Category Archives: Kids
Stickers everywhere.
Unfortunately since we put decals on the door, she doesn’t know the difference and thinks stickers can go there, too.
I was able to finally redirect her:
But you never know where you’re going to find stickers!
Gingerbread houses in Owen’s class!
Today was Owen’s last day of school before the holiday break and we were invited to decorate gingerbread (graham cracker) houses with them! (It was also PJ Day for the whole school!)
Earlier in the week, parents had glued the crackers to a milk carton to speed things along.
The teacher offered a house for Katie to decorate, but I had my hands full helping Owen and his classmates. And she was having fun with the toys.
But then she came over to see what was going on and of course had to get involved. 🙂
Video?
Oh boy, now she’s helping with frosting.
“No! My seat!”
Happy boy!
She ran right over for story time!
Then it was time to pack up and go!
Cuddle Buddies
Katie loves pretending she’s asleep.
Especially when she’s just gotten up. 🙂
A smirk.
Silly kids and a loose tooth!
Owen’s front tooth is SOOOO loose that we keep telling him to just pull it out. At dinner we talked about how the Tooth Fairy doesn’t pay for teeth that fall out and can’t be found (like if he accidentally swallowed it). I told him I would match what the Tooth Fairy gave him last time if he pulled it out tonight. Uncle Rob promised him FIVE dollars if it came out tonight. Owen REALLY wanted the $5, but as it turns out, he didn’t want it bad enough to pull put his tooth.
Roughhousing with Uncle Rob
Reading with Grandma
Sneaky Sitting Pretty
I was at my computer and I heard Katie busy behind me but I wasn’t paying attention. When I finally turned around, this is what I saw:
Watching Frozen with Grandma
I had a few errands to run so Katie stayed home with Grandma and she wanted to watch Frozen. It was Grandma’s first time and probably Katie’s 25th time.
Hair Brushing
Grandma got Katie some ponies that come with their own brushes to brush their huge manes and tails. Well, Katie immediately took to brushing her own hair with it…as well as anyone else who would let her. Tonight, she wanted HER hair brushed and I was busy reading with Owen, so Uncle Rob took over. 🙂
And then she wanted to brush his hair which was a bit more difficult. 🙂
Taking turns flying Uncle Rob’s Christmas present.
They tried it in the house first—and it worked a little, but really needed more space. 🙂
Owen’s first shopping spree
Owen’s school offered a Penguin Shop for the kids to shop for inexpensive gifts for their families. I volunteered one afternoon and it was…a little crazy. 🙂 Owen had $10 to spend on gifts for me, dad, and Katie. He came home with something for each of us (plus about $3 left over) and he was SO excited for us to open them…so we finally did tonight.
I got a cupcake pencil sharpener, Tom got a purple high-heeled shoe pencil sharpener, and Katie got a barrette with a feather on it! Our very first gifts from Owen with no parental input whatsoever! I told Tom I would switch him sharpeners, but he said no way—he was keeping the very first gift his boy bought him! 🙂
Katie LOVED her feather…
Christmas with Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob!
We celebrated Christmas this morning because Owen was home from school…due to ongoing constipation issues (he had been heavily medicated but NOTHING was happening and I hadn’t wanted to send him to school just in case).
She LOVED her princess tutu, crown, and wand! After about 10 minutes, we were all tired of the wand because it lit up AND made noise! (The crown lights up, too, but thankfully doesn’t make noise!)
Uncle Rob helped Owen with the Legos after Owen got stuck and I tried and gave up. 🙂
Stockings from Grandma!
The kids were itching to open all the presents they saw Grandma and Uncle Rob bring in, but it was a little late in the evening…so we just let them open the stocking stuff.
Katie LOVES Yoda!
My ornament hanger!
Katie LOVES hanging ornaments on the tree! As it happens, we’ve actually received a few ornaments since we initially decorated the tree, so she’s gotten to hang a few. This one today came from Grannie Lin and Papa and she had to run right to the tree to hang it! She does a pretty good job, too!
And a closeup of the Michigan ornament. I think the UP has grown since we’ve last been there. 🙂
Love a Grandma!
She LOVES the new tank!
Long story short, we have a new saltwater tank!
Long story long, we haven’t had a saltwater tank since before we were married and lived in Lansing! We’ve wanted one, of course—and Tom even bought a few tanks along the way—but with moving every few years it just isn’t practical. He had an 80-gallon (I think it was) tank specially made…that we eventually sold after moving a few times. Then he found a used system that we were planning on setting up here…but it got trashed in the move. We were reimbursed for it and Tom wanted to buy the same tank right away, but I told him to wait because we were in no hurry. Fast forward five months and he was perusing Craigslist and saw a really great tank for a really great price—and snapped it up!
It won’t have fish in it for a few months (we have to wait for the water to cycle and get healthy so it doesn’t kill the fish) but in the meantime, the kids LOVE it. Especially Katie. She will just go sit in front of it.
CHUCK E. CHEESE!!
Owen has wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese for quite some time now. Neither Tom nor I wanted to go because the food really sucks and it’s just a money pit. So, we told Owen that he could go when Uncle Rob came down (that way it would be seen as a super special treat and he wouldn’t ask us to go all the time). He was actually very good about being patient—it’s probably been over a year that we’ve been telling him this.
So when we learned that Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob were going to be here this week, Owen knew what was going to happen! And boy was he exited!
Me: So who’s all going to Chuck E. Cheese?
Owen: Me and Uncle Rob.
Me: Just you and Uncle Rob? Not daddy?
Owen: No! Daddy, too. But not Grandma or you or Katie. Just the three boys!
The plan was to take separate cars to see Santa and then the boys would go to the restaurant and the girls would go home. I figure why get Katie excited about it when she really didn’t care to start with. I did, however, make Tom promise to take pictures. 🙂
These are the two pics Tom texted me.
I really really hoped he had taken more than that…and he had! 🙂 I saw these when he got home.
His $45 “prize”—a Dory fish from Finding Nemo.
Yes, they spent about $45 total on food, drinks, and games…and he only got a trinket worth about 49¢. It was a great lesson…we asked him if he’d rather have the little fish or a big Lego set. He obviously choose the Lego set. He was surprised that he could have had something so big instead of something so small. We said it was okay to go and play games and have fun, but it was really expensive so that’s why it was a super special treat that we didn’t do very often. He said from now on he’d rather have the Legos. 🙂
Santa Visit (Fail) 2014
I didn’t want to wait in any long lines so after requesting advice from a local facebook group, we decided to visit the Santa at the new Gander Mountain. Both kids hadn’t been able to stop talking about seeing Santa and they were SUPER excited leading up to the day…until we actually saw him, at which point neither kid wanted ANYTHING to do with him. Owen hid in a clothes rack and Katie begrudgingly got carried up by daddy. (And this is precisely why I didn’t want to spend any amount of time waiting in a line.)
This was their best shot. Not too bad. It was actually neat—they took the picture with an iPad and then emailed it to you right then and there.
After Katie was done, Owen decided he wanted to try again…so we tried to get them both on Santa’s lap. Ha. Ha ha. This time, Owen was pretty good, but Katie was still being a poop. This is the best one they got.
This was the best one I managed to get. Good times!
Then they had a green screen photo shoot and this is the background Owen picked:
Then the girls headed out to Target while the boys went on their super special trip to Chuck E. Cheese!!
We got our family photo!
Before heading out to see Santa, we had Uncle Rob take a few shots. Amazingly, the very first one was the winner! We hadn’t even tried to get Maggie in it, but she jumped right up!
I don’t love myself in it, but since everyone—including the dog!!—is actually looking at the camera with eyes open and mostly smiling faces…I consider it a win!
Owen’s snowmen
Owen reads his letter from Santa
Santa wrote Owen a long letter that came in the mail today. He pretty much read the whole thing by himself. He was thrown by a few words (like receiving and according) and by a hyphenated word but overall I was very impressed…and so was daddy who rarely gets to see him read.
Here’s the last part of the letter:
Back at the playground
Riding the horsey!
She loves prepping food for us!
Cursive?!
I was looking at Owen’s many sheets of drawing and writing and saw this.
What the—?!
I asked how/why he did it.
“I don’t know. I just did.”
I know it was completely by accident but it just makes me smile. 🙂
Owenisms 58
Owen was reading his school book. It asked what else was in the woods.
Owen: Turtles.
Me: Yes, what else?
Owen: Squirrels.
Me: Yes, what else?
Owen: Parrots.
Me: No.
Owen: No, they live on pirate ships.
Owen: It smells like Gramma Jean’s house.
Me: ??!
Ahhhh. Then it hit me. We had left the heat on overnight so he smelled “heat” and it reminded him of GJ’s house.
We were eating muffins for breakfast. I was also heating up cider in the microwave. When it beeped:
Owen: Are you having a second breakfast?!
Owen: Mama, wanna play football with me? Wait. You don’t know football.
Tom was opening a can of pop.
Katie: Is that sodee pop?
Me: Why does she say sodee pop?
Owen: Because she doesn’t know how to say Dr. Pepper.
Lesson with dry ice
I ordered something frozen from QVC. It arrived with some dry ice remaining so we showed the kids what happens when you put it in water.
Sitting where she shouldn’t.
I turned around to see a very proud little girl, sitting somewhere she shouldn’t. (No, it wouldn’t likely hurt the crate, but it was sagging a little and I didn’t want it to become a habit.)
Chilly Swinging
I had dropped off a gift for a friend who just had a baby, and as we were leaving, Katie spotted a small playground and begged to go. I hadn’t planned on being outside so didn’t have a hat for her so I knew we wouldn’t stay long—it was CHILLY. But she had fun nonetheless.
When she finally decided to go down the slide…
Post-workout bath
Owen was a super sweaty mess after dodgeball, so we are a quick pizza dinner when we got home…then it was bath time. I’ve been giving them baths in our big tub for a change of pace. I just happened to get a good shot. 🙂
