Spring Soccer, Resurrection Eggs, Inagural Zoo Trip and St. Louis!!

Cousin Hannah, Kennon and Maddox a top the giant cement caterpillar.  The kids love Hannah and I surely enjoy having an extra set of hands to help with the kiddos!! 

Two weekends ago we made our Spring trip down to St. Louis so Eric and I could compete or rather COMPLETE our first 1/2 marathon of  2014. We love spending time with the Gillaspies and we always tour one of the many St. Louis attractions that are kid friendly the day before the race. This year we opted for The Butterfly House. We had a fabulous time. There were tons of butterflies to look at in the nice warm greenhouse, as well as beautiful vegetation. Plus just right outside the Butterfly House there was a fabulous park for the kids to play at as well as a carousel.  It was such a nice warm day…!! 

One of the blue beauties landed on Aunt Diane..!! 'Don't touch it Kennon!!!' 

All the blue objects are butterflies. There were tons of this type flying around. I was actually pleasantly surprised how many there were.  In fact I could have stayed in the house forever. Unfortunately the attention span of my toddler aged kiddos didn't quite match my enthusiasm for the small but beautiful insects, so we headed out to run off some energy at the park.

I didn't manage to get any smiles in this picture….  but they were really all happy to ride the magnificent carousel.  Aunt Diane said it was from the World's Fair in like 1820…or maybe 1920…I don't remember…sorry!  Probably 1920 as I re-read this. Surely they didn't have engines/motors to run this thing in the 1820's??  That's a Grandpa Jim question…..

Aunt Diane and a happy face Maddox

Aunt Diane, Maddox and Kennon reading bedtime stories.  

A post race picture. Sunday morning race weather was perfect.  39 at the start, no wind and slightly overcast. It warmed up quick after the sun came out. Go! St. Louis ( the company that puts on this race) does a really nice job.  It is a well run event with lots of volunteers, a priest spraying Holy water, and a pit stop with chocolate all on the course!!  Now who could ask for more.  Eric, Uncle Brian and I were all pleasantly surprised at how well the race went for all of us despite the limited training due to Ol' Man Winter.  Aunt Diane and cousin Hannah were savvy enough to get the kids up dressed, fed, and locked into their car seats in Sienna to head down to the race. We saw them at both mile 7 and 12!! Aunt Diane has both the Spring and Fall races almost down to a science.  Plus as the kids get older they travel so much easier with less paraphernalia!! Thanks for the hospitality Gillaspies. We are so happy to have your in our family. Next up…. Bix!! 

The kids and I took advantage of the warm weather last week and decided to go visit Grammy's box out in Orion and get her ready for Spring.  The kids had a blast rolling down the grassy hills and climbing over her box…. just how Grammy would have liked it!!  I think the Spring flowers turned out nicely and despite the raging winter the Christmas flowers are still in relatively good shape, good enough for next year.  I feel there is a learning curve as to what materials will last the best out in the elements.   Miss you so much mom.  I know you are smiling down on us constantly giving us your love. 

So after our trip to the cemetery we headed into the big town of Orion to play at Central Park. This is the park that I played in as a kid, although it has been upgraded a fair amount. The weather was nice and warm and the kids had a grand time!!  Lots of smiles and lots of spins. They loved this merry go round ( which luckily they have replaced since I was a kid…..this one is a newer version) as most of the parks that we go to in Bettendorf don't have this fun ride ( there is probably a reason for that !!)  

Yes…KTK does have on his Halloween shirt. Both kids are getting more interested in picking out their clothes! Hey….as long as they get them on themselves I don't really care what they wear… within reason I suppose.  

I think this horse and pig are the only thing original to the park now. I remember ridding these both as a kid. The springs are super loose and throw you back and forth pretty far.  FUN!!

So we continue on with the 'Kies school'  The letter for the week is A.  We have had a bit of slow down with our school work the last week or so because I've added some Christian education as well. We are doing Resurrection Eggs.  If you look closely there is a big hunk of bread on the Easter egg tree pictured above. So each day I fill and hide an egg with an item associated with Jesus' death and resurrection.  It has actually been a great tool to remind me of the real meaning of Easter.  The kids are excited to find the egg and for the most part have been happy to sit and read with me from their children's Bibles the verses associated with each individual object. So far we've had the bread, coin, purple cloth, rope, cross, nail.  Friday we are making Resurrection rolls. You put a marshmallow in a crescent roll and bake it. The marshmallow is supposed to sort of disappear  ( rise) as Jesus did. The tomb is the oven and the crescent roll serves as the cloths that he was wrapped in before he was placed in the tomb.  I really didn't think they were paying attention to all the stories but, this far in, I really think they are.  Maddox is very aware now the bread is Jesus' body and the wine is his blood and that he died for our sins.  Kennon is in good understanding of right vs wrong and knows that wrong are sins. We open the last egg on Easter morning.  It has been a great teaching tool.  

We took our first trip to the zoo last Friday. It was a beautiful day and the kids were itching to get outside. We met our friends the Wentlands and packed a picnic lunch.  Such a nice time! So nice to get some vitamin D. 

Maddox, Nolan,  Kennon, Megan and Nyle.  

Nolan and KTK

Kennon, Nyle, Maddox, Nolan.  

Maddox, of course, was quick to mother Nyle as he was the little guy of the bunch. Luckily Nyle didn't seem to mind. 

Saturday both Kennon and Maddox had their first soccer game of the Spring season…. they are on the SAME TEAM!!  Eric and I prepared ourselves Friday night, in discussion, for a terrible meltdown from   both of the kids but we were pleasantly surprised. Maddox played like a different kid in comparison to the fall season where she clamored onto Eric and barely even put a big toe on the field.  She ran with the bunch, kicked the ball, helped her brother out, and did not shed one tear or whine!!  Way to go Maddox. What a difference 6 months made.  Kennon did fairly well, given the fact that he is technically too young to play. They are supposed to be 3 I believe, and of course he isn't quite that and I think it showed.  He was upset he didn't get to kick the ball more and struggled with following directions but didn't seem to disrupt the team all that much, so I think we'll hang with it. The kid is SO COORDINATED compared to Maddox. I suppose boy girl comparison.  He did get to kick the ball a few times and when he did it went far and his timing on impact was really good.  So in time he'll mature with his emotions and they'll hopefully catch up with his physical abilities. I set Maddox up to 'help your brother' which did seem to work well.  She really excels at being a helper if you divvy it out to her that way.  I was really proud of her and she even was willing to play extra time on the field!! What a turn around from last Fall. They have several games through mid May so we'll see how the rest of the season goes. But, in general we were pleasantly surprised at how well both kiddos did. Go Team Kies… and Team Kenya…which happens to be the name of their team. 

Getting' the low down from Coach Josh.  Maddox with the braids and Kennon with the skirt shirt and bright yellow shin guards :) 

KTK getting read to start the game off. 

I think he looks happy with his kick. Notice no one seems to be moving after he kicked it!! A lot of verbal cues provided from the coaches at this age :0

Maddox getting ready to kick the ball in.

The best part of playing soccer…the snack after the game!! 

We decided to optimize our time after the game and headed to Lowe's and Sherwin Williams!!  Possibly a bit much but we survived.  

The car seats came in handy to hold up these 2 heavy and large pieces of beadboard. Good thing the kids aren't any taller.  Laundry room renovation underway!! 

So I"ve been typing away on this post to the hum of the construction machines in the back yard. They have unfortunately started to groom the land behind our house for Century Heights 23rd addition, or something like that…uncertain on the number.  They started yesterday and have seriously gotten so much work done already.  The kids are in awe of the machines!!  And honestly I have found myself standing at the sliding glass window watching them go back and forth. They are amazing machines….excavators ( as Kennon corrected me after I called it a scoop…I guess he is a big boy now) earth movers and graders attached to John Deere tractors.    The excavator just pushes these huge trees over with it's  arm like it is feather in the wind. Super cool.  I am sooo sad to see the land be developed but excited at the free entertainment for the summer/fall as well as excited about the prospect of a family moving in behind us.  I wish I could order the family up and request they come with a boy 3 years old girl 5 years old and A DOG!! Maddox sooooo wants a dog or really any pet and if someone nearby had one I think we'd be good. 

This afternoon we walked down to the 'sleeping site' for the machines!!  So fun to tromp around on the dirt and see how truly big they are.  It's going to be a great summer of free entertainment.  

 Just a quick update on the kiddos.  KtK is definitely in the terrible 2's.  He is very defiant, physical, stubborn and (actually both are) great at bargaining.   He is a master of temper tantrums and is really testing Eric and I's patience.  We have returned to 'no paci' status over the last couple of days.  We decided we'd 'send them all to baby Reid…!!' He is doing just as well as he did the first time we did 'no paci' a couple of months ago.   Kennon isn't very fond of swimming lessons as the water is fairly cold and he hasn't quite mastered the timing of blowing out or holding his breath in order to put his face in the water.  But, give it time. He continues to be very physically advanced and is a maniac on his red balance bike. We've commissioned Grandpa and Grandma Knowles to get him a big boy pedal bike for his birthday.   He still takes a good 2 -3 hour nap in the afternoon but is a real fighter at bedtime.  He does NOT like to stay in bed and in the last couple of weeks has been up till 10.30 some nights!!  Maddox on the other hand continues to be her good usual sleeper. She too still takes a nap, just 1.5 hours but goes down to bed at night without a peep and sleeps through the night. She loves her baby dolls as well as mothering anybody and anything…including her mother. She is now calling Eric and I 'father and mother'…which I have no idea where she got. She likes to color and almost always writes her name next to a rainbow with God drawn on top of the rainbow, when she does free art. She is getting really good at her letters upper and lower and seems to enjoy learning about Jesus more than learning about subtraction or addition…can't say I blame her.   She absolutely loves to sing, specifically the songs from Little Mermaid and Frozen and I have to say she can actually carry a tune quite well….just like her Grammy and Grandma Jean.  She pelts out 'Let it Go' from her car seat in the correct key completely on her own with the radio turned to silent.  She LOVES to ride her big girl bike and is faster than ever.   Maddox put her face in the water multiple times very willingly yesterday at the pool!! I couldn't believe it. I was so proud of her.  Kennon still is in a pull up at night and really still needs it but does generally fine during the day. He is finally starting to take himself to the bathroom and does fairly well.  Maddox has a bladder like a camel and can go longer than 12 hours without peeing if we accidentally forget to have her go in the morning. CRAZY!! We are all adjusting to me being at home.  I think we have a good balance of play time, mom time, dad time, school time and Jesus time as we call it. I've been working most Wednesday mornings while the kids are at church school training new employees at VNA. I LOVE it!! and it keeps my foot in the door.  We are looking forward to the summer as both kiddos are already signed up for numerous summer camps which will actually keep them busier than during the school year.  Lots of fun themed camps.  Ok..this is getting long. Time to sign off. 

A Hodge Podge of Pictures..and a LOAD of Smiles

Look at my beauty!! I love this very un-posed, natural smile.  

Two weeks ago was Spring Break in Bettendorf which meant that the Family Museum had special activities for each day of the week. This was the Earth Balloon. It was huge and filled the entire Great Room of the museum. You could go inside the balloon for a 20 minute guided tour, but unfortunately the wait for that was way too long for my kiddos so we just admired the outside and identified the ocean, forests, islands, and habitted land.  The kids thought it was pretty cool.  This day happened to be relatively warm outdoors so we spent the entire time OUTSIDE in the museum's great outdoor park area to avoid the spring breakers. The kids were ecstatic to finally get outdoors.  

I think it was like maybe 45 degrees this day….but by this year's standards that was warm!! So we headed out for our first afternoon outdoor snack!!  We also toured and I mean TOURED the neighborhood on our bikes…well the kiddos ridding and me walking…rather briskly.  We probably rode over a mile. I just kept saying maybe we should head back and they both emphatically shouted no. Kennon is absolutely FABULOUS on the red balance bike and Maddox goes gang busters on her pink big girl bike. They are so adorable ridding together.  Eric and I have honestly been talking about getting Kennon a big boy bike for his birthday in June. He is already balancing fairly well and I think he could be ready by then!!  Amazing!!  

After this long ride Kennon said 'Mom my peanuts hurt!!'  I wasn't quite sure what to say so I said 'buddy talk to your dad about that one!!'  Hah…. 

The Bubble Man at the museum - a spring break special 

So our 'school time' is moving right along.  The letter of the week is 'O'.  We did a hunt today and both kids worked on either writing or finding their letters by sight.  We keep building the curriculum by continuing to work on letters from previous weeks.  I think Maddox's letters are coming along really well and I can actually see a difference in her letters that she complete on Monday as compared to the letters she writes on Fridays. It is remarkable.  That Aunt Diane….she sure  knows what she is doing. Thanks for all the great tips!! 

Name that Tune?? 

Last week I scored a 1 pound bag of basil at HyVee for $1.00. For those of you that don't purchase basil regularly that is a STEAL!!!!  Gotta love Hyvee. So I commissioned the kids to help me prepare some basil to make homemade pesto.  They were happy helpers although not so interested in the final product.  I think Kennon looks so old in this picture.  

Last week at the museum ( yes…we were there again…maybe we should just camp out in the backyard playground area you can see through this window…just kidding!!) the Bettendorf 6th grade students were there and had set up all these fun,  stations for toddlers and museum goers to participate in.  They had this basketball station set up and literally showered KTK with love, balls, attention and lots of good jobs!   He would have stood there all day getting their praise and being handed basketballs to shoot.  Unfortunately for KTK ( and for me who had to wrangle him out of the museum) the 6th graders had to go back to school for lunch about 11.30.  It was one of those terrible mom moments where I wished I was the only one in the museum but nope, super busy and lots of museum goers to witness KTKs tantrum.  When he does this ( which is quite often right now….along with hitting anything and everything mostly humans….a work in progress) Maddox gives me the oddest look like 'uh mom, are you going to do something'.  Magically she starts acting really well when he goes off the handle. Thank goodness.  

We were all invited to Priya's birthday party last Saturday.  It was the kids' first official non family party and it was a hit. Priya turned 4 last Friday and celebrated with a rainbow themed party complete with cupcakes with LOADS of light pink pretty frosting, a candy filled piñata, fruit loop necklaces and a take home bag full of candy that put Maddox and Kennon's Halloween candy to shame!!   We all had such a nice time meeting Priya's family and friends. There were tons of kids of all ages and both Maddox and Kennon ran around with happy faces almost the entire time. Maddox put this adorable dress on at like 6am that morning…all ready for the party.  

Kennon getting blind folded by Priya's mom, Elisha,  for pin the horn on the unicorn. 

I call this Maddox's sugar smile! Fruit loop necklaces!! This after cake and ice cream, and preceding the candy piñata. And Priya's grandma sent the kids home with a red solo cup full of fruit loops. I think she could tell after chatting with me for a bit that Maddox and Kennon don't get a lot of fruit loops!! I just found one under the couch as I am typing this.  Gotta love Grandparents to send the kids home with sugar ;)  

Look out unicorn, Kennon has the bat!

Candy!!!  Maddox didn't know until like 1 minute before it broke that there was candy in the unicorn.  She came running to us with the biggest smile after she found out that they were going to get showered with candy. 'Mom there's candy in there!!'   Her smile went from ear to ear. 

Kennon was excited as well but wasn't quite up to speed on gathering the candy up. He was fine to just take a couple of pieces and start opening and eating the candy.  He was happy with his 3 pieces shoved in his pockets. Maddox on the other hand came to both Eric and I and wanted us to hold her pile of candy so she could go back for more. She wasn't interested in opening any until she knew she couldn't score anymore!!  

The kids are starting swim lessons this week.  We have really let that aspect of 'education' slide as Kennon has never taken formal lessons and Maddox hasn't had any since she was 6 months old. They both like the water so we decided with my new status it was time to get them signed up for lessons. Both kids are doing parent-tot lessons which means that either Eric or I are in the water with them.  The classes are in the big pool and work on water basics.  ( putting face in, kicking, scooping water, safe entry into the walker, jumping into water, floating, blowing bubbles etc ) Neither Kennon nor Maddox is really all that excited about putting their face in which is the goal of this class.  It is just one time per week the whole month of April.  Hoping to have that goal accomplished by the end of the month. Then the next class they'll do will be solo hopefully.  

So one final funny thought for you moms. Everyone knows the pool experience is generally fabulous..the locker room not so much. Trying to get 2, or even 1, cold, wet, tired, hungry toddler showered and dressed with only one adult parent to assist is kind of a nightmare.  Today Kennon screamed bloody murder from the time that I wrangled him out of the pool till the time that we literally walked in the door of 5363 and gave him fruit snacks. Again it was one of those moments that Maddox figured out that she should start acting really well because Kennon was struggling so terribly. After getting them both showered ( I felt bad that Maddox didn't have lessons today so I went and grabbed her from the Kid's room so she could have some swim time….in hind sight…maybe not such a good idea )  and dressed and myself rinsed off and dressed I realized somewhere I had lost one of my tennis shoes.  It was freezing outside today so I was thinking, as I walked to the front desk of the Y with one shoe, well this is going to be a cold walk to the van.  Luckily it was at the lost and found!!! Thank you Grammy…my Guardian Angel looking out for me, to make sure I got my shoe back and didn't have to do the shoeless walk of shame to my car.  Another one of those times that Maddox was looking up at me, as Kennon was wailing and I was searching every nook and cranny for my blasted shoe, 'uh Mom what are you going to do now?'!!!'  One for the record books.  Next week has got to be better eh? Maddox starts her lessons tomorrow.

School's In Session

We've had a fun week since I last posted.  Friday we met a co worker of mine at the museum for the kick off of their Spring Break activities.  Friday the Kinetic King was there. He is this dude who was on America's Got Talent last summer and went pretty far setting up these elaborate domino/cup/ball creations that 'detonate' and then all collapse in a patterned fashion. Maddox worked with him Friday morning as he set up a mini presentation, Maddox put together her yellow cup bridge.  Way to go Maddox! 

Maddox working closely with the Kinetic King, left, to set up her yellow cup bridge.    The guy has the appearance of someone who works hours on end in his windowless basement  creating these really huge masterpieces.  Kinda scary looking with big thick glasses but relatively nice. Not super chatty as you could imagine. Kind of a solo type guy…. not that you needed to know that but I just sat and watched his mannerisms and his lack of personality as happy little Maddox worked along side him.  hmmmmm maybe kinda creepy…moving on….

Kennon once again was entertained by the large train table!! Which allowed me to hang with Maddox building creations.  Thanks to my buddy Megan who also kept an eye out. Even though we were outnumbered, our kids together vs the two of us it felt just a tad safer  having 2 adults watching out for the kids :) 

So I have become admittedly obsessive about the kid's curriculum the last several days. I am so thrilled that Aunt Diane has decided to feed my obsession :) by providing me with absolutely fantastic ways to challenge the kids daily on their letters. It is really amazing to see them learn. I have always known they were like sponges but to actually be teaching them the stuff that Kcare always 'took care of' is really fun, challenging at times, but I am thankful Diane has been an excellent resource for me the last few days.  The kids are going to work on a letter per week with separate but simultaneous activities that challenges their appropriate skill level.  So Monday we went on a 'K' hunt complete with labeled buckets with both kiddos searching for items in the house that started with K.  Then Maddox worked on writing her upper case K's and lower case K's while Kennon worked  on identifying them out in a hodgepodge type collage of letters. He actually knows his K really well so we decided to go ahead and  start E on Tuesday. We are still on E now and Maddox has been hard at work, writing her K's and E's.  She prints 4 K's and 4 E's to match her age per day…anymore than that and Aunt Diane says it's too much.    We'll start on N next week.  Diane says Kennon is most interested in his own name. Once we get through his name we'll move to the 'new' letters in Kies and then Maddox Eric and Laura etc then branching out to the other letters of the alphabet. Theoretically it will take us about 26 weeks to get through all the letters in the end with Kennon knowing all his letters by sight and Maddox betting pretty proficient at drawing all her letters uppers and lowers. She has been practicing her letters since last fall at Kindercare but needs some fine tuning on her fine motor skills.  Phew….. !! It is really exciting to work with the kids and don't worry we are still getting in plenty of playtime  and some cartoons and movies :) ( Frozen came out yesterday…. I think the Easter Bunny is going to grab it for Maddox…I can't wait to see her reaction)  There is a lot more to the above projects  to further the letter in the later days of the week, including use of magazines and newspapers, cutting out and identifying the Letter of the Week but in all honestly Diane I'm gonna need some clarification of that :)  A tad overwhelming! Thanks so much for all the recommendations. Thanks too to Grandma Jean who has also provided some education recommendations and encouragement!

Kennon marking his 'K's' with a noodle. 

Kennon was feeling under the weather Saturday night so he and I stayed home from church. He was actually diagnosed with pneumonia on Monday and was put on an antibiotic and steroids. He is doing better.  It must have been a walking pneumonia because he didn't really seem that sick! ooops.  Maddox has a cold now….. grrrr! C'mon Spring!

Saturday morning when I got back from the Y, Maddox and I loaded up our yoga mats and headed back to the museum ( having just been there on Friday morning…yes…we do live there practically…it is such a nice facility)   They do family yoga on Saturday mornings and we've never gone…. and still haven't yet!  Unfortunately it was cancelled with all the Spring Break activities. But, I hope to go again in a couple of weeks. She and I played in the museum by ourselves for a while before packing up. Since it was early on Saturday morning we had run of the place. Super nice. 

Maddox and more of her kinetic king creation

So I know one of the activities that Maddox did every morning at Kcare was 'the calendar'.  I quite honestly have been having a hard time keeping track of the days around here so I thought we should have our own. It poses a ton of learning opportunities with letter recognition, holiday education ( like for instance does anyone know what Remembrance Day is… came in the packet of holidays that I bought to go with the calendar and I have never heard of it…a little education for Mom) weather observance, timeline, the list goes on.   After 2 trips to the teacher store we now have a calendar in the basement.  So yesterday the kids set it up and I hope to make this part of our morning routine. Maddox knows all the days of the weekend but really does not remember the order the days go in as well as the months. Hoping this will help.  Don't worry I hear the voice of Grammy every now and then 'now don't push them too much Laura….. you'll push them away from learning'  So far I think we are good but the days are young. The other thing working against us since the transition is the weather. I think once the weather turns there will be less inside school time and more outside fun time.