beat the bitter

One freezing day after school we took the kids and our neighbor to "Beat the Bitter," an event at a park in our town.

I kind of feel like this whole update is about beating the bitter because it was so freezing this winter!  We found a lot of fun things to do inside!

But this event was outside and still so fun.  They had horse drawn trolley rides!  The girls were excited.  Andrew- notsomuch.

More hot chocolate for the win!  Now he's excited!

They had Anna and Elsa!  Bonus!  Side note- Kerigan is holding this dog because it was her turn to take it home from Kindergarten and write about their adventures.  Fun times.

They had these huge blocks of ice that we got to watch them carve!  It was pretty cool!

Later that night we went back for fireworks and they had completed the ice sculptures!

They were fascinated with the huge chunks of ice!

Then the kids all piled in the back of Megan's car to watch the fireworks out the window because it was SO COLD.

It's hard to take pictures of fireworks but we were so impressed by these!  We said they were just as good as the 4th of July!

Kerigan wrote this at school and brought it home.  I texted it to Megan (Avery's mom) and said apparently we have a new family member- Ha!

Another cold weekend Avery's family took Kerigan to the children's museum in town.

They had a blast!  (Clearly, Kerigan was confused by this mirror- Ha!)

Avery's little brother, Brady, is like Kerigan's brother too.  She loves him and is always asking me when she gets to be a big sister! (Not gonna happen!)

Our sweet friends from our old town were at the hospital with Parker and since we live all of 10 minutes away, we brought them some treats and went to visit!  Since we don't live down the street from each other anymore, we have to take advantage of when we're close!  Even if it IS the hospital!

When your BFF knows just what you need for an unexpected hospital stay!

My sweet boy's class was doing presentations and his group got to come present to my class!  I loved it so much!

On the 100th day of school her teacher texted us these pictures of our kids at age 100!  Yikes!  So funny.

Our cousin was having a birthday party so we went to stay at Ga Ga's for the weekend since she lives closer.  Kerigan is obsessed with these Beadoes.  You make designs and then spray them with water and they stick together.  Genius!

I had to post this on FB- Like Ga Ga like grandson!

Evelyn's party was at the coolest new place called Climb Iowa!

These two did amazing!

They both made it to the top!  Incredible!

The pictures don't really do it justice how tall these walls were!

I was amazed.  This was NOT easy and several of the kids couldn't do it!

Then they had these smaller ones that were slanted backwards and both kids also made it to the top of these!

This pictures makes me laugh!

Made it to the top!

Andrew and Evelyn having a contest!  They are 4 days apart and love having birthday parties so close together.

Then this is such a sweet story.  So Evelyn still lives in our town we lived in when Andrew was born and has become friends with this little girl, Mya.  They play on the same sports teams together.  Well, Andrew and Mya just happened attend day care together since they were 2 and Kindergarten together!   It was so fun to reconnect these two.  They used to be best buddies!

Here's a blast from the past- first day of Kindergarten.  Mya was like a little mother to him and he just adored her.  Such a small world!

One night we went to take dinner to Daddy at school and played a little basketball!

I'm sure she's getting more ideas of activities she wants to participate in!  This girl has me running ragged to activities every week!

We always enjoy visiting Daddy on nights when he's busy working games.

Andrew showing off his tricks! 

We are ready for spring!

get your game on!

How is it that we celebrated this guy's 10th birthday?  Double digits just doesn't seem possible!

Andrew wanted his party at a game place/arcade.  So we found one not too far away and it was perfect for a bunch of ten year old boys!

My niece-in-law made the adorable cookies and cake.

I barely did anything for decorations.  I just made a banner that said "Level 10" and brought balloons.  So simple!

These boys are at that age where they just don't care if I consulted Pinterest for everything!  They just had a blast!

The place served pizza and ice cream and it was all so good!  They did pretty much everything and it was very organized.

We had a private room upstairs and I had the boys come up 2 different times.  Once for pizza and once for cake and ice cream!  The rest of the time they got to play!

Can't forget this sweet girl eating her pizza!  She was kind of lonely without cousin Evelyn who had to come late because he had a volleyball tournament.

Luckily Grandma and Grandpa got to come join the fun too!!  And she hung out a lot with Daddy!

This is a view looking down from the balcony where the private rooms are.  Upstairs is also a laser tag area.  They have mini golf, trampolines with basketball hoops, a huge play area with slides, tunnels, etc, and so much more!

These are the trampolines.  The boys especially loved shooting baskets in there!

Then they also had these bumper cars!

He loved it!  And most of his friends all got to join him as there were cars for everyone!

Of course Daddy and Kerigan had fun too!  That's the ice cream place behind them.

Time for cake!  Crazy boys!

Afterwards they got to play a little longer and then cash in their tickets for prizes!

One of the best surprises was Andrew's best friend from our old town got to come join us!  I had texted with his family and secretly planned it.  Andrew had been missing Gavin so much and they had each written letters to each other.  Andrew couldn't have been happier to see this guy!

Andrew opened some gifts on the way out!  They had so much fun playing they didn't want to give up play time!  Ha!

A few boys had already left but I wanted their picture on the way out by the Planet X sign.

When we got home we had dinner with family and Andrew opened the rest of his presents.

Then Evelyn got Andrew started on his huge Lego set from Christmas and they almost got it done!

This was the first time Andrew showed this much interest for long enough to work on a big Lego set.

Evelyn loves legos so she was happy to get it out and get him started!  She worked on a lot of it and then he decided to join her! #cousinteamwork

These two kids are pretty much his whole world right here.

Evelyn and Kerigan had a little picnic under her bed!  Everyone was excited to spend the night and the kids watched a movie together.  Cousin sleepovers are the best!  And the grown ups had fun too!

Andrew woke up the morning of his birthday to his favorite muffins and a few decorations and gifts from mom and dad.

I brag so much about our school being so fun and the best school ever!  We still think it is, but we are a bit bummed out that there is a no food rule for birthday treats.  I ordered some game controller erasers, notepads and pencils for Andrew to pass out instead.

I think the kids might have been more excited for these than if I had brought food!  Ha!

I always love popping into his classroom (which is right across the hall from mine!) but this is the look I usually get.  Ha!  He's just getting too big!  At least a certain Kindergartener still loves to hug me when I come in her room!

We do have the most fun principal ever.  He takes a selfie with every kid in the school on their birthday and gives them a pencil.  He never misses one!

That night, Ga Ga and Papa came over and we had dinner and cake at home (Andrew's choice- he never wants to go out but loves staying home).  Kerigan was so, so excited to give him the present she got for him.

I could not love these two more.  My favorite thing is that they are both always excited to celebrate the others birthday.  They don't care that they don't get presents (we started that from day 1- no presents on siblings birthdays) and I think they are both almost equally excited on each others birthdays as their own!

I made him a chocolate cake and used the same decorations from his other cake. 

And just like that... 

He's 10.