Sunny Days of being National Tourney Bound

I said we wouldn't be going outside until the temperature went up about 50 degrees from what it was last week, and lo and behold, we had a 60 degree swing from one week to the next. 

Crazy Kansas weather. 

We've happily added a walk to the mailbox and playing outside as part of our evening routine.  We even got to fly the kite a bit over the weekend.  We very, very carefully flew the new kite from Aunt Beth.  Last year at about this time, we had our kite for probably 2 days before it ended up in the neighbor's tree.  The remnants of said kite seemed to taunt us as we flew the new kite. 
 

 

 

Let's just say that Matt is much better at supervising the kite flying than I am.



We live at the back of the cul-de-sac, aka, where all the snow gets pushed by the snow plows.  I'm pretty sure the kids would love to have this snow pile to play in all spring and summer.  I'm counting the days until it's gone!





Hmm, I guess snow, socks, and sandals don't mix.






Reesie's first time sporting jeans.  So cute!





Almost gone.  Good ridden, snow pile!  Please go!!



Reesie has turned into quite the little cheerleader this season and loves watching the cheerleaders and doing whatever they do.





Other favorite pastimes during the games...eating fruit snacks.

 

The conference tournament championship game was a very exciting win!  The kids loved getting to run across the floor to Matt when it was over.  I'm pretty sure they think all the clapping and cheering is for them. 

 

Random speech from conference commissioner, presentation of t-shirts, etc.

 

Reesie darted across the floor no less than 3 times until I finally got her corralled. 

Conference tourney champs!  National Tourney bound!  Congrats, Pioneers!!

 

 

And...time to go home.

 

The Pioneers are rolling and we're excited to cheer them on next week in the National Tournament!  Great weather, Spring break approaching, and post-season basketball make for a monumental week!

 

Gymnastics, Family Fun, and C-c-cold!!!

 

With this cold winter dragging on, we're looking for ways to get out of the house and burn off a little steam.  Enter...gymnastics! 

The sitter's kids take gymnastics and have talked about it enough to peak Cade's interest.  (Who was less than enthused with his last round of gymnastics a year and a half ago, you may or may not remember).

So we returned to KGDC (since that's where Cade took his first class) for Reesie to be in the Parent/Tot class and Cade to be a Mighty Munchkin.  They were stoked!



I had been prepping Cade for days about the importance of listening to his teacher, doing what they told him to do, and waiting his turn.  These are typically NOT our strengths. 

 

I'm happy to report that Cade did awesome!  He took the class very seriously and was VERY well-behaved.  He did just what the teacher said to do and worked hard to accomplish each move just as she instructed.  #ProudMom

 

Jumping into the pit was a highlight for Cade, the red blur.

 

Both kids enjoyed their classes and are looking forward to attending their next class.  Hoping we can keep the enthusiasm going the whole quarter! 

 

It's safe to say their favorite part is getting the stamps at the end.  Well-played, Gymnastics Teacher, well-played.

 

(Fun fact: the black spot on Cade's toenail is from when he dropped his electric toothbrush on his toe.  The toothbrush did not survive this incident.)

 

Other news from the week, I enjoyed getting to celebrate Baby Birt who should be arriving very shortly!  Christy's friends put on a very cute shower.

I'm predicting that she'll be here in less than 18 days.  I'm feeling pretty good about my March 17th prediction, even though I'm not really known for winning any of the Keeley Lotteries in the past.

 

Dr. Birt will approve of this gift from Aunt Beth.

 

The beautiful Keeley Girls, with the surprise guest of honor, Beth!

It was so special to have Beth here to visit that we gathered at Erin and Cindy's house and didn't leave for over 24 hours.  We settled in and waited for the weather to hit.  The weather was a little anti-climactic, but we enjoyed our time together very much!  Running after the kids, playing games, and just lounging around.  Ingredients for a wonderful weekend!

 

 

We got what we'd hoped for despite the lack of snow...a day off of school.  But the cold did wreak havoc with our home...official diagnosis TBD.  The plumber comes tomorrow afternoon.  All I know is the water wasn't draining from the kitchen sink...and yet there was leakage in the basement.  Not cool.  We are such novices at home ownership.  

 

Take my advice.  Never look behind your oven.  Ever.

And, another milestone of the week...our car hit 77,777 miles.  Luckily Beth was there to record it for me. 

 

 

You know how you usually notice something like this like 4 miles before it happens and you think, oh, wow, I want to see it roll over to____, but then the next time you look it's 2 miles past the milestone...no, just me?  I'm the only dorky one like this out there? 

What a fabulous week it was.  A much anticipated week, with Beth's visit.  We miss you already!!!

 

Sunglasses, Boas, and Bike Rides

Hard to believe it with the current, crazy-low temperatures we're experiencing now, but there was a day that felt like Spring a couple weeks ago!  We had planned to go to the park after I picked the kids up from the sitter. 

Surprise, surprise, Cade did not forget our plans.  He had talked non-stop about riding his scooter to our neighborhood park.  He put his helmet on, I strapped Reesie into the jogger stroller, and we began our trek (about 2 blocks) to the park.

100 feet from our house, Cade decides he's not sure he can make it there on the scooter (I was skeptical as well) and he'd rather try his tricycle.  We head back, open the garage, switch out the scooter for the trike, close the garage and proceed.

100 feet from our house, Cade decides he's not sure he can make it there on the trike (I was skeptical as well) and he'd rather we switch to the double-stroller so he can ride. 

Change of heart.  Up-hill pedaling is a challenge.

Will we ever get to the park?!

 

So we head back, open the garage, switch everyone to the double-stroller, close the garage and proceed.  Again.  Lesson learned.  Campaign for the double-stroller from the start. 

 

We did have a very nice time at the park which was actually not as crazy-busy as I expected it to be.  It was fun to see so many people out taking advantage of the nice weather.  We will look forward to our next trip to the park...which will be whenever the temperature warms up about 50 degrees from what it was today. 

 

I tend to run a little behind at times...or all the time.  I have a very unrealistic estimate of how long it will take me to get ready.  Every. Single. Day.  I've always been like this so now with 2 other people to get ready, you can imagine my morning time management is exponentially worse.  I was the last one to get in the car to head to church last week (and always) and noticed that everyone else in the car was wearing sunglasses.  Pretty cute.  Good work, Dad.

(Yes, this is what Cade wears to church.  He insists that wearing jeans instead of workout pants is dressing up, and since he's just playing in the nursery, I'll take the jeans.)

This particular weekend, I was able to sneak away to Manhattan to attend the Woman's World Conference put on by Manhattan Christian College.  Had so much fun with these gals and really enjoyed all the speakers at the conference!  Thank you, Mom, for insisting we all attend...and take a photo! 

No idea why I'm posed like this. #WannaBeRockstar

 

Can't complain about a week that held nice weather and good time with friends!

Word of the Week: Random?

Can't even come up with a common word of the week for this one...Conferences?  Visitors?  Talk about exciting, attention-grabbing titles!

Cade and I were honored to attend Reegan's 4th birthday shindig at Paint, Glaze, and Fire.  What a neat idea to have them do this together!  I was a bit nervous as Cade is not really a lover of crafts...but luckily they had a ceramic dump truck to paint.  We were in business.

And...then he was done.  The girls hung on to paint a couple items each.

But Cade branched out a bit to the toys and coloring area when he was done painting his pottery.

 

They were so cute together!  And of course, I had a good time too!

 

Fast-forward through the work-week.  Three days with students, 16 hours of conference time (maybe 2 hours of actual conferences?!), day off on Friday.  Thank you, G-Mom for coming to watch the kids on these long days!  Sorry we did not take your picture!

 

My Valentine is so sweet!

It's okay, I know the balloon was mostly for the kids anyway.

 

Another perk of having G-Mom here, we got to go on an actual date for Valentine's Day.  We saw Gravity in 3D.  My pick.  Not a great choice considering we NEVER get to go to the movies anymore.  I could've used something less intense...with more closure.  But that's just me.

 

Did some shopping with my mom and with the introduction of Reesie's pigtails comes the need for double the bows.  Never fear, G-Mom is here!  She even MADE some of the bows.  What an over-achiever!

 

Enjoyed our 4-day weekend!  Totally got this idea from Rebekah's blog.  The kids loved it!

 

 

Anything that brings this about will be attempted again at our house.

We are so glad that Gentry and Scott spent some of their extended weekend visiting us as well.  It was fun to have them here, even if they did beat Matt and I at pitch. 

That wraps up this random week!  On with the next 4-day work week!  I suppose the over-arching theme of February could be "very little working!"  Which does account for the plethora of blog entries. 

Happy President's Day and have a great week!

 

Word of the Week: SNOW

The week started out a little rough as sweet Reesie's temperature spiked up on Saturday and Sunday.  She acted fine--didn't seem like anything was bothering her--but her eyes seemed to lose their sparkle and her forehead was hot, hot, hot.  We camped out at home, missing out on church and Super Bowl fun. 

We're still experimenting with the pigtails.  The swedish look?  Or is it more like Japanese anime?

Tunnel time

Still trying to capture pics of the hair...

It became apparent that Reese's fever was not going down and we'd be staying home on Monday.  Matt was traveling so by "we" I mean me.  I love extra time at home with the kids and extra cuddles with Reese...but making sub plans...
Making sub-plans is the worst.  Making last-minute sub-plans is really the worst.  Thank you, Mr. Belko (a frequent sub in our building) for returning my call during the Super Bowl. 
I knew I was going to have to go to the school, scrap current plans, go back and forth from the copy room, move out different supplies, etc.  All things that would take exponentially longer with my kids in tow.  Not to mention that I often am nervous about letting middle school kids access much of the equipment in my classroom, let alone toddlers!  So I brought the DVD player in the car, left them locked in with it running right outside my classroom and I went out to check on them every 5 minutes.  Is this illegal?  They were fine.  Every time I came to check on them they looked at me like, why do you keep interrupting our movie?  Took me about 20 minutes to get everything ready and we headed back home.  Phew.
Little did I know that I wouldn't return to school until Friday! What a great work week!

Mother Nature came through just as predicted allowing not one, not two, but three snow days!  Woo-hoo!!

We celebrated our snow days by making cookies using our new letters and numbers cookie cutters.  I'm excited to use them to create some birthday traditions around here.  Bust out that number 2 cookie cutter soon.  Number 2 like, the actual number...not like number 2 like...nevermind.

I had to loosen the reigns and just kind of let them do their thing...

Sanitation violations all over the place.

 

Lab points being deducted left and right.  Good thing they are cute!

Our cookies are nearly gone...and I've eaten the most by far. 

As the snow days wore on we tried to wear out the kids in any way we could.  Running laps around the living room?

 

All the furniture was moved out since we were scheduled to get new carpet on Wednesday.  Clearly that didn't happen with all the snow, so we got to move the furniture several times.  Notice below that Cade is standing where the couch usually sits...see the lines of dirt in the carpet?  Ewwww.

 

Living room furniture in the dining room makes Reese confused and angry.

 

Cade embraces it as a reason to party.

 

What can I say...these are my people.

 

Matt and I did take the opportunity to send the kids to the sitter for the morning of the THIRD snow day so we could attend Cade's parent-teacher conference and hit up Starbuck's.  Yes, please. Also, let's just say that I believe our very first parent-teacher conference (as parents) deserves its own post.  I need to document and forever remember the words she used to describe Cade's preschool adventures... 

 

Hoping this snow doesn't stick around until March...but there's so much of it that it very well could.  Will be sitting on the "teacher" side of Parent-Teacher conferences this week.  My time home with the kids last week makes working so much this week seem a little less painful. 

Four day week, I can handle it.