Owen brought a Lego set so he could do them with Anna like he did last year. He was so excited that within, I think, two minutes of walking in the front door of the condo, the box was already open! We did have him wait just a bit, and they started working after dinner. 🙂
LAST YEAR:


Tom usually has birthday party duty but since he’s gone it fell to me. And of course I had to take Katie as well—so it was her first trip to Chuck E. Cheese.
Fortunately, it wasn’t nearly as crazy as I thought it would be. Of course it was Chuck E. Cheese so it was a little bit crazy but overall it wasn’t bad.
Katie’s skee ball style:
The Clifford ride it was super tame and she looked pretty bored…so the next one moved more and she quickly said “DONE. DONE!!”
Then it was time for lunch and the birthday show (Chuck E. Cheese comes out). Katie was EXCITED. She’s saying “CHUCK E. CHEEEEESE!” 🙂
Redeeming tickets!
And then it was time to head home. This is the toy Owen picked—a tiny blow up sword (which she said was his favorite thing about the whole day, LOL).
And a mustache tattoo he got in his gift bag:
And these were the cards we had printed! (I think these were the best deal of the whole place—one card for one token!)

Both kids had a great time!

This is insane. I don’t think we ever got this many snow days in Michigan. Yeah yeah, it’s different down here. But still. Yeesh.
So, by morning (and after more drugs) I wasn’t quite as pissed about the snow and the kids wanted to go out…
But the novelty has still worn off—I only took about three pics and this was the best one. They were drinking from coconuts. 🙂
It was actually warm-ish and sunny so stuff was melting. But I still spent 45 or so minutes brushing off the car, shoveling the driveway (including the rest of the plowed-in entrance), clearing a path to the mailbox, and chipping ice off the sidewalk.
I’m so ready for winter to be over.
We were there a few minutes early and were able to skip the line because I’d bought tickets a few days earlier…so we had to wait a few minutes for the floor to open.
Look! BLOCKS!
Can you find Katie?
And mere seconds later after I stopped recording…some kids pushed it over and I got this shot:
I love the “flying” shots!
Meanwhile, in the non-toddler dodgeball section…our poser. 🙂
Today marked the SEVENTH snow day this year (and the fourth in two weeks). Tom had a 2-hour delay but actually ended up working from home. Thankfully the kids weren’t ready to go outside until quite late in the morning. I think the major excitement of snow has worn off—though they still like it and want to go out and play in it, it’s not the very first thing they want to do!
Owen was pretending he was a ninja with his new scarf. He actually made me pull it up higher over his face. 🙂
The first thing I noticed was it was actually on the warm side—so I had a good feeling about the snow quality. One quick swipe of the snow on the car and yep—perfect snowman snow!! Time to make their very first snowman!!
The kids were excited…but weren’t much help. 🙂 Owen helped pack snow and find sticks and Katie wandered around.
It’s been probably 25-30 years since I made a snowman. It was hard with such a small yard and because we didn’t have that much snow—and what we had was on top of icy stuff—so it was a lot of scraping from all over. We could’ve tried the backyard but there’s a much higher chance of buried dog poop back there!
The kids LOVED him!


Then it was off to the backyard for more snow after they trampled everything in the front (it doesn’t take long).

But it was really wet and actually turning slushy so we went inside.
Owen LOVES his scarf…and looks quite dapper if I do say so myself. 🙂

First a trip to the grocery store where Owen learned how to pull off and open the plastic fruit/veggie bags and how to push Katie without hitting anything. 🙂
Then it was time to play in the snow! I got much better pics of Katie today!
Sledding wasn’t very good today so Owen did some snow rolling instead.
We haven’t officially started potty training yet, but every now and again we will ask Katie if she wants to pee or poop on the potty. Sometimes she wants to but nothing happens and other times she wants nothing to do with any of it.
But tonight when Tom asked her she said yes! And then actually proceeded to tinkle!
We all made a big deal about it and she got to pick a toy from the toy bin! I think Owen was most excited, getting out the toy selection and picking her toy—until we told him she got to pick her own toy! To his credit, he was still excited for her!
She picked those growing capsule animals:
Of course I’m not expecting anything to come of this. Owen did the same thing and then it was another two years (!) before he was actually potty trained.
Only 184 pics of playing in the snow this morning. Narrowed down to 30. The best one? Before we got outside! Katie wasn’t much for looking at me today!
Maggie thought she wanted to go outside with us…but of course she can’t stand the cold and snow. Even with a sweater. 🙂
Getting buried by daddy!
The neighbor girl came out while her dad was shoveling. Owen said he liked her after about 13 seconds. 🙂
Owen’s turn to get buried by daddy!
Racing to the top of the hill!
Ten pictures snapped in 10 seconds and not one with Katie looking at me!
Sledding in the back yard (from the neighbor’s yard to ours)!
After almost two hours outside? Hot cocoa!
Sometimes it gets silly. 🙂
Owen was a rock star writing out his class valentines!
Now that the Kinnect is out, they love dancing!
Owen made friends with a kid at the playground who had a scooter—and he let Owen try it. He loved it, but he definitely needs practice. And a helmet if he wants to go any faster than walking speed. 🙂
Everyone slept through the night—WOOHOO!
Owen got up about his normal time (6:30) and let his friends sleep in. Katie slept in until about 7:15 and they got up about 7:30.
They played some Xbox while we were making breakfast.
Breakfast was pancakes, bacon, eggs, fruit, and hot chocolate. The boys ended up not liking the fried eggs, but couldn’t tell us what kind of eggs they liked! (See, it’s not just Owen who can’t answer simple questions.)
They got picked up around 10 and neither one really wanted to leave! I guess we did a good job!
Owen has already started planning his next sleepover saying he’s inviting six kids (and he wants it next weekend!). We had to tell him sleepovers were special things that only happened occasionally. Then he decided his next sleepover would be three girls (and he named them).
Sigh.
What have we created?!
But it was AWESOME seeing him interact with his friends. And just the fact he HAS friends makes us SO extremely happy. 🙂
Owen’s first sleepover was tonight—and it was the first for both of his friends, too.
The kids played for a bit, then we started Fruit Ninja, which they all thoroughly enjoyed.
It’s somewhat exhausting—and they can only really play one at a time—so then we did Crash Course which they could all play at the same time.
Manuel doesn’t have pets, so he was ENTHRALLED with ours (you’ll see more pics later). 🙂
Getting ready for cake!
Time for a movie! Katie enjoyed the sleepover as much as the boys did!
Getting the boys ready for bed about 9. They lined up for a picture, each with one of Owen’s stuffed animals—and here Owen was realizing that they each had one of the primary colors!
Overall, it went pretty good. The boys were boys (roughhousing and such) but they are all fairly similar—very nice, polite, not too terribly rough, and they listened well. We were most worried about putting them to bed and what happened after that since neither of the boys had had a sleepover before. Of course, their parents were on call to come get them, and I had been updating them via text and pics throughout the night. So they all got their PJs on, brushed their teeth, and decided who would sleep where. We told them they could stay up and talk, but they couldn’t be too loud (since Katie was sleeping next door). I read them a story, pointed out all the night lights, told them that if they were scared at all or if anything was wrong to come get us (and we could call their parents), asked if they had any questions (no), and then turned out the lights, crossed my fingers, and went downstairs.
Within minutes, we heard them coming down the steps. 🙂 Apparently the boys were scared of the big stuffed bear, even though they had all been playing with him. But no biggie, Tom just went up with them and threw it in the guest room.
The second trip down (again with all three of them!) was because the kid who decided he wanted to sleep on the top bunk was apparently suddenly afraid of heights and didn’t want to sleep on the top bunk even though we went over that before. But no biggie, we asked if he wanted Owen to sleep on the top and he said no, he wanted to. Ooookay. Back to bed then, and we sent them upstairs.
The third trip down was to tell us that somehow the top-bunk-kid needed his bed made again (turns out he had pulled off all of his bedding to sleep on the floor). Okay, no biggie, Tom went up and got the bedding issue settled.
At this point, I told Tom we should go upstairs to our bedroom so the kids didn’t have to come all the way downstairs each time. So we did. 🙂
Minutes later (the fourth time out of bed), two had to go to the bathroom—even though they all went before getting in bed.
The fifth time, someone was scared of everything in the room. We added another night light (in addition to the three already in there).
Then we heard them talking quietly and we thought maybe that would be the end of it…but then we heard loud thumping and lots of noise so Tom went down and and found them all out of bed! They got told they could talk but they had to stay in bed. We heard more talking but nothing crazy.
About 10, we finally noticed they were really quiet. Tom checked on them and they were all out! We crossed our fingers and hoped it lasted!
In preparation for the sleepover, Tom reconnected the Xbox Kinnect. The kids tested out Fruit Ninja as the first game.
We had an unseasonably warm 50° day so I took Katie to a new playground after we left Owen’s school.
As soon as we got there she was off and running!
She LOVES swinging.
And the bridge:
And then this happened and it was all I could do to just let her go—she’s way more daring than Owen ever was at this age:
A tiny bit of background… Owen decided maybe two months or so ago that he wanted a pool party at our community pool for his birthday. We were totally on board with this idea since it would be inexpensive (no cost for the pool and we just have to buy food and drinks) and he could invite his whole class. Well, loooooong story short, we are still going to have a summer birthday party, but we will only be inviting a select number of friends…and in honor of his actual birthday, we are letting him have his very first sleepover!
So in preparation for the sleepover, one of the invitees came over for an extended play date today—it would also be his first away-from-home sleepover and we thought it best for him to be comfortable with us, the animals, the house, etc. His mom and I chatted for about a half hour (they were the ones we sat with during Bingo Night) and then she left.
The kids had a great time! There were light saber fights, beanbag jumping (with only a few warnings to be careful), and then finally…Legos!
When the visit got extended and I needed time to prep dinner without wondering what they were up to about the house, I finally let them watch a half hour of TV. 🙂
Her friend is behind her…
And her cute little ballerina butt bow sticking out the back of her coat. 🙂
The kids wanted hot chocolate after playing outside. It’s the one time Katie gets a real mug. 🙂
Super hero time!
Owen had a snow day, so of course we were all out in it by 8:30! (Well, I was out, but not IN it!) 🙂
Owen: Mama, can I brush the snow off this?
Me: Knock yourself out.
Owen: Mama, can I brush the snow off this?
Me: Knock yourself out.
I was watching the volcano experiment when I heard lots of Lego noise from the other room. I walked in to see this:
The PTO had a pizza dinner/Bingo event tonight and we all went! Unfortunately we didn’t win any bingo games, door prizes, or raffle items…but we all had fun! After almost every game when someone else won, Owen would say “OHHHH! I ALMOST WON!” Even if he was five numbers away. 🙂
Two out of four looking…that’s about right. 😉
With Aden, one of his classmates (and the one he went to the martial arts event with and broke the board):
The picture taken by the school principal (she’s at every event and walks around taking pictures with her iPad!)—again, two out of four looking:
Aden’s family (our table mates):
Afterwards, since the kids had been so good, we stopped and got froyo on the way home. 🙂
We’ve casually thought about getting bunkbeds for Owen’s room (one with steps instead of a more dangerous ladder) but didn’t want to spend a lot of money on them because we didn’t need them. So one night I happened to see on a Facebook yard sale group that someone was selling a set for a decent price. The bonus was that they were shorter overall so the top bunk was not super high. Long story short, we ended up getting them. It was mostly a spur of the moment decision, but Tom and I both agreed on it so there you go.
Well, have I mentioned that I hate bunkbeds because they’re a total PITA to make? But I thought maybe I was misremembering or blowing it out of proportion and even if it was awful, I’d suck it up for my kid…but holy crap it’s just as awful as I thought.
And.
I thought I’d like that they weren’t full height beds…but holy crap are they low. There’s no way Owen can sleep in there (under there) long term because he can’t even sit up—he can barely roll over. And there’s no way adult guests could fit comfortably in there (when we need an extra bed, we’ve put someone there and move Owen to Katie’s room). And of course that makes making the bed even harder.
So at this point I was thinking we’d made a huge mistake.
But.
Thankfully Tom is handy and he can lower the base of the bed so there’s more room.
Worst case, we take it apart after a few weeks of testing and sell it (hopefully getting what we paid). :/ Best case Owen loves it and we get a lot of use out of it. (Mommy guilt sucks. I’m tempted into things I’d otherwise not be.) And for now, the kids loved playing on it while we were assembling it…
“I can touch the ceiling!”
Bed time!
