This is Maddox's first official sentence. She came home from school one day a couple of weeks ago telling me she could spell 'bat'. So we went from there!! She did a great job with very little prompting as she already knew the sight word 'the'. This beautiful sentence now has a picture of a cat sitting on a mat to accompany it drawn by my little learner and has an award winning spot on our wall in the playroom :) Way to go Maddox.
Suck those smoothies...!! Smoothies you say in the cold winter....?? Eric and I are trying to eat a little healthier right now and have been swapping out sweets with yummy fruit filled smoothies. So far the kids love them. Bring on more silly straws….and maybe a new blender…ours bit the dust tonight:(
My little helper!! Most Tuesday and Thursday mornings, while Maddox is at school, Kennon and I run errands. He is generally pleasant and happy to join me. I even get him to help me carry in the goods from our excursions. It's sad to think this fall I won't have anyone to keep me company on my errands.
The second weekend in January Davenport held its annual ice festival. They hire a world renown ice sculptor to carve several ice sculptures and place them along the Davenport riverfront. Add some kids' crafts, cookie decorating, story telling, and music and you've got yourself a great morning activity. The kids enjoyed themselves and the ice sculptures were amazing.
Decorating cookies from one of Maddox and I's favorite bakeries, Oh So Sweet.
Kennon standing behind one of the ice sculptures.
This was the biggest and main attraction!! It was amazing. You could actually go up and sit in the throne. HUGE.
The ice sculptor is the dude in the maroon jacket. Apparently he lives in New Orleans, Louisiana...!! Odd eh' for an ice sculptor?? But, I guess he has a huge freezer.... ha ha!! :) He actually has a huge building that is kept at a cold temp that he practices in and houses his sculptures/ice blocks before shipping them out across the country.
One of the sculptures just before the unveiling.
Eskimo Maddox with penguin brother Kennon
Maddox and Kennon as taste testers for Carter's ninja turtle birthday cupcakes.
Maddox trying on her dance costume. Just in case you couldn't tell she is a bumblebee!! ;) They are dancing to a song from Winnie the Pooh. She is very excited and her dance skills have improved greatly since the start of the year. We are anxious for her recital on Saturday May 30th.
Kennon and Lula sitting on a John Deere tractor at the John Deere Pavilion in Moline. Lula is the 1 year old daughter of one of my good friends and we try to get the kids together at least one time each week.
Carter, Maddox, and Kennon having Carter's birthday dinner at Grandma Jean and Grandpa Jim's.
Maddox getting her snuggles in with baby Cashin. Now that Cashin has developed great head control Maddox does a really good job of holding him on her own. She sure loves her babies.
Maddox, Cashin, and Reid....could that be any cuter...??
Yep!!....add another dark eyed Knowles boy and we achieve super cuteness!
And wait...add a blue eyed light brown haired Kies boy and we have achieved the ultimate cuteness.... Love these kiddos!! And...!! They are all looking at the camera :) well I guess Cashin isn't but we'll cut him some slack since he probably can't see the camera yet!!
Kennon a.k.a Captain America and Maddox enjoying their Ninja cupcakes
So a friend of mine whipped up these adorable turtle hats in like 24 hours after she found out we were headed to a turtle party. I think they are absolutely adorable...and you'll see in some pictures below that my kiddos keep requesting to wear them....
Ok...now we are back to struggling to get everyone to look at the camera :)
Last Monday the kids didn't have school since we got 14 inches of snow on Superbowl Sunday. The house was starting to get a bit small so we broke out the paper mache. The kids enjoyed it and were excited to POP their balloon after the glue had dried. I made a crucial mistake and didn't apply a good layer of newspaper before the tissue paper. Ooops. So basically the balloon stuck to the tissue paper and sucked the pretty eggs in as it shrunk...which still worked out to be a pretty cool 'trick' as I called it.
This past week I got to spend some time with the Knowles family in Waunakee. Tyler was on a trip down in Florida for work, so I thought I'd head up and lend an extra set of hands. Luckily Eric was able to take a couple of days off of work to stay home with Maddox and Kennon and keep our ship a float. I had a great time playing hide and seek with the boys, taking Carter to school, doing puzzles and games, and getting in extra long snuggles with Cashin and Reid. Eric got in some extra special time with Maddox and Kennon taking them to the museum and out for lunch and playing in the snow in the warm temps. I think it was a 'win win' for everyone.
Cashin and I snuggling while Brooke was outside playing in the snow with the big kids.
I took advantage of being in the big city of Madison and stopped by REI. I picked up some new board shorts and swim shirt for KTK. Most of you know ( everybody but Maddox and Kennon) we are headed to Florida to the beach later this Spring!! I am so excited. I ordered Maddox a new suit from a company out of England :) Excited for it to arrive. I figured we needed some new gear for this vacation. ....the kids' first experience in the white sand.
Man has it been warm this weekend :) !! Maddox and Kennon have been outside everyday since Friday. Friday they built a snowman with Eric, yesterday they shoveled and cleaned up the driveway a bit from all the snow last week ( Kennon loves to dig!) and had Eric pull them around on the sled and then today they built a fort. Sunglasses and lightweight hats were needed today it was so warm.
So let's see what else is going on…. We just got back from church….our new church that is. We left Adventure, the church we got married in, in December and have been on the hunt for a new church home ever since. But, cha ching…I think we've found one:) It is called Heritage and we are really enjoying getting plugged in. Tonight we attended the first of 6 weeks of a marriage class called imarriage and it was really good and the best part…childcare was provided! A LOT of the classes at Heritage provide childcare which is right up our alley. Kids Are A Big Deal at Heritage..and I write that with capitals because that is their slogan for kids. They have a ton of kids activities and marriage empowering classes. Your kids are only as strong as your marriage and it is apparent this is one of Heritage's philosophies. Tuesday night the kids will go to Awana for the first time…a bible study designed for children ages 2- 6th grade. And then Friday the youth group is putting on a Christ Fit Kids Night out/Date Night. So Eric and I get a date night and the kids get dinner, a workout, and a Christ centered fun night. The kids REALLY love to go to Heritage which we are so excited about. It certainly doesn't hurt that the church has a jungle gym and a bouncy house right in the lobby!! But I"m really impressed with the curriculum they use for the kids' teachings and there are lots of home applications facilitated through an app for the iPhone. We'll see where the Heritage path leads us.
Maddox has not only started writing sentences, she started reading the last couple of weeks! I have a great video of her but am having trouble uploading it. She is quickly learning sight words through Bob's books and seems to be enjoying it. We had her conference at preschool last week and she is right on track if not a bit ahead educationally but does need to work on her social skills a bit….primarily on compassion and kindness.
I am working quite a bit. At the start of the year my boss emailed asking me if I'd take on a bit of permanent work. I was happy to get his email!! It is all still from home, from the comforts of my couch, and doesn't have extreme deadlines so it fits the kids' nap schedules perfectly. I end up doing about 5-10 hours per week which is just about perfect.
Reid going down the slide at the park. I was a bit surprised when he decided to go backwards for the first time. He had been going just 'regular style' up until I started filming!! It was belly first after that…he was having so much fun.
We have been playing the Wii a ton since Papa Dick got us some new games. This basketball game is on the Wii Resort Sports disc which also has a wake board and canoe game!! They are so fun. I was wake boarding with Maddox yesterday and broke a sweat. Such a great physical activity during the winter months. But the kids don't even know it, they are having so much fun. Sorry I just realized this video is sideways.
