The kids have State testing coming up and these are some of the signs in the hallways. I love it.
And another random sign:
Category Archives: Owen
Kidisms 46
We were out and about and Katie saw the Menards sign and asked if we were going to Menards.
Tom: Yes, to save big money. [That’s their jingle.]
Katie: We don’t have big money.
Us, laughing: That’s true.
Katie: We have little money.
Dee, to Katie: What do you want to be when you grow up if you’re going to help animals since you like them so much?
Katie: I will help them as long as they don’t poop on me…
Me: Owen, go find your cleats for soccer practice tomorrow.
Owen: I don’t know where they are.
Me: That’s why I said to go find them.
Owen, whining: BUT I DON’T KNOW WHERE THEY ARE!
Me: SO GO LOOK.
Owen, comes back with a shoe: Here. But I only found one.
Me: /smdh [shake my damn head]
Owen reading “Dog Man” to Maggie. 💗
Owen said he wanted to read to Maggie so he thought she’d like “Dog Man.” 🙂
Owen made new friends!
We have new neighbors moving in across the street but they haven’t officially moved in yet—and we haven’t even met them. But today I looked out and saw two boys about Owen’s age playing catch. So I told him he should go over and introduce himself. He was so excited he couldn’t get out of the house fast enough, saying “I feel really good about this!” 🙂
Of course I spied from the living room. 🙂
He ended up playing with them for hours and they were back and forth between yards and Katie even got involved for a little bit.
Owen reported their names, that they are in 4th and 5th grades, they will be moving in this summer, and they also have one more younger brother in 2nd grade.
It was great to see him so excited!
Katie’s first official Lego build!
The official Lego rules state that you have to be six years old so we’ve been playing by the rules…but at the last build they asked why she wasn’t building and we said because she wasn’t six yet. They told us they don’t care and to just sign her up. YAY!
Of course Owen was done in a few minutes, but she kept at it and did it with barely any help!
Easter Bunnies
The good thing about the kids getting older? I don’t feel the need to be up at 6:30am with them to look for eggs! (Tom was up, though–he’s always up!) I heard them excitedly searching for and finding them, then rolled over and went back to sleep for a bit. When I did get up, I made them pose with their because of course. 🙂
This is part of what it looks like while I’m trying to take them:
And then moments later they got their Easter treat: xbox time!
This is how they usually end up during a movie.
Two climbing monkeys!
I’m proud of both of them. He would never have climbed that high before last year. And at Katie’s age? No way. Yet there they both are!
We met friends for a play date and the playground was wet from overnight rain so Katie was running around drying things off (I planned ahead and had towels in the car). Owen went to the top of a two-story slide and said “It’s dry up here” as he started down…before I could warn him to look at the bottom of the slide. The next thing you saw was his legs and a huge gush of water spraying out of the slide. Maybe next time he’ll learn! He didn’t let his wet butt stop him from playing, though!
Walking home from a battle.
Owen was at a playdate and the mom sent me this pic. Yep, that’s my boy.
A weekend with Uncle Rob and Miss Dee!
They came to visit us for the first time and to take the kids out for their Christmas presents—they had given them certificates for dinner and a movie!!
They also decided to take them bowling on base! The kids had a blast (they also got to play some video games and air hockey plus have lunch at McDonald’s).
On Saturday Katie monopolized Miss Dee doing puzzles and playing kitchen. That afternoon they went to a movie then to Unos for pizza!
Sunday we went out for breakfast and then it was time to say goodbye.
The kids finally broke me.
When I imagined being a parent, I never thought I’d have to argue every damn morning about whether the kids had to wear a coat. Owen thinks a sweatshirt is fine. I mean, he stuck his hand outside and it wasn’t cold so that proves he doesn’t need a coat, right? When it’s windy and he has to stand at the bus stop for five minutes. 🤦🏻♀️
By the end of the day I’d actually decided that it was up to them to decide what to wear. I told them I wouldn’t care if they were cold, we would not come home to get a coat/hat/gloves, if they missed out on recess (or whatever else—I don’t know what rules the school might have) it was their tough luck. They thought that was grand and skeptically asked over and over if they could just wear the sweatshirt/light coat/hoodie. Like they couldn’t believe their good fortune.
Stay tuned.
Student-led P/T conferences!
This was a first for us—spring conferences are lesmd by the students! Katie was first and took us to different stations around the room where she showed us the computer work they did (typing, recording voices, and drawing), some games they played, and all the sight words she could read… Ending with a review by the teacher.
This was her computer project. Her voice was recorded answering the question that she also typed out.
“What do you want to be when you grow up? when I grow up I want to be a artist becus i rillee want to eony [enjoy] make rille good pic chrs.”
Her teacher said she was doing really great. She knows all the sight words, she is right on par for her reading level, and she acts responsibly in class. They even have to do a self-evaluation (and the teacher marked her better than she did herself!). We won’t get to see the paperwork until it comes home who-knows-when.
Artwork from the classroom and halls (unrelated to the conference).
Then it was off to Owen’s school across the street. He had to lead us through his workbook as well, with the teacher directing him. He did well for his first time having to do anything like that. He also had a self-examination and he also rated himself lower than his teacher did. She said he’s a great kid and has really grown (he speaks up a lot more in class now).
A fraction rainbow.
Owen played football today!
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.
A nice day means burning wood, playing outside, and s’mores
It was a nice day so Tom was burning some scrap wood and playing football with the kids…
And a little dance:
Which meant when I took a break from my Facebook party, I was sitting out there enjoying the smell. And getting the coals ready (I’d already run to the dollar store to get marshmallows for roasting).
But before s’mores there was a costume change:
And then it was time.
Owen’s class had a guest today.
Owen came home from school excited to tell us they had a guest in their class today who was a sports reporter (that was a family member of friends). Later I saw this Facebook post.
Can you spot him?
Have you ever heard of a box maze?
This is the most insane box maze. When I first heard about it I thought it would be something simple like boxes taped together. Not even close. This is an annual event with a week-long prep with computer drawings and major construction and tons of volunteers and it’s amazing and so well worth a visit. There are slides and tunnels and stairs and rooms and moving parts and fireworks (LEDs on the ceiling) and people throwing “rocks” in certain rooms… They provide knee pads (soccer there’s a lot of crawling) and flashlights (which I laughed off but it gets pitch black in areas). I just wish it was easier to get pics inside (there are lots of kids and people and you follow each other through so if you stop you hold everyone up). Tom and I went through twice and didn’t even see half of it. We let the kids play for over an hour (we saw lots of friends there) and they would have stayed longer.
These two pics are grabbed from the Facebook event page.
And the computer layout they had posted on the wall.
It’s not Miss Anne’s face painting but she’s happy.
We took the kids to Rainforest Cafe for the first time tonight and they had a face painter there so of course Katie wanted it done. I could tell the quality wasn’t going to be what we were used to from Miss Anne (at Halley) but Katie was still thrilled. She even got a jewel stuck to her forehead.
That said, we won’t be going there again—the food took forever, was mediocre at best, and was way too expensive for what it was (we only went because the kids got free meal vouchers at Katie’s school event last month). But they got to experience it once so we’re good.
Owen’s first concert performance!
The entire third grade class presented a concert tonight. (This is actually only half the students—the other half went an hour earlier!) They sang a few songs together and then each class sang their own song while playing instruments. It was much of what you’d expect a third grade concert to be but they all looked like they were having fun and were proud of themselves. 🙂
After the concert we wanted to find Owen’s self-portrait (all the third-graders had done them and they were lining the gym). Owen had to point it out—I don’t think I ever wood have found it on my own. 🙂
Why does it always seem to end in tears?
The kids were sitting together on the stairs of their own free will so of course I wanted to take a picture. This is what happened in quick succession.
Katie always manages to get bonked accidentally during their roughhousing and has a fit even though Owen apologizes immediately.
Jumping again!
A friend invited us to the local jump place and the kids needed to get rid of some energy on their day off…
Reading Dick and Jane
Gramma gave Katie this book for Christmas—it was the same book she learned to read on. We finally got it out and she is blasting through it!
Owen was alao reading at the same time.
A brief snapshot
His hair is getting crazy.
Kidisms 45
I leaned over to kiss Tom.
Owen: KISS ALERT! KISS ALERT! KISS ALERT!
Grannie and Papa sent a package with stuff to store for them and included a few small packages for me, Katie, and Owen. Katie handed them out and saw that there wasn’t one for Tom.
Katie: Why isn’t there one for daddy?
Me: They must not have found anything for him.
Katie: They should have done one with beer.
Tom told Owen he loved him.
Owen: Yeah, I know. From the beginning.
I was watching Ellen and Justin Timberlake was on and though Katie knows who he is, she sometimes gets him confused with another blonde singer:
Oh wow! Is that Justin BEAVERTON?! [Going for Justin Bieber]
Katie was showing Tom her valentines and was putting them back in the white bag she decorated:
Here’s my owl bag. As you will recognize.
Here. Enjoy the story of my evening.
Katie couldn’t find her infinity scarf this morning and we all [thought we] remembered Owen was playing with it this weekend (he dresses up like a ninja) so we assumed he lost it somewhere (because that’s typical Owen—drop it anywhere in the house except where it goes) so I decided it was up to him to find it.
Fast forward to me turning the house upside down looking for it because he’s claiming it’s nowhere but we all know he can’t find jack shit unless it bites him on the face. But it’s nowhere.
Talking to Owen again, asking him to run through exactly what happened to trace his steps, he tells us he played with it two weeks ago. Wait what?! Ugh. So the whole time he completely misunderstood the whole thing and I wasted an hour of my life looking for something that—yes—turned out was left BY KATIE at the neighbors house.
Aren’t kids fun?!
Welcome to Illinois Axe Murderer Dinner
Our Tivo friends Jami and David prepared a dinner in our honor to welcome us to Illinois. It was originally going to be our first dinner there…until we ended up going last-minute to one of their previous dinners. As usual, everything was DIVINE…and we came home with leftovers once again. 🙂
I wanted to try my infamous selfie shot but we went the easy route since the kids were with us—Owen was our group photographer.
The Menu
Searing the sous vide prime rib.
Checking on the kids who were being amazing in the living room. They had their iPad, Netflix, and pizza…the kid trifecta.
Part of the aftermath.
I hate when they get off their sleep schedule but I have good memories of sleeping in the car on the way home from family events (and being carried into the house by my dad) that I feel it’s only fair they get to experience it, too. 💗 Katie was out within five minutes; Owen took about 10.
Sometimes his lap will suffice.
Family Day at Katie’s soccer class
Her last class was tonight and they invited family down to play against them and have fun.
She was excited about her team getting a goal!
Getting her participation medal! (I dislike the practice of handing out medals to everyone but she loved it.)
Katie’s birthday card to Owen
February Lego build
