We love our 'Friday night family nights'. This particular night we went out for dinner and then went to one of our favorite frozen yogurt places only to find it had been renovated since we were last there. It now has a more 'coffee shop' feel with couches, board games, coloring books etc. It is a fun and inviting environment so we hung out playing for a while. One of our favorite babysitters works there too so it is always nice to catch up with her. We realized the kids had never played Checkers before so Eric taught them on the gigantic floor version. Such a fun night.
Happy kids with bellies full of yogurt!
I think I mentioned last post Kennon started playing basketball through the YMCA league back in January. The first couple of gatherings were practices but the picture above happens to be his first official game. He is mid screen in the silver shorts. He is really doing well and improves in his skills from game to game. We are really proud of him and he LOVES it! He has a great coach, Coach Tate, who happens to live in our neighborhood.
Defense….defense….defense….
Maddox and I attended the annual Storybook Ball at the Family Museum a couple of weekends ago. She got all dressed up in a dress we had been saving for a few years as it was a bit large when it was handed down from the girls across the street. But, this year it was JUST perfect and she looked like a beautiful princess.
We had dinner, watched the senior members of The Family Museum Dance Company put on a little productions with several dance numbers and then Maddox danced the night away with the princesses.
Maddox seemed to always work her way into the crowd to be standing between two princesses. She idolizes them so!
Maddox and one of her dance classmates, Inika.
Maddox and another of her dance classmates, and neighbor :), Priya.
The weather has certainly been warming up here and there. This day it was still a bit chilly but the sun was shining and with coats and hats made for a great day for Friendship park. The kids were happy to get their sillies out on a Sunday afternoon.
Kennon continues to be my player. The kid loves to play and play with trinkets and toys and most often he plays independently. We spend some afternoons during the week just hanging at home….usually I catch up on work/house details and he plays plays and plays until Maddox gets off the bus then things shift a bit and we usually all read books together or work on their Awana verses or Maddox's homework.
Maddox enjoyed her first Valentine's Day party at school the Thursday before Valentine's weekend. She decorated her bag at school and brought home lots of goodies from her buddies.
This particular school party I decided to bring Kennon for the fun. Mrs. Gaspelin, the other room parents, and Maddox were sure to include him in the fun. He even got to sit at Maddox's table and enjoy a party treat with the rest of her classmates.
Who can make the highest stack of conversation hearts in 30 seconds!?
Straight away after the party we headed to the museum for Maddox's weekly ballet class. She continues to love ballet and moves across the stage with grace. We are getting geared up for her recital on June 4th.
Valentine's Day weekend our buddies, the Stegemann's, came down from the great north to visit their ol' stomping' ground. Unfortunately old man winter didn't provide us with much warm, southern weather but we didn't let the cold get us down. We ventured out for Kennon's basketball game, then to Chipotle for lunch and then to the John Deere Pavillion for everyone to get their sillies out on the tractors.
Charlie and Kennon. Charlie's birthday is actually the same as Maddox's, September 16th. He's just a few months younger than Kennon and will turn 5 in September. What a cutie.
'Whoa….who is driving the combine??'….Keep her in the middle of the bean field Kennon! Thank you to the Stegemann family for making the long trip to Iowa. The kids played well together all weekend and we sure enjoyed your company.
The John Deere Pavillion had revamped it's children's area since the last time we were there. They now have several more interactive stations. Kennon loved this log mover simulator.
On Valentine's day I decided to get my 'cake on' and made some yummy chocolate fudge cupcakes from scratch with chocolate cream cheese frosting and strawberry whipped cream filling. I even drug out the piping bags and tips and got a little fancy. A yummy special treat for Valentine's Day.
I'm thankful to have such a nice workout room to have to do the occasional long run on our treadmill. I stay entertained with the TV on the wall and the little people have plenty of room to drag in various toys/puzzles to entertain themselves. This day it was 9 miles! Eric and I are planning to do another half marathon this Spring…in fact I think we are both officially signed up now.
From outdoor sunny weather with no snow to snow covered hills…we took advantage of a warm day off of school Presidents' Day and got in some sledding. We drove over to Duck Creek park in Davenport and got in some big hills! It was super fun although the kids tired quickly pulling their sleds up the steep hill.
So crazy to think the picture above was taken on Monday and then this picture was taken on either Thursday or Friday of the SAME WEEK! Warm enough to be out in just a vest and sweatshirt. Time to practice those hoops. Thank you to the Kubalsky's for always being willing to share their basketball hoop as we do not have one on our driveway.
Last Saturday I took Maddox for a special event. We went to a performance by the Quad City Ballet. It was so amazing and she and I both enjoyed it immensely. The performers were so talented. It was a modern ballet called Love Stories and included about 5 dances separated midway by an intermission. The costumes were very basic but the music upbeat and modern. Maddox was able to recognize some of the techniques/moves she has learned over the last two years in her ballet class. I hope to take her to the next performance of the Quad City Ballet in April.
Kennon continues to be interested in cleaning up trash. He quite often spies trash alongside the road and is insistent on picking it up. Last Monday with the warm temps we grabbed a sack and his grabber and headed down 53rd street to collect trash. This matched up well with his Easter countdown calendar as he was to 'Care for God's Creation' that particular day to earn the sticker for his chart.
Kennon and I making a creation in the Think Shop at the museum. The Think Shop is loaded with all sort of building materials and random trinkets, glue guns, hammers, nails, saws and most any sort of building tool that you could think of…most of which I'm not strong enough or coordinated enough to use. I usually try to steer Kennon to the 'glue gun' section..which he is thankfully quite happy to do:) He knows he can use the real tools when he goes in with Daddy. He always comes out with some unique creation. The Think Shop certainly stimulates independent creativity.
The was at Kennon's game on Saturday. I think he made a few baskets this game and had an assist or two. At last Saturday's game he was on fire! He made 5 baskets, was dribbling all over the place, passing to his teammates, and keeping his hands up on defense…. His coach joked with us about there being an article in the Quad City Times about his performance on Sunday morning.. Hah!! But, the best part was that Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jean got to see his great game. They were able to come over for the game and then afterwards we got pancakes at IHOP! It was a great morning. I inadvertently forgot to get a picture of the kids with Grandpa and Grandma. Check out the videos below.
At this point in the year I'm looking forward to our Florida trip. Everything is basically planned out and I am just itching to get my toes in the white, warm, sand of Siesta Key ( which continues to win 'Best Beach' awards!) The most exciting part is that we are keeping our short day trip to the Magic Kingdom a surprise for Maddox and Kennon! They have recently been asking repeatedly to go to Disney as several of their friends are going over Spring Break or have been recently. I can hardly keep my mouth shut. I can't wait to see their expressions when we tell them. Not long after we get home from Florida Eric and I will be hopping a plane to Sonoma Valley California to celebrate our 10 year anniversary trip, a few months early. Lots of fun on the calendar but not before we make it through some medical stuff. Maddox is slated to get her tonsils out on March 11th ( the Friday before she starts spring break). I'm not 100% sure she really needs them as she doesn't exhibit the normal set of symptoms that require getting them out so I'm taking her to get second opinion this coming Thursday. We'll see what this ENT has to say. Kennon is slated to have ear surgery THIS Friday. He still has the hole in his left ear drum where his tube fell out and then the hole unfortunately did NOT close up. This is not an elective surgery and something that needs to be fixed. I was planning to actually do both surgeries the same day but found out that Kennon cannot fly to Florida having the surgery so close to the date of our departure so we moved the surgery up for now. This is a more extensive surgery than putting the tubes IN and will be closer to an hour and he'll have more medication to keep him asleep. Hoping all the surgeries go well.
We met with Kennon's preschool teacher a couple of weeks back. She says he is doing brilliantly in school and is ready for Kindergarten but Eric and I have decided to hold him back. The extra year will allow him to mature in his behavior/emotional status and certainly won't hurt him. We have been witness to Kennon's famous crappie flop on the floor when he throws a fit! UGH. We meet with Mrs. Gaspelin on Tuesday for Maddox's conference. She is really gaining in her reading strength and spent the majority of the evening reading to Kennon. So precious. Kennon was even patient and kind enough to sit through both Purplicious and Pinkalicious.
I'm knee deep in audits for work right now and Mike just hired yet another PT that I'll start to train the week of March 8th. Eric is actually in Chicago tonight meeting with some of his study group members (one from New Orleans and the other from the Twin Cities). They are working on writing a book about the emerging affluent (folks that are relatively young yet extremely successful, and the things they must work through). Work for Eric continues to be busy, but good. On Sunday nights we are now hosting our small group from church. We are studying the book of James which has been quite good. Starting our work week off in the Word certainly gets us going in the right direction. We are thankful for the connections and relationships we've made at church.
Shoot it!
Happy kid when he has a ball in his hands.
With the sort of warmer weather today we brought out a springy dress Maddox had gotten from Aunt Brooke. She was happy to wear it to school today with her fancy rainbow necklace. She requested double ponytails today for her hair. So cute.
Kennon passing to his teammate Weston ( who happens to be in his preschool class!). Weston put it up and in. He is tall coordinated kid.
Kennon getting the pass from his teammate and then sinkin' it :) Way to go Kennon
No comments:
Post a Comment