I have shared a few of Allison’s not so nice notes that she has left for me, but a little while ago when Ryan and I went to bed and found a nice note on our closet doors for us. It is even laminated with contact paper so she can erase and write something else occasionally. Our Allison has a sweet little heart.
After a lifetime of making my own fry sauce anywhere outside of Utah or Idaho. The ketchup people have finally realized they should make this stuff to buy in the store. Woohoo! Many things are better with fry sauce but it isn’t even worth eating a fry without it. There is still room for improvement-the mayo to ketchup ratio is not quite there, they need a little more ketchup. The name is ridiculous too, but they are on the right track!
After many years of attending Matthew and Allison’s school programs and trying to see over a bunch of tall heads with little success it was finally Emilee’s turn to have her first school musical. I think she was just as excited that it was Matthew and Allison’s turn to try and see over peoples heads to watch her. Luckily Emilee is one of the tallest, if not the tallest kindergartner so she was up on the top row of the risers and we could see her pretty well most of the time. It was pretty cute. They did songs with a forest/jungle theme and dressed up as different animals. Emilee was assigned to dress up as a porcupine. She strongly declined having a solo speaking part. She did however agree to do the Jungle Hop dance with a small group of other kids. She did a great job.
As excited as we were to see her performance, I was not to thrilled about trying to come up with a porcupine costume. I walk the line between balancing the right amount of time,energy and money for a cute costume that will be worn one time for 20 minutes. It seems like I am often on the ‘most obscure’ costumes list too. Some of the trickier ones we have had to come up with is a worm (we had this one twice, very tricky to not look like a piece of poop or a male body part), Humpty Dumpty (with enough pizzazz and sparkle that Allison would wear it) a snowflake, an Indian, a nerd and a zookeeper (not to be confused with a garbage man).
Each kid is a little different in what they are willing or want to wear too. Matthew usually doesn’t care what I hand him to wear so he is pretty easy. Allison is the trickiest. As soon as she is assigned to dress up as something she immediately rants about how dumb it is and says she refuses to do it. If she sees or hears anything that might indicate you are making a costume it starts the rant all over. Then the day before the performance after everyone at school has been talking about their costumes and building up the excitement she will come to me with a complete over the top idea of how she will dress up as the assigned whatever and expect me to pull it of thin air immediately. This caused complete meltdowns, hair pulling frustration and crying on both our parts the first few years. I really started loathing school programs. However, by the time second grade came around I had figured out a pretty good way to appease my, plan ahead and keep it simple style, and Allison’s flare for drama and statement making style. I digress, Emilee is a mix of the two. I can make whatever I want for her to wear but unlike Allison she does not want to stand out and if she feels like she does she will have nothing to do with it. Case in point. If you ask Emilee if she raised her hand at school she will look and you with a mortified look on her face and say, “No! If you raise your hand people look at you!” So, when I saw she was supposed to be a porcupine I was a little stumped on what would work for her. Pinterest was no help with low key simple costumes. Eventually I came across a porcupine wall decal that would fit perfectly on the front of her shirt. Then we put a pony tail in her hair and made it ‘spiky’. Taadaa! Both of us were happy campers. In fact, I personally thought only one other person had a better costume (according to my criteria of time,effort,money vs 20 minute usage.) One of Emilee’s besties Laney was a peacock. She had a peacock feather in her headband and a shirt that said ‘Pretend I am a Peacock’. How perfect is that! I told her mom I was doing that for whatever Emilee ended up being next year.
This past weekend I made a quick trip to see my sister Sherri in Florida. She had a miscarriage earlier this month and was understandably sad and I wanted to see her for myself. I was supposed to get there Thursday around 7 pm but my flight was delayed a lot so it was almost 1 am Friday morning by the time I got there. We were still able to cram in some fun before my 6 am flight Sunday morning.
Friday we went out to have some sister time. We started with getting our nails done then she was wanting to update her ward robe for work so shopping was next. I am not a big shopper on my own. I am becoming more and more of an online shopper actually. I don’t get to shop with my sisters very often though so it is always fun when I get the chance. When I am shopping with Sherri I feel like I am shopping with myself. We have very similar taste and styles. We paused long enough to eat lunch at Ford’s Garage, which was quite an interesting experience. My brain had a hard time reconciling the really good food we were eating with the very authentic ambiance of being in a repair shop, right down to the smell of oil. It was good food though. After lunch we continued shopping a few more hours and then called it a night. We ate chocolate almonds and watched a movie together.
The next day Kenny was having a hard time understanding the concept of a sister weekend so we hung out around their house mostly. We finished a flower bed they had been clearing out. It was nice to be working outside in beautiful 80 degree sunshiny weather. Sunshine is such a cheerful thing. It can make me happy instantly just by walking outside and having the sun shining. We went through a bunch of stuff for our FAT Adventure business and talked about some stuff we want to try and change. Sherri and I went and returned a few things that we changed our mind about when we were shopping the day before then we all went to dinner at a pizza place. Sherri and I stayed up talking late that night. She drove me to the airport to catch my 6 am flight the next morning. It was a fast trip. It is amazing that I can be in Tampa Florida at 6 am and make it home to my house in Kansas in time for 10:30 church. It is less amazing but still crazy that I can leave Tampa and its comfy 80 degree weather and then arrive in Kansas where it is 30 degrees and I have ice on my car windows.
I am very grateful and blessed to have both of my sisters. I am glad that we are friends. I am sad sometimes that we don’t get to live closer to each other but I am glad that we can talk a lot and see each other a few times a year (hopefully). They are both amazing people and I love them a lot.
Spring Break was a week earlier than usual this year, and with as much time off in February as we had by the time it came to Spring Break I felt like we had already been having a Spring Break.
Ryan and I talked about doing something further away like maybe Chicago or Gulf Shores. Neither of us got around to planning it though and we had asked our friends the McDonald’s to do something with us. By the time we did get around to planning it we decided to do a long weekend in St Louis with the McDonald’s and spend the rest of the week at home.
Monday was my catch up day. I told the kids that I was going to be checking as much off my to do list as I could then we would have more Spring Break like activities the rest of the week. Monday was actually the first sunny day with temperatures in the 40’s instead of teens so it felt wonderful to be outside. I ‘made’ the kids go to the park for 30 minutes at least. Three hours later I had to drag them home with sun burned faces. After a quick refueling they were back outside playing baseball and riding bikes, playing tag, roller skating, digging in the dirt, and having a great time being outside. It definitely gave us all Spring fever. It was just a teaser though because the rest of the week was cold windy and rainy.
Tuesday was cold and rainy so we decided to go swimming at the Olathe Community Center with the rest of the people in Olathe. Despite the large crowd the kids still had fun. Emilee in particular can’t wait until it is swimming weather again.
Allison picked our activity on Wednesday. A few weeks earlier she had gone to the Johnson County Museum with her girl scout troop. She loved the kids area and has been begging to go back again. We invited our cousins to go with us. The boys stayed behind to play some video games and the girls came with us. They played at the museum until we were all hungry and then we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. We topped the day off with a sleepover.
Thursday we played around the house and packed up to get ready to go on our weekend getaway. Friday morning we followed the McDonald’s to St Louis and spent the weekend there. We stopped for lunch and then went to The Arch. We had all seen it before but we had never been in it, or seen the museum with it. It was cool to see the view from the arch. The tiny round 5 person pod that takes you 600+ feet into the air was a little claustrophobic but bearable. After the arch we checked into our hotel and then went to Dave-N-Busters for dinner and to play in the arcade for the evening. Matthew figured out the timing on one of the ticket winning machines so he scored a bunch of tickets for everyone. It almost took longer for then to ‘shop’ with their tickets than it did to play the games. It was a fun night.
Then next morning after breakfast at the hotel (one of the kids favorite things about staying in a hotel) we went to the City Museum. It is an incredible place. It is an old ten story building that they have converted into a giant play area. We went a few years ago and it was a little nerve racking trying to keep track of the kids. They can crawl in a hole and come out in a completely different room. It is almost impossible to keep track of them. They are older now so I was a little less worried. We set a meeting spot and split up to explore. There is caves, and a catacomb area with a ten story slide. There are basically just mazes and places to crawl around all over. There is an outside portion the has tunnels and paths leading all around that is literally attached to the side of the building so you are hanging in the air. Everything is made with recycled material too. It is hard to explain but it is a pretty amazing place. We spent most of the day there exploring. When we were worn out, we ate lunch and then stopped at a well known ice cream place that I can not for the life of me remember the name of now. It was yummy though. We were meeting our long time friends the Schellman’s that night so we had about an hour to kill before we were supposed to meet them. We all decided to stop at the park and play because the weather was pretty nice. After dinner and visiting with the Schellman’s for a few hours we met back up with the McDonald’s at the hotel and the kids all swam for a few hours. The second best part about staying in a hotel. Sunday morning we went to church with the Schellman’s and then drove home. It was a fun weekend. It was nice to get out of town for a few days and enjoy some fun time with family and friends.
Emilee and Allison both went to the red carpet mystery lunch that another Girl Scout Troop put on. Neither of them had been before so they didn’t quite understand what it was. They are given a menu with items to order in four separate courses. Each course has three choices from the menu but you can only pick each one once. After a course was finished they took your plate away so that you didn’t have anything to start the next course. The entire meal was macaroni noodles with spaghetti sauce, meatballs, and Parmesan cheese, lemonade, a bread stick, salad with ranch, and a Ding Dong for dessert. Emilee was not amused when they brought her the first course she had ordered. It was a knife, fork and meatballs. She lightened up and enjoyed it when her next course included a Hostess Ding Dong. Allison and her troop were swapping and trading their food so they could all get a good course. One of her courses was ranch, Parmesan cheese and a fork. After they finished eating they let all the girls walk the read carpet in the fancy dresses or whatever they wore and get pictures taken. Emilee was mortified, Allison ate it up. Overall it was a fun activity.
Its already mid March but I wanted to bid a formal farewell to February. I’m glad it’s over, good riddance. For being the shortest month of the year, February sure felt LONG. At least the last half of the month did. This winter has had a lot more snow then usual. I think it is safe to say we are past the snow part but I’ll ‘knock on wood’ as I type this. Usually we have 2-3 snow days each winter, this year we had seven, five of those were in February.🤦♀️😒 February is also ‘famous’ around here for having the most days off of school. So just for fun lets do a little math. There were twenty possible days to attend school this month. Twenty minus five snow days, one holiday, and three scheduled days off of school, takes it down to 11 days of school. Mingled among those 11 days of school, each of the kids was sick for 2-3 days at different times. This added five doctor visits to our month. Adding in the regular stuff we have going on and my work schedule that I over booked this month and I felt a little more stressed and discombobulated than I usually do.
It isn’t that I don’t like the kids being home, it was nice to have snow days and a little break from the school schedule but it is hard to keep a some what constructive environment going when it is repeatedly being canceled, postponed, and rescheduled. It felt like a constant state of unknown plans which drives me crazy. I also feel like the older I get the more I notice that I start to get a little stir crazy and have the winter blues by the time February comes around. I’m just ready for some sunshine, foliage, and fresh air. The kids show signs of needing to get out and stretch their legs and burn off energy too.
This year our resident NFL team did really well. They ended up making it to the play-offs. They haven’t done that for 20 years or something like that. I don’t remember they exact statistic. This year they made it to the play-offs so Ryan took Matthew and went with a friend of his from high school. They got seats for the lower bowl on the 35 yard line. It was COLD! Like low 30’s with snow and wind. They had several layers of everything plus snow pants and boots. They stayed pretty warm except for their toes, but that didn’t stop them from having a great time. The Chiefs won too! They lost the next week, but they won the game they were at which made it even more fun.
The girls have been taking gymnastics for a few years. A couple months ago we switched to a new gym and they had pictures recently. So I got a cute picture of each of my gymnasts.
The high school has a Saturday cheerleader camp every couple of months. Allison and her friend Carlee like to go together and dance it up together.
This is Emilee’s second year playing basketball. She has come a long way. Last year she wouldn’t run to the other end of the court. When the ball went to the other side of the court she would sit under the basket against the wall and wait until everyone came back. This year she runs the court. If she gets tired though she comes up into the bleachers and asks Ryan and I if she can be done. Matthew works on her dribbling with her during the week and she is getting better.
February is always an odd month. Its short anyways and there is usually teacher conferences and President’s Day which are no school days. Then there is usually snow days. So far this month thanks to ice storms we have had FOUR snow days and its only half way through the month. Nothing makes the kids quite as excited as a surprise day off of school. We try to get in some fun activities and of course lots of playing in the snow.
Allison was Ms. Coovert’s class Student of the Month. She gets a special certificate and a coupon for a free ice cream at Culver’s. She was very excited and Ryan and I were very proud of her. One of her besties Hailey was PE Student of the Month with her.
More pictures from our Winter.
Allison begins planning her Valentine’s Day box several months before it is time to make it. In fact about the time Halloween ends that is the next project she starts thinking about. Last year it was a giant robot covered in aluminum foil and then colored in different colors representing slime. This year she had a very unique idea as well. My parents were visiting so she recruited my dad to help her draw it and then she painted it… pictures are worth a thousand words so I’ll let you see for yourself. She is a pretty darn good artist.
Allison was in her second pine wood derby this year. Ryan was helping her make it and was spending time making sure the weight was good. After a while she looked at Ryan and said, “I don’t care if it is fast, I just want it to look good. I can handle it from here.” She did just that too. She painted it all white and then put yellow circles all over it and then drew different emoji faces on each circle. It was pretty stinkin’ cute. Her car wasn’t the fastest but it won the ribbon for Best In Show.
Emilee was in her first derby this year. She did a great job helping her dad form it and put the weights on. Then she painted it all by herself. She had fun watching the races with the other girls in her troop. They are all a cute little bunch.
