Baseball!

Isaac is SO EXCITED to be the Falcons bat boy!! Eddy bought him the same pants the the guys wear and a matching blue jacket. He's ready for the season!!





The guys are great with him.





Secret handshakes.

















He takes his job very seriously.

Weekend in Frederic

Eddy left for his team's spring training trip to Arizona, so I took the kids to Frederic. We had a great weekend!

Ordinary Days

Last summer when we had family pictures taken in Duluth, I had intended on getting one blown up into a canvas print. Finally got around to it. And I love it.





Thank God for FaceTime.





Piper continues to LOVE to write letters. She asks how to spell a word, we say the letters, and she writes it.





A lot of the time she wants to write her friends' names.

Piper

Oh, my daughter has been challenging me lately! She's laughing one minute, crying the next. She will be so loving, then will pout and say, "I'm not going to snuggle with you any more". A true test of my patience. And I often fail.

But then there such cute moments. At the bank last week, she wanted to write "Grammy", which is the name she's taken to calling my mom lately!


And then she thought it would be fun to wear my boots.


She got a little chilly after swimming lessons!


She's quite the fashion girl...purple hat, leopard glasses, pink princesses necklace, Lion King shirt, pink skirt, brown tights, and black boots.


Striking a pose!


Today we went to Target to get her a green shirt to wear for St. Patrick's day. And I realized she's officially out of the toddler section--she's too big for size 5T. She's so long that her tummy hangs out of size 5 shirts and leggings are starting to look like capris. My little girl is growing up!

Gymnastics

Piper started gymnastics through the local parks and rec department. Three of her classmates also signed up. I had been talking about signing her up for a class earlier this fall and kept saying I would do it after we moved. At the time, she seemed very excited. But after signing her up, she would continue to tell me that she would go "when I am bigger". I was nervous on how she would do, but I think having her friends there, in addition to Eddy being the one to bring her (I met them after work), made it go more smoothly. They took a picture before class started...


They were so fun to watch! Each of them were pretty nervous at the beginning, but then loosened up. They did some "tumbling" on the mats, jumped up on the horse, used the uneven bars, and walked on the balance beam. After class when I asked Piper what was her favorite part, she said "all of it". She stayed after class to work on her somersault, which for some reason she has decided is very cool to do with her legs up in the air!

Conferences

Eddy had Dad's Night Out with Piper at her school, so I took Isaac to his school conference. I like that Isaac sits at the table with and teacher and me. He is doing well in all subjects. We need to work with him a little on his writing, both in being more detailed in story writing and is his writing the letters correctly. His teacher says he continues to have exceptional behavior and is a good example for his classmates. It's neat to see how he is progressing!

And since he is doing such a great job, I took him to Dairy Queen and let him pick whatever he wanted. He chose a banana split and ate almost all of it!

Celebrating Seuss

While Eddy was at baseball camp, I took the kids to the middle school for a morning of activities to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday.

We had a breakfast of green eggs and ham (cheese omelet with optimal green colored cheese sauce), muffin, and juice.

Next it was on face painting.
Isaac was the Lorax.


And Piper the Grinch.


They looked great!


We then listened to one of Seuss' stories in the library and then went to the music room where a guy was playing a mandolin and signing fun songs. The kids had fun playing around.





It was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning!

Swimming Lessons

I was able to sign the kids up for swimming lessons and they started tonight. They were both really excited, which makes me happy. I did NOT like lessons growing up.

#4

Just registered to run my fourth half marathon. Let the training begin.

She's Ready....

...for the gymnastics class we signed her up for!








She wanted to put on her work out clothes and exercise while I ran on the treadmill.





It was nice to have company!

Weekend Moments

This weekend the kids had a few friends over. I am so grateful that they have found some new friends. And it's also allowed me to meet some of their parents, and thus been nice too.

The kids all went outside and shortly after came to the door to ask me for shovels. I went outside with them to snap a few pictures.








Sunday morning Eddy humored Piper and had a tea party with her.


I love these little moments.

Donuts with Dad

This morning Isaac's school hosted "Donuts with Dad" before the school day started. When Isaac brought the info sheet home a few weeks ago, he said he didn't want to participate. In the past, Isaac has had a tough time if one of us have been in his classroom. In fact, last year in kindergarten, I was intending to volunteer once every other week. However, during my first time in the class, when it was time for me to leave, Isaac had a hard time. A really hard time. He got very tearful and sad that I had to go. Ever since then, he has been VERY vocal about us not coming to school...unless it's at the end of the day and he can leave with us.

So I figured Donuts with Dad would be a tough sell. This morning, Isaac and I sat on the couch and talked about it. I asked him why he didn't want his dad to come. After a few moments of silence, he said "I don't want my heart to be sad". Knife to the heart. I love this kid. So we talked about it a little more. He also said he didn't want to cry in front of his new friends. We started talking about the FUN parts of having Eddy come, and not focus on the sad part of him leaving. We brainstormed what we could do so that he wouldn't cry. He thought that it would be ok if he just didn't see Eddy leave. Then I suggested that after they had their donuts, they BOTH walk out to the car and have Eddy drive him to the front of the school and have Isaac get out of the car, just like he does every morning. Isaac's response was, "well Mom, that would be a little bit much". He cracks me up!

In the end, he decided it would be ok to participate...and he had a good time! Eddy called me afterwards to say that they had a great time; Isaac seemed to like having Eddy there and Eddy got to meet some of the dads. When I picked Isaac up from school he said he had fun. He then said, "my heart got a little sad, but I did not cry". I told him that I was proud of him for doing something that he was nervous about...and that it was ok that his heart was sad, but that I was so happy that he decided to concentrate on the fun parts.

It's moments like this that I don't want to forget. My sweet, sensitive boy.


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Reading

When I was in Duluth, I talked with Courtney and Michaela about how I wanted to try to get Isaac more into reading. He does well, but getting him to start reading every night can be a challenge at times. They both suggested Magic Tree House books. I picked one up at Barnes and Noble and Courtney leant me a few more. We've started to read them together, taking turns. This technique seems to be working! Piper has laid with me a few times and has fallen asleep each time. I'm loving this time of night.

Surprising The Kids!

Thursday night Eddy whispered to me that we should surprise the kids and take them to the Dells for an overnight on Friday. At first I thought he was kidding, but when he started looking on-line, I realized he was serious. So, I finished booking a night while he was at baseball practice. Friday after I picked the kids up from school I secretly packed an overnight bag. When Eddy got home we got in the car and told the kids we were going to get some dinner. We went through the drive-thru at Culver's and ate in the car. The kids were so funny--they didn't even ask what we were doing! They did whine about halfway into our two hour drive...but when we pulled into town, Isaac said "this looks like Wisconsin Dells". Both kids were really excited!

Unfortunately the waterpark was going to be closing shortly after we got there. But we explored the hotel a little and settled in for the night.






Saturday morning we ate at the hotel's buffet breakfast.





The kids wanted a picture with this bear.



This was the ONLY waterslide that Piper went down.



Isaac wasn't very adventurous either.



There was a whole section of climbing things that had water spraying out of different contraptions. Unfortunately there was a huge bucket at the very top that would tip over every five minutes and splash a ton of water down below. Only a small portion of the area was affected by the bucket, but Piper wouldn't get within 50 feet of it. In this picture I was getting too close.



We went around the lazy river a few times.



It was fun watching Isaac climb across this obstacle.






After being at the water park for about 2 1/2 hours, Isaac said he was ready to be done and go to the arcade. Uh.... no! This is our reaction when he said he was done...



...and we FORCED them to have fun for awhile longer!



The kids had the most fun in the "regular pool" area. Isaac was practicing his floating and swimming and eventually started jumping into the water.








Although it might look like it, Isaac really wasn't pushing his sister in!





I captured this shot on my iPhone!


When we were done with the water, we got dressed and checked out the arcade.


This one was too loud for Piper!


Cashing in their tickets.


Our last stop before heading back home was to Buffalo Phil's. It's a restaurant that delivers your food to the table via an electric model train.





She wanted to do a "silly one".


With my working full time and Eddy so busy with baseball, it was a lot fun getting out of town and having fun with our kids.

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