life lately

Attempting to catch up with things over the past month!  We've been having lots of fun with friends and cousins!

At the last minute I decided to throw together a party for the Superbowl.  We had lots of yummy snacks and I threw a pork roast in the crock pot and it was a perfect evening!

Then it was funny because the next 2 Sundays after that I had friends over for soup!  We joked that it was becoming a regular Sunday night thing!  I've never looked at having friends over as "company."  I love entertaining and being with friends.  It's not work to me.  It's just fun!

Our local theater performed the play Mr. Popper's Penguins so we went with our friends!  One of the penguins let us take a picture with him!  It was a great show!

After the play we all went to our house for dinner again!

It seems like the weekend is never complete without a trip to Hobby Lobby!  Kerigan and Payton had fun finding all the Easter things to play with!

Kerigan was invited to her friend Olivia's birthday party.  She had so much fun- all her little preschool friends were there.

They did face paint!  She just loved this and never wanted to take it off!  Why does she look 13??

One weekend our cousins came over to play!  The weather was just gorgeous and they had a blast roller blading and riding bikes around the pond and playing at the park!

I think she's ready for a bigger bike this year!

Kerigan and cousin Evi realized they had the same shirt!  Ha!

Then my little tumbler had pictures so I attempted to make her hair look like tumbling hair!  Yes I googled hair style ideas!  Ha!

For my first attempt I think it turned out pretty good!

Kerigan with some of her sweet tumbling friends Brooklyn and Avery.

And here's her sweet picture.

Our school had Family Reading Night and I took the kids since Craig was busy with a game.  They love to play in my classroom. 

This is one of our fun Kindergarten teachers!  Kerigan was so excited to stand by Cat in the Hat!  And she thinks she's going to Kindergarten next year... we still haven't decided!  Ugh!

I can just imagine my baby sitting here listening to stories and learning so much next year!  She's growing up way too fast.

So then the stomach flu of 2016 hit our house.  And it was not fun.  Kerigan was first to get hit with it mid-week and woke up about 11pm saying her tummy hurt.  She wanted daddy so he slept with her and stayed home with her the next day.  Then 2 days later, poor daddy got it.

Kerigan was so, so sad because she missed Wacky Wednesday at her preschool.  Andrew felt so bad for her so he made a school and had Wacky Wednesday for her in the basement!  It was the sweetest.thing.ever.  I love this kid!

She had to have the next day home also because she had a fever so I stayed home with her and aired out the house and bleached everything.  Belle went nuts when I opened the windows in Kerigan's room!  Ha!  Those birds chirping wouldn't have a chance if this cat got out!

To top things off, it was our conference week at school.  I still had a couple of conferences on Friday morning when daddy was sick so after they ended I went home and picked the kids up.  I dropped Andrew off at the Y to go swimming with the day care kids and took Kerigan to school with me so Daddy could rest.

Luckily no kids had school that day so she just played in my room while I worked... until the Y called that Andrew was sick!

At that point I almost lost it!  Luckily his was short lived and he was better the next day.  After the weekend I thought we were all in the clear until I got it that Monday afternoon!  It was just awful and had me down for 2 days.  I am hoping we got it out of the way and can kiss sickness goodbye for a while!  I'm ready for spring!  (P.S. yes our cat really is almost as big as our kid! Ha!)

After missing all that school my little man had already had a couple of appointments scheduled in Des Moines so we took a day off and had a great "non-sick" day together!  We stopped at Jethros yummy BBQ for dinner on our way home!  I loved having a date with my sweet little guy!

The next week we had a Wacky Wednesday "do over" since Kerigan had missed the week before.  Her teacher let her wear her wacky outfit to school and had brought the book over while she was sick so we could read it together.

We had dinner on the patio for the first time this season.  We were all celebrating being healthy and nice weather!

Bring on Spring!

sweet hearts

I realize Valentine's Day was last month, but here's my attempt at catching up!

We love Papa Murphy's heart shaped pizzas!  We always have to get them in February!

Daddy made this girl's day and surprised her at school for lunch.  Daddy is most definitely her Valentine.  She pretty much thinks he hung the moon.  And he feels the same about her.

So.  These robots seemed like a good idea at the time.

(This is what trying to take their picture is really like!  Ha!)

I can confidently say I will never be making anything this elaborate again.  Ever.  #thanksalotpinterest.  Ha!

The kids picked out the candy for them and I assumed they would be able to help me with them.  They weren't.  Hot glue and kids just don't mix.  And these wouldn't stay together any other way.  It was quite an undertaking.  While adorable, definitely not worth the effort!  But the kids all loved them!

Then we had treats to bring for her day care too.  So we made cupcakes together and decorated them and then put them in little baggies.

She is getting so good at writing her name.  She was very proud of these.

They helped me with their boxes this year.  Kerigan got really into making hers.  She wanted a tumbling box this year.  We cut out little pictures of her doing tumbling and put them on the box and she just loved that!

Andrew chose a robot.  I guess this was a robot year!

It was nice having Valentine's Day on a weekend this year.  Kerigan helped me make heart shaped pancakes and daddy brought home Dunkin Donuts.  I call that a win!

My kids surprised me with sweet cards and notes. 

I just adore my sweet little family!

andrew's 9th birthday

We made it to the Ramada tropics!  

It might have been freezing outside, but it felt like a tropical paradise in here!  This year for his birthday Andrew wanted to do something different.  He did not want a party with all his friends.  He requested to stay in a hotel with his cousins and swim.  Mission accomplished.

We arrived early before the crowds and got a ton of swimming in!  It had been a while since they had been swimming and they loved it!

I think Kerigan did this approximately 947 times.

She loved going down the slide with Evie!

My birthday boy!  I could hardly get him to stop for a picture!

So I got a few more of this girl!

Andrew coming down the big slide!

Grandpa and Grandma, Papa and Ga Ga and Uncle Jay and Aunt Rachel showed up later to join us for pizza and cake!  Of course I didn't get pictures of anyone else!  Too busy keeping up with the kids!

The kids had fun in the arcade too while I set up for the party!

I enjoyed making things easier this year!  Just ordered Big Hero 6 plates and napkins, made a banner, and ordered an awesome cake from my nephew's wife who makes all our cakes and cookies!  She is amazing!

We set up poolside and had a great view!

Opening gifts at dinner!  He got Pie Face from Papa, a much anticipated gift and one I had been avoiding all through the Christmas season- ha!  I am not a fan of messy games.  But when Andrew found out about this game, it was at the top of his birthday list.

Pepperoni pizza for the birthday boy!

How can he be 9?

After dinner, cake and gift opening- the kids had round 2 of swimming and we said goodbye to the grandparents!

Then we took the kids back to our room to open gifts from mommy and daddy.

It was Ninja Turtles and Skylanders...

They would laugh and laugh because Andrew could never get these boxes open and every box he opened was taped shut!

I love tricking him and wrapping smaller gifts inside a bigger box.  

This was the Skylander he wanted most- Bowser to go with his new superchargers game.

Love my kids so much!

After gifts, this happened.

We had so.much.fun playing this game.

And I thought, what better place to play a messy game but in a hotel room?  Ha!

I think she loved it the most!

She kept wanting to turn the knob until she got pie face!  Ha!

This game was definitely a hit!

A fun memory from Andrew's 9th birthday.

Daddy even got in on the fun!

And for documentation purposes... mommy too.  Ha!

They also had fun kicking the hover ball up and down the hotel hallways!

And making popcorn with Andrew's new popcorn bowl!

Popcorn and sleepover #2 with cousins!  I'm pretty sure Andrew would say this was his best weekend ever.

In the morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel.

And of course, went swimming again!

Time to head home- Pirate faces!

And it wouldn't be Andrew's birthday without a blizzard warning!

We went shopping for necessities.  Ha!  The kids got one snow day and it wasn't nearly as much snow as they predicted.  It has been a low key winter with not much snow!

And just like that.  We have a 9 year old.  Happy birthday buddy!  You will always be our "Big Hero..." no matter what age!