Parent Teacher Conference

Uh huh. They start those things in preschool, at least on an optional basis. And of course I was excited to hear how Katy has been doing so I scheduled an appointment last week. Her teacher had nothing but good, no, terrific things to say about Kaitlyn. She stays on task, she learns quickly and fully grasps everything she needs to know at this point, she plays well with others, never gets in trouble (though she has had a couple of emotional moments and cried in class - most notably right after Sam left for TX), always gives her teacher hugs. And most flattering (to me, the parent), her teacher advised us to have her tested for the "T1" Kindergarten class, which is supposedly a bit more advanced (if there is such a thing in good old SS Elementary). I'm still on the fence about if I actually want to put her into it since it would be a full day of class every day instead of easing her into it with the regular half-days (that's already a big change from the 2 hours/2 days per week we are at now) but boy it is fun knowing someone (other than her parents and grandparents) thinks she is over-the-top smart :) Go Kaitlyn!
Oh - and the E's up there on the "report card" stand for Excellent :)

Visiting Bonnie

We spent the weekend visiting my sister - me, the kids, my mom, and my brother all in the car all day Friday to get there. Other than being really really long, the drive went pretty well. Once we had unloaded the car and eaten the yummy dinner Bonnie had waiting for us, we had a little birthday party for Bon. (we missed it last month) The brownies (on of Bon's fav desserts) had chocolate chip cookie dough in them and were covered with chocolate ganache MMMM. And the silly hat is my own creation - just because I wanted it to feel more like a party :)

Saturday morning was spent shopping at the outlet mall, where most of us found a little something for ourselves (in my case, a lot of somethings!). And with 4 adults and 2 kids, the shopping went pretty easily as one person was always available to take the kids outside to play if needed. After naptime back at the house we all went to an arcade and had a blast. I can't believe we hadn't thought to take the kids to a place like that before (nope, not really even tempted by Chucky Cheese lol). And even all of us grown ups seemed to have fun and didn't realize how late we were out past bedtime.

Sunday was bowling and Mexican food. I was sorely tempted to take "butt shots" of everyone as they were bowling (you know how badly bowling photos work) but I refrained :) - except for Katy and Wyatt who happened to be helping her at the time. Ty missed out on the action because he was so worn out he fell asleep in the car on the ride to the bowling alley and spent the whole time asleep under one of the tables. The kids also got to spend a bit of one on one time with their Aunt Bonnie at the park that afternoon.

Monday was spent driving home. And today I am exhausted. Ty and Katy don't seem to be having the same after-effects.

Valentines

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day. Ours was pleasant, though not extravagant. I did try my best to add some fun little touches here and there for the kids. Sam got an email card and a not that said "buy yourself a new Ipod" (since his was stolen Friday) - aren't I just so romantic? LOL

Ok - Here is our Valentines Day in photos. I'm excited to see if I can tell the difference in quality between the ones I took with the old camera and the ones from the new camera.

Opening cards and presents. *not pictured the pink lumps that were supposed to be heart-shaped muffins

taking a bath to try out the new water tints that were part of the presents

Poor sick Katy, resting on Grandma (who was playing computer games) after a morning of shopping/errands. What a trooper

messing around with the new camera

dinner with the family

chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. And stealing a few chocolate cherries from Grandpa's Valentines box.

*also not pictured - a peaceful end of the evening, just me and a movie after the kids were in bed

Backhoe

This is where you will find Ty on snowy morningings (yes, we are always up before the sun) - watching them plow our roads. They do this with a backhoe and the first few times Ty saw the backhoe he got very excited...then very upset. Because he couldn't figure out why Grandpa and his backhoe would be out there without stopping to take him for a ride. But now he seems to understand that the backhoe is not Grandpa's and will happily stand at the window watching it do its work.

Hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa

I took these photos the other day. Grandma and Grandpa had come over for dinner, then Kaitlyn convinced them to watch a movie before they left. The kids really love their grandparents. And Tyler, as you can see is Grandpa's buddy (and shadow).

Snowman

Our last few attempts at snowman making were unsuccessful. By the time we would get outside the snow wouldn't be wet enough and we could barely make snowballs. So Kaitlyn was SO excited yesterday when she discovered that the rainy type snow we had been getting yesterday made the snow "packable." Here is our final product - completed at the direction of Kaitlyn right down to the carrot nose and scarf. We finished up right as the snow was starting to fall again - huge flakes that Katy had fun trying to catch with her tongue.