Fun Times in February 2016

The baking continued into the month of February.  We started off the month with celebrating a wacky week at school full of fun activities.  So we make our Valley Tiger Orange Cupcakes to add some ymmy-ness to the week. 

They continue to love to wear their aprons whenever they bake.....just like Mom does :)

Wacky Hair Day just might be the favorite day of the week!  We added some hair chalk to each of their heads of hair and followed with LOTS of Hairspray to hold it in as long as possible. 

Kate had really long hair at the time making it quite a bit harder to get the color all the way through.  But we did our best. 

Nana and Papa spent the month of January traveling the west coast.  So we had a belated birthday party for both of them when they returned.  Can't have Papa's birthday party without a custard pie.  

Nana always loves the birthday song with the famous ending from Granny Vevera "And Many More!!"

Brett surprised me on Valentines Day with these lovely tulips!   I say surprised because Brett has always said he was not a fan of buying flowers as "they're just going to die in a few days."   So YES,  I was shocked when he came home with these beauties! 

Kate and Will Loved getting all dressed up for their Valentine's Day Parties.  Kate spent a lot of time on her Valentines Box this year.  So much, that I decided to save it so she can reuse it next year!  

Kate still enjoys having me attend her Valentine's Day Party.
She and her classmates had a lot of fun and I loved watching all of them together.  She has a great group of nice kids in her grade.  They all get along really well :)

Will's class had a great time too!  I had to jump back and forth between Kate's 4th grade room and Will's 1st grade room that day so that I could satisfy both of them! 

Will and his friend Jordyn (the girl in pink to the right of him) are good friends and neighbors.  

Kate and Will continued with private swim lessons with Coach Brooke to work on their strokes.  They both really enjoy the 1 on 1 time with the coach and have made a lot of improvement.  

A little out of order..... but this is the Valentine's day card Kate and Will made for Brett and I!   WOW,  lots of fun compliments are written on all the sticky notes that make up the hot air balloon.  Super creative and sweet of the kids to do this for us! 

Kate and her friend Iverson have had a blast this year at the swim meets together.  They don't go to the same school, so they have to cherish their time together on the weekends to catch up on life and giggle, giggle, giggle.  

Any time the sun was out we were outside.  We have a "Little Free Library" just down the street from us.   Kate and Will love to go and see what new books are in the library.  It is very popular and usually very full of books all the time. 

The new tetherball set is pretty popular in our backyard.  Kate signed up to be the "tetherball ref" at recess at school.  So she knows how to play and how to WIN!!  Poor Will does not have a height advantage in this game against his sister.  But I am sure someday he will tower over her and beat her at this game! 

I am the Fundraising chair at our school this year.  We partnered with our local McDonalds and had our first "McTeacher Night."   Many of our fabulous teachers came out and had dinner with our students and parents.  We had a great turn out and lots and lots of fun! 

One of the highlights of the night was when our principal took the role of calling out the orders numbers as the food was ready.  WOW were the students shocked to hear her voice behind the counter. 

Kate and Will continue to pick "Old McDonalds" whenever they can when we go out to eat. So they were really excited to have dinner at their favorite spot with all of their friends. 

We didn't have school on a Monday in the month of February, so we took that opportunity to go to the Science Center.  It wasn't very busy that day.  The kids had a great time! 

Will's lego car was really good!  He actually won quite a few races against some other boys that were older than him.  That really gave him an ego boost! 

Finally, one of the traveling exhibits was this big green structure of tangled tunnels for the kids to climb in.  It was really tall and confusing.   

But in just a short amount of time, both Kate and Will had it figured out.  

It was a great way to beat the cold weather outside :)

January 2016 Happenings

January was full of lots of indoor activities.  Will had his 6 month follow up to make sure the prescription in his glasses didn't need changed.  Thankfully, it continues to be right on for him. We get to stick to the same glasses for now.  He loves his eye doctor Dr. Bell.  And he REALLY likes seeing to big close up picture of his eyeballs on the flatscreen! 

We finally got enough snow to make a snowman.  This year, Kate and Will took it a bit further and started to recreate the manger scene.  We got the stable, Baby Jesus and Mary done before we ran out of snow for Joseph.  

Swim team was in full swing all month.  Both Kate and Will really enjoy being on the team.  They love swimming and LOVE hanging out with their friends just as much (maybe even more)!  I like being in the warm humidity several nights a week.  If I close my eyes I can imagine myself on a warm beach!! 

Will had a celebration and presentation of his first Project Completion under the new New Tech Network, Project based learning curriculum at our school.   Here is the scroll he wrote starting with the #1 and writing all the way up to the Number 1,000!

His project involved being given a bunch of random supplies and instructed to make a light and sound source for the boy scouts to utilize if they ever get lost.  

We did A LOT of baking during the month of January.  You can never have too many chocolate chip cookies. 

Will would pick cookies over ice cream any day!

Will can always find something to do with an empty box.  I have a lot of boxes since becoming an amazon prime member.  One day he made a little home for all of his smaller stuffed animals.  

Will is VERY PICKY about his goggles!!  They have to fit JUST RIGHT or he will not wear them.  After a few tries, I finally got the right ones!!  He was so excited he wore them through the whole evening the first day he got them. 

Kate qualified for STATE again this year!!!  This was a huge accomplishment as she is really young in her age division this year and had to work extremely hard to get her times down to qualify in 2 events this year.......   The 100 Breast and the 50 Breast.   

Finally, we had the Iowa Caucus in January.  It was a lot of fun the week before the big Tuesday event as we had a lot of big names in Des Moines.  In fact,  Ted Cruz, his wife and kids actually sat next to Brett and I the Sunday before the caucus!  WOW were we picking our jaws up off the floor when they started walking into our row and taking a seat!!  Brett was actually out of town on the day of the caucus.  So I took "my future little Republicans" with me to the Caucus.  Those of you who know Brett and I, we are not members of the same political party.  Although,  he calls me a "Liberal Republican."  And I call him a "Conservative Democrat."   I am amazed how much we have grown more and more a like in our views in our 12 years of marriage!!