results courtesy of Naturally Slim!
When she asks to cuddle, how can I refuse?
Katie wanted to take some pictures…
It kinda looks like I’m strangling Maggie but I promise I wasn’t. 🙂
On her way to ballet!
We had to take a picture like me and Owen did as we were on our way to her first real ballet class. She’s taking ballet instead of gymnastics now.
Owen’s first day of second grade!
A few test shots with the camera:
Owen was super excited about school. And his new Pokémon shirt and socks. 🙂
It was brighter than it looked!
He had to take some Pokémon cards with him…
There were only two kids at the bus stop this morning instead of the normal 15 or so!? I figured some were being driven (first day and all)…but turns out the bus was early! The published time for our stop is 8:48 and he was pulling away at 8:44! I talked to a neighbor later and she had to chase down the bus…and another posted they missed the bus. So hopefully they get things straightened out.
I may end up redoing this one because I’m anal and I didn’t take the right photo for this—there wasn’t enough space on the side for the text box so I just covered up Katie and it’s touching him and makes me a bit twitchy. 🙂
What’s a birthday celebration without a burnt cake, sloppy joes on the ceiling, and a toddler tantrum/early bedtime?
For a special treat, I decided to make a Tres Leches cake for Tom’s cake—I’d never made one before but it didn’t seem too hard and it was a Pioneer Woman recipe so you know it’s fairly easy and should be delicious. I’m talking from scratch here, people. Like whipping egg whites and making my own whipped cream. I set the cake timer for the minimum stated time…and it was obviously too long and the edges were burnt. GRRR. I always set the timer for 10 minutes EARLIER than the minimum just in case but not today. I trimmed them off and hoped for the best.
One of Tom’s favorite meals is sloppy joes so that was an easy dinner as well—and they were delicious. After dinner I got out the cake and poor Tom lit his own candle. 🙂
And then I excitedly tried the cake and MEH—it was nothing special. I think the cake was just too dry from being overcooked and I had only put the suggested two cups of liquid into the cake when I should have tried for more because of it being overcooked. Oh well. Tom liked it and the kids loved it but now I want to make it again and try for better!
So then we were clearing off the table and loading the dishwasher…when suddenly Tom trips and I see something flying through the air. WHAT THE…?! Turns out, it was sloppy joes. Yes, sloppy joe meat was all over the place. Tom’s flip flop caught on the edge of the gel floor mat and he tripped. The dishwasher door was fully open so he was violently trying not to fall into that so while trying to catch himself, he slammed his hand down on the kitchen island/stove…RIGHT on the spoon that was still in the sloppy joes on the stove…which sent sloppy joes catapulting across the kitchen and then, as Owen noticed minutes later…on the ceiling as well! Keep in mind we have like 10′ ceilings in the kitchen.
Maggie cleaned up all the chunks off the floor and I wiped up after her while Tom got out the ladder and wiped down the ceiling. Then it was a matter of looking around and discovering all the tomato sauce speckles all over the place…on the cake, on the stove, on the refrigerator, on the wall… Hoo boy. I’m sure we’ll be discovering them for days to come.
Of course, I posted about it on Facebook…and I love our friends:
So we got that cleaned up and then it was time for the kids to Skype with Uncle Rob (which had been temporarily postponed to clean up the mess). Well, Owen asked if they could put on their Halloween costumes to show Uncle Rob. GRRR. A simple request, right? Except they’d both been asking me ALL DAMN DAY to wear their costumes and I had already told them at least four times that I’d let them wear them before Halloween…just not today. So of course I was annoyed but agreed. Well, Katie had taken hers off like a kid does so it was completely inside out. She knows how to fix it, but she didn’t want to. I was still busy in the kitchen so was talking her through it—but it wasn’t good enough for her. She actually had it about 95% of the way fixed when she started stomping her feet at me. That’s never the answer, so she got a warning that she would be going to bed if she continued. She continued. So she got taken up to bed and she was a HOT MESS. (She really needed an early night—she hadn’t caught up from the late night when we had friends over for dinner plus being at the pool for three hours…)
So…HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOM! Burnt and dry cake, a kitchen mess, and a tantrumy toddler. What better way to celebrate, right? :heart:
Last day at the pool and saying goodbye to the lifeguards!
Labor Day has become a somewhat sad day at our house because it’s the last day the community pool is open. The kids love eating down there, but it’s bittersweet because we know the hot weather will continue and there will be no fun escape! Unfortunately, Tom wasn’t feeling that great, so he only lasted about five minutes before he went home.
Then I gave Owen the camera…
Katie found a mermaid tail and was in heaven!
Her second bag of chips!
Then one of the lifeguards came over and asked if he could take a picture with the kids at breaktime. Of course! What a sweetie. He would play football with Owen in the pool, always said hi to Katie, and always knew who we were. I emailed them to him right from the pool (I love technology).
They picked their Halloween costumes!
Pokémon all around! Katie is Pikachu and Owen is a Squirtle.
Owen: I love my little Pikachu!
Post-summer hiatus Saturday Night Dinner
After a summer hiatus, we had a back-to-school/Tom’s birthday Saturday Night Dinner!
Waiting for guests to arrive:
Putting together the new picnic table at the last minute:
Our guests!
Putting away the table:
Putting the kids to bed:
Last time at the spray park!
We only went twice this summer—and today was the only time Owen got to go! Where did this summer go?! (Oh yeah, I was lazy and just always took them to our pool instead of driving a 45-minute round trip.) And Tom was home early today so he went with us! Unfortunately it was a bit chilly and the kids were cold after about a half hour.
Please tell me fall weather is here!
The weather was GORGEOUS this morning—a perfect 66°—so I told the kids we were going for a little walk. We hatched an egg, gathered some Poké balls, caught some Pokémon, and played at the playground.
They actually played well together today. 🙂
Back To School Night 2016
So, as you know, Owen was OVER THE MOON about being assigned to a classroom on the second floor at William Halley ES—and all the thanks go to Principal Chianetta for making it happen! So when we actually got to his classroom, he was super excited and almost immediately went to look out the window!
He was his typical shy self at first but eventually let me take a picture with his new teacher, Ms. VanDerhoff.
Unfortunately, none of his six or so close friends (kids that we know well) are in his class but it turns out our next door neighbor is! (This is her first year at Halley—she went to private kindergarten.) And of course he knows lots of the kids because he knows everyone. 🙂
We had some extra time before the teacher’s presentation so I took Katie down to see her classrooms and find out who her teacher was. We hoped to have Miss Heather again because we LOVED her but knew it wasn’t guaranteed. As soon as Miss Heather saw Katie, she grabbed her and gave her a huge hug…then told me that Katie was being moved to the older room since she’s now four and then walked us over to meet the new teacher. You could see that Katie was a bit upset but the good news is that the assistant from Katie’s old room moved to the new room! So she has Miss Anne (our friend!) in her room. Yay! The teacher seemed very nice and I know we’ll get to know her better and everything will be okay. Eventually Katie came around to being in a different classroom.
Then it was back up to Owen’s classroom where we got the basic rundown of his classroom. The biggest change that I could see is there’s no bathroom in the room!
Then it was outside to check out the new playground equipment…
And both kids are now excited to get back to school. Yay!
The magic of Harry Potter
So apparently I’m not as big of a Harry Potter fan as I thought I was because I didn’t know/realize/remember that September 1 is the day Hogwarts students go back to school. Until Katie had already picked that movie to watch and I was reading Facebook and saw a post about how today was the day…AND how “25 Years ago today Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger met for the first time on Hogwarts Express.”
First, 25 years? Egads.
Second, why did Katie pick that movie out of all the movies we have? I commented as much on Facebook and a friend said “Magic is mysterious like that.” 🙂
Third? That poor cat.
Fourth? Truth be told, I never get tired of watching Harry Potter.
Costco Kids
Lately she’s wanted to take Lambie and her purse wherever we go.
And we thought our bear was big! This one is about four times the size—and $180!
Look what we found at Target!
Last week when we were here and saw the ball being repainted, we wondered if it was going to be a Pokémon ball…and today we got our answer!
After effects of a garlic bread Parmesan cheese bagel.
Pirate’s Cove, Take 2, NO POOP!
We convinced Tom to take the day off work to come play with us!! We were there right when they opened, so I tried to take a bunch of pictures quick before the background was overrun with people!
Owen wasn’t thrilled with stopping to get his picture taken!
I even went down the slide!
A Pokémon gym was right at the entrance, so Tom took Owen over to battle!
I didn’t have my camera with me when we were closer, so this is a quick pic from the other side of the park. I even went down the red slide! (I have to admit, I was actually a little nervous at the top—I haven’t been on a slide in a long time—but it was fun!) We never did get Katie to go on it, which is a bummer because I know she would have loved it! (As it was, I had to practically BRIBE her to go down the little blue slide above—she wanted NO part of it. But once she did it, she loved it!)
So we had a nice, relaxing day…and best of all, there were no poop incidents!!
It was great fun…until someone pooped in the pool. Twice.
So earlier this summer I bought three afternoon tickets for Pirate’s Cove Water Park from a deal site—and we finally got around to using them today (which we had to since they close on Labor Day!).
So we get there at 3, get the bag unpacked, get in the pool, and within 15 minutes, it was announced that everyone had to exit the main pool and it would reopen in one hour. (They didn’t say it was poop, but we were 99% sure that’s what it was.)
Ugh.
The whole point of this place (for me!) is that Katie and Owen can both go in the main pool so I don’t have to be in two places at once—the big waterslides with Owen or the kiddie pool with Katie (and neither has to be bored sitting out at the other). So first we went to the kiddie pool where Katie had fun and me and Owen sat on the edge of the pool. Then Owen wanted to do the big waterslides so we went over there for a bit and sat and watched him. (Katie was tall enough but she refused to try them…even though they weren’t much different than the one she loved in Kalkaska.) Then we went back to the kiddie pool and left Owen at the slides.
The hour passes and everyone gets back in the main pool. Within, I’d say, 30 minutes, they announced the pool was closed again for 45 minutes! And this time I know it was poop because I saw a lifeguard get gloves on and reach down into the pool…and then as we were filing out, I saw little pieces of poop all over.
SERIOUSLY, PEOPLE? I know you want your little ones to have fun in the “big” pool but COME ON. Have some respect for EVERYONE ELSE. The world doesn’t revolve around YOU. 👿
So, to recap, we got there at about 3:05 and were in the pool until 3:15 and then we were in the pool from 4:15-4:45. So 45 minutes total—and they close at 6! So I told the kids to pack up, we weren’t staying, and I was asking for a refund. They were actually dealing with a few rainchecks as we walked out, so the guy didn’t even question me and handed me a voucher for three full-day passes! So instead of just an afternoon, we now had a whole day! If we wanted to try it again, that is…
Once you start something at the pool…
We often end up at the pool at the same time as our neighbors which is great because the girls like playing together. Today the dad came up with this new fun thing where he lifts them up (while they’re sitting on the floatie together) and then carries them around and splashes them down. Needless to say he had to do that for about an hour. 🙂
They didn’t mind swim lessons being postponed 30 minutes.
They ALWAYS ask to play these video games at the rec center when we go for swim lessons, but we never have time. Today, the pool chemicals were off and they postponed lessons for 30 minutes…so the kids finally had time to play!
Lunch with Aunt Beth in Fredericksburg
We needed to pick up some stuff we forgot in Michigan that Beth brought back for us…so we met in Fredericksburg for lunch! A friend who lives here recommended Castiglias and it was DELICIOUS!
