a boy. his sister.

Friends

2012-01-24T22:06:00.000-05:00

We enjoyed a fun afternoon with friends at Lake Lynn after school today. The weather was beautiful - sunny skies and 65 degrees - a welcome change in January, especially after a cold, rainy weekend. We walked down to the lake, fed the ducks, and then headed to the playground for awhile. The kids were happy and tired at the end :)

An interesting sight, at least for us - police on a horse, cruising around the lake

A seriously beautiful day!

Feeding the ducks - left over dinner rolls, white bread, ice cream cones, goldfish, etc. - You name it, they ate it!

Sweet TFS friends - it reminds me of the movie "Keeping the Faith"

The whole bunch

This girl LOVES to swing!

I'd given up pushing her on the swing, so she made her own fun - twist, twist, twist, and LET GO!

I don't think this is the intended purpose of this swing, but the camp kids had already gone inside and we were the only ones left out there, so I didn't see any harm.

Go to jail!

Friday Night Fun

2012-01-23T22:16:00.000-05:00

While she was doing this...

They were finishing the 100 day project

Then we had fun with my stethoscope

Amazed at his own heartbeat - oh to be 5 again!

And guess who got to go to Kindergarten for the day?! This girl! Her 4 year old class went to Kindergarten while the Kindergarten was at Music, AND she got her own TFS PE shirt. She thinks she's hot stuff!

Disney Info

2012-01-20T16:23:00.002-05:00

Since we've gotten back from our Disney trip in December, so many people have asked me for my advice on things, what we did, where we stayed, where we ate, etc., so now I've condensed of my Disney posts into one "page" complete with my commentary about fastpasses, what order to do things, etc. It's with all of the other pages at the top of the blog under Disney Trip 2011. Enjoy!

Winter? Where's Winter?!

2012-01-07T11:45:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was absolutely gorgeous! What a great way to end the Christmas break! We celebrated Todd's birthday (aka New Year's Eve) with a yummy lunch at On the Border. Then we did cake and presents at his parents' house, and his parents kept the kids overnight. Todd and I got to do some shopping without the kids that day, and celebrated NYE with some friends at our house, playing games and enjoying some adult beverages. It was topped off with a game of Twister at 2:30am!

New Year's Day we went to church and Panera (our Sunday tradition). Then Todd and his dad took down Christmas decorations outside while his mom and I played with the kids in the backyard. Afterward, we all watched the Packer game and I took down the inside Christmas decorations. It felt so good to have them all down before we all went back to school and work! Yay!

Flippin' Around

2012-01-05T19:57:00.000-05:00

More pics from Kate's latest gymnastics class :) She has officially been in gymnastics for a full year. What an amazing difference a year makes! Things that she wouldn't go near a year ago, she now does willingly and with a smile. Gymnastics has definitely helped with her overall confidence in trying new things, which has been a HUGE change for her over the last year.

Working on their bridges and stretching

This beam, the "tall" of the little beams, freaked her out a year ago! It helps that her friend, Camden, is there cheering her along!

The high beam - Kate likes jumping off :)

"Listening" to directions is tough at dinner time!

Run, run, run, JUMP, and flip... almost got it by herself :)

Her favorite - she LOVES to swing on the bar!

Happy girl

Telling Marlyn (the owner) all about Cinderella Castle - she'll tell anyone who will listen :)

Fishin' for a birthday

2011-12-29T11:06:00.000-05:00

After we finished opening Christmas presents at Mom & Dad's, we were all sitting around, eating too many snacks, when Jeff jokingly said that he had his fishing gear in the car. It was a nice day, and still about an hour before dinner, so I said, "Let's go!" He thought I was kidding, but I wasn't. I figured it would be fun for the kids and get us all out of the house, so off we went. In an effort to save time, we didn't bring a fishing pole. Luckily, Uncle Jeff is good on the spot, because it all worked out beautifully. Even the annoying geese mostly cooperated!

Todd's favorite cake is yellow cake with chocolate frosting - how boring is that?! But I make it every year. Apparently, this year, I made it a little too quickly. Todd helped me get one of the cakes out of the cake pan, and it crumbled on one side. So, I decided to frost the whole thing before we left... when it was still warm... and then we put it in the car... and drove for 20 minutes. Yep, this is what it looked like upon arrival :( I was annoyed, to say the least.

Cute picture of Erin and Kate... never mind that I cropped out myself on the side, flipping off my husband behind the camera who was taking pictures of said cake.

After the cake fiasco and opening presents, we headed down to the lake. It's not really a lake, but I've called it a lake for the last 19.5 years, so it's a lake. Ok? Ok.

Jeff got the bait on the hook on the line and threw it in the water as far as he could... it was entertaining.

Within a couple minutes, the boys caught the first fish!

Brett was so excited!!

Getting ready to throw that one back in... now could he do it again?!

Oh yes! Although, by this point, the geese were on to us. Erin and Meredith took some bread to the other side of the lake (pond) to distract the geese away from the fish.

Kate (in her sparkle shoes, tights, dress, and big bow) with Uncle Jeff and their fish... whew, time to go home!

But not until Kate pets the fish first!

And she had to feed the geese too... those annoying, pooping, loud, obnoxious geese!

After dinner, time to celebrate Todd's birthday a few days early.

He always has helpers to blow out the candles!

Brett is the resident candle-licker... no icing left behind!

And there he is, enjoying his sugar-high, dancing to the music in his head!

Crovitz Christmas

2011-12-29T10:40:00.000-05:00

Our last Christmas celebration was on December 29... yes, it took us that long to "finish" Christmas! Erin and Jeff had gone to Swansboro to celebrate Christmas with Jeff's family, plus I had to work a LOT around Christmas, so we had to get a little creative with our Christmas planning! Because Todd's birthday was that weekend too, we celebrated it all together, but more on Todd's birthday later!

There was a lot of laughter...

...and I do mean a LOT! Mom kept nudging me and laughing to herself. What was so funny?

You see Jeff, and the Belk box addressed to "Erin and Jeff" - in our family that only means one thing. It's really an "Erin" present and not so much a "Jeff" present. So what was it?!

More Christmas dishes! Hooray!! Jeff hangs his head...

We gave them a new BIG clock for their BIG wall! We were nice though and gave Jeff a gift card to the bike shop.

The only thing I asked Erin for was for her to make me a jewelry holder like hers... and she did! I love it! It's hanging, and filled. I'll post a picture later :)

Brett was doing a touchdown dance - no idea why!


Grandma & Grandpa got a nice wine rack from my parents... yay for wine :)

More Christmas!

2011-12-26T10:14:00.000-05:00

Once we got through Christmas day, the fun still continued! We had a short visit with my Aunt Ann from Atlanta. She came into town for a few days for Christmas and made her way around town to visit with all of her great nieces and nephews. We know that she loves to see us too, but it's more about the munchkins :) She always gives ornaments to the kids. This year she gave Kate one of her very own dolls - so sweet! Kate asks to see the doll often, but she knows that she is NOT allowed to play with it. She also gave Brett a Kreo Optimus Prime set. Brett loves loves loves it! He also loves to build it as a car, then take it apart and re-build it as a robot. That whole process takes about 4 hours!!!

Aunt Ann and Kate with the doll

Aunt Ann and Brett - Brett noticed that they had similar sweaters on that day :)

After Aunt Ann left, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to celebrate Christmas with them.

Brett got a very cool Cars 2 Lego set

Kate got lots of cool presents too, but she thought it was funny to dig in the bag looking for more. We thought her little butt up in the air was pretty funny :)

Brett got a new Aaron Rodgers jersey! Good thing because the Favre jersey had already been handed down to Kate :)

Grandma and Grandpa got a Lowe's gift card to build a new fire pit in their back yard here.

And they got this concrete bench to put with their fire pit

Christmas Day

2011-12-25T09:46:00.000-05:00

Our Christmas day was actually fairly calm. Because we had just gotten back in town late on the 23rd and I worked all day on the 24th, we had everything done way ahead of time. Todd's parents and sister were in South Carolina celebrating Christmas. One of my sisters and her husband were with his family, and my other sister and parents opened presents at their house and came over later in the day. I have to say it was strangely quiet, but also sort of nice. We were done opening presents in about an hour, not counting all of the time that it took to actually open all of the toys and sort Legos. Yep, you read that right - we sorted Legos. For about 3.5 hours. Oh.my.goodness. It was insane! We bought these Lego storage things for the kids (well, maybe more for me) so we sat there, across the family room, sorting Legos. I really think I love it though :)

Kate with her Santa loot - her favorite was the "Barbie Fashion Doll with a Horse" (the only thing she asked Santa for this year)

It was a Transformer Christmas for Brett... Santa shops at Target during the end-of-summer toy clearance :)

Kate's new baby cradle from Memere and Poppy - it looks great in her room :)

Kate had a very princess Christmas from the Crovitz family! Memere won the princess basket at the Harvest Moon Festival back in the fall, so many of the things in it were gifted to Kate for Christmas, like this table and chairs that converts to...

Rapunzel's Tower! How cool is that?!

My Dad, like Todd, enjoys some toys as part of Christmas. We used to have bubble lights on "his" tree, but they all sort of died out. When I saw these over the summer, I had to get them!

A little Christmas Day movie - this year's feature was "The Lion King" from Aunt Dithy!

Merry Christmas Eve!

2011-12-24T20:36:00.000-05:00

Last Disney Day!

2011-12-22T19:00:00.000-05:00

Our last day we started at Epcot so that we could get an early fastpass for Soarin', which is totally worth it, by the way! We did Soarin' and Test Track (both with fastpass) and a few other things that we knew we could get into easily with minimal wait times. We had a late lunch reservation in Mexico, then headed back over to the Magic Kingdom to cram in more princess fun and Big Thunder Mountain (Brett's new favorite ride).

Playing in the Figment attraction at Epcot

The goal is to jump on the one that is lit up to make music

Mexico, can you tell?! :)

Lunch spot in Mexico - delicious!

Obligatory family picture in front of the Epcot ball

Memere and Poppy with Brett and Kate

Ellen's Energy Adventure (or something like that) - it was pretty cool, but Kate was a little nervous that the dinosaurs were going to get too close!

One of the many Monorail rides for the day! Speaking of the monorails - Brett LOVED them! He loved them so much that he picked out a monorail toy as his souvenir! Funny boy :)

Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it Parade at Magic Kingdom

Dancing in the street at the end of the parade - Todd and Brett are the ones not in black and white :)

Back on the carousel... both kids this time!

Kate thought the pink Cinderella castle was just awesome!

The people mover at night was kind of cool - and relaxing :) At this point, 6 straight days in the parks was starting to catch up to everyone.

We stayed late that night to see the Electrical Parade. My parents and I took Kate to get a spot more than an hour before the parade started while Todd and Brett rode Big Thunder Mountain one last time. Kate fell asleep in the stroller while she was people watching. Then Todd brought Brett back to us, woke up Kate, and took her to say bye to the princesses (we had a fastpass for both attractions, so they were both quick.) While we were standing there waiting over an hour for the parade, they had fake snow coming down on Main Street. Neither one of our kids saw the excitement in that, but the adults thought it was cool! Shorts and t-shirts in the snow in Florida! Nice! Kate and Todd got back just in time for the start of the parade. Brett fell asleep at the VERY end of the parade. Just too much excitement for one day :)

Princess Breakfast Day!

2011-12-21T17:17:00.000-05:00

We had a very early start on Day #5 because it was Princess Breakfast Day in the castle! Kate was so excited!! We brought her Rapunzel dress and her sparkle shoes and let her wear those over her regular clothes for the breakfast. She was almost speechless - just taking it all in. I don't think she ate more than 2 or 3 bites of her breakfast because she was just so amazed by it all! Later in the day, we headed over to Epcot because there were only a few things left that we wanted to do (or do again) at Magic Kingdom. Yay for park hopper tickets!

In front of the castle, dressed like a princess and her prince!

Kate and Cinderella in the foyer

Breakfast in the ballroom... Kate loved walking up the red carpet spiral staircase!

Sleeping Beauty

Snow White

Ariel

She got Kate's nose :)

Belle

Coloring in Rapunzel's "tower" - after we had waited for almost an hour and a half, I was grateful for something to keep her entertained!

Rapunzel! Kate LOVED it!!!

Rapunzel signed her coloring sheet

Over to Epcot, in front of the Nemo ride

Turtle Talk with Crush was really cute and interactive - everyone was laughing!

The monorail was our friend that day... we rode it a LOT!

End of the night, heading back to the resort!

Sea World, again, and Downtown Disney

2011-12-20T10:23:00.000-05:00

Day 4 was spent sleeping in (well, if you consider 7:00 AM sleeping in), a few hours at Sea World, and some fun at Downtown Disney. We headed back to the hotel in the late afternoon to let the kids play at the pool for awhile. No, it was not heated, but it was pushing 80 degrees outside. Their lips were only sort of blue ;)

Feeding and petting the sting rays... this girl was fearless!

Putting her hand in, trying to get the stingrays to swim to her! Brett was content watching :)

Memere trying to help Kate attract the sting rays with a fish

Say Cheese!

Memere and Poppy with the kiddos

We watched the dolphin show again. Then Kate wanted to watch the whale show, but Brett wanted to go ride Shamu Express (the kids' roller coaster) some more, so the girls went one way and the boys went another. Memere bought us all snacks at the whale show. You should've seen Kate's face! Messy!!

Funny girl on a sugar high!

Downtown Disney at the Lego store... all of those people are made of Legos!

They had a huge station outside to build and race cars... it was just like Brett's birthday party, only way cooler!

Buzz, also out of Legos!

Buzz and Woody outside - you guessed it, out of Legos!

I almost can't believe that Yoda didn't come home with us :) He did get to custom-build his own light saber though... much cooler!

The Pirate Ship pool at our resort - the kids thought it was very cool, but neither of them wanted to go down the water slide.

Hanging out in the kid section... zero entry pool with some fun water shooter things

We were not crazy... no freezing cold pool for us! The Styrofoam cups had some yummy adult beverages!

Hollywood Studios

2011-12-19T09:43:00.000-05:00

Day 3 of our trip was spent at Hollywood Studios. Nothing could have prepared us for the insanity of the first hour of our day! The park opens at 9, so it was pretty crowded when we got there, which was to be expected. Pretty much everyone lines up (read - pushes, shoves, etc.) at the rope drop on the right side to go to the same spot - Toy Story Mania. The goal is to get a fastpass, quickly, before they run out for the entire day. Todd and my dad were on fastpass duty, but they also had Brett with them to get Brett signed up to be a Jedi-in-training before the park ever opened. They were able to get Brett signed up, then raced over, through the crazy mob, to get in the fastpass line for Toy Story. Somewhere in the middle of that, my mom and I had Kate and were able to get in line to ride Toy Story with only a 30 minute wait. Todd got Brett to my mom and I and the 4 of us (my mom and I and the kids) were able to ride Toy Story with only a 30 minute wait, PLUS we now all had a fastpass to ride later! Score! While we were in Toy Story, Todd was in line to meet Buzz and Woody from Toy Story. By the time we got out, he was #3 in line, so it worked perfectly. I just handed the kids over the fence to him and they didn't have to wait at all! The lines for the rides aren't bad once you figure out the timing, but the character lines can be INSANE. More on that a different day :)

Jedi Training - Brett was paying close attention to learn how to defeat Darth Vader

Can you hear the Star Wars music?!

Darth Maul

One excited boy!

His Jedi Training class

Focus!

His turn to fight Darth Vader

Backing up, while we were waiting until Brett's time for Jedi Training, we took the kids over to the playset of "Honey I Shrunk the Kids." I wasn't sure if they'd like it, but they absolutely loved running around with a little bit of free time!

Kate loved sliding down the leaf!

Later in the day - waiting in line with our Toy Story Fastpass - our wait time was about 20 minutes. Those without a fastpass were waiting 150 minutes - TWO and a half HOURS?!?! Can you imagine?!?! Fastpass people!!! I'm so glad the general public hasn't figured out the brilliance of Fastpass!

We watched a Belle show that was pretty cute... the whole sttory on stage in about 30 minutes.

Star Tours - I know this ride makes me sick, and this time was no different. I don't know why I still go on it! Brett loved it... Kate was not impressed. She didn't dislike it, but it's definitely not on her list of Top 5 things to do again.

Hanging out behind bars, outside, in the cool air, waiting for the Star Tours-induced vertigo to pass.

Woohoo!!

Magic Kingdom, part 1

2011-12-18T23:26:00.000-05:00

Day 2 was Magic Kingdom... it opens at 8am, instead of 9am like the other parks. Plus we had to plan for parking and riding the monorail before the park opening, so it was an early morning! The kids were troopers though... they went hard all day long! It helped that the park closed at 7:00pm that day, so we had an easy excuse to call it early another night!

In the parking lot, ready for a day of Disney FUN!

For as long as we've been talking about going to Disney World, Kate has been talking about seeing the "real Cinderella Castle." Finally, she got to really see it! She was SO stinkin' excited!!

All of our little "cheat sheets" said to head to Dumbo first, so we did. Kate wanted NOTHING and I mean absolutely nothing to do with the Dumbo ride! Maybe because it went up into the air?! I have no idea. Either way, Brett and I rode it together, and he loved it :)

It had a little joystick to control the up/down motion - yeah, Brett had it UP the entire ride :)

While we waited for Dumbo, Kate spotted the Cinderella Carousel, which she got to ride on immediately (there is almost no line for that at any time of day). She rode it all by herself and had a blast!

Next was "It's a Small World"... I can't begin to tell you how crazy this ride makes me, but Kate loves it, so we went. And then we went again the same day. And again another day. We even got stuck on it once. I'm still hearing the music in my head!

Kate and Poppy, taking it all in!

Hula girls dancing to "It's a small world" Hawaiian style!

Hanging out in line, waiting for Donald Duck

Say Cheese! Or is it Quack?!

We had just seen "Mickey's Philharmagic" where Donald goes flying across the room and ends up stuck in the wall on the opposite side of the theater. Brett wanted to know why he was so silly and if his head hurt! Thankfully, Donald played along quite well!

Taking the train around the park (aka, relaxing for awhile!)

Family picture time on Main Street... it was really cool to see it all decorated for Christmas!

The view from our lunch spot, Tomorrowland Terrace

What a cute couple :)

The Potater and Milkshaker (Kate and Brett)

"Look, Poppy! There is the Cinderella Castle!" - Kate

Our kids have never been into Mickey and Minnie all that much, but you'd never guess it when we told them who we were going to go see after lunch! Brett was so excited. Here is is, peering around this little room divider, trying to get a better view!

Mickey and Minnie

The whole gang!

Next were the 3 princesses. If you have a little girl who loves princesses, you MUST get a fastpass to meet the 3 princesses. We walked right in, waited maybe 5-10 minutes and got to meet all 3 princesses back to back - Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and Cinderella. Kate was in heaven. She was A-MAZED! The princesses do a great job interacting with the kids and staying in character. Sleeping Beauty wanted to know if Brett fights off the dragons for Kate!

I love Kate's expression here - she was looking at Belle's dress and gloves the entire time Belle was talking to Brett (asking to see his muscles!)

Here she is, feeling Belle's dress - so sweet!

Cinderella asking where they were from and if it was a long carriage ride to her castle

Cinderella kissed Brett on the cheek and Brett announces, "I don't like princesses!" One day you will, buddy, one day!

"Dream Along with Mickey" show in front of the castle - get there early enough to get a decent seat on the ground in front of the stage - any spot there is great!

Kate has this new, strange fascination with Millificent (the evil woman in Sleeping Beauty) - she just has to see Millificent!

Anything with dancing princesses is just great according to Kate :) Brett was equally amused!

Fireworks at the end - kaboom!

The many faces of Kate - on the people mover in Tomorrowland as a time-filler!

30 seconds later - all better!

So, you know how the people mover goes through Space Mountain? Yeah, Space Mountain broke down while we were going through! Now you know what it looks like on the inside when those crazy lights and stuff seem to be whizzing past your head.

Brett and Todd on the people mover

The Jungle Cruise - the kids asked many many many times what was real and what was fake

Say cheese!

A view out from the Swiss Family Treehouse

One of the coolest things - Cinderella's Castle all lit up with Christmas lights!

A view down Main Street from the train station

Sea World

2011-12-17T21:59:00.000-05:00

After a long drive on Friday, we wanted our first day in Orlando to be sort of calm and laid back (as much as possible anyway), so we decided to do a day at Sea World to start out. I was anticipating the kids' meltdowns from the late night/ crazy day/ insane week that we'd had, so I didn't want to "waste" that day at Magic Kingdom. It worked beautifully. We enjoyed the dolphins, whales, etc. and left at dinner time to head back for an early night.

Kate LOVED feeding the dolphins. She didn't seem nervous at all about dropping the fish in their mouths.

Brett was a little apprehensive, but got over it quickly!

The Dolphin Show was definitely the kids' favorite show at Sea World.

The whale show was cool, but it was pretty close to lunch, so attention spans were short at this point!

Who knew that Santa would be at Sea World?!

He was at the Polar Express, of course! Kate wasn't tall enough for this ride, so we all did the "walk through" version. The boys went later on without us and said that we would've ended up with motion sickness. Whew - glad I missed it!

More Santa pics - Kate asked for a Barbie fashion with a horse and Brett asked for Transformers. I know you're shocked!

Solid ice...

So Kate decides to lay on it?! Goofy girl!

Brett humored his sister and rode the little kiddie train - he was less than impressed!

That face says, "Really Dad?!" I think he was a little bored!

Waiting for the train ride

The penguins were cute - Kate kept trying to walk like a penguin.

Brett really liked their snowman!

Memere and Poppy with Brett and Kate

Family picture in front of the whale plants

Flip for it!

2011-12-13T20:50:00.000-05:00

A little glimpse of Kate's latest gymnastics class!

Getting more comfortable up on the high(er) beam

Her favorite - jumping off!

Waiting in line, chatting with her friend, Camden

Run, jump, FLIP!

Waiting for a clearing to jump

Weeeeeeee!

Working on casts and nice pointy toes

Landing on her feet is a new accomplishment here :)

She can ALMOST get over by herself!

The girls tickle each others feet to make the other one hurry - nice, huh?

Cartwheel!

Pardon the blurry image - but here it goes - JUMP

DOWN

And back up!

She JUST figured out how to do it during the last class. She is sooo proud of herself!

Big fear overcome - hanging off the high bar and jumping into the pit

Meet Sparky

2011-12-03T22:04:00.000-05:00

Meet Sparky. He is our Elf on the Shelf. Last year he was sort of mellow and calm and just hung around to keep an eye on things. Apparently, this year he is coming out of his shell a little bit and is getting a little mischevious! Check out some of his activities lately!

He delivered the Star Wars Lego Advent Calendar - Brett thought that was AWESOME!

He roasted marshmallows over a candle on my kitchen table, and even left chocolate on the kids' placemats for breakfast the next day.

He went pole dancing on one of my kitchen lights.

He's getting cozy with the princesses.

He's coloring on the table, Christmas trees and snowmen, of course.

He built himself a car and a snowman out of legos, using our Lego book.

Gingerbread House

2011-12-01T21:22:00.000-05:00

Last year I had these great intentions on making a gingerbread house with my kids, but I kept putting it off, and putting it off. You get the point. It ended up that Todd and my parents did the house with the kids a day or two before Christmas while I was at work. So this year, I was determined to do this with them, so we did it really early. Like the very beginning of December kind of early :) I think it turned out pretty well - take a look!

First, you start with your fake gingerbread house. Yes, I said fake. Ours is from The Candy Cottage. Love it. When you are done with it, you put it under hot water and it all washes away!

Next, you take your store-bought icing (yes, I said STORE bought) and a bunch of candy from the dollar store (or last year's Christmas candy that you shamelessly still have in your possession - it's only going to get more stale).

And you start building... I made it slightly educational and told the kids they had to make a pattern and repeat it. Get a little math lesson in there :)

Kate was really focused for about 10 minutes.

Then Brett took over and got bossy like older siblings do.

And Kate lost interest. And then my table looked like this for a few hours. It's ok.

Check out the work that they did! I did the tree (an ice cream cone and green skittles with a lemon drop on top).

Do you see the person? The little fruit roll thing is the head and the skittles are the arms and the dots are the feet. I'm not sure what the lemon drop is in this picture. I'll leave that to your imagination ;)

turkey day

2011-11-26T20:42:00.000-05:00

A little late, but better than never :) We had a seriously great Thanksgiving this year at my Aunt & Uncle's house in Raleigh. Lots of family, a few friends, and BEAUTIFUL weather! We could not have asked for a more gorgeous day! I'm sure that I could type out something detailing the day, but I think it will be better told in pictures.

The Fearless Foursome - 3 boys and a Kate

They had that driveway covered in chalk in minutes! Quite impressive!

Kate and Uncle Jeff - the littlest to the biggest

"Twirl me, Poppy!"

They look like they're plotting an attack

Maybe they were discussing the engineering of their chalk roads

Setting the kids' table, but not SITTING at the kids' table :)

Cute Turkey! Gobble Gobble!

Funny Nolan had this headband around his belly at one point and it looked like cow utters - cracked.me.up!

Sweet Hayden :)

Proof that 5 year old boys are not always wild and crazy

This group of boys, however, looks like they are up to no good!

Ha! Hot mess!

Kate and "her" Aunt Dithy

Goof Ball

This just makes me laugh

Pinata time! What? Your family doesn't have a Thanksgiving Day Pinata?!

It's highly entertaining - you should add it to your next Thanksgiving feast!

Cousins!

Note to self - the kids have a hard enough time when they can see what they're aiming for - this just made it comical.

Kate was NOT a fan of being the center of attention.

Um, yeah, someone has some baseball experience! Can you tell?!

Serious work. Must collect more candy.

They actually got tired of picking it up and stopped. We had to fill their bags just to get candy out of the yard.

Aunt Noel, the Cook

And Uncle Tim too!

Christian. Being goofy on Thanksgiving. Some things never change :)

Kate had to try them on too

The kids had Turkey masks

There seems like it should be a song.. 4 little turkeys sitting on the steps...

Barsh and Justin - so cute!

The winning Trivia team. They had the human encyclopedia on their team!

Another Trivia team... more of a "for fun" type of team!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

2011-11-24T13:53:00.000-05:00

While I was hard at work the day before Thanksgiving, Todd and the kids got to enjoy a fun day off with Grandma and Grandpa. They cooked a fun breakfast of German Pancakes, then headed to the mall to go see Santa! I didn't really know what their plans were for the day. Otherwise I would've actually "done" Kate's hair, but it is what it is, crazy hair and all!

Knock knock... anybody home?!

2011-11-21T22:11:00.001-05:00

Yep - we're still here! We've been busy living life, which is a good thing! We just haven't taken any pictures along the way. Stay tuned though - we'll be back soon :)

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

Thankful

2011-11-10T16:58:00.001-05:00

Today I'm thankful for our sweet 2 kids and their health. Brett has definitely been under the weather this week and is finally starting to bounce back with the help of a strong antibiotic and some new allergy meds. He actually woke up smiling today for the first time all week - yay! If you know Brett you know that he is always smiling, so for him to be so upset made me realize that this was more than just a typical cold. Luckily Kate has continued to be her feisty self... good and bad :) Hopefully she stays healthy!

I hope you and your family are staying healthy going into this crazy holiday season!

I {heart} fall!

2011-11-06T19:25:00.000-05:00

I love the fall.
I love weekends with not.a.single.thing.planned.
I love being in pajamas until three o'clock in the afternoon.
I love church with the fam. And brunch. And quick easy errands.
I love when one of the kids has a great idea.
Like a hike.
In the b-e-a-u-ti-ful weather!
GREAT idea sweet Kate :)

Even if we had to let Brett and Dad play Kinect first :)

H-A-Double L-O-W-Double E-N

2011-11-06T18:29:00.003-05:00

Both kids classes had Halloween celebrations on Halloween this year... because Mondays aren't wild enough apparently :)

Kate's class had a costume parade at 9:00 and their Halloween centers (parent and teacher-lead centers) in the middle of their school day. Brett's class had their parent-lead centers in the middle of their school day and their costume parade at 2:00, followed by early dismissal. Thankfully only the Kindergarten and 1st grade has a costume parade and not the entire school!

The Ocean Friends, all 18 of them!

The cutest witch ever

Kate with 2 of her school friends and their decorated pumpkins

The little sisters of TFS playing "ring around the rosie"

Brett's class, parading in

He kept "transforming" in line... I'm sure his classmates just loved him, or maybe they just didn't care :)

Brett's class - missing a teacher and one student, I think

One of my latest Pinterest finds, cute (easy peasy lemon squeezy) witch hats for our neighborhood Halloween party

Kid craft at the Kiz house

Woody and Jesse (aka Mr. & Mrs. Kiz) - they like Halloween almost as much as the funny Halloween episode of Modern Family

Todd made me add freckles so that I looked more like Jesse and less like a country bumpkin... we got to the party and there was the "real" Jesse! Surprise!

The Optimus Prime transformed into Brett temporarily

The Cute Witch is back!

The kids ask Todd to take them trick-or-treating every year. This year, in the morning, before I saw the weather forecast, the kids asked me to take them and I said ok. Yeah... about that...

Sleeping Beauty

Post trick-or-treating - ready to hand out candy with Dad (really they were told to get ready for bed! It was a school night, after all!)

Yoda

Yoda again :)

R2D2 - Brett told me that it was "the best R2D2 ever"... I love that kid!

The {rainy} Season

2011-11-06T18:02:00.000-05:00

This has to be the rainiest soccer season ever on record! There was so much rain and hurricanes and extreme cold - what a wild season. I guess it was fitting that the day of their last game was cold (34 degrees) and pouring cats and dogs. Needless to say, they cancelled the games and moved the picnic indoors!

Kate receiving her medal from "coach" (aka, dad)

Kate and her BFF, Liliana... love these 2 together! I wish they were in the same class again this year!

The 2011 Monkeys

One last "GO MONKEYS, ooh, ooh, ooh, ee, ee, ah, ah, ah"

2009-2011 Dolphins - most of these kids have played together for 3 seasons now!

Brett thought that coach forgot his medal... psych!

The last "GO DOLPHINS" of the season!

A picture with coach

Hill Ridge Farm

2011-11-06T17:56:00.002-05:00

There is a place called Hill Ridge Farm about 30 minutes north of Raleigh that I've always heard people talk about and I've always heard the ads on the radio, and I've always thought "that would be really cool to take the kids", but we've never been. First, the kids were too little, then our fall weekends were occupied with soccer, and it has just always been easy to put it off "until next year." Well, this year our friend's youngest son had his birthday party at Hill Ridge Farm, so we (read: I) had a great excuse to go!

Anyway, the kids LOVED it! It was cold (in the low 40's) and had poured most of the morning, so there were big puddles everywhere, but the sun was shining, so it felt warmer than it actually was outside. I think the weather deterred a lot of people, so it was mostly just the party goers on what would normally be a busy day on the farm (the Saturday before Halloween).

Brett LOVED the maze and wanted to go again and again and again... yes, I do think we have a future engineer on our hands!

And Kate LOVED feeding the goats... especially she figured out that we could lift her up to look into the tubes to actually see the goats eating the food that she gave them.

Each kid had a huge Ziploc full of animal food!

Beautiful day on the farm!

The giant slide was a big hit with the boys

Kate and some of the other younger kids preferred the corn house... literally a small house, filled with corn kernals

Waiting for our train

That's one rowdy caboose!

Gorgeous view of the farm

Our wagon-covered hayride to the party site

Sweet girls :)

Love these 2 - Matt & Kristen at Three in the Nest

Gorgeous Mama with her (for now) youngest boy!

We had our own pumpkin patch!

Two of the 3 in the nest

Awesome family picture - I'm not biased at all!

Post Craziness

2011-10-23T20:10:00.002-04:00

There are SIX new posts this weekend... seven if you count this one :) So go to the next page too and enjoy!

State Fair

2011-10-23T16:45:00.000-04:00

It has become tradition to go to the state fair on a Sunday morning, bright and early, no matter how cold it might be. This morning was in the mid-40's when we first got there, but warmed up nicely! It was a perfect day at the fair, and only got crowded around lunch time. This was the first year that we left the stroller at home and decided to tough it out. The kids did amazing! I felt a little like a pack mule, but I survived too :)

The kids found these boards all over the place and thought they were hilarious!

Hmmm... turkey legs!

A little mid-morning snack with Dad

This year's winning pumpkin - 5228 pounds! Wow!

Kate loved all of the animals, especially the baby pigs and chicks. Brett was counting the seconds until 10am, when the rides opened!

Checking out the police helicopter

Brett and Miss Kinston - he was such a little ham! Kate wanted nothing to do with her.

Waiting for their turn on the roller coaster. Kate was a little nervous, but she tried not to show it.

Kate's first roller coaster ride - she LOVED it!!! Brett did too :)

Breaking for lunch with the Apex Lions

Brett busted out some Transformer moves

Annual fair background picture

Sweet kids & pretty flowers

Basically, a ginormous train table... Brett was in heaven

Goofy kids

Kate had the giggles

Sweetness <3

Walking up the "Spooky Path"

Go Dolphins!

2011-10-23T16:18:00.000-04:00

More pictures from game #2 on Saturday (Brett's team):

Tired, hungry girl!

Doing rolls makes everything more fun :)

Chill in the air

2011-10-22T15:25:00.000-04:00

This is our next to last week of soccer for the fall. I have to admit, I'm a little bit glad! I love that both kids are enjoying soccer this year, but the last few weekends we've had FOUR games, plus the fact that I'm back to working every fourth weekend (instead of every sixth weekend). It's just been a lot of very useless weekends! However, this weekend, we only had 2 games - both today - one at 8am and one at 11:45, with some time to rest in between. The 8am game was quite chilly - maybe in the high 40's? Last weekend was in the 70's, so it was a shock to the system to say the least! We got everyone's winter weather gear out and everyone seemed happy and warm during Kate's game.

Silly girl, goofy hat!

Brett likes to do warm-ups with Kate's team, especially when there is such a time gap between games.

Pink hat, pink gloves, pink ball - check, check and CHECK!

Our sweet friend, Z, scored a goal today!

Drills... attention spans at 3 and 4 years old are a little lacking sometimes!

Kate and 2 of her friends take a break to say "Cheese!"

The older siblings help out on the sidelines by retrieving stray balls.

Dancing during the game - such girly girls!

Don't be fooled - she is most definitely NOT sleeping!

Post game high-fives... gotta learn good sportsmanship!

GO MONKEYS!

Kinect

2011-10-21T21:44:00.001-04:00

Bear with me - dumping lots of pictures off the SD card :) There are 3 posts tonight, so check them all out!

A fun family night playing the Kinect. At least this way the kids can fight without being mean and without hurting each other!

Before and After

2011-10-21T21:31:00.000-04:00

I think that most parents of young kids would agree - the toy room (or other place that you store your kids' toys) is a constant battle. For me, it is especially so because it is the first room you see when you come in the front door. Some call it a formal living room, but we call it the toy room. One day, it may be a more exciting space, but for now, it is practical. Every so often, I decide to tackle the mess. Don't get me wrong - the kids are responsible for "cleaning it up" every night before bed, but things get put in the wrong place, get lost, get broken, get forgotten, etc. Every now and then I remove the forgotten toys and rearrange. These pictures are a glimpse of that day!

Before - Transformers, Legos, and cars - here, there, and everywhere!

After - labeled cases, organized cabinets, much better!

All of the signs are the same design - with simple words that the kids have learned to "read" (recognize)

Basic stickers with the same polka dots and lettering

Before - little girly things, thrown everywhere

After - organized animal house, castle stuff, and doll clothes!

Before - kitchen chaos, dress-up clothes everywhere, arts & crafts mess

After - dress-up divided up, labeled, organized art supplies, cleanish desk

Easy access, organization <3

Before - mess everywhere, old art on boards

After - new art up on boards, more organized, happy Mom!

Kick it!

2011-10-21T21:04:00.000-04:00

Some pics from the last few weeks of soccer...

Gabe, Kate, and Liliana take a break during the game

Get in my belly!

The sideline is not so important doing throw-ins during pre-K soccer :)

GO MONKEYS!

GO DOLPHINS! (Thanks, Cullen family, for the Michigan pom poms!)

1-2-3... Goooooo Dolphins!

Stretching out

The frowns are few and far between this season! Yay!

In the mix - being "aggressive"!

Victory Tunnel

Airplane park

2011-10-05T10:42:00.001-04:00

Yesterday after preschool I took Kate and one of our friends to the airplane park to play until it was time to pick up the big kids. They have a huge sand box, so we brought lots of sand toys. I let them take off their shoes and socks since it was SO pretty outside! Then they decided to play hide and seek up on the observation deck. I'm pretty sure that the old men watching the airplanes in the peace and quiet were not so thrilled at their game of hide and seek, but they had a great time!

Face paint

2011-10-02T21:44:00.000-04:00

The remnants of Kate's rainbow from Francis Fest

Lego ABC's and 123's

2011-10-02T21:21:00.000-04:00

While I was working this weekend, Todd and the kids were hanging out at home. They had been playing peacefully in the toy room, so Todd let them keep playing while he did stuff around the house. Next thing he knew, Brett had made all of his numbers out of Legos, 0 through 20!

Saturday morning's project - all the numbers, 0-20

He also made some Lego "3 Goggles!"

Sunday's project - the entire alphabet!

Here they are, over 24 hours later, still lined up on the bar counter

And along the carpet in front of the bar

80's Child

2011-09-29T13:31:00.000-04:00

This might be one of the funniest moments I've had at 7am in quite awhile! We're trying to get the kids to be a bit more independent in the morning. We lay clothes out the night before. Since they wake up at the butt-crack-of-dawn every morning, but aren't allowed to come out of their room until 7, they use that time to read some stories, get dressed, and make their bed (when they're in the right mood to actually follow directions, of course). So, that's what they did this morning. Both kids' rooms were cleaned up, beds were made, and they were dressed. Brett was in his school uniform - belt on, shirt tucked in, good to go. Kate picked out different clothes than we had picked out the night before, which is fine. She added some stylish accessories too! My little 80's child!

Sunday

2011-09-25T17:14:00.000-04:00

Just a typical Sunday afternoon at our house... hanging out, watching the Packers, (a little) thankful that the make-up soccer games got rained out, again!

Crazy hair gymnastics

2011-09-21T20:05:00.000-04:00

I realized that I haven't taken pictures of even talked about Kate's gymnastics class in a long time. She is still taking gymnastics one night a week. She aged up about a month ago and is now in a class of all 4 year olds and is doing great. She was doing great in her old class too, but had gotten to the point that she could do everything without a lot of new challenges, so this class is good for her! Pardon the crazy wig, side pony tails, and other weird hair you may see in these pictures - it's crazy hair week at gymnastics!!

Run, jump, push, and flip... she runs and gets distracted by other people in the gym :) But she can do it!

Handstands are fun! This particular class day they only had two kids in the class - Kate and her friend, Ava, from school

Building up some arm muscles too

Kate really enjoys the bars and learning how to do new things... mostly. Right now she gets tired easily, but has fun!

Concentrating on keeping her legs straight and pointing her toes

A bad picture, but a pretty good cast!

Backward roll, without the teacher's help! Definitely a more recent skill - yay!

Forward rolls are easy and fun :)

Practice makes perfect

2011-09-21T19:54:00.001-04:00

Our weeks, while hectic, have a certain routine to them. Monday is gymnastics, Tuesdays are practice, some Wednesdays I work late, Thursdays are Todd's soccer, Friday is family time, Saturdays are kid soccer, Sundays are church and football. You get the drift. Usually, Todd takes Brett to practice (Todd and our friend, Mark are the coaches for our boys' team) while Kate and I stay home, eat dinner, and call it an early bedtime. Well, this week Todd had to go to a college fair to represent Marquette. It happened to fall on the same night as team pictures. Let me just tell you now, in case you ever need to know... if you're ever going to miss a practice night, that would be the night to do it! Pictures are so chaotic, despite how organized they try to be. Either way, it's mostly a nightmare for coaches who are trying to get the kids focused on practicing. Eventually, after a great picture like this (see below), everyone finally got into the practice frame of mind and did ok!

Go Dolphins!

The girls are showing them how it's done!

Warm up with some jumping jacks

Stretch those legs!

We don't want any pulled muscles (that's mostly for the coaches... the kids are fine!)

Little siblings got to watch too!

It takes lots of stretching to get ready to play!

Look at that coordination!

Starting to get silly

Cute or hot mess? You decide!

Finally onto some drills

Dribble away

Waiting patiently (?) for their turn

Memere's Birthday

2011-09-21T19:44:00.000-04:00

Long time, no post... I know! I have a bunch of pictures to post, so bear with me for a few minutes! This past Saturday was my mom's birthday and we were lucky enough to ALL be able to get together for dinner with the exception of my sister's fiance, Jeff. These days, that's not too bad - only missing one person! We grilled out and had a fun night celebrating Mom! Brett celebrated with a fever and a cold, which we later found out was just a nasty sinus infection. He's all better now :)

Modeling their Halloween costumes, courtesy of Kids Everywear (a large consignment sale here in town)

As usual, Kate wanted to help open presents

This was the card that Kate picked out for Memere - a "Monkey Fairy Princess" on the front of it. Who cares what the inside said, right?!

Aunt Erin, being Aunt Erin :)

Mom with her shiny new trash can... the old one (while cute) was finally biting the dust!

Kate is definitely my child

Must.lick.every.bite.of.chocolate.off.every.candle.

Whoops! Missed one!

Waiting patiently for her piece of brownie and ice cream (yes, no cake - Mom loves brownies and ice cream!)

Settled

2011-09-13T10:20:00.001-04:00

Now that we're finally in our first FULL week of school (no half days, no early release days, no holidays), I can say that both kids are settled into their classes. Kindergarten is definitely exhausting for this little guy, but he seems to love it! He comes home smiling every day. I love the carpool line. I know, strange to hear someone say that they love the carpool line, but I love seeing his whole face light up as soon as he sees my car. The teacher has to remind him every day to stand still until the car stops - every. single. day. He's just so excited! He loves to tell me about his day - how he did his morning work, he ate snack, he had morning recess and rest, he ate lunch, he had recess again. I usually have to pry the rest out of him - what did you DO during morning work? What letters are you working on today? Eating and recess aren't exactly the highlights of what I want to hear about, but I know they are the highlights of his day! I'm glad to hear about all of the friends he's meeting and to still hear about some of the same friends too!

Kate is adjusting well, too. She has a harder time adjusting to change and a new routine in general. Part of it might be the age and part of it might be her personality. She had a great first week of school, and then a rough second week. She cried almost every day the second week. Not just a little tear - I'm talking full out screaming, tears, throw herself down on the ground fit in the middle of the hallway. And she didn't do it as we got to school or anything like that, it was just when Ms. Aimee opened the door to let the kids in. Thankfully, it was apparently mostly for my benefit (or lack there of) and stopped within 5 minutes and she had a great rest of the day. After a threat of taking away the precious sparkle shoes (and following through with the threat), we've had a MUCH better week this week! Most of her close friends from last year are in the class across the hall, but she doesn't really seem to mind. I let her stay after school to play on the playground at least a couple days a week, so she still gets to see those girls too, and she's already making new friends. Two little girls, Camden and Erin, are usually popular conversation pieces after school! Kate saw Erin at church this weekend and was SO excited! I'll get some good pictures of her up soon, too! Promise!

Ocean Princess

2011-08-29T14:22:00.000-04:00

This little princess had her first day as an Ocean Friend today! She is so excited to follow in Brett's footsteps because she heard him talk about his class all year last year. She was definitely ready to go this morning!! Let's just hope this excitement continues :)

She said she had a great day. Apparently both teachers read stories today, and they had snack and playground time, and ate lunch, and had centers. Her friend, Logan, was in her group for centers. He and Kate are in class together for the third year in a row! Yay! I tried to ask who else was in her group, but that was all I got. She starts her new gymnastics class tonight, so we'll see how that goes. Such an exciting day of new things!

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-27T13:59:00.000-04:00

While our friends down on the coast are getting hammered by Hurricane Irene, we consider ourselves very lucky. We've had 1-2 inches of rain and wind gusts around 40mph, but we don't have much damage at all. There are several small branches, leaves, and other small debris around. Our neighbor lost a tree, but it was fairly small and completely missed his house, so that's good too. We even still have power (assuming I didn't just jinx it)! Basically, we're laying low today, waiting for the storm to blow out of here. The kids think it's great - a low key day, filled with tons and tons of playtime! Dress-up, dolls, Barbies, Transformers, dinosaurs... you name it, they've had it out today! We hope that you and your family stay safe during the storm!

Kindergarten!

2011-08-25T09:29:00.001-04:00

Today is Brett's first day of Kindergarten. He is soooo very excited. He's been talking about it all week! They only go a half day today, so he got to pick a snack to bring and then he'll eat lunch at home. Plus, they only have a third of the class there at any given time this week, so it will hopefully make things a smooth transition.

On the way there this morning he tried to convince me to drop him off at the sidewalk and let him walk in. Thankfully, we're not allowed to do that on the first day :) We'll cross that bridge next week when we have to use the carpool line!

I'm so glad to see him eager and excited to be there and I can't wait to hear all about his first day!

Brett with his preschool friend, Mark - We're so glad they're in the same class. They've been friends since they were 2 years old!

Update - Brett had a GREAT first day! Todd picked him up in the carpool line and brought him home to my mom, who said that he was just as happy at the end of the day as he was at the beginning of the day. He said they wrote some different letters, had recess, ate snack, and read two stories - one about a gingerbread baby and one about the first day of school. Usually when I ask what he did at school, I get maybe one or two things, at best, but he's been talking about it non-stop! I'm so glad that he had such a fun day and I'm looking forward to a great school year :)

We'll see how he does next week when they start going full days!

We've lost our marbles!

2011-08-24T19:38:00.000-04:00

Last week of summer, part 2.

We spent my other day off work this week at Marbles Kids' Museum with some of our friends. Their oldest son and daughter are both starting Kindergarten with Brett. The little siblings got to tag along too :)

Kate likes to play in the ambulance and take care of her "patients"

Emma Kate was driving the boat. Kate had her life jacket on for safety :)

Brett and Brayden are going for a cruise

The boys and the train table - they go together like peanut butter and jelly!

Brett was cranking the motor on the sub

This is Brett's favorite part of the entire museum - building and racing cars

He would've done this all day!

Money-palooza - the balls are "money" and there is a bank with teller stations and all sorts of very cool, creative things to teach kids about money and saving. Kate hoards as many balls as she can possibly carry!

Zachary thought this part was very cool

Policeman Brett thought it was pretty cool too!

Strike!

2011-08-24T16:19:00.001-04:00

Part of our end-of-summer tradition is filling up our last week with fun things that we don't get to do every day. It's fun to end the summer with a bang and it saves us from the end of summer sibling rivalry that just happens from them being side by side for 3 very very very long months. Part of me thinks it's flown by, but part of me feels like they've been out of school forever. I'm ready for them to be back in a routine and for me to be back in a routine and have time away from my sweet munchkins :) I love them, but a little time away does the body good!

So, we started out our last week of summer with a trip to The Alley for some bowling. Last time we went down there, Hillsborough Street was wide open because there was no school in session at NC State, not even summer school. It was easy-breezy to drive in, find a parking place, and be done. This time was a little more challenging, but we managed. Once we got there we realized they were teaching bowling that morning to a bunch of freshmen (presumably freshman anyway). It was pretty entertaining, but we had our hands full with these three boys (and two little siblings).

These three boys managed to get three different Kindergarten teachers. I'm 100% certain that was not an accident!

This little princess loves her bowling shoes and her gumballs. She also loves getting more spares than all the boys combined!

This little dude was not feeling it, or maybe he just wasn't feeling the picture. Yeah, probably more like it!

Dad and son combo... still equaled quite a few gutter balls (yes, even with the ramp and bumpers!) In their defense, the lane was insanely lopsided!

Love these two!

Back to School

2011-08-24T15:56:00.001-04:00

This is a big week in our house! The start of school - real school - Kindergarten! Brett got his first homework assignment already and school hasn't even started yet. When we got our e-mail and letter telling us which teacher he had, there was a coloring sheet attached that he has to bring with him on the first day. Brett does not love coloring, to put it nicely. He would rather do just about anything else, so I've been putting it off for a couple weeks. I finally decided that yesterday was the day and that he would have an easier time sitting down to do it first thing in the morning when he's well rested, and if we colored with him. Obviously, I don't intend on us doing "work" every time he has homework, but it worked out ok in this case. I enjoy coloring and Kate LOVES coloring, so there we were, all 3 of us sitting around the kitchen table coloring our gingerbread pictures in our pajamas.

I especially like the pink head on the gingerbread boy :)

Back to school supplies - crayons, eraser, scissors, glue, and a nap towel. What a life!

Brett had his "meet the teacher" night on Monday and he seemed to really enjoy himself. He was very friendly and outgoing and not at all shy, which is a relief! He knows several kids in his class even if none of them are his "best" friends. He was able to play in the classroom, find his cubby and his hook for his bookbag. Tomorrow is his first day, but he only goes a half day with a third of his classmates. Next Monday and Tuesday half of the class goes for a full day (8:00-2:40) and then on Wednesday of next week the whole class is there together all day.

Kate has her "meet the teacher" on Friday morning. Of course, we already know her teachers since Brett had them last year, but it will be good for Kate to get to see the classroom and some of the kids that will be in her class. Just like Brett, none of her "best" friends will be in her class, which is good and bad, but mostly good. Brett didn't know hardly anyone in his 4 year old class at the beginning of the year and now those boys are like best friends. I'm happy about the fact that Kate's class has more girls this year! The last couple years she's only had a few girls in her class and a ton of boys. This year is a little more even, so hopefully she'll form some good friendships with these girls and boys in her class.

GOAL!

2011-08-20T15:31:00.000-04:00

It's officially soccer season - this year with two teams. Kate is playing on the preschool Monkeys team and Brett's team aged up almost entirely together, so they are still the Dolphins. Todd is coaching both teams with one of our good friends, Mark. I'm not sure who was more tired after the games today - the kids or the coaches! It was a HOT one!

The Pre-K Monkeys, Game 1

The K Dolphins, Game 1

Quack Quack!

2011-08-17T08:16:00.000-04:00

We took advantage of a beautiful, cool(ish) summer morning and met our sweet friends at Lake Lynn to feed the ducks. No, those blonde-haired beauties most definitely do not belong to me - they are Kristen's over at Three in the Nest. Her daughter, Caroline, and Brett will be in the same Kindergarten class this year - so excited!

Calling all Kindergarten Moms!

2011-08-15T09:30:00.001-04:00

I found this on Pinterest (yes, I know, I have an addiction!) and it was too good not to share! Here is a check list of all of those great back-to-school pictures. I can't wait to see what great pictures you get! Counting down... T minus 10 days!

This is from I Share Printables. Check it out! She has printables for everything imaginable! Love it!!

Kickin' It!

2011-08-14T22:06:00.000-04:00

Soccer season officially kicks off next weekend, but we thought we'd have a little practice of our own so that the kids can wear their new shoes and stuff a little bit (and try to prevent any complaining the first real day of practice). As you may or may not remember from last year, Kate was not completely enthusiastic about soccer. However, Todd decided that he's going to coach both teams and he has high hopes for Kate. We'll see :) I do think the pink soccer shoes and princess ball are big steps in the right direction though!

Doing some drills

Playing a game

Practice got rained out! Let's hope the same doesn't happen next week!