Katie’s friend Cayenne had her birthday at the trampoline place.
Category Archives: Playing
Katie’s taking gymnastics!
I got a deal on a 12-week (12 session) class and knew she’d love it. Thankfully it’s pretty close to home.
Warming up and stretching.
A few stills from the videos.
As predicted, she LOVED it and can’t wait to go back. She keeps asking about her “shimnashtics” class and would probably go daily. Yay!
Another successful birthday sleepover!
Owen wanted another summer birthday pool party, so like last year, we had a sleepover with two friends for his birthday. I’m not sure who was more excited—Owen or Katie. She did pretty good overall but didn’t understand why the boys didn’t want to go play with her instead of playing with Owen. (That said, she did get to play with them most of the time.)
We had pizza for dinner, then they all played downstairs (including Katie), and then it was time for Pie face!
Ice cream! Poor Colton (in black) doesn’t like chocolate so didn’t want the ice cream or brownie…so had an ice pop.
Attempting to play a new video game. It wasn’t quite working, so…
We watched a movie. Awwwww.
Of course, Katie was right in there, too.
Owen: “My bros!”
iPad time
Spying on them.
We put them to bed at 9:30 and they wanted to read a book so we told them lights out at 10. I happened to be watching on the monitor when they turned the lights out at 9:45. We thought it was too easy…and we were right. They were gabbing LOUDLY for the next hour. The last 20 minutes or so, Tom and I took turns going in to tell them to quiet down and go to bed. The last time Tom went in he warned them that they would not get donuts in the morning if he had to come in again. Then they were finally quiet. 🙂
Tom said they were all up at Owen’s usual time (6:30!) so they were back at Xbox and Tom went to get donuts.
The kids left by 10:30. Owen had a great time and we were glad to have our relatively quiet house back.
Owen as a fire-breathing dragon
Owen has had a cough for going on 3-4 weeks now so we finally decided to get it checked out. (He’s never had a temperature or anything that made us think he needed to be seen. Google said to take him in if the cough didn’t go away after three or so weeks. He seemed to be getting better…but then got worse again.)
Sharing the iPad:
Owen relaxing on the “beach.”
Katie sitting in the “boat.”
There’s always a bow and arrow involved.
The doc examined him and said it sounded like something viral and thought a breathing treatment might help…so we did that. The doc said he’d look like a fire-breathing dragon. 🙂
The doc said it helped a little so prescribed an albuterol inhaler so it was off to the pharmacy, otherwise known as the seventh circle of hell. Today we had a screaming toddler sitting across from us…for about 45 minutes. And then…we all had to leave since there was apparently a small fire somewhere close. NOOOOOOO!!!!
First we moved to the hallway. Then we got moved outside. Then we got moved across the street. We had no idea how long it was going to take, but thankfully we were headed back inside within about 10 minutes (it was windy and freezing). And then had another 15 or so minutes to wait for the script.
We arrived at the hospital for a 9:10 appointment at 8:50 and were leaving the pharmacy at 11:20. Yeesh. And our fingers are crossed that the treatments help.
Katie showed me!
I was actually considering stopping Katie’s swim lessons because I wasn’t sure she was still progressing and $75/mo is a decent chunk of money for her to just be splashing around for a few hours. So of course she completely amazed me today! I asked the instructor to have her practice her floating (since she hasn’t done that in months) and she did great at that—along with actually swimming!! Holy cow! So…lessons continue!
Playing together after their lessons were over.
Thrift store scores!
We scored big at the thrift store today. We found Qwirkle, Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, and Chutes & Ladders Sesame Street for $1.50 each!
Here, Owen is currently “battling” with the Qwirkle pieces (his own creation—nothing to do with the actual game):
Daddy Owen Game Time
Jonas Day 3 / Snow Day 3
After MUCH drama getting dressed—in which Katie almost got banished to her room—we made it outside. We had hoped to be able to build a snowman, but the snow just wasn’t good. AT ALL. And Owen lost his boot again within the first five minutes…so I came in and let them play in the back yard. After about 20 minutes they wanted to go to the front, so they had to trek through the house (since there’s no way to open the gate, and even if we could get it open, the snow is 3′ deep between the houses). They played out front for probably a half hour before Tom went to check on them and then I went out to take a few pictures.
And this would be why we can’t see anything out our bedroom windows!
Starting the 2700-piece Sea Cow.
Then of course sister wanted to do hers, too. Which means I get to do it…because Owen is normally the one to help her.
Taking his first break:
They HAD to go out and play in the snow.
We had a 2-hour delay that turned into a full snow day (the first of the year!). We didn’t have much snow, but what little we did have made things super slippery. Of course, the kids had to go out and play in it. 🙂
Who knew an old desktop would be that fun?
Tom is getting rid of an old desktop and just had it sitting temporarily in the living room. The kids were completely enthralled with it. I was at my computer and I heard Owen behind me clicking away on the keyboard, saying he was texting dad and playing music. He also kept plugging and replugging the mouse and keyboard cords.
Then, of course, Katie got involved. When she wasn’t clicking away she was “on the phone” (the mouse). 🙂
This is how Katie does bingo.
She can’t quite play for real yet so this is what she does while Owen and I play.
Charlie gets a dual checkup
Like brother, like sister: Saturn!
May 13, 2011:
Katie playing with her new stuff.
Sofia/Barbie Supergirl
Flying around the house.
Watching a movie in her new sleeping bag…with her old backpack, of course.
Putting all her new princesses in her new dollhouse.
You’ll notice two of the princesses are “wearing Crocs” — she hung the Croc keychain on their heads. 🙂
Christmas Day
My new Michigan State tee from Grannie and Papa (since I don’t have one that fits anymore)!
Our Princess Sofia!
“I have an amulet!”
Anna/Sofia lining up all her princesses in her dollhouse.
Maggie loving her squeaky lobster!
A little bouncing.Â
The place where the kids have swim lessons (and Owen had his summer activity camp) had an Open House today so people could swim and bounce for free to test it out. The kids have been asking to bounce, so we thought it would be a fun thing today. Owen loved it, but Katie was pretty much a mess. There were A TON of kids there (including a lot of rambunctious and NOT well-behaved ones which made everything worse) and she had a fit on every bounce house because there were “too many people” — except it was mostly her fault because unless she was the only one on the ladder, she would stop wherever she was and then as the kids would try to get past her and she’d get upset (and if she’d just have kept going up the ladder, they would have gone up behind her and things would have been just fine). So…we didn’t stay quite as long as we anticipated.
Katie playing bongos on Uncle Rob’s head
Minecraft in the morning.Â
Two napping daddiesÂ
I went into Katie’s room and found this. We have blankets and Bs and doll accessories aplenty, but she used tissues. 🙂
He brought the sword but then found a bow and arrow.
Pure joy.Â
“I’m doing it all by myself! I’m going high!” (She swings by herself the entire 20 minutes I do my walk around the playground!)
And then when I was done and pushed her higher: “YEAH BABY! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!”
Zerberts and twirling
Sometimes cheap fun wins.Â
They co-opted Tom’s box and were pretending it was something I can’t remember from Minecraft. They were both running around wearing it and having a blast!
Walking and watching
Katie loves to bounce in the bounce house…except she wants you to watch her. 🙂 So whenever I walk on the treadmill, she bounces. She’s actually a riot to watch—with jumps and kicks and tossing big soft things around. Tonight she had to run and get her bear so they could jump together.
Afterward, heading upstairs:
Me: Katie, you did awesome in there!
Katie: I know, I had awesome kicks!
My little puzzle girl
We were at the library and I was looking for books for Owen while Katie was looking at toddler books. I came back a few minutes later to this:
She had found the puzzles and decided to do it right there! 🙂
Gym Birthday Party
Of course we were there early, so we waited in the car for a few minutes.
They got to start playing before anyone else got there:
And then it got a little chaotic with 20 kids…but we got to stay out of the crazy and visit with the other parents (and I really hit it off with another mom—which was a bonus!). The end of the party had everyone zip lining which they all loved!
Sunday Swim
The kids’ lessons are progressing nicely…but today we just get a video of Katie going down the slide during play time. It’s funny—last week was the first week she was even somewhat interested, and one of the instructors made sure to help her climb up and wanted to wait for her at the bottom of the slide. I had to tell them she’s an old hat at big slides and they didn’t need to worry! She showed them today!
Owen helping her up the first time:
Katie & Cayenne
Kitchen helperÂ
I was making Tom two different kinds of rice pudding and Katie wanted to help. She tired of actually helping stir after about six seconds, so she did her own cooking instead.
