We were going to a bowling birthday party.
Owen: I hope I get a strike. [pause] What’s a strike again?
The kids were playing go fish all on their own.
Owen: Do you have a 6?
Katie: No. Go to the fish area.
Me: Katie, when did you become a big kid?
Katie: Ugh. Mom. At grandma’s.
Me: At Gram—???
Katie: WHEN I TURNED FOUR.
Katie: Mama, I love this kitty.
We knew the kids would be up late so we asked them to rest and/or take a nap. Both whined. Both slept. Ha! Owen only napped for maybe 30 minutes but Katie slept for about two hours!
After the playground, we treated them to lunch at Uno. They LOVE playing with the dough balls, and this is what happened today.
We took the kids to a somewhat local playground since the weather was so nice. We sat on a blanket while they played…
That’s his friend Jackson on the roof. Before this year there was no way Owen would have climbed up there.
Knocking on our neighbor’s door like a big girl.
It’s been so nice that we decided we had to have at least one day of driveway drinking while waiting for the bus. 🙂
Daddy was home early so Katie had to cuddle.
And then we had a family cuddle (well, minus Owen because he was at school).
We spent the morning with friends at one of the Burke Lake Park playgrounds. Liam will be three and Katie will be five…yet they get along like gangbusters.
From his teacher’s email:
I wanted to let you know that Owen is going to receive the good character award again this week at morning program. The character trait of the month is honesty and trustworthiness and Owen is one of the most honest and trustworthy kids I know!
Little sister looking all sassy in her outfit while we wait for the program to start:
She wrote the J on her own and then I suggested she do an E—which she also did on her own but needs a tiny bit of practice—and then I helped with the N. And then she did the K all by herself—which I was very proud of because she normally messes up the top diagonal line. 🙂
Can you find Owen? He is literally a half a head taller than all the kids in his grade.
He had no idea that he was going to get the award.
The noise the kids made when Owen’s name was called was the most enthusiastic. It’s customary to repeat the recipient’s name after it’s announced, but Owen’s was the loudest of the bunch. When we told him that later he was embarrassed and said no it wasn’t. We have the video to prove it was pretty loud (below). 🙂
This was her third outfit of the day but the most appropriate for school (I stepped in to facilitate). 🙂
This has come about over the last few days. She gets braver each time.
The usual view: Katie swinging and Kayleigh being pushed.
Tom took Owen to a retirement ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico—mostly because Owen missed out on a Pokémon run we did without him yesterday during school hours. Tom sent me these pics.
He got mostly 4s (the top grade) with 3s in art and music. This was his best report card yet! So we treated him to Sweet Frog (frozen yogurt).
Can you guess whose was whose?
Top: Katie (gummies, M&Ms, and Nerds) & Tom (nuts, pound cake, coconut)
Bottom: Jen (Heath bar, Oreos, peanut butter, marshmallow, and chocolate sauces) & Owen (mini chocolate chips, cherries, marshmallow fluff)
I know, not quite what you thought, eh? 🙂
My friend’s husband is deployed and she had a hell of a day so I took the kids over to keep her kids occupied while we had a big drink.
Due to power outages and road closures, school was on a two-hour delay—and of course I had my eye appointment followup right about when Owen would need to be getting on the bus. So I called on my neighbor to get him to the bus stop. She said I might as well drop Katie off, too… Okay, twist my arm. 🙂
Her older son was actually staying home so she had four kids to walk to the bus stop. She sent me these pics of the walk home. Jackson is 6 and in first grade.
I took the picture on the right day but it was during vacation so it didn’t get posted.
Me and Katie waiting for Tom and Owen to bring dinner to the gate in Atlanta. We weren’t able to get seats because we only had about 25 minutes until our flight started boarding.
We opted to board during the “people who may need extra time” call so we could have time to snarf our food before most people boarded. On the way down, we boarded during that time as well just because the kids were completely unfamiliar with the boarding process and we wanted it to go smoothly. On the way home we figured it had gone smoothly enough we didn’t need it so skipped it the first leg…but then decided why not on the second leg. 🙂
Everything went smoothly, and this is us walking to meet Tom with the car.
As soon as we got home, of course this happened:
Owen: Katie why are you reading my book?
Katie: I’M NOT! I’m just looking at it. I don’t know how to read yet.
Gramma was teaching Owen and Katie a new card game that involved matching suits and counting.
Katie: Let’s play plain. Without construction.
Gramma Jean was coloring with Owen and Katie. Owen was complimenting Katie.
Owen: Wow, Katie. You’re doing such a good job. You’re staying inside the lines. I’ve never seen a 4yo color so good.
Katie: I know, right?
At the airport, I told Katie that dad got her chicken fingers because that’s all they had.
Katie: Are you serious? I can’t handle chicken fingers.
We were planning on taking the kids mini golfing on our last morning, but of course, today is the best weather day we’ve had all week so we went to the ocean instead! (We actually gave them the choice, but there was no hesitation.)
The kids finally got to see some dolphins while Tom and I were out running an errand!
Eating cupcakes Grauntie Rose brought earlier in the week…
We all went to see the Lego Batman movie and since it was nice and sunny, we stopped at a park on the way home. Unfortunately it was windy and getting chilly so we didn’t stay long and I only took one picture! 🙂
We always take the grandparents out to dinner to thank them for letting us stay with them…and this time, we went to McGuires Irish Pub just down the road in Destin. We happened to be sitting right at a Pokémon gym so of course we had to take it over. 🙂
The tradition at this place is to leave a signed/decorated $1 bill stapled to the wall. They have over $1 million hanging throughout the place (see lots of great pictures from RoadTrippers). This was the wall behind us (in the natural restaurant lighting):
And the same picture with a flash:
This is the bill we did. Gramma drew the heart with the year and signer her name; Owen wrote his name on the very left, going up from the O; Katie die her KAtie on three lines; Grandpa David did his GD between Owen and Katie; Major Tom left his mark; and since no one took good ol’ George, I did that plus left our JTOK.
Gramma stapled it to the wall.
Can you see it?
Look here!
The sun is deceiving. We didn’t stay too long because it was actually windy and getting chilly…
