Sister Sleepovers

Sister sleepovers have become a coveted weekend activity at our house.  The girls live for Friday and Saturday nights, or any non-school night, so they can sleep together.  They have tried these in the past and just not been able to do it.  They couldn't settle down and messed around too much unable to go to sleep.  So, when they brought this up again, we established some ground rules: a couple giggles, share a secret, and then they needed to go to sleep.  To our amazement, the first night was a complete success.  So, they were allowed a sister sleepover the next night.  And...it worked again!  Now, it's almost a given...unless there is some reason during the day that they haven't earned it...which is rarely the case when they have this to look forward to.  I LOVE that they have this bond...this closeness, these giggles.  I can only imagine the secrets they are sharing.  :) 

Sawyer often wants in on the sister sleepovers too.  We tried a sleepover with Sophie and Sawyer one night which lasted all of about 1 minute before Sophie came out tattling about something Sawyer had done to her.  :)  However, Easter night we tried a sibling sleepover at my Grandma's house.  Surprisingly they were all asleep within minutes and stayed that way all night long.  Peaceful...Perfect...Precious.  These are the moments that make a parent just want to stop, soak in and treasure. 

Kindergarten Concert

There are 6 Kindergarten classes at Lainey's school...19 kids in her class. Her music teacher did an amazing job with all of these kids! They put on a fantastic concert for us in March! I love watching Lainey's animation, her excitement, her interaction with friends, and just her pure innocent joy! I love, love, love this little girl!

The Kindergarteners

Lainey spies us :)

Look at her - OUR KINDERGARTENER!

OK...well, I've been trying for a very, very, very long time to get videos uploaded for you to see of her concert and it's just not working. So, I'll just post the pics. I wish you could see her animation in action, but these are still cute. :)

Easter

What a BEAUTIFUL weekend Easter was.  The sun shone gloriously!  The day was a little brighter, the earth felt just a little better...truly...all glory to HIM!  Christ is RISEN! 

*We visited my Grandma Keller in Humphrey for Easter. My brother, Scott, drove up Saturday to join us.

Easter Sunday morning.  Sawyer 2 1/2, Lainey 6, Sophie 4 1/2

*Saturday morning my grandma, Matt, the kids and I walked to the park for the Easter Egg Hunt.  Following that, we had a hotdog meal at the new city hall.  Then, the kids and Matt snuggled onto sleeping bags and pillows brought from Grandma's house to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel at the city hall accompanied by fresh popped popcorn.  FUN!  Saturday night brought lots of games of Scrabble and visiting.

After the hunt the kids with their candy.  I liked the philosophy.  No matter how many eggs the kids collected, they turned them in for a FILLED bag of candy!  There were some good things in that bag, so nobody walked away disappointed!

Dying Easter Eggs Saturday afternoon.  Things went pretty quickly this year.  I am going to have to boil more eggs next year.  :)

Sunday morning Sawyer looking through the Easter Bunny's surprises.

Sophie showing off an egg she found the Easter Bunny had hidden.

Lainey hunting for eggs.

Lainey pointing out an egg the sneaky Easter Bunny hid outside.

Sawyer was on the run, right with the girls this year.  It was so fun to watch him be so excited and so involved with everything!

Lainey in her pretty Easter attire.

This kiddos with Uncle Scott on Easter Sunday morning.

Before I explain the extra child in the picture, I do want to point out the church in the background.  This is Humphrey St. Francis.  Sometime I will try to take and post pictures of this beautiful church.

Our extra kid we've been toting around for a couple weeks is Flat Owen.  If anyone has heard of the Flat Stanley that many schools do, this is the project we've been asked to participate in for our friend, Owen Maggio, in Colorado. We take Flat Owen with us and try to take pictures of him with us doing things we enjoy doing or places that are special to us or in our area.  We'll be sending him back soon, but the kids have really enjoyed having Owen with us.

My Grandma...in her apron...in the kitchen.  Where else?  :) 

Big Boy Bed Addendum

I forgot to add this little tidbit to the Big Boy Bed post.  We have switched out our bathroom doorknob with Sawyer's bedroom knob after this little incident.  Matt was traveling and about 3:15 in the morning I hear a tiny little 2-year-old boy voice next to my bed..."I ice keem, Mom.  Mom, I ice keem."  I struggled to open my eyes as I reached out in the darkness to rub his little head.  But, instead I felt a frosted 1/2 gallon of frozen ice cream sitting on my bed.  Hmmm...I explained to Sawyer that it was the middle of the night and he could not have ice cream, everyone was sleeping, and tucked him back into bed.  When I took the ice cream back downstairs to the freezer EVERY single light was on...I'm talking the laundry room, hallway, foyer, bathroom, etc.  I just have to wonder how long he was down there...and what else he was all doing before he had finally settled on wanting ice cream and came up to my room. 

Then, about 1 1/2 hours later, I hear that same little sweet voice beside my bed.  "Mom, I potty in pottychair.  I want new jammies."  In opening my eyes (a little quicker this time) I see a naked little boy.  Thankfully, he had taken off his PJ's and diaper and really gone potty in the pottychair.  But, he had decided he did not like the PJ's he was wearing and had taken the stepstool into his room, opened his top drawer but just couldn't quite see to choose a different pair of pajamas.  It really bothered me that he had most likely been up for 1 1/2 hours doing...well, who knows what. 

With the girls, we would put a child safety lock on the inside of their door handle.  That worked really well...and would have worked well with Sawyer too...EXCEPT his partner-in-crime (Sophie) taught him on the first day in his room with his big boy bed how to "crack" the code of the child safety lock...and I might as well not even use them now.  :)  So, our new solution was to change out the doorknob with the lock to the outside.  Would child psychologists agree with me?  Probably not.  Do I sleep better at night knowing my little boy is safe in his room...absolutely.

Big Boy Bed

I'm a little behind getting some posts done.  Sawyer moved into a big boy bed 6 weeks ago on February 23.  He dictated the move really...asking to move into a big boy bed and head-diving out of his crib when he wanted out.  So, out of fear of him hurting himself and wanting him to experience this exciting new step in his life...we took down the crib.  I must admit it was a little sad/odd taking down the crib.  It's the first time it's ever been down.  Every other time a new baby has forced the child's move into a big bed (Lainey at 19 months and Sophie at 23 months).  But, I got over it quickly when I saw the elation and pride on Sawyer's face.  He didn't have one night of crying being in the bed...he just jumped right in and hasn't stopped talking about it since. 

Feb. 23 - Ready for bed...jumped right in!

1st night snuggled into new big boy bed...and yes, I am aware he is on pink sheets.  

I wasn't prepared for the move that night.  :)

There is nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby/child.  Precious.

The look of 2-year-old PRIDE!

Golden Opportunity

On March 9, Lainey was privledged to experience a once in a lifetime opportunity at school.  (And, Sophie, Sawyer and I were lucky enough to get to join her!!)  Curt Tomasevicz, the Nebraska native and Olympic Men's Bobsledding Team gold medalist visited Lainey's school to talk of his experience and talk about following one's dream, working hard, setting goals, and doing well in school.  It was really a neat day, and we were very fortunate to be a part of the festivities.

Lainey listening to Curt.

Showing everyone what kind of helmet he wore and what's so special about it.

The kids all did a great job of listening.

And, there's the medal!  What an accomplishment!  There's quite a lot of hard work that goes into earning one of those!  :)

Sweet Special 6 Year Old!

I don't think there is much better than celebrating a child.  I can hardly believe my Lainey Bug turned 6 years old on March 11.  How is it that saying "6" seems SO much older than saying "5"?  And, how is it that when she jumped off the bus the afternoon of her birthday she looked like such a beautiful big girl when in the morning she ran off to the bus...just a little bit younger?  We're SO very proud of our 6-year-old.  I can't even begin to list the things I love, no LOVE, about that girl!  So, I'll just let you know that from her 5th birthday to her 6th, she is now: reading, adding, counting to 100, counting by 5's and 10's, learning to solve problems with others outside of her family, spending 5 full days in a row away from mom (by the way, spending 5 full days away from her is an accomplishment for me too since my last bday) :) , continuing to grow and develop her loving, generous, teaching, giving spirit that she has always had.  I could go on and on, so let me share some pictures of our precious first-born, longed-for, dreamed of...GIFT!

Happy, Happy the Happiest of Birthdays my amazing girl!

I LOVE you!

May your imagination continue to flourish and your spirit shine through you always!

I am SO glad God blessed us with YOU!

Lainey eating our traditional star birthday pancakes for breakfast...getting her first round of "Happy Birthday" on the "You are special" plate we got for our wedding.

Running through the traditional door streamers...a favorite for all!  :)

We ate at Hu-Hot Mongolian Grill...Lainey's choice...her favorite restaraunt.  Uncle Scott, Grandpa Monte and Grammy came up to celebrate on Thursday!

Lainey doing well with the chopsticks.

Sophie enjoying getting to "eat inside" at a restaraunt.  :)

Even Sawyer tried his hand at chopsticks.

After Hu-Hot Lainey was surprised with getting to pick out a new (bigger) bike!

Grandpa Monte and Grammy Ruth

She LOVED all of the phone calls and messages throughout the day!  Thank you!

Singing 'Happy Birthday' to our dear Lainey

Grandpa Marv and Grandma Ellen came up Friday night to celebrate.

Lainey had her birthday party Saturday afternoon and invited the girls from her class and a little friend across the street.  She had a cake decorating party...here the girls are decorating their aprons with fabric markers.

The finished products...now they are ready to be cake decorating divas...and boy, were they ever!  :)

We had 8 different tubes of frosting each with a different decorators tip and 4 different colors of frosting.  I can't tell you how many colors of sprinkles were on the table along with M&Ms. 

The finished creations.  (One girl even commented they could so be professional cake decorators and deliverers...and she was quite serious.)  :)

     Lainey with her friend, Jocelyn.  I'm certain the parents were excited they didn't need to think about dessert that night.  :)

Lainey and her cake.

What a day!  What a FUN party!  (THANK YOU, Mom, for all your help!)  The girls had a blast.  It was a couple hours of giggles and squeals.  What more could a mom ask for?   

Centers

It has been a long winter around here.  The kids (and I) are yearning to get outside!  Lainey didn't have school on Monday (15th), and we HAD to do something different!  :)  Lainey loves doing centers at school, so we set some up here at home.  It worked like a charm!  We had 8 centers, and the kids spent 10-12 minutes in each center.  The kids did SO well...even Sawyer.  They had to stay in their center and work independently...and clean up their center when the timer beeped to switch.  I was so proud of them!  The best part is that they were so excited about it!  We will definitely do it again on our next day off or snow day (hope we don't have one of those again...but I'm not going to count it out quite yet).  :) 

Lainey in the Reading Center

Sawyer making his candy necklace...next time around was stringing beads center

Sophie in Coloring Center

This was originally supposed to be the Wii Center but after not being able to get the Wii to work we switched it to the Lego Center...and I'm glad we did!

The Puzzle Center

Dress-Up/House Center...we also had Baby Center as another one the kids liked too

Playdough Center

What a FUN day...with very little fighting and lots of creativity!  Ahhhh....