Totally my daughter. 🙂

Totally my daughter. 🙂

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.

So Katie is still getting little love notes from Thomas on the bus. This one came yesterday with her saying he wanted a playdate. Fine, right? Look at the text. Do you see what I see?

❤️ Hey baby how do you make Katie get back together with me
😂 but also 😳, right?
Even though it’s coming from a Kindergartener it seems somewhat concerning. I emailed both teachers (he’s not in her class) just to sort of give them an FYI/heads up and to see if they’ve noticed anything weird. Katie’s teacher responded that they’d talk to them (I haven’t heard back yet if it’s happened).
Oh the teen years are going to be a joy…
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?!
I thought she might complain about having to write her name 25 times but she didn’t make one peep. 🙂 There was other drama of course, but writing her name went well.

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.


Another day, another fight about trying to get some rest—she still wasn’t feeling 100% plus we were going to a friend’s house for dinner and I knew they’d be up late. When she finally stopped fighting and actually closed her eyes, she was OUT.


We had a snow day today but I would have kept Katie home as she wasn’t feeling well and had a slight fever. She had been fairly active all day with Owen and was starting to get cranky so I made her lay down and close her eyes. After a few minutes of fighting me and being restless she totally zonked out.

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.)







They are always bugging us to watch movies so I thought having a movie day would be a special treat. They barely lasted through one… Oh well.
We decided to do a big summer party again so Owen invited two friends to spend the night.
Katie was thrilled to be able to play Xbox with the boys.


Pizza!

Katie helping get the cake ready. (Owen picked it out at Sam’s Club yesterday.)



Oliver and Brandon

Everything went really well. They were crazy loud at times but they were all really well-behaved and were in bed by 11 and had stopped chatting by 11:30…
As it is, it took a lot of subtle persuading to get her to do groups instead of total chaos. (Yes, I admittedly have issues with kids and art projects.)

I wanted to take a picture of Katie in these 24-month pajamas and this is what happened.




This pic never fails to make me chuckle.

Guess which one of us is doing this crazy thing this morning?!



Free s’mores? Yes, please.

Staying warm by the fire.

Waiting…

Watching!
Proof!


It was actually a really nice day for it as opposed to what it could have been this time of year…but it was still REALLY cold. It took about five groups before someone popped up and said HOLY SHIT THAT’S COLD loud enough for the spectators to hear. 🤣
Owen said he’d been in cold water before—swimming with Papa. We told him yes, Lake Superior is cold, but that’s still like 65° and it was in the summer. We looked up the water temp for today and it was about 38°.


For as much as she wanted to color it, she didn’t do much (I did probably 95% of it). It’s back in the box now and she has no desire to put it together. Maybe we’ll get it out next year. #fail

My mom and stepdad were prepping the turkey, which had been in the sink all day.Â
Katie: The turkey is naked swimming now!
It was time for Owen to go to bed and as usual he didn’t want to so said no.
Me: Yes.
Owen: No.
Me: So tomorrow will be 15 minutes early.
Owen: No!
Me: Then a half hour early.
Owen: No I won’t go to bed early.
Me: Yes you will. You know the rules. When you argue about going to bed, you go to bed early. And that doesn’t change just because Papa and Grannie are here.
Papa [trying to sneakily get through to Owen]: Owen, you’re NOT ARGUING with your mom about bed time, are you?
Owen, totally not getting it: YES! I AM!
Katie couldn’t find a Hershey Kiss she put in the tree.
I can’t find it. Wait. Did magic happen?
We we’re watching a Mythbusters duct tape episode.
Owen: It feels like I’m starting to like duct tape.
Katie: Mom, every time I have water in my mouth I think I’m drinking my blood but I’m not.
Me: Why do you think that?
Katie: It feels like I taste it.
Me: How do you know what blood tastes like?
Katie: I don’t know.

If anyone ever buys us another puzzle like this, I will hand it directly back to you. 🙂
The kids recently got stuffed elephants from friends for Christmas. Katie has really enjoyed dressing them up.


Katie’s school had a family night with lots of fun games and activities.
Glow-in-the-dark mini golf:

Pictures with Wiley, the district mascot:


An attempted family selfie:

Revealing their magic notes (after drawing pictures with white crayon):


Our side of the street doesn’t have sidewalks so our neighbors both snow blow paths.

I love what they come up with when I won’t let them use their devices or watch TV. This is our Christmas tree storage bag.

Owen is taking a 5-week Nerf Combat class. They bring their own guns, bullets are provided, and they run around playing games for 45 minutes.

