Spring Soccer Begins

Another busy weekend for the Isenhart's!  We started off on Saturday with running some errands.  Saturday afternoon Kristin and I had a Girl Scout cookie booth sale for 4 hours (Kristin was there for 2 hours).  The girls did great and sold 100 boxes of cookies!  The store manager is friends with one of our girls' family, so he allowed us inside, which was great since it was snowing sideways when we started.  Two years in a row for cookie booth sales we have had really cold weather... I am sensing a trend here and I don't like it.

On Sunday afternoon, Kristin had her first spring season soccer game.  We are back outside, but on turf.  Kristin's team won 5-1.  Kristin and the girls did a great job.  It was a lot of fun to watch them, they are getting quite good at making good passes.  It was windy and rainy the first half and sunny the second half.  It is feeling a bit like spring here.  Cold last night and this morning, but the weather pattern is changing and the trees and flowers are budding and blooming.  Yes, I have seen blooming daffodils already...not in our yard though.  Looks like we have some tulips in the front yard.  :)

Test

Just testing to see if we can post since we updated to a new Explorer version.  :)

But Watching TV Works Too

A New Washing Machine is as Entertaining As TV

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Kristin and I are really enjoying this year's One School One Book selection. It is called Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. It is about a girl who goes on an adventure quest to improve the fortune of her poor family. Along the way she meets a talking goldfish, a red dragon, and monstrous green tiger. We take turns reading chapters and something about this book has really triggered a huge advance in Kristin's read aloud skills. She was super excited to learn that the PTC at her elementary school has arranged for the author to come and speak to her school in early March.

Kellen has enjoyed destroying empty boxes with his little indoor hockey stick. The kids' playroom is often a cardboard wasteland. We still have a number of boxes in the garage to get through before we'll be able to park Danelle's car in there, but we are steadily making progress.

This weekend was pretty eventful. On Saturday, Kristin went to a birthday party at a place in Portland that is similar to the Out of this World that we've described on here before. Kellen went with to drop of Kristin and immediately wanted to go to. We had a couple errands to run, but after that I let him play there too. He had a blast on the slide. After the birthday party, Kristin got to go to her first sleepover at the birthday girls' house. Sounds like they had a really good time. Kristin did very well on little sleep yesterday, but didn't want to get out of bed today. :-)

Yesterday we got to take care of the new boxer puppy in the neighborhood. Our friends got a new boxer puppy a few weeks ago. His name is Cy. Yes, after Cy the Cyclone. They are from Iowa too. Cy was a wonderful puppy and the kids loved going over to let him outside and play with him.

I had the day off for the holiday today, so we took the kids to the roller skating rink in the afternoon. The place we went to is straight out of the 80s. Or 90s. or 70s. Pick a decade, it hasn't changed since it was built. Reminded me of the old J4 in Ames. We had a great time skating. Kellen gets off the wall just fine but still likes to hold our hand. He's not far from skating on his own. Kriston of course is quite comfortable on roller skates and did great.

Mama, Will You Fix My Box?

Blue Freezer?

So last week while we were in the process of moving, we were at the old house and Kellen said, 'Momma, I'm sorry I painted the freezer blue.' So we immediately checked the freezer that belongs to the rental. It was fine. Danelle and I shrugged and chalked it up to an active four year old's imagination. Later on, at the new house, I was walking past our freezer in the garage and noticed it had blue paint on it. Next to the freezer on the floor was a pan of paint that Danelle had used to paint Kellen's room. It was effectively out of paint, but Kellen used the roller that was in there to give the freezer a swipe or two. Oh well, at least he didn't paint the refridgerator.

Kristin's Girl Scout troup had an activity today at the neighborhood assisted living complex. They are going to have a cookie booth for the residents there next weekend, so today they distributed Valentine's cards they made and hung up a few posters advertising for the booth sale. Danelle said they did great and had a lot of fun.

We're staying busy getting unpacked and furnishing the house. Our new couch should arrive tomorrow, as well as a new washer and dryer. Next up will probably a new fridge and hopefully tv stands for the living room and family room.

Here are a couple pictures of us in front of the house.

Home

We're moved! We sure got lucky with the weather. It was sunny and got into the low 50s from at least Thursday to Monday. We still have lots of unpacking to do to get settled, but we are definitely home.

We did discover that the washer and dryer that we were using at the rental unit were much better than the ones we stored for a year and a half. So were on the hunt for a new set. Ours are 12 years old, which is actually a pretty good run for a modern day set.

Kristin got to celebrate her half-birthday today at school. She was pumped about that. Her classmates wrote things to her and her teacher will bind it all together in a book for her. They do that for all of the kids. Kristin also reached a milestone with her running club today. She reached 105 laps for the school year, which is the equivalent of a full maraton. Way to go Kristin!

Kellen has adjusted quickly to the new house. He has enjoyed turning on and off the lightswitches to figure out which switches control which lights. He also really likes our new love seat that reclines. He and I have taken a couple bike rides around the 'new' neighborhood. Well, he rides his bike on the sidewalk and I walk/run beside him. He likes to stop and say hi to people working in their yards or folks out walking their dogs.

Blessed

We are on the move. We got the keys to our new house on Tuesday night. Danelle did a bunch of cleaning on Wednesday and got Kristin's new room taped off to paint. We also had a new leather Flexsteel love seat delivered yesterday evening. It is very nice. They have to order the matching couch and we should have that in several weeks.

Today I moved most of the garage. We have some nice freestanding shelving units that I wanted to get moved and in place before the movers come for the big stuff tomorrow. That way we can use the new garage as a staging area. Danelle painted Kristin's room and I also bought new toilets seats for all the toilets and swapped them out. We also hired someone to come in and clean the carpets. The carpets are fairly new and in good shape, but we figured it would be nice to have them cleaned before we move in.

We have been blessed with remarkable weather for our move. No rain, and the sun has been shining. Supposed to stay that way through the weekend too. Friday night we'll sleep at the new house!

Kellen wanted us to measure his height today. He grew 1/2 inch in a month! Kristin has been excited to walk home from school to the new house the last couple of days. She has spring soccer starting already tomorrow evening.

And Happy Birthday Poppa! (Wednesday)