Bits and Pieces

Well, I haven't been doing a great job of keeping up on the blog with the little things going on around here! Between our weekend trips and trying to make sure to upload phone pictures to my computer, it makes it a bit trickier to make sure they get included on the blog. So I'm now playing catch up, they range from sometime in April until to this week. :)

Mother/Son coffee date before storytime.
Love this one on one time together.

Hopscotch

I have been loving the chalk drawings around here. 

The top one is Makin's car with jet/fire boosters.

Bottom left is Lorelei blowing bubbles over flowers, and the right is a hot air balloon. (L's creations)

The Aquatic Center was the kid's vote in place of family game night one Sunday.

We had quite a few rainy days thrown into our weather forecast which usually means we break out the crafts. Finger-painting was one we hadn't done in a while. Loved Lorelei's hand prints.

"I wish I had my front teeth..."

Park Bliss!

We decided to go ahead and put up the pool so there would be a few weeks for the water to warm up. They are so excited to swim!

When you have rainy days, you invent games. 

This one involved a tunnel, basketball and construction helmet...

Loved spending time watching ladybugs and butterflies in our backyard.

Chocolate milk fixed a gloomy morning for a tired boy running errands. :)

We have been dropping nap, which has led to a crankier little man.

Going to have to work on the right balance. :)

Just a little reminder of the value in the every-day. I was folding laundry while M was playing with silly puddy. He asked, "How long is it? About three inches?" (holding it not stretched out far), so we got out the ruler and got to learn more about inches. Love those teachable moments!

Makin was my exercise buddy for our second bike/jog and walk. The weather hasn't cooperated as consistently as we would like, but we want to build this into our schedule a couple of days a week. He worked his Mama hard! :)

The kids enjoyed their dates this month and they are so happy with the one-on-one time! Both dates were with Brad this time. Lorelei and Brad had a McDonald's lunch date after school one day, and then Makin and Brad had a golf date after work on his day. The pictures are from Makin's golf outing. Lorelei and I enjoyed our girl time while the boys were out. We did some roller skating (her, not me) and then pedicures on the patio. Brad said Makin had a blast driving the golf cart (I think this is the first time he could steer and reach the pedals) and golfing, especially having a "putting contest" on the putting green after they finished.

Mother's Day Tea

I was able to go to my first-ever Mother's Day tea! It was a bit early, as Lorelei's teacher is traveling the week before Mother's Day. We enjoyed decorating a glass candle holder together. 

(Really I just organized the tissue flowers for her, she wanted to do it all on her own.)

We also enjoyed peppermint tea and cookies.

Loved having our rare girl time together!

Another Trip

We seem to be keeping our suitcases busy lately. We have traveled about every other weekend for the last month! I'm ready for things to settle down a bit. :)

Only two weeks ago, we decided we needed to make a trip down to Texas. We would normally never spend 20+ hours in a car over a span of four days, but we had specific reasons for our visit, which I will just save for another post.

We have been working hard tweaking Brad's diet (for the millionth time) over the last month or two, which helps me to keep the kids and I eating healthier as well. It takes a lot of extra time and energy to make healthy snacks yourselves! Definitely worth it, although the drive home was definitely lacking in choices. Makin was a superstar helper for me while packing. He made our bags with our names for popcorn. I also tried a new recipe with "cookies" made of a mashed banana, oatmeal and chocolate chips. Not going to replace the real thing, but it wasn't bad! :)

My sister was kind enough to keep us Thursday evening and feed us a yummy supper as well. The problem is when you rarely see your sister and have one night to visit, you stay up talking till 1 am! :) The kids were beyond thrilled to see their Aunt Heather. She read them a book from our childhood for bedtime.

She also spoiled them with their first-ever Fruity Pebbles, which they were elated to have for breakfast,

We headed further south, and were able to meet up with a couple more friends. We didn't have time for very many on this quick trip. The kids all had a fun time playing and the grown ups enjoyed catching up.

School Happenings

A few of Lorelei's school happenings have been...

Baby Chicks. A farmer brought in an incubator and the kids got to watch at least three of them hatch during school one day. They had the chicks for about a week and got to pet and hold them. Lorelei was beyond excited about this.

(Most photos of the class are compliments of Mrs. Wieberdink, who has been nice enough to send some via text per my request!)

Makin and Drue got to see the chicks too

A Bubble Gum Readers Pizza Party. The class was working towards filling up their "bubble gum jar" with "gum" for each book that they read. Mr. Wieberdink (Mrs. W's husband...in case you didn't catch that...) promised the class a pizza party if they filled the jar. :)

They also used this as a chance to celebrate finishing their school testing this week. Each child took a turn reading a page from this week's reader. I was impressed that Lorelei was not phased reading in front of the other parents and read her page beautifully. :)

Reading. As I mentioned, her reading seems to be speeding up. Sometime in March they added the "silent e" among others. I am constantly baffled at the English language when she asks me questions in regards to reading. This would be one of many examples of our conversations. She was trying to spell, "Woah" and spelled it this way phonetically. As usual, when she asked if it was correct, I had to say..."yes, that WOULD make sense. But you know how the English language is!"

Science. Here is her science lesson turned into art work. Just loved this one. Not sure if you can tell but there is a real seed glued on the for the seed and the roots are pieces of yarn. They also planted their own seeds in cups and she is thrilled the roots are starting and can't wait to see them grow!

Stahl Family Weekend

We drove a couple of hours to see the Stahl family over the weekend. Hannah and Karter were performing for DI (Destination Imagination) along with Aunt Sarah coaching Kater's team again this year. We always love a chance for Grandma and Grandpa to see most (Brooklyn stayed home with Shaun) of their grandchildren together.

Friday night we got to eat out with Grandma and Grandpa and then Grandpa swam with the kids for a bit before we had to get them to bed. Lorelei is still a little nervous to venture to the deep end without her floatie, but she came a long ways getting used to it on this visit. She loved having Grandpa swim out to the deep with her so she knew he would keep her safe if she got too tired to make it to the edge.

Looking at a Where's Waldo book first thing Saturday morning.

Saturday morning we headed to the DI performances right away, but had to divide and conquer as they were at the exact same time! Lorelei went with Grandma to see Hannah's and Grandpa, Brad, Makin and I went to see Karter's. He did a great job and had us laughing. :) Hannah's team did well too, and is able to continue to the DI World Competition in Tennessee in May.

Since it was only 9:30 a.m., we were thrilled to find a Starbucks on the college campus and then headed out with Grandma to check out a couple of local museums. Grandpa stayed at DI, as did Hannah, Karter and Sarah as they had more performances only for judges to see.

First we went to the Nebraska Firefighter's museum. It was small but it was fun seeing the fire trucks progress through the years. Makin particularly liked the children's truck that had a handle you could spin to make the siren. A very loud siren. Over and over again. :) We also saw some pictures of planes putting out fires with retardant just like Planes Fire And Rescue, and learned some other interesting facts!

Then we headed to the bridge we have driven under and the kids have been curious about seeing. It goes across I 80 and is a museum to teach you about the journey westward across the U.S., as it was a location along the Oregon Trail. The kids did enjoy it, but you really have to go at a slower pace to take it all in.

Brad and Grandma headed to DI while I took the kids to the hotel for a nap. After a rest, they were excited for swimming. Lorelei then swam 3 hours straight, took a break for supper, and then went back to swim for another 1 1/2 hours. Makin swam on and off during that time. I think the water was a little cold for his taste, but when his cousins and Grandma could add to the fun he was distracted and had a blast after supper. One thing I would like Lorelei to remember from her swimming that afternoon was a group of teenage girls who made an effort to include her in playing volleyball with them in the pool. I loved her getting a chance to see that kindness offered to her and helping her feel included.

Top: Playing Marco, Polo
Bottom: One, Two, Three (And later, Makin would just yell THREE!) and then jumping/swimming
between Grandma and Hannah

Then as if that wasn't enough, they woke up and were ready to swim a couple more hours Sunday morning. :)

It always makes me smile when Hannah and Karter are kind to their little cousins. During lunch they worked with them on a word puzzle while we waited for our food.

Thanks for a fun weekend!

Bits Of Fun On Break

I love having Lorelei home from school. Even three days off for Easter break was wonderful!

One morning they enjoyed playing a Lego game I found on pinterest.

They requested a nap together on Lorelei's floor with the bed of blankets they made. Lorelei was under the weather with allergies/a cold so she had no problem falling asleep this day.

We also went to storytime (L misses this so was nice for her to come!) and had an at-home playdate with friends. (No pics!)












Saturday we went to Omaha to run errands and have some family fun too. The highlights were Raising Canes and put put golf.

Monday was too cold to enjoy any outside time, but Lorelei, Makin and Drue had a blast inside. When it is the three of them playing, they really get on a roll. It usually involves lots of Legos and this day was no exception. We ended the day with a game. The Puppy Game is one of their favorites, and the last couple of times they have played it, we have been thrilled to discover Lorelei can read most of the clues! :) (This is a game where I hide the puppies, then put clues all over the house, leading them to the puppies. Up until now I had to go along and read them the clues along the way.)

Easter 2015

I have so many great Easter memories from my childhood, so it is a very special holiday for me. We had a great time with our little traditions.

The kids had such a fun time dying eggs. They are now both a great age where you can just let them loose to do their thing. Makin kept commenting how much he loved it. Lorelei loved experimenting with colors and painting pictures on a few. We made as many as we thought we could eat ourselves within 2 weeks, but they could have kept going much longer. Going to have to find a family who needs some dyed for them next year. :)

Makin worked on his reading with the eggs I made last year.

We loved our egg lunches again this year. I actually made sure we had them twice!

They come up with the idea to play "guess what I'm chewing" and had lots of fun with that.

We enjoyed our Easter Sunday.

It was a bit of an up and down morning when Makin woke up not feeling well (as in I was changing plans for us to stay home all day) but he perked up and we were able to spend our day as planned.

They loved finding their baskets and enjoying the surprises inside.

We had our own special breakfast. I grew up with a huge church breakfast every Easter morning, so ours had to be something special. This was my first time making balloon buns/resurrection rolls.

All spiffed up for church.

We enjoyed lunch and the afternoon with the Smith family. Evan and Alea hid eggs for the kids (color coordinated too) and we enjoyed some games after lunch as well. The kid's favorite part was playing with their dog Lindsey.

Happy Easter!