Woodland Spirit Day
Celebrating International Dot Day
Category Archives: Owen
Woodland Spirit Week Day 4
Owen’s school was hat day and Katie’s was stripes.
Do your kids not put PJs on?
We tell him to get ready for bed which he knows includes putting PJs on…yet this is what often happens. Plus he doesn’t get under the covers. I know it’s not a huge deal but it still makes me crazy. 🙂
Woodland Spirit Week Day 3
I can’t believe I couldn’t get one with her eyes open!
So I got one by herself!
Woodland Spirit Week Day 2Â
Day 1 was PJ day for Owen and the color green for Katie. I didn’t get a pic before he left and she wanted to wear her pink hip hop outfit… Day 2 went a little better with sports day for Owen and the color white for Katie.
We don’t have many white clothes since they get dirty too easily, but this was the gym shirt I made for her before learning she didn’t need one. 🙂
There’s that goofy face.
And the drawing he did at school today that he was very proud of that he wanted me to take a picture of.
They wanted a campfire.
Guess how long they sat there? Yep, just long enough for me to request a picture and eat one toasted marshmallow.
Owen and mom shoot arrows!
Practicing their positioning and stance.
During the last five minutes of class the parents were invited to shoot. Owen immediately wanted me to try and I totally wanted to! I initially grabbed and held the bow the wrong way and Owen helped me out. As I typically do, I had beginners luck and hit the board on my very first shot…then missed the next four (but only by a smidge). It was fun!
Sometimes I have to sneak a peek.Â
Owen being Owen
That is a back support for a chair that had been unpacked and just sitting there. So of course it became a hat.
Cat cuddles and kid cuddles
Half-time break!
Sparty’s opening day means…
Owen is trying archery!
We let him choose what class he wanted to take at the community center and he decided on archery!
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.
Checking out mom’s shades.Â
The school gang.Â
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.
It’s already chilly enough in the mornings for long pants and a hoodie!
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.
Owen finished his summer slide worksheet!
We had a few ups and downs but tonight Owen earned his huge Nerf gun! Yay Owen!
Our 3rd grader is home!
He and Nate zoomed off the bus and pretty much immediately asked to go ride bikes!
Owen’s first day of 3rd grade!
I had to go in and wake him up at 7:30!! This year he gets on the bus at 8:25—that’s a half hour earlier than what we were used to in Virginia!
Katie holding Owen’s hand as he was waking up.
Owen and his bestie, Nate (2nd grade):
They are the only two at their bus stop!
A school haircut and errands.Â
And a little closer view.
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:
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!
