Finishing up March.

Sam started soccer again.  Spring soccer is rough.  He's had two games so far and both days have been cold, windy and rainy.  The boys are fine but it's not a lot of fun for this soccer mom. 

I have no shame.  This is John waxing my eyebrows.  As you can see it's an event and quite often draws a number of spectators.  Please note that Katie brought me two of her favorite stuffed animals to comfort me.  The other two pretty much laughed at my pain.
                            
John and Katie spread iron on the yard the other day in preparation to thatch.  I hate to thatch.  John gets to run the cool machine and I get to rake it all up.  I don't think you have to thatch in the Midwest do you?  If we didn't thatch, our whole yard would be moss.  I like moss.  I don't see what the problem is but whatever.

 

We had two high school girls from Rehobath Christian School in New Mexico stay with us.  They were on their choir tour.  Sweetest girls ever.  I wanted to keep them.

I think they'd fit into our family really nicely.

Katie got to dress up in Western gear for the Armadillo Rodeo.  Doesn't she make a cute cowgirl?

 She wanted me to take some pictures of her Sunday after church with her "bralella". 

  She's quite the poser.

 A Sunday afternoon game of kickball.

This week the kiddos are on Spring Break.  Holly left this morning for Southern California.  She's on tour with the choir.  She was mucho excited and I was mucho jealous.  Sam has some buddies coming over for a sleepover but otherwise we don't have anything special planned except for sleeping in, getting out the Play dough (I hate Play dough), and eating mac and cheese for lunch.

Let the dress shopping begin.

Holly got asked to JSB (Junior/Senior Banquet, LC's version of prom) on Friday.  I hope this young man knows how lucky he is.  Actually, he probably does because I told him that...a couple of times.

                                             

Holly was really surprised!  I give him credit for his creativity and yes, he did ask my permission before he asked Holly. 

 

In case your wondering, they are just friends.  Purely platonic folks.  Move along now.

Chalkwriter

My dear sister finds the most interesting things to give my children for Christmas.  This year Katie got a Chalkwriter.  It's this thing that attaches to the back of a bike and holds a piece of sidewalk chalk.  Let's just say that Katie was less-than-thrilled when she opened Uncle Kurt and Aunt Amy's gift.  She was on her bike hiatus.  Sam thought it was pretty cool so she told him he could have it. 
I told Sam he couldn't have it and put it on a shelf in the garage.  Of course due to Katie's newly acquired bike riding skills, she wanted to try out the Chalkwriter.  It was a big hit!

Don't you wish sometimes you were still a kid?  They have such cool toys now.  I always used to get jealous when my kids got to jump in those ball pits but then I saw a kid pee in one and I wasn't jealous anymore.

The end.

Another milestone

Guess who finally learned to ride her bike?!

Last fall she wanted us to take the training wheels off and after trying to ride for approximately 23 seconds, she wanted them back on again.  I said they weren't going on again and the battle began. Actually it wasn't really a battle.  She refused to ride.  A couple times I forced her to get on the bike and she would scream the whole time.  She gets her stubbornness from her Dad just in case your wondering.

Recently I tried a new approach.  I told her bike day was coming up (it's actually not until May but that technically is "coming up") and if she wanted to go to school that day she needed to learn to ride her bike.  I told her training wheels were not allowed for kindergartners.  Let me just insert here that someday I plan to write a book on parenting techniques.  I am a firm believer in bribery, threats and teasing.  I have yet to see a parenting book that incorporates these things. 

I took her and the bike to the city park (where there is a really nice, flat walking path) and told her we weren't going on the playground until she could ride a bike.  It worked!  I love the look of happiness on her face in this one. She was pretty proud of herself!

We then went to the playground.  She had the place to herself and insisted I take multiple pictures of her.  

After we got home, she rode her bike in the cul-de-sac for the next hour and a half.  Today she rode it all the way to John's office and back (don't worry Coffee Ladies, I was with her). 

Another milestone...sigh.

Hats...lots and lots of hats

So, my Katie Kat got a book from the library entitled "Hetty's 100 Hats".  It's about a little girl who loves hats.  At the end of the book there were directions to make a hat our of newspaper.  Of course Katie immediately wanted to make a newspaper hat but I told her I had to make supper and she would have to wait.  Well, she didn't want to wait.  She can't read yet but apparently she figured it out.    This is what the quiet room (that's what we call our living room) looked like last night.

She couldn't find newspaper so she used an entire ream (okay, that might be an exaggeration) of printer paper and the tape her Gramma got her for Christmas.  She's getting a lot of mileage out of that tape mom!

Someday, I will miss these days.

Just a couple of things before I go into weekend mode

*Downton Abbey season 4 is over.  This makes me very, very sad.

 

*Sam earned his first badge in Cadets.  It's archery.  He was pretty proud (so was I).

*We had lots of warm, sunny days this week.  I know it's just a teaser and I'm sure we have more winter weather in store but it's been nice just the same.

 

*A cute Katie story for you....Lucky for me, part of my friend Julie's job is playground duty for the kindergartners.  She told me that the other day a little girl came running up to her all excited because her and Katie were twins.  When Julie asked the little girl why they were twins she said, "Because both of our middle names are Lynn."  Julie knew Katie middle name was not Lynn but she didn't rat her out.  I asked Katie about it and she said, "Lynn is almost like Elizabeth."

 

*I had to enroll the kiddos for next year.  My heart started beating very rapidly when I had to type in that Holly would be in grade 12.  I have a feeling next year is going to be a tough one for me.  If you'd like to send chocolate now, that would be appreciated. 

 *Candy Crush is very addicting.

*I have no idea what to make for supper tonight.  If I had to decide between a maid or a cook, I would definitely chose the cook.  I don't mind cooking but I hate always having to decide what to make.  When people have cooks, do they tell what the cook to make or does the cook just make whatever they want?  I want the cook who cooks whatever they want...except for stuffed mushrooms or seafood or desserts that don't have chocolate in them.

*My eldest is going out tonight.  In her red shoes.  Do you think I need to be concerned?

*That's all for now.  I am now going into weekend mode.  I am going to put on my sweats and take off my bra.  Is that too much information?

A Fun Weekend Away

So the plan was for John and I to take Sam and Katie to Arizona to visit my folks while Holly went to California on her choir tour over Spring Break.  Well, my inner cheapo came out when I couldn't find any good airline tickets so we scrapped that plan and decided we'd take them to Great Wolf Lodge over mid-winter break instead.  Holly was suppose to go to the state basketball tournaments with her friends but she decided to join us instead.  We weren't going to argue with that - our guess was that not too many 17-year-olds still enjoy hanging out with their family...or maybe she was just tired.  She did this pretty much the whole way down south. 

Katie got a picture with Rachel the Raccoon and before we checked into our room and got our swimsuits on.

 Just in case you didn't know, Great Wolf Lodge is a big indoor water park.  It looks like this...

 Katie got really good at crossing the lily pads.

 Holly and Sam's favorite ride was the Howlin' Tornado (it was my favorite too - especially at night).

Not a great picture but I love it that Sam wore his goggles all the time.  When you got pooped out of the tubes, it's not like you went under water (except for that one time that John flipped the tube when I went down with him) but he still insisted on wearing them.

We took a quick break to eat some pizza but otherwise we were in the water park until it closed at nine.  The kiddos slept really well that night.  The next morning we went back for a couple hours and then headed to Seattle. 

 We parked the car and walked along the water.  It was a beautiful day!

 We rode Seattle's new Ferris Wheel.  LOTS of fun! 

 It's a fun way to see the city.

 The Ferris Wheel goes right out over the water.

 I love this girl!

 And this boy too!

 And this handsome guy is one of my favorites too.

We checked out Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe (one of my favorite places in Seattle) and then walked through Pike's Place.  Did you know it is one of the oldest farmer's markets in the U.S.?  I have been there lots of times but I am still amazed at all the flowers and fish!  Here's Katie on one of the big brass piggy banks.  All of the money that people put into them goes to help homeless people in Seattle.

We spent Friday night at an Embassy Suites just north of Seattle.  It is my most favorite hotel.  They have free cocktails at night and really, really good omelets in the morning.  It's obviously not just our favorite hotel because we saw lots of fellow Lyndenites there.  We had lots of fun hanging out with friends. 
The next morning it was cold and raining so (after a very long breakfast) we headed to the mall.  John took Sam and Katie to see the Lego Movie and Holly and I went JSB (junior/senior banquet) dress shopping. 
It was a fun weekend away!
One last thing.  Do you notice anything different about Katie? 

Yep, she lost her first tooth!  She came down for breakfast Saturday morning and I noticed it right away.  I asked her when she had lost it and she had no idea.  We shook out the sheets in the hotel room and looked around a little but we never did find it.  I don't know if it's because she's the third child or because she has older siblings or because John and I are just really laid back parents but she didn't really care.  She didn't care where her tooth was and never mentioned the Tooth Fairy.  My baby is growing up!