Hockey Night!

Last night we had the company suite for a Winterhawks game. Kristin and Kellen had a great time. Kristin enjoyed watching the game and Kellen enjoyed exploring the suite. He learned that the freezer was at his level and had lots and lots of ice in it.


It was mascot night at the arena so a bunch of regional mascots had a scrimmage. It was pretty funny. I don't know how they saw where the puck even was. Some of them clearly didn't.
Yesterday... during the day Danelle took the kids to the library and on another errand while I got the new blinds put up over the big window in the kitchen area by the kids' art table. Everything turned out pretty well, Danelle and I are pleased with both the measurements and the color and style. Goodbye 45 year old drapes!


This morning Kellen and I played outside for awhile. I had hoped to work on taking the Hawthorne down but Kellen had other ideas. That's OK, he kept us busy bouncing from one activity to the next. He seems to like the act of getting his toys out more than actually playing with them.

This afternoon the tree came down. More work than anticipated because the upper branches were tangled pretty good in the cable and phone lines. But in the end the tree came down and nobody lost service. :-) Now we just have the work of cutting it into pieces small enough to go in the yard debris bin. Kristin helped with that for awhile by taking large branches off of the pile and dragging them over to where I was cutting them.

The kids also got haircuts this afternoon. They like going to that place where they can sit in different car chairs or motorcycles etc and watch dvds on a TV while they get their hair cut.

Crazy Hair Day

Today was Crazy Hair Day at Kristin's school. The whole school collectively achieved this day with receiving enough Eagle Eyes (little slips of paper that say they did something good). It is a big deal to the kids and they were all excited for today. We saw lots of colorful and crazy hair! Kristin also got to be on stage (with all the 1st graders) today at an assembly. The 1st graders lead the school in a song... evidently about Haiti. We asked Kristin to sing it for us, but she can't remember it.











Kellen had Tumble Bus today and really enjoyed the trampoline. The teachers also built a fort with the gym mats and that is always a hit. Kellen is big into doing art these days, so we got out the dotters and he dot painted away for awhile.

Toast

We knew it was only a matter of time. Kellen has figured out that there are no physical barriers preventing him from getting out of bed. He pops up like toast, same as Kristin did when the light in her head went off. This evening Kristin and I were reading at her bedtime and I heard the lightswitch in Kellen's room and then shortly thereafter I heard him giggling.

Danelle's uncle John was in the area for a dentist appt and stopped over aftwards today to visit with Danelle and Kellen. I could tell Kellen liked it because he told me all about it when I got home. I couldn't really understand what he was saying he was talking so excitedly.

Here is a picture of Kellen with Frank from last weeked. I think Frank is about a week younger than Kellen. Frank is a big boy too. His mom said he was in the 95th percentile for height at his second birthday. I don't remember where Kellen was at his birthday but he and Frank are about the same height now.

Dump Trucks, Crane, Excavators... Oh My!

This morning I took Kellen over by my work and to run some errands. A new hospital is being built by my work, so needless to say there is a huge crane and lots of construction equipement. We parked the car and walked along one of the sidewalks along the site that was open. Kellen watched an excavator move a fallen tree, 2 dump trucks dump their load of rock, a roller compacting rock, etc. The crane was fascinating to him as it is so big, but it was not moving today. A number of the workers waved at Kellen and he waved back. One of the dump truck drivers even honked his horn for Kellen. What a treat! After about 20 minutes of watching we were on our way to get our errands done.

This afternoon Aaron came home early to work on taking down the Hawthorne tree in the backyard. He got a lot more down and we filled the yard debris contain for tomorrow's pick up. Kellen and Kristin played in the back yard too. It was such a nice day out you just didn't want to be inside.

Kristin had a good day at school. Last night and the night before she read a Level 2 (early reader) book to Aaron and did very well. She has become quite the reader. She is also learning how to summarize what she is reading in her writing homework.

Munchkin Sports

Kellen had his first day of Munchkin Sports today. Sounds like it took him awhile to warm up to the idea. I guess it didn't help that they had to walk past an indoor play area with a bunch of Little Tykes style playground equipment in order to get to the area of the class. Danelle said that Kellen just wanted to play at the playground area.

This evening we had some good family time together. Danelle, Kristin, and I took turns playing the Wii Fitness game to determine our Wii ages. Whoever wasn't playing the Wii took a turn playing trains with Kellen. He and I had an 'adventure' when one of the train cars got stuck in the roundhouse shed. We investigated different ways to get in unstuck. Kellen's favorite method involved a hammer. In the end I was able to jar it loose with a clothes hanger.

Danelle said that she went to check on Kellen about fifteen minutes after she'd put him down for nap and found him on the floor playing with toys that he'd gotten out. And so it begins. Toast, version 2.0.

Playdate for Kellen

After sleeping in we all got moving for the day. We took a little trip to the doughnut shop for a snack this morning before we had Frank and his parent over for lunch. Aaron ued to work with Frank's parents back when he was at ODOT. Frank is Kellen's age and actually they are only about a week apart. Once they warmed up to each other they played pretty good together. Kellen says he would like to play with Frank again. They live about an hour away, but we will make that work.

Tomorrow we are back to it and Kellen and I get to start a new class at the parks and rec district called Munckin Sports. Both of us get to play some different sports... should be fun first thing on a Monday morning. :)

Busy Busy Day

We sure kept busy today. The blinds we ordered in November arrived last week, so we started that project. In the morning I took down the curtains over the sliding door while Danelle and the kids ran to Home Depot to buy some spackle to fill in the holes. Then after lunch Danelle went for a haircut and I started in on installing the new blinds after getting Kellen down for a 'nap'. The installation probably took longer than it should have, but I woke up tired and wanted to make sure I got it right. Too much math involved for a Saturday and the directions were a bit lacking.

Kellen never went to sleep and when I started drilling the new holes in the drywall his curiousity was more than he could bear. He got out of bed to find out what was happening. 'What are you doin Daddy?' That's the first time he's ever gotten out of bed after we've put him down for nap or bedtime. Hopefully it doesn't become a trend.

When Danelle got home from her haircut she took the kids outside while I finished the project and did the clean up. I then joined them outside. We had taken down a smallish volunteer poplar last week but hadn't yet disposed of the trunk. It was about 4" diameter at the base. While I was getting my power saw ready, Danelle took a hand saw out and made short work of it so that it would fit in the yard debri bin. Showoff. I then jumped in on stump removal. That ended up being more work than I thought. The neighboring trees had entertwined their roots, but it came out in the end.

This evening I had a hockey game. While I was gone Danelle managed to bake a cake and scrub the floors! She just wouldn't be outdone today. :-) The floors had gotten slippery quite by accident. The blinds came in packaging with a bunch of bubble wrap, which the kids took to playing with all over the house. Turns out the slider for the blinds was greased down and the buble wrap was of course wrapped around it so we ended up with a transparent grease on the floor. Very slippery. Seems to be all better now thanks to Danelle's hard work.

The kids did have a lot of fun with the bubble wrap inside and they were quite busy while playing outside. Both of them fell asleep quickly tonight!

Here's a picture of the kids sporting straw hats.

Blooms

Yesterday was a very nice springy day here... sunny and got up to 55 degrees! The crazier part was that my crocus's bloomed only 1/3 of the way through winter. Wow! How confused my plants are. Today we were not so lucky on the weather and were right back to the rain. Kellen likes to remind us to use the "rainbrella" so we stay dry. Love that word!

Kellen had Tumble Bus this morning and had fun with that. We also got groceries and he was happy to find a dry car cart so he could drive while I shopped. Kristin had a pretty good day at school. She got to share a stuffed animal (chicken) that came with the book Philadelphia Chickens. Her class has been reading the little stories/songs and then listening to the songs with the CD that came with the book. Kristin had told her teacher that she also had the stuffed animal and her teacher had her bring it in. Her friends really liked that.

The Results are In...

Kristin sold 68 boxes of cookies. Great job Kristin! She turned in her order this evening at her troop meeting. Sounds like they had a fun time. While Danelle and Kristin were at the meeting, Kellen and I played some floor hockey and also played some with his trains.

Both of the kids had great days yesterday at their first day at the new daycare. Kellen didn't even cry at dropoff time. Too many new things to explore I guess. Kristin got to go swimming in the afternoon after school. Kellen isn't old enough to use the pool yet. He has to be 3 years old and potty trained. Somethin for him to work towards.

Here's Kellen being silly after bath time last night:

Zoo Trip in January

Hooray for a mostly dry day! This morning we went to the zoo for some long needed time outside. It was even sunny! We visited the elephants, lions, and a number of other animals. Some of the Zoolights were still up (not on of course).

In the afternoon both Aaron and I got some things done outside. I got most of the remaining Christmas lights down. It got too windy to get up on the big ladder... for another day. I also cut down our lavender bush. Our daffodils have been coming up for weeks now and today I notices that one of the crocus's was purple... not bloomed yet, but close. Crazy for Jan 18th! Aaron cut down a volunteer tree in the backyard that has been there for as long as we have been in the house and then some.

We also got supplies dropped off at the new daycare. Kristin and Kellen start tomorrow. Kristin is very excited to go swimming tomorrow at daycare. Yes, if we haven't mentioned it they have a pool! We hope their transition to a new place and faces goes well.

Our Little Mechanic

Kellen was doing some creative play with a diaper box this evening. Danelle said he looked like a little mechanic. I'd have to agree.

Kind of a lazy day for us. It's been rainy here for days on end. We fought the boredom by running errands this afternoon. While we were at Fred Meyer we ran into one of Kristin's friends and her family and ended up arranging a play date for next weekend.

While inside, the kids have been keeping busy with coloring, trains, mad libs (Kristin likes thoses), and creative play. Here's Kristin being proud of an 'art' project in which Kellen is the centerpiece.

Painting Almost Complete

Well, I got the 2nd coat of paint done this afternoon in Kellen's room. Looks good, but I mis-taped the line between the closet and the room. So I have about 2 inches along the closet left to paint. Oh well. The kids watched me paint for about 15 minutes. I am surprised they watched for that long... not that exciting. Maybe they were actually watching the paint dry. ;) Aaron took them out for a quick trip to the post office.

Kellen did quite a bit of coloring in a Dora coloring book today. Kristin got into a Mad Libs notepad that she got last week. Aaron helped her with what nouns, verbs, and adjectives are. I read a few of the stories and they are pretty funny.

Painting and Jogging

Danelle got through the bulk of the painting today, including prep and taping -- amazing. Just a little touch up work remaining. The room looks totally different now. We'll have to take a picture and post it in the next few days.

Kristin officially reached the 40 lap club for jogging at her school. I say 'officially' since she says she has more but one of the volunteers didn't write down her laps in the ledger. She's probably right - she always tells us how many laps she runs and the volunteers mark the kids hands with a marker to keep track. So we see the marks on the days that they run.

Today was the kids last day at the old daycare. They start at the new one next Tuesday. I'm sure Kellen doesn't understand yet, but Kristin seems to be taking it in stride so far. She's looking forward to being with lots of other kids from her elementary school.

Paint

Tomorrow's project... paint Kellen's room. It is long overdue. Kellen and I headed out this morning in the wind and rain and ran some errands including going to the paint store. We picked out a paint color (blue) and got it ordered. While it was being mixed one of the workers asked Kellen if he would like to help. So, Kellen got to go behind the counter and help! He got to hand out a stir stick and paint can opener to another customer and another stir stick to me. He then got to help put the lid on a can of paint with a mallet. What fun for Kellen! Kellen then gave the guys high-fives and returned to me. They even gave him a paint hat, but he doesn't want it.

Kristin had a good day at school. She had PE class today and they did one of her favorites... the obstacle course. She had fun with that. Tomorrow morning, before I get to painting, I will be in Kristin's classroom volunteering. It will be nice to get to do that again. Kristin seems excited for me to be there too.

Mini Cooper

Kristin was reading to me at bedtime from a Fancy Nancy book. There was a picture with a bunch of cars in a traffic jam. She pointed to one of the cars and asked if it was a Mini Cooper. I said that it might be, and then Kristin told me that her first grade teacher has a Mini Cooper. Not just a Cooper, but a Mini Cooper.

Kellen surprised Danelle and I this evening by putting a fairly long section of tracks together without any help. He was trying to delay bath time and asked Danelle to get out the tracks. Danelle said no so he went over and got them out himself and started putting them together. His little ploy worked as Danelle and I let him get pretty far just out of curiosity. I think he'd still be playing with them if we hadn't dragged him off to bath.

Here's a picture of Kristin and Danelle watching a Shrinky Dink in the oven from last weekend.

Goal Accomplished

Kristin achieved and beat her goal of selling 30 boxes of Girl Scout cookies today. Thanks to all who have ordered. She is excited to see how many boxes her troop as a whole will sell. :)

This morning Kellen and I headed to Target for a lengthy list of items. He was great and enjoyed eatting some popcorn along the way. :) The rest of the day was pretty low key.

Here is a picture of the kids a couple days ago. It is more common than not that they are on top of each other in some way. At least in this picture they are happy. :)

Remember Cassette Tapes?

So yesterday the family was sitting around the kitchen table talking on the phone. Kellen was very quietly investigating a cassette tape that goes with a sing a long tape player the kids have. The result:

We had a nice relaxing weekend. Kristin had a playdate Saturday afternoon here at the house with her friend Morgan. They played Wii sports mostly.

Today was spent at church in the morning and then Kellen and I took naps in the afternoon. Danelle and Kristin went to the library. Kristin brought home a Where's Waldo book that is more challenging than the other Waldo books we have. At least Kristin and I think so. We spent 10 minutes looking for Waldo on one page and then Danelle came over and found him after about 30 seconds.

TGIF

I has been a long week. Whew! Kellen and I kept busy this morning running errands, including groceries. He was happy because we were able to find a dry car cart. :) So, Kellen "drove" and I shopped. We also put in our notice at our daycare of over 6 years and got enrolled at a new daycare. We are hoping the transition will go well for both kids. Kristin seems excited about the new daycare since there are a lot of kids from her elementary school there. This was also one of the main reasons for the move.

Kristin was excited on Monday that she was assigned to be popcorn helper today at school. This means for her class she gets to choose a buddy and walk to the cafeteria with money to get popcorn and bring it back for the class. The kids can buy a bag of popcorn for a quarter. Kristin had 2 quarters in her bag (I guess I forgot she had one in there from before break), but it turned out good. Kristin bought a bag of popcorn for her friend Emma who forgot to bring a quarter. How sweet!

Chocolate

Danelle and Kellen were browsing at Borders this morning and happened upon a story time read along with other kids about Kellen's age. Danelle said that Kellen alternated between sitting and listening to the books and being up and looking for Dora books. Sounds like all of the other kids just sat and listened. That's our Kellen.

Kristin's homework this week is to write about her winter break using the five senses. Two of the senses involved chocolate. She smelled and tasted chocolate. That's our Kristin.

A pretty low key evening tonight. We had the football game on for a little while and Kristin was asking questions about each team and how they decide whose turn it is to try to score a touchdown. Hadn't really thought of it before, but football is kind of a tough game to explain the rules. But she seemed to be picking up on it.

Here is Kristin showing off the pillow she started in a crafts workshop at school and finished at home with Danelle. She's flashing her 'smile on command'. Below that is Kellen, probably watching Dora on TV.

Girl Scout Night

Kristin was pretty excited to get back to Girl Scouts tonight. The girls had a lot of fun. The girls and the moms got to learn about cookie sales. Yes, it is that time of year and brings back memories for me. We start on Saturday. Kristin is excited, but is not quite sure what to do yet. The troop made 2 goals to work toward with the money they get from the cookie sales. The girls came up with great ideas and narrowed it down to the 2 (1 service and 1 fun). Service goal is to provide items for a homeless shelter and the fun goal is to have a pizza and movie night. They worked together great to make those decisions.

It was a windy day today. At least not rainy, but really too windy to be out and play. So, Kellen and I stayed inside today, except for some errands. We were busy playing all kinds of things from doctor to fixing other toys with toy tools. Fun!

I also managed to make tomato soup today. Thanks mom for the recipe! Turned out good and was pretty easy.

Congratulations To The.....

USA Junior Hockey Team on their upset Gold Medal Win over Canada in the World Junior Hockey Championship. What? Was there another big game? Kristin stayed up a few extra minutes tonight so she could watch the medal celebration with me. She has all sorts of good questions, like 'do they get to keep the trophy, or do they have to give it back next year?' and 'do the players get to spend a day with the trophy like the Stanley Cup?' Yep, that's my six year old daughter asking those questions.

Kristin did have a pretty emotional day today. It was her first day back at daycare before and after school in three weeks. In that time her teacher, who was her favorite so far, moved away to Idaho. Also, one of Kristin's friends who has been at the same daycare almost as long as Kristin moved to a different daycare. So Kristin was missing her teacher and friend today.

Kellen was pretty well behaved this evening. I think he was a little tuckered out after playing with kids his own age all day. He also did a great job eating a big dinner. We measured him a couple days ago. He's grown a little over an inch in the last 6 weeks.

Here's a picture of Kellen with his train tracks. There is a whole section of track meandering outside of the frame. Also a picture of Kristin posing for the camera prior to playing in the snow last week.

Routine

Back to a "normal" routine today. Aaron was off to work this morning, Kristin got to school this morning without much struggle, and Kellen and I kept busy. :) Whew! Hard to get back to the routine, but we succeeded. Now I get to go to work tomorrow and the kids to daycare. It's been 3 weeks since I have been in the office and I honestly have no idea what I was working on 3 weeks ago. Tomorrow morning should be fun!

Kellen and I ran an errand this morning to the grocery store to get him more corn flakes. The new favorite cereal I guess. We needed some other things anyway. Kellen played with his trains and got me helping expand the track and playing for awhile. I would have loved to have been outside some, but it rained all day. Sounds like our week will be wet.

Kristin had a good day back at school and her favorite part of the day was singing Christmas songs. I think they were trying to get the kids back into the routine today and made it fun for them. She is back to having homework and wanted to do her math tonight. She got worried when she saw the math... 2 digit number addition and subtraction (but without carrying over). Once I showed her how to look at it as separate columns she was off and figured them all out just fine.

Back to School

Monday is back to school day for Kristin and back to work day for me. The kids are ready for a break from each other, and I think Kristin is looking forward to going back to school.

This afternoon, Kristin and I went ice skating. She hadnt been skating in quite awhile, but she did very well. She lasted longer today that usual too. In the past, she'd be ready to go at the first break when the zamboni comes out, but today we must have skated another 20 minutes or so after that. I'm not sure she was even tired, there were just so many people there that there wasn't any room to skate. I'm guessing that there must have been between 150 to 200 people on the ice when we left. We'll get her signed up for the Feb-March skating classes, and after that it will be spring soccer season already.

Danelle took Kellen to get his haircut this afternoon. He was due. He had two colics this morning that looked like little devil horns. Perfect for church. He's got a short cut now.

Couldn't Think of a Title

Yesterday was a pretty low-key day. Kellen helped me get groceries and we were lucky we didn't get poured on. We just missed the downpour when we left the store. Whew! The rest of the day we hung around the house playing with new toys from Christmas and even doing some water color painting.

This morning was more playtime. This afternoon Kristin got out to ride on her scooter and help Aaron pick up the rocks, sticks, hat, carrot, etc. from building the snowmen. We had friends over we met through Kristin's soccer team tonight for dinner and to play some on the Wii. Kristin and her friend Sheree seemed to have a lot of fun playing in her room and playing some on the Wii.