She always has to take a doll to the playground. And you’ll notice we had to rig up a seatbelt for her. 😄
Category Archives: Kids
The Easter Bunny was here!
This year he left the eggs outside!!
We found Katie’s hidey hole.
This is where she sits with her laptop and the couch cushions have obviously pulled apart a bit.
Someone watched Leap this morning.
I finished the sushi!
I don’t have much time to spend on puzzles but I do enjoy them. Of course Katie wanted to help me but only did about 8 pieces overall.
When did he turn 16?
Owen loved his new sunglasses I got him for baseball. But why does he have to look so old?!
Sometimes the schoolwork that comes home just makes me smile.
Bottom braces and rubber bands now!! Yikes!
The doc decided that his bottom teeth need to move just a bit so he got new bottom braces and rubber bands he only has to wear at night!
Mom! Take a picture of me so I can get my bonus tokens! 😂
The struggle is real.
Why? WHY?! The coat rack is RIGHT FREAKING THERE?! If it’s not his coat it’s hers. Or both. Or shoes or gloves. Or crap. GAH!!!!
Sleepover photos
When you’re cleaning and find a pile of Polaroids the girls took during their last sleepover. Missing are the 25 pics they took of the TV show Nailed It that didn’t turn out at all.
Friday night in Chicago
You’d never guess how anxious I was two hours before this happy family photo.
You see I hate traffic, I hate congestion, I hate hoardes of people, and I don’t do well with the unknown…yet we were on our way to downtown Chicago with the kids to meet an out-of-town friend for dinner. I wasn’t even driving, but just simply being a passenger is enough to raise my anxiety levels (I can literally feel the anxiety rising up in my chest). Now, it’s not debilitating by any means and I can always power through, but it’s why I tend to be a homebody. The good part is that Tom’s presence makes me feel better and the kids get to see me handle something not fun…and everything usually ends up just fine.
We had delicious 🍕 pizza at Genos East Pizza, delicious 🍨dessert at Shake Shack, we drooled over everything at Dylan’s Candy Bar, and then went a little 🛁 bath bomb crazy at Lush Cosmetics (I’m not sure if I should thank or curse my friend Sara who introduced me to them). And I survived to tell the tale. 🥰
The kids loved it and we had a good time so I guess my anxiety was worth it…but I was glad to get back to our little burg.
Our family selfie!
And since we did have someone to take our photo…
I love me a rainbow…
I am so glad I remembered that Lush was on Michigan Avenue, and as luck would have it it was directly on our way back to the car!!
A Tooth Fairy autograph!
So Owen decided to ask the tooth fairy for her autograph last night to prove she was real. He even left out his own dollar for her to sign. ☺️
He’s been lightly questioning the Easter bunny, Santa, and the tooth fairy for awhile but he still believes…for now. I like that he signed the letter “from your believer Owen.” 🥰
NO MORE SLIME!!
FYI if any parent (or the school) sends slime home with either of my children, it’s going straight into the garbage and I will haunt your dreams. That is all.
Let’s just say I now know it’s 2/3 vinegar to 1/3 water. And Katie learned how to scrub the carpet.
Project Nerf Gun Tooth Removal
Owen has had a loose tooth for awhile now and he came home from school today saying it was time for project Nerf gun tooth removal. Inspired by his second cousin Luke he decided it was time to try it. It took a few tries (our string was way too long) but we had success!!
First baseball practice of the season!
It looked gorgeous but it was a tad chilly. The sun finally came out so I actually got out of the car…but am still under a blanket. 🥶 C’mon summer.
Tom didn’t plan on helping out but once he got there of course he did! Unfortunately no pics of Owen because they were too far away. But! He appears to be one of the better kids on the team!!
Cleaning out Owen’s baseball bag…
So today we were cleaning out Owen’s baseball bag which hasn’t been touched since we moved. Lots of great memories… /sniff/ Here’s hoping a new city and new team ends up just as awesome as our last…
Okay, I’ll miss this when she goes back to school.
They stopped and said “Daddy’s sign!!”
We took Owen in for his random stomach aches (thinking it might be constipation again) but he got the all clear after x-rays. So not sure what’s going on…
A first and last time for the video game place.
We came home from a play date with friends and the kids wanted to go across the street and play with the three neighbor boys. They went over and the kids weren’t home but the dad offered to take Katie and Owen to them—they were at a local gaming place. They were both willing to spend their own money to do it so I then offered to pay for them, thinking that they would be able to play a multiplayer game with the other boys instead of being limited to two people per game like they generally are at home on the Xbox.
Fast forward to receiving this picture from the dad and this is what was going on: everybody was on a different computer doing something different. In other words, paying for exactly what they could be doing at home for free. so we had a conversation about that when they got home. Katie spent two hours on YouTube and Owen played by himself for two hours which is just an insane waste of money.
Kids.
Spring Break Day 2: Jump America
We planned to go for the whole day (with friends!) but Owen’s stomach started hurting so we had to bug out after about two hours.
Owen doesn’t really fit on his ATV anymore and he’s wanted a Segway for awhile, so when we were able to grab one for free to try out and review, we jumped at it! He practiced in the basement and actually got pretty good, so today was his first real world experience. I’m amazed at how good he is!!
I even did a Facebook live of it…
And of course Katie wanted to try but she’s too light so Tom helped a bit.
I even got on (holding Tom for dear life) for about 10 seconds and that was enough to know I didn’t need to do it again. 😂
Spring Break is not for wusses.
Two kids, two teeth.
Seriously, what are the odds? I guess I’ll be up a little later than planned tonight.
Katie gave me Wyldstyle hair.
Katie wanted to spend her own money on this hair piece at Lego and then of course I had to wear it. I’ll do a lot when I have a margarita in hand. 😂
This game went on for DAYS.
Free cone day!!
We thought it would be a fun after Parent Teacher conferences thing to take the kids to get a free DQ cone… It was delicious.
Parent Teacher conferences
Both kids had student-led conferences. Owen needs to work on his presentation skills and info presented as his answers were like:
What are you good at?
Everything.
What is your goal?
To be the best at everything I do.
What do I need to work on?
Nuttin
I’m pretty sure he’s trying to be funny…but we talked to his teacher and she said she had zero complaints or worries about him. He listens, pays attention, doesn’t get distracted, has lots of friends…
Katie is doing great, too. She filled out her self-evaluation that she didn’t like math, spelling, or reading—which both us and the teacher thought odd since she’s great at all three. You could even see her demeanor change when talking about it. Her teacher even asked where the other Katie was. It’s so frustrating. She obviously knows, for example, her math facts (tests show it). But at home when she’s doing homework she flails when trying to answer 7+4 or 12-3 and gives us ridiculous answers like “I DON’T KNOW. 50?”
She also showed us her Kindness Quit square that was hanging in the main hallway.
Her teacher said she’s doing very well and is very smart and helpful. We just have to figure out the math and reading thing.
My little helper.
Owen’s brain scares me.
He was just telling me something about school and then said “Remember that guy who invented the water gun?” HUH? WHAT? No, I don’t. He tells me it was at the museum with Jackson and Liam. WHAT? Oh, okay, the Museum of Science an Industry…but no, I don’t remember it. THAT WAS TWO YEARS AGO. So I google and yep, of course he was right. And once I read the blurb I remembered it. He does things like this ALL the time…and whenever I question him, it turns out he’s right.