Last Day of School

I really cannot believe it. I knew it would come when I walked a very timid, shy kindergartner to her room the first day of school - the last day of school. I bring home a confident, fluent reader and writer who has made friends, discovered her personality, learned social standards, and who I could not be more proud of. She excelled in all of her coursework meeting expectations in every measurable and exceeding expectations in PE. While she still struggles with not talking while the teacher is talking, she is getting better :)

I got to eat lunch with her before I left on my Las Vegas trip. I am going to post an interview of her both as sort of a last day of school and just turned 6 questionnaire. I cannot believe how fast this year flew by. I am so excited for the summer!

Karate Birthday

I was in Las Vegas until late Friday night the day before Kenna's birthday on the 19th. And to make matters worse, I found out that the twins in Kenna's class were having their party at the same time on the same day! So I was really worried that none of the kids Kenna wanted to come to her party would be there. But I did hear from a lot of Kenna's non-school friends, so I knew a few would come!

I promised McKenna that I would make her a butterfly cake, half strawberry, half chocolate. It actually wasn't too bad once I got going! I LOVE Wilton's melts!!

Final Cake turned out well if I do say so myself! I almost ran out of room for the writing...will have to get better at that...(I hate writing!)

Her party was at Dojos and it was really fun. Almost everyone she wanted to come, came and I really had nothing to worry about!!

They did an obsticle course, learned a karate lesson, and some of the karate moves that Kenna learns in class. She got to lead the class which I think was her favorite part ;)

The kids LOVED watching Kenna cut the cake with a real samari sword, and she opened her presents. Then I gave them some karate headbands and they practiced their moves one time.

They finished the day breaking boards. A lot of the kids did really well!

 

Because I'm crazy I thought having 4 six year old girls over would be a good idea. They were pretty good, only mild drama about "she won't play with me" or "I don't want to do that" but they went to sleep on time! They watched a Barbie movie and played on the playhouse. The basement was perfect because we could just close the door! We had make your own pizzas for dinner and cinnimon rolls for breakfast!

Allie, Kenna, Peyton and Chloe

Happy birthday sweet girl, I hope it was a memorable one!! Love you!

Vegas Baby

I have started what will be a few weeks of crazy travel. We spent all last week in Vegas, next week in Kansas City, the following week in California, and the week after that in Denver or Dallas (hasn't been booked yet.) Luckily I got out of California because Josh has to be gone at the same time...and the kids aren't quite ready to stay home by themselves yet :)

Vegas was fun, but we worked 12 hour days and stayed out too late...need a week to recover! I lost $10 on slots...not too bad..some of my peers were in the hundreds! I did meet someone who had just won $24,000 and ran out to buy a brand new car, cool story! Was great to hear about the upcoming changes that the company is implementing and to catch up with some old friends!

Yellow Belt

McKenna had a busy karate day Saturday. She did her yellow belt test at 10am, and then her karate birthday party in the afternoon (post to follow.)

We brought the whole family...there were a few issues ;) But, in the end, McKenna graduated to yellow belt! We are so proud of her and just love the lessons that karate has taught her! She never says "its too hard" anymore...just "bring it on" and I think she is understanding the value of hard work. So PROUD of her :)

Cute Invites for Kenna's Karate Party!

Andersen Carnival

Chloe and Lucy have almost the same birthday (one day a part.) This year they had a joint birthday party. Tara went all out (with a little help from Pinterest) and had an awesome carnival theme! There was cake walk, bean bag toss, balloon animals, fishing pond, bouncy house, funny picture booth (dress up clothes with a little picture studio), and face painting!

The snacks were awesome!

 Rhett built this "Angry Birds" catapult game, Josh manned it most of the day :)

The face painting was the HIT of the party...she was AMAZING!!!

 The face painting princess sang disney songs, wore a princess dress and had BOOKS of designs to choose from

Kids thought it was so cool that they could eat and play games...eat without sitting at the table...what?

Birthday girls

Zachey even sat still long enough to be batman...he bawled when I washed it off that night!!

How funny is this picture?

Garden and Birthdays

Last weekend we put into play something that I suggested this winter. Tara and her family did a family garden last year, and I thought it would be an awesome way to teach the kids about planting, and to get some yummy veggies too!

These are the starts I had been working on for a few weeks 

We figured we did about 800 sq ft at Kathy and Denny's place 

Grandkid picture 

We planted basil, arugula, cauliflower, peppers, tomatoes, peas, beans, potatoes, watermelon, pumpkins, cucumbers, and kulrabi. Cannot wait to see how things are growing this weekend!

We also celebrated two birthdays, gona and Kenna! We had a great lunch and ice cream cake :) Kenna got fancy jewelry and clothes. She had this tattoo on from earlier in the week.

Gona got Kenna this tree (that's what she asked for) and Kenna got Gona this little fairy garden set. It turned ot really cute 

 Birthday Girls

Happy birthday ladies. What a fantastic day of hard working, getting dirty, wet, and spending time together!

Fazoodles

How fun are these? One weekend Kenna and I spent a good hour making our whole family out of these fazoodles. They are like giant thick pipecleaners with pieces like Mr. Potato head. Really fun!

The purple one with the skirt is kenna, I am green with purple hair, daddy is yellow with three eyes, Zachey is green with orange lips, and then Rylee and Grayson are in front.

Naked Friday

We are fed up with Zachey and his lack of wanting to go potty. I kept him home yesterday while I was working. Josh stayed here and worked from home too. I just told him he had to be naked and when he needed to go potty he needed to put it in the little potty. He did great! Not one accident all day...went to the bathroom ALL DAY! C'mon now! We did put a pull up on him at naptime. But aside from that did great all day!

We were out and about this morning and tried undies. There was a wet accident, but we will get there...there is hope!! Great job Z!

Major Milestones!

Grayson took his first steps last week (only doing 3-4 at a time...but not far from walking!) He is also saying maamaamaa-maa maa. When he sees me or if I make silly noises he says ma ma. I am considering it his first word as he has been saying it a lot lately, and when he sees me! Two major occurrences in two weeks!

My Birthday Toy!

Look at my Purdee new toy! Saved for a year for this one! Now to start training for Ragbrai...100 days away....500 - 750 miles of training to do....

TIP testing

Kenna had her TIP testing last week. They perform their kata solo in front of a committee and then progress through the ranks. She received a stripe on her belt...and in a few weeks will qualify to advance a belt color (she's excited :)

She did an AMAZING job on her test...practiced really hard and got all the moves down perfectly! So proud of her!

Dance

I got a few movies from Kenna's dance practice, but only snapped this picture with my phone (I know lame....)

She looks super cute in her costume! This year seems like the class is a bit crowded and she hasn't learned quite as much...thinking about exploring other options next year :)

Kenna did a great job..she just loves this stuff!

Easter

Spent a low key easter at gona and bacas. Kade rode the 4 wheeler. We looked at the baby ducks, who now look more like adult ducks, hauled a bunch of trees down to the burn pile and finished the day with a basketball game. Was fun just doing nothing together :)

The kids got some goodies at gona and bacas. The easter bunny brought a few things to our house too. Mostly outside toys like jumpropes, hulahoops and bubbles, a few goodies too ;)

Superboys!

Had to take this picture before Grayson grew out of his 9mo shirt! Been trying to get this for months...neither one really was in a picture mood, but how cute are my two superboys!?

Zachary MRI

One of the worst moments as a parent - watching your child go under anesthesia and lay down on a table almost lifeless...just awful.

The last step in our journey to determine what is going on with Zachey's eye happened on Thursday. We went in for a full MRI and CT. To do this 2.5 hour procedure Zachey had to go under anesthesia. I am not sure what was worse, watching them put an IV in his arm, or going under.

He had to stop eating at midnight on Wednesday. We went to the hospital at 8:30 on Thursday and did all the intake info. They rubbed numbing cream on the various places they might use for an IV site. We met with the nurses and doctor, as well as a child life rep who played with him and tried to distract him with an ipad while they were doing the IV. I think the numbing cream was a joke because he screamed for a long time as they tried to get it in. The first vein collapsed, so they had to use his other hand. He was pissed and screaming and it made me want to cry. I hadn't eaten breakfast either and the whole thing really made me dizzy.

Finally they got the IV in, taped it to his arm. I just sort of held him as he screamed as they administered the medicine that would knock him out. Within like a minute he collapsed, completely lifeless.....it was horrible.

Josh and I were sobbing. We killed time in the cafeteria, playing games on our phones and just trying to talk about things not related to what was happening.

We got the call that everything was done and we almost ran to the recovery room. He slept for about an hour, when he woke up we were elated when he wanted to eat and drink something. He bounced back quickly, and by the time he got home he was almost 100% back to normal.

Dr. Gavin called that evening and informed us that there was absolutely nothing abnormal on Zachary's scans. He just has one pupil that dilates more than another....what a relief!!!

Bath Time

Tonight's bathtime dialog:

Zachey: "Mom, where is my raincloud?"
Me: "I don't know honey?" <- This usually works....
Zachey: "But I need it to make it rain?"
Me: "What does it look like?"
Zachey: "It is a cloud that makes rain" (Thanks....?)
I proceeded to show him every toy in the tub, "Is this it? How about this?"
He would giggle and say, "NO sidley (silly), dats Peter Pan" or "no, dats my letters."
Finally I found the small sponge that we used to use to wash Grayson when he was a baby. It was hidden under a boat.
Zachey: "Der it is! My rain cloud!"
He then filled it with water and made it "rain" on peter pan.....how cute :)

Sweet Zachey is 3

Zachey three year stats:

32 lbs - 50th percentile
37.5 inches - 75th percentile

I know I write the same thing everytime, but I cannot believe it has been three years since I brought you home from the hospital! I just love how your giggle can brighten any moment. You love to be carried "up-si-down" (every day after bath) and are really are quite independent. I am so proud of the way you want to take care of your brother, you are (usually) very gentle with him, and defend him if someone is too close.

This year has been so fun. I feel comfortable letting you play outside with your sister or sit in the bathtub and play with your letters (sometimes for 45 minutes!) So smart, you know all of them now, and are constantly asking "what does _____ start with?" I can tell that you will really love school and learning (if you ever decide that you want to give up pull ups!)

I was so scared having to take you to the emergency room. I hope I never have to experience that again. You have the most angelic voice, and when you you smile those beautiful blue eyes just melt my heart. Some of my favorite moments are when I catch you singing and dancing as if no one is watching...I hope that never changes!

Mommy loves you so much my sweet boy! Happy birthday!

A few of Zachey's favorites