Congratulations Ellie!

Congratulations to Ellie for being in the top 0.3 % of applications and being accepted to the MFA program at Alabama! Way to go Ellie! 99.97 percentile? Jeez, between that and Anna being Valedictorian at Senior, my sisters sure do set the bar high!

Not much to report here tonight, at least not anything that could follow that news. Kristin is excited for Girl Scouts on Wednesday night. They get to have a movie/pizza party as their reward for selling cookies.

Happy Birthday Nana!

Many birthday wishes to Nana today! Happy Birthday Mom/Nana!!!

This morning I took Kellen in to see the ENT for his ears again. He has been pulling on them and has had a lot of wax. The tube in the right ear has come out but is stuck in his ear canal with wax. So, we have ear drops for the next week to help losen the wax and the tube... it should then fall out on its own. The tube in the left ear is still in. The good news is that Kellen's right ear drum is working great without the tube and it is looking like no new tube for that ear. We hope the same for the left side.

Kristin was back to school today and was happy to see her friends. It was a very rainy day here today, but she was able to have one recess that was not under cover. :) We even made it outside for a little while after dinner tonight. Kellen rode his trike and picked up worms on the way... such a boy! Kristin walked along with us while Kellen was on his trike and she rode her bike up and down the block once. Then the rain came back and it was time to head in for baths.

Soccer and Skating

The weather held out for Kristin's last day of soccer camp yesterday. Kind of amazing that she didn't get wet all week outside of a few sprinkles here and there. Kristin had a lot of fun and is already asking to go to the same soccer camp this summer.

Today was the last day of skating lessons for this session. Both of the kids did really well. Kellen was talking about going skating on Friday, so we know he looks forward to it. It's neat to see him get into it. We really didn't know what to expect and were prepared to put the skates away for awhile if he didn't like it. After lessons we ran to Quiznos for a quick lunch and then back to the ice arena for the public skate. We all skated, even Danelle. She's been out twice now in the last month or so and has picked it back up nicely.

All the skating wore Kellen out, because he took a good nap this afternoon. I tried waking him a little before 4pm and he just wouldn't budge. :-)

We got the grill out today. Danelle made the burger mix and I manned the grill. It was a nice day for it. After dinner we got out to enjoy the last of the sunshine - it's supposed to be rainy for the better part of the next week.

Soccer Camp

Soccer camp for Kristin is going well. She is loving it so much and is bummed that she only has one day left. We are glad she is enjoying it. Today they got lucky and stayed dry except for a few sprinkles. It was quite windy and cold though. The kids don't seem so bothered by it, but they are running around for 3 hours so they are warm. Kellen enjoys soccer camp too... he really wants to be in there with the other kids. Yesterday, Kellen and I kicked around his soccer ball for about 45 minutes while we watched Kristin.

Yesterday afternoon and evening we spent outside since it was another nice day that reached 70 degrees. Today however never got out of the 40s and was windy and rainy. Spring is here. :) At least the flowers and garden got watered today. :) I even saw a rainbow this morning.

Spring Break?

Kristin is home for spring break this week. I took a vacation day today to hang out with the kids while Danelle went to work. Kristin had soccer camp again in the morning. She seems to be having a good time with that. They're having the camp at a local highschool that has artificial turf. It's soft for the kids and it drains really well so they don't have to worry about it being wet with the morning dew. That was a good thing thing this morning, since it had just cracked 40 degrees when Kellen and I dropped her off at 9am. By the time we picked her up at noon, it was a comfortable 60 degrees.

Kellen and I spent a little time outside while Kristin was at camp. Kellen collected small flowers that had fallen from our two cherry trees. He says that he will feed them to the bugs. He's been looking for bugs in the yard lately.

After Kellen's nap this afternoon the kids and I spent some time in the front yard playing. I warmed up into the mid 70s so we even filled a 5 gallon bucket with water a few times and the kids had fun emptying the big bucket with various little buckets. And a few wholesale dump-outs by Kellen.

Here's the kids out playing on Sunday.

Spring Break

Today Kristin started her soccer camp that she has every morning this week. She had fun and was excited to see her friend Ava and one of her past teamates, Issac. When I went to pick her up they were scrimmaging. After that the coach had them in a small circle around him and would toss the ball up in the air a little and they each got to try to do a header (pop the ball up with your head). Kristin did it twice. :)

After soccer practice I took Kristin to SkateWorld (roller rink) to meet up with her daycare class for a field trip. She had fun and started to get the hang of it. When I left she was holding onto the wall, but evidently she let go... but fell some. Roller skating is a bit different than ice skating. When I put the skates on Kristin she couldn't believe how heavy the skates were.... much heavier than her ice skates. Makes it harder for a little kid to pick her feet up to skate, but she had fun.

Kellen was a daycare today and had fun playing outside and with some balls. He is now into playing in his bedroom at home and will ask you to come play with him. Very cute! Tonight he wanted me to play with various toys and his dump truck and excavator. We also borrowed one of Kristin's games, which is a Thomas counting game. He had fun with that and we worked on colors and recognizing numbers. He is not to the adding part of the game yet. ;)

"But Mom, I used a washable permanent marker!"

A week or two ago Kristin asked me if she could bring in some of her and Kellen's matchbox cars to use as props in the geometric city they built. She said that her teacher said it was OK to bring in the cars as long as the kids put their initials on them. Kristin had a good idea that she would just use 'KI' on all the cars, that way they would work for Kellen's cars too. She asked me if it was OK to write on them and I said sure, thinking she would write on the underside of the car. I didn't pay any attention to what marker she used and let her do her thing. This week she brought the cars home and showed them to me... she had written 'KI' on the hood, trunk, and doors of each car. With a Sharpie. Then she told Danelle it was OK because she used a washable permanent marker. :-) Not a big deal really, but I got a kick out of her logic.

Today we had on and off rain storms, but we did manage to get the kids outside for a little bit. Kristin climbed the cherry tree and Kellen practiced on his trike and his bike. He's go the hang of using the breaks to stop, but he hasn't quite got the hang of pedaling forward yet.

Kristin and I went to a Winterhawks game tonight. The game started at 5pm, so we went a little early and had consession hot dogs for dinner. Kristin thought that was pretty cool. They also had a contest where you could buy a soft puck for a dollar and try to throw it into a basket at center ice during one of the intermissions. Kristin threw two pucks. She doesn't quite have the arm to get them to center ice yet, but she did have a lot of fun with it. Kind of cool to see hundreds of soft pucks flying over your head. :) The Winterhawks lost 4-2 and are now down 2-0 in their playoff series. So we're thinking that was probaly the last game in Portland this year. Oh well, glad we were able to go tonight.