Carnival

Tonight was the Sexton Mountain carnival... Kristin's school. We all went and had fun playing games. Kristin also got to go in one of the bounce houses and ate a snow cone. Kellen had his first ever lollipop and enjoyed that!

Kellen's new saying is "oh man." He'll be playing and will say "oh man" if something isn't working the way he wants it too. It is pretty funny.

The kids are tired from a late night at the carnival and so are Aaron and I. Time for bed.

You Can't Have Too Many Mowers

It didn't take the kids very long after dinner before they were picking on each other, so we decided to get them out for our walk a bit early. We ventured up to the elementary school, where they were having an open house. We didn't know about it, since Kristin goes to a different school. There were parents and kids everywhere. The weather was nice, so it was a fun atmosphere. We even ran into someone Danelle used to work with and his family. It was nice to see them again. So we stayed at the playground area for a little longer than normal and then headed to look for baseballs. Kristin was the eagle eyes and found one. Pretty impressive, since the grass is so high now.

Kellen wanted to pull the wagon, but he kept stopping to pick things up off the ground and point out all the bugs. We eventually had to put him back in the wagon in order to keep moving. When we were almost home, we ran into Megan, Kellen's godmother, who had stopped by to drop off presents for Kellen's Birthday. Kellen was very excited to see her and immediately started waving. He has a hard time pronouncing her name, and it comes out, "Hi Bacon, Hi Bacon!" Quite funny.

Here is a photo of Kellen test driving his shiny new mower, which he got from Bacon.

It's A Great Day for Hockey

It's a great day for hockey (for hockey). It's a hockey night, in Pittsburgh, PA! That's right folks, the Penguins pulled off a nice win tonight to move on to the next round of the playoffs! Click the link.

Kellen had his 2 year old check up today. He did really well and had a lot of fun interacting with his doctor. He also enjoyed eating a whole bagel for breakfast and we got to watch 2 people mowing the lawn at the doctor's office. What fun for Kellen!

Kellen's stats - 3 feet tall (WOW!) and 27 1/2 lbs.

Kristin had a good day. They have a western theme at daycare this week. She made a Sheriff badge today. Watch out, Sheriff Kristin might give you a ticket.

Here is another picture of Kellen opening gifts yesterday. This is the train he wanted opened right away.








And another!

The Big T-W-O

Kellen had a very nice birthday today. Danelle brought a bunch of fresh fruit into daycare this morning and Kellen's class got to enjoy a fruit tray to celebrate his birthday. He didn't seem to grasp the concept yet, but he really enjoyed all the attention today and loved opening presents!

Danelle made him a rainbow sprinkle cake and we sang Happy Birthday to him after dinner. He enjoyed learning how to blow out the candles. He was excited for the cake, 'CAKE, CAKE, CAKE', and the frosting was a big hit.

Kellen also loved opening the cards and presents (Thanks, everyone!). He especially liked a train that his sister got for him. He wanted to take that out of the package right away.

Kristin had a good day as well. I asked her what she did at kindergarten. It's always interesting to hear what she decides to talk about. Usually it has something to do with the monkey bars. Today she told me that she made some things at Creation Station (a craft table) for Kellen's birthday. How sweet!

Kellen wanted to push his little lawn mower around right away when we got home tonight. We let him do that for a few minutes before dinner. Probably good that we did since by the time we got through cake and presents it was time for bath already.

The photo shows Kellen sporting his new Cubs hat from Oma and Poppa while snacking on cheese just prior to bedtime.

We Say Goodbye to the 1's

Today we enjoyed Kellen's last day as a 1 year old. It is amazing to me how fast these past 2 years have gone. We are preparing for his birthday tomorrow. I made the cake and I need to wrap up the presents later.

Kristin had a good day today. She found another Scooby Doo book at the library today. She said she got to do the monkey bars and she is up to 30 times across. Go Kristin!

The Penguins lost tonight in overtime. :( One more game to decide the winner of this series. I took the kids on a walk up to the school for a little bit tonight. Kellen wanted to look for baseballs, but the grass is so tall so we just kept walking.

Happy Mother's Day

We tried to give Danelle a nice Mother's Dy today. Danelle slept in, and then opened her presents. We got her a new bird feeder for the back yard. The old was was just too hard to keep clean. The new one is a similar style as the old one, except that it has a removable base for easier washing. Danelle has taken down the old feeder a week or two ago. I'm not sure if the birds found the new one yet or not.

We headed out to brunch to a place called the StockPot Broiler. It's become something of a tradition for us. The brunch was outstanding, and the kids were well behaved and ate very well. Then it was time to head home so Kellen could take his nap. Kristin helped Danelle wash the car. I did some edging and mowed the lawn. Amazing how fast it grows in the spring. The grass had gotten pretty tall in just over a week and I had to stop quite a bit to empty the bag.

For dinner, I ran and picked up meals for Danelle and I from a new Thai restaurant in downtown Beaverton. It was pretty good, we'll probably order from there again sometime.

The photos are Kellen hamming it up just after Danelle opened her presents.

Catch Up

Friday... I spent a good portion of the day at Kristin's elementary school. It was Kindergarten Fly-Up day. So, Kristin got to go to 1st grade for most of her day and I got to go with her for part of it. Kristin got to listen to some silly animal poems, have a double recess (Kindergarten and 1st grade recess back-to-back), and do some math centers. Kristin and her class had a lot of fun. This is when they have the new Kindergarteners come visit for a little bit. I stayed after Kristin left to go to daycare and helped with recess duty. It was Teacher Appreciation week and that is what I signed up to cover. At least it was a nice sunny day.

In the afternoon, I headed to daycare for Mother's Day tea. Kellen made me two wonderful gifts with great pictures of him. My favorite is a picture of Kellen resting his chin on his hands... it is so cute! Kristin planted some flowers for me (marigolds). This afternoon we replanted the marigolds in a bigger pot since she got so many of her seeds to start. I also got many cards from Kristin and a Happy Mother's Day book made by her and her Kindergarten class. They each wrote a sentence or two about their mom and drew a picture of her. They even bound the books. How wonderful and fun to read! Kristin also made me 2 coupons, one for cleaning up the toys (living room she tells me) and one for cleaning up her room.

This morning Kristin had soccer bright and early, so she and I left the house shortly after 8am. She did great and had fun. Another lucky sunny day for soccer. Aaron stayed home with Kellen. This afternoon we headed to SE Portland for a BBQ for a friend's birthday. The kids had fun playing with all the other kids that were there and Aaron and I enjoyed the adult interaction.