Thankful Thursday

I am so thankful Kent made a special trip over his lunch hour to pick up some Protein water I had mentioned that I would like to try. Love it! I don't eat very much meat so I try sneaking protein into my diet any way I can. I am instantly uhhhb-sessed.

I'm thankful for the special connection Kael and the baby I watch seem to have.  Kael has the most calm, soft, sweet way of talking to him and Reid is completely captivated by Kael!

I am so thankful my dad took Kase to hang out with him a few afternoons last week. He is totally Grandpa's little buddy.

I'm thankful for the extra babysitting I'm doing this week.  The additional income is nice but the kids having built-in buddies all day is awesome.

I'm thankful for these Strawberry Shortcake Bars. Strawberries=summer.

I'm thankful Keith and Cindy were available to come hang out with the kids yesterday afternoon.  Kase was dying to go to the park and I appreciated the extra sets of hands.

I'm thankful Kent was able to go in late to work this morning.  Kael's ear has been really bothering him again and he needed to go to the doctor.  Kent to the rescue!

Happy Thursday, guys!

Weekend Wrap-Up

How was your Memorial Day weekend? Ours was...eventful.  And awesome.  Summer is HERE!!!

Friday Kylee had her friend sleep over.  Kent had borrowed a projector from work and we were so excited to show a movie on the "big screen" in the backyard.  Everyone thought it was pretty cool.  I love my techie husband.  

We really had no set plans for the entire weekend- not even a baseball game or anything, so Kent and I had talked and talked about what we might do over the long weekend but failed to make any plans.  His parents were free Saturday afternoon, so after a morning of Dunkin' Donuts and fishing at Georgetown with Kylee's friend, we headed up to Sheffield to my grandparents' A-frame with Keith and Cindy.  We weren't sure the water was going to be warm enough for the kids to swim but they didn't care and hopped right in! We (Kent and Cindy) also caught a bunch of fish which was so fun.

Picnic on the deck!

Nothing makes me happier than watching these two have fun together. 

We came home happy and tired, and still unsure of our plans for the next two days.

Sunday morning we woke up to rainy skies, but we weren't sure if it was going to rain all day.  We thought about going to Adventureland, or maybe just the town pool...and we went back and forth for literally hours.  This is soooo unlike us.  Finally, Kent said, "Start packing! We're leaving!" Thankful for his decisiveness, I jumped to it and started throwing stuff together.  In less than a half hour, we were on the road.

To where? Eastern Iowa! I grew up (K-5) in DeWitt and I thought the kids might have fun seeing my old house, etc. We lunched in the car, Kase napped, and soon we were rolling into town! First stop was the ice cream shop.  Oh my, did I have some happy kids.

I heart this picture so much.

Next we drove by my old house, school, swimming pool, then stopped by a couple of the town parks.

Kent even seemed happy to see where I grew up and indulged every, "Oh I remember that!"  The kids were getting anxious to swim so we forged ahead to Clinton, where our hotel was.  Literally as we were rolling into town, we got a flat tire.  Kudos for Kent to keeping his cool and being able to put the spare on.  Kudos to the kids for grabbing their bags and crossing a busy street with me because we got a flat directly across the street from our hotel.  How lucky! So I checked in, swam with the kids, Kent got the tire fixed and we headed out for dinner.  We drove aimlessly around Clinton for awhile and finally settled on a Mexican restaurant that was awesome.  Back to the hotel to swim once more, then to bed.

Monday morning the kids were up early (surprise, surprise) so we grabbed breakfast at the hotel, swam again, then loaded up and headed to the Maquoketa Caves.  I had no idea how this was going to go over with my crew.  It required a lot of walking and Kael's legs have still been bothering him.  There was a chance of rain.  It could have been a bust but it wasn't.  It was awesome!

Right away, Kael looked down deep in the cave and shouted, "Mom, you have to come here! This is so cool!" And right away, I knew we were going to have fun.

Kase is dying to be like the big kids and crawl through everything, but he wasn't really sure about the water that kept dripping on his head. "Spider getting me, Mommy!" he kept yelling as he rubbed his head with every drop.

This was one of the first ones Kael got all the way through.  He asked, "Mom, can you move this big rock right here?" Lol.  I convinced him to just keep squeezing through as there was no possible way I'd be able to move that giant rock.

Finally Kase goes for it!

Brothers.

We explored all morning before loading up and heading home.  We spent the afternoon playing outside with neighbors and catching up from being gone all weekend.

Last day!

We had a pretty great weekend but I haven't had time to write about it yet so instead, here are a few pictures of the last day of school! We are sooo ready for summer! 

Here are the pictures from the first day of school in August. 

Here's what's changed since school started:  Kael has some new front teeth and waaaay longer hair (which he plans to cut soon).

Here's what hasn't changed: Kylee still LOVES her long pink dress. :) 

I'm hoping to have some "Orange You Glad It's Summer" buckets of fun stuff for the kids when they get home from school and we have some potential plans to hit up Sonic for some slushies with some friends.  Should be a great day! 

Here's to a great summer! 

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful my lilacs have bloomed.  Is there a better smell in the entire world?

I'm thankful (again) for our proximity to the school.  The other day Kylee spotted me when she was out at recess and ran over to our back gate.  "I'm dying, here, Mom.  So hot.  Toss me some flip flops?" So I did and she swapped them for her tennies and threw them back over the fence, then gave Kase a high five and ran back to her friends.

I'm thankful that Kent hung with the kids last night so I could go out for dinner with my sisters.  We've been trying to get together for dinner without the kids since last August and I can tell you it came at the perfect time.  I was so ready for a night out.

I'm thankful when Kase stays in our house or in our yard.  He's going through a very challenging "running away" stage.  He's able to open the locks on all of our doors and we only have a fence about halfway around our yard (neighbors have one and there's the fence by the school) so he runs.  Often.  I can't wait for Kael and Kylee to be home all day so he has something worth staying here for!

I'm thankful for warmer weather.  Yesterday I put the water table on the deck and blocked the stairs with our grill so Kase was essentially trapped.  He and Kylee had the BEST time playing and I didn't have to worry about him running.

I'm thankful I have a summer plan in place for things like an "I'm bored" jar and a chore chart and stuff like that.  The transition to summer can be very tricky around here.

I'm thankful that Kase adds the word "bootie" to the end of every sentence.  I'm not sure he has any idea what it means but he says it all.the.time.  As in, "Hi Mommy bootie" and "Where's my tractor bootie?".  Two year olds are funny if you let yourself be humored by them.

Happy Thursday, all!

Weekend Wrap-Up

I love weekends.  I really love warm weekends.  I really really love warm weekends filled with family, friends and baseball (wins). :)

We spent Friday night at the ball fields making up a game that had been rained out.  We were so happy that lots of friends and family were there to help cheer Kael on!

Saturday morning we went to the groundbreaking of the Ankeny Market & Pavillion. This thing is kind of a big deal, guys! Click the link and check it out! My dad has been part of the group that's getting this whole thing going so he got to speak at the event and we were so proud to be there watching him.

These guys (who are all a pretty big deal) did a good job of "breaking the ground" but personally, I'm a little partial to the group below.

We're so fun(ny). 

 

We strolled around the Ankeny Farmer's Market (while we were there I pointed to some rhubarb and asked my kids if they knew what it was- the closest guess was "red celery". #mycitykids) for awhile then headed to the hospital to visit my grandma.  The kids were so sweet and happy to see her and I sure hope we helped to brighten her day a little.  Saturday afternoon Kael had another game then we were off to our old neighbor's graduation party.  

First off, I canNOT believe she's graduating.  When we moved in to our old house, she was in fifth grade and I feel like that was not nearly long enough ago that now she's old enough to be graduating! It was so fun being back in the old 'hood. The big kids were more sentimental than I had anticipated though- Kylee was nearly in tears peering over the fence into our old backyard, seeing the old treehouse Kent had built, seeing that our old swingset had been taken down, and seeing the backyard not mowed and full of weeds and honestly, Kent and I were a little sad too. We tried not to let that get us down and we ran into some other old neighbors who had kids our kids' ages and we headed over to their house after the graduation party so the kids could all hang out a little longer.  It was great catching up with them. 

Sunday morning we had nursery duty at church where Kent triumphantly got a child to stay in the nursery the entire service who had never lasted and entire service before.  Those of you who have had your child's number put up on the big screen to go retrieve them know what a big deal this is! Kase has only recently been able to stay in nursery without us there so I know this all too well. 

Right after church we headed out for a boat ride.  Kael caught a fish almost immediately and Kent also caught a fish before the motor died.  Some boys from the marina came out to rescue us and we were on our way! Oh, what an adventure! After the boat ride, we played at the big park for awhile.

On the boat with a Diet Pepsi and three large pizzas = a very happy husband. 

Kylee made sure the rescue guys knew where we were. 

Kael and I played a little hangman while we waited. 

When we got home, one of Kael's teammates stopped by to see if he wanted to go to the batting cages.  Kase napped and Kylee ran through the sprinkler.  Later we all went to our church's CeleMAYtion out at Sandpiper- such a fun picnic with relay races/sand volleyball/kickball/chalk/bubbles, etc.

This warm weekend had me totally itchin' for it to be summer.  I'm ready for days like this every day!

Thankful Thursday

I'm thankful for a couple boxes of clothes our neighbor gave us for Kylee.  Her daughter is a couple years older than Kylee and she is so thoughtful to share things once they are outgrown!

I'm thankful that the end of school is near.  Anyone else having a hard time getting their kids to go to bed at a decent hour?

I'm thankful that end of the year teacher gifts are done.  We kept it super simple this year.

I'm thankful that we've gotten a few flowers planted.  Amazing how much that helps brighten things up.

I'm thankful for dinner plans with friends tonight.  I am ready for a night out.

I'm thankful that Kent's brother will be in town so he and the kids will have something to do and I feel less guilty about leaving them.

I'm thankful for a weekend filled with baseball.  Friday and Saturday games this weekend.  I'm really thankful that both Kase and Kylee enjoy going to the games.  Kylee has a friend whose brother is on Kael's team so they end up playing together the entire time and Kase has been sitting so nicely in his stroller.  Yesterday morning at about 9:00 Kase said, "I want to go watch Kael's game now." :)

I'm thankful we made the decision to take Kael out of the triathlon this summer.  Just not going to be worth it with as much pain as he's been in lately.

I'm thankful no one has noticed that I've had to replace all three of our fish.

I'm thankful for some good health news of a good friend.  What a relief.

I'm so thankful my grandma is doing better.  What a trooper for keeping her spirits up with such a long hospital stay!

What are you thankful for today?

Weekend Wrap-Up

What a weekend!

Technically, I think this was Thursday night.  We had ice cream cones before dinner on the deck. I heart summer weather.

I hope all you moms out there were as lucky as I was on Mother's Day.  My family treated me like a queen!  More on that later.

Friday night, Kylee had a birthday party to go to and I had one of those in-home girls night parties to attend.  I thoroughly enjoyed an evening with the neighbor ladies and Kent handled everything on the home front- picking Kylee up from her birthday party, feeding the boys dinner, doing dishes and bathing all three kids.  I love that we're at a point in our lives that I can leave for the night knowing things will be just fine at home while I'm away.

Saturday morning Kent and my dad went out fishing and my mom took the kids and me out for breakfast.  So fun!

Rainbow sprinkled pancakes had Kylee's name alllll over them. 

After breakfast, we all met back up at my parents' house for some mushroom hunting.  We had so much fun and found quite a few!

Saturday at noon Kael had a baseball game, which was going to be tricky because that's about Kase's nap time.  Kent's parents came down and offered to stay with Kase during his nap so I could watch the whole game, which I appreciated so very much.  Kael had a good game and one of the best hits he's had all season so I was glad I was there to see it. 

Saturday afternoon we had plans to get together to celebrate my mom's birthday and Mother's Day with my side of the family.  My mom needed to be at the hospital with my grandma so we weren't sure it was going to work out, but thankfully some decisions have been made regarding my grandma, and my mom was able to make it to her party.  I don't have a lot of pictures- but we really had a great time! 

The boys watching the storm roll in/away. 

A double rainbow!

Sunday morning Kent was up early with Kase and the big kids were up soon.  They had the sweetest, most thoughtful cards to give me that all you moms out there know mean more than anything. I expected absolutely no gifts so when Kent took the kids to the other room and sent them around the corner holding a wrapped jewelry box...I was speechless.  Kent and I have a mutual understanding to not give each other gifts for most holidays which usually means he gets me something and I get him nothing, which leaves me feeling like a bit of a punk.  

Before I even opened it, I was prepared to smile and tell him, "It's too much" and beg him to return it, saying I'd rather save the money and take the kids to Disney or something.  But then I opened it.  And inside, you guys... the sweetest, most thoughtful, most "Laura" gift ever.  Kent got me a beautiful Mother's Ring with the kids birthstones and even as I type this, my eyes are welling up with tears, not only at the ring itself, but the kind words he said with gifting it to me.  I'm the luckiest girl in the world. 

Kent spent the rest of the day doing e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. He changed all diapers, put Kase down for his nap (which is no small feat anymore), mowed the lawn, stayed with the kids so I could go buy some flowers...it was so nice.  After church we enjoyed playing some board games with the big kids while Kase slept and later we hung out with some neighbors and in the evening we went out for dinner which was such a treat.   

I love these guys! 

Even when I have to chase one of them down just to be in a picture with me... :)

It was a lovely weekend.  Hope you all have a great week!