Awana Awards Ceremony

The only way I know how to address my seven (?) month absence from the blog is to simply ignore it.  So now that that’s taken care of, I have some pictures from Makenna’s Awana awards ceremony last night.  Nothing like your child getting some awards to get you back to posting, right?  😉

All the kids were brought into the big service for a few minutes, and the ones who were book finishers this year got to stand up and be recognized.  I was surprised at how few book finishers there were for such a large group of kids, but Makenna was one of them!  (She’s in the middle, but her head is turned, gabbing away with her friend Maggie)

There was lots of chattering and hair twisting, and yawning, haha:

Then we went into the gym for the much L-O-N-G-E-R awards ceremony…wow.  I have no words to describe the volume in the gym on Awana night.  Those leaders are saints, I tell ya! 

Makenna got an attendance award and her first book award:

Little sis was mighty hyped up on oreos, lemonade, and later, ice cream!

I love this pic:

That’s my girl!  🙂

Techie-Kids

The girls got to go to Target this morning to spend their birthday money.  They both wanted the same thing:  diaper bags for their baby stuff.  We quickly discovered that all play diaper bags now come with play cell phones.  Kenna was stoked because hers is flat and skinny like Mommy’s.  It’s a smartphone.  Poor Kallie got a flip phone. 

Now, a couple hours later, I overhear the following:

(Side note: both the diaper bags and the babies are flung to the side, forgotten)

Kenna:  “Kallie, quit doing that and answer me, I’m texting you.”

Kallie:  no response

Kenna: “Hold on Kallie, Grandma just texted me.”

Kallie: no response

Kenna:  “KALL-IE…..FINE.  If you don’t answer my text, I’ll just DELETE you!!!”

All of this as she browses her Taylor Swift playlist on the ipod…..

Don’t Want to Forget

Kallie is super into spontaneous affection right now.  She’ll be sitting on my lap and suddenly cuddle or reach up to give me a kiss on the cheek.  “I yove you Mommy…”  Does it get any better than this?  I don’t think so.

Despite all my efforts NOT to coach Kallie on her minor speech impediments (they’re just too cute), she’s starting to correct them on her own.  😦  Baby talk is falling away and an almost 3-year-old little girl is emerging.  So because I know that within a few months it will all be forgotten if I don’t write it down….

“L”s are “Y”s in Kallie speak:  “yook, yike, yove”

“K”s and “C”s are “T”s:  “Tenna, tome over here, Tallie, Twisty” (Kristy, my personal fave)

“G”s are “D”s:  “doe-ing” (going), “dood” (good), “dunna” (gonna)

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This morning Kenna was sitting at the table trying to do math, and Kallie was perched right next to her watching (like she always does), and she kept asking the cutest questions:

“Tenna, are you still six?”

“Are you still doe-ing to toe-op?” (co-op)

“Tenna, is dat hard?”

“Mommy, when is Tenna dunna be done?”

And sighing, with her chin in her hands:  “Yep…..I’m still two.”

 

 

Fishin’

Mark and the guys have been livin’ it up, going out a bit further in the gulf and catching some bigger fish.  There’s always a lot of excitement at our house when they get back and unveil the catch of the day.

Kenna reminds me of another little 5-year-old who didn’t want to touch yucky fish when her dad caught them (me!):

She has gotten so strong in her 6 years!!  😉 

 

Overheard Treasures

I already posted this on my Facebook (and I can’t think of a single person who visits this blog who isn’t also on FB), but I need to put it here too so that it gets into my memory book.

As I was getting ready this morning, the girls were playing in our closet and I overheard this little treasure:

Makenna:  “Kallie, I want to babysit your baby.  There’s a meeting for 2-year-olds at the mall.  You should go to that.”

Kallie, after a moment’s thought: “No, I’m just going to meet a friend.”

These girls just make my day.  🙂

Undercover Mardi Gras

Yep, I’m about to knock on where we live again, so if you don’t want to hear it, kindly scroll down to my next post.  😉 

We haven’t attempted a parade in our area since we were first married, so it’s been a good 9 or 10 years.  Well, we found out this week that nothing has changed.

I won’t look down on you if you love the New Orleans/Mardi Gras culture (well, I won’t look down on you much, ha!), but it is so not us.  I mean, I know I’m a northern snob, but still.  Sigh…anyway, the parades down here involve ginormous amounts of beads, coins, moon pies, and drunken wild dancing.  I will say that I am thankful the women keep their shirts down for these “family” events though, unlike the real Mardi Gras festivities.

Anyway, we headed downtown for a parade this past Thursday night and had a great spot right in front of Mark’s office, so that was nice.  The girls were excited and Matt, Laura, Katie and Lily joined us. 

The babes weren’t too sure about the sirens at first, though as you can see, it didn’t stop Kallie from eating through her uncertainty, haha:

But they very quickly got caught up in collecting beads and dodging flying objects:

The float throwing out the ice cream sandwiches was a big hit!

So these are the types of floats that just kept coming, and coming, and coming….Laura and Katie educated me on the fact that these are all the high society people and the respective social groups they belong to.  Each group has a float and a theme, etc…some of them were PRET-TY out there.

In a very family-friendly gesture, this girl was having a little too much fun on her pole:

But this was the “float’ that did me in…

Despite the fun had by the girls and the endless laughs had by the adults, I highly doubt we will attend another parade in this area.  I guess we’ll stick to Disney parades until I get my wish to live by a big city that has just a touch of class.  😉

We left early and headed over to Music in the Park to meet up with the rest of the family for another birthday celebration for yours truly.  My amazing mom-in-law made 2 different kinds of cupcakes for our sugary pleasure and they were mah-velous.  🙂

Now girls, your butts look TINY as all get-out here, so I don’t want to hear it…but how cute is little Kallie trying to be one of the girls? 

It really was a fun night, despite the redneck wonders. 🙂

 

Flashcards

I don’t know where it came from, but I’ve always had a hatred for flashcards.  So I wasn’t thrilled when I saw that 6 packs of them came with our new math program, but we’ve been using them here and there.  But my heart about melted when I walked in the other day and found Makenna drilling Kallie on her colors and shapes…and Kallie LOVES it!  I’m proud to say she knows all her colors, a good number of basic shapes, she can count from 1-20 (and only skips number 15, haha), and has known her ABCs for quite a while now.  She loves to serenade us through the monitor with them in the mornings.  😉

As far as Kenna’s progress report: she is reading 1st grade readers (which have some HUGE words in them that I can’t BELIEVE she knows!), learning her 1st grade phonics rules, doing various 1st grade math skills including addition from 1-10, has scored 100% on her spelling tests so far, and looooves science and the experiments that go with it.  I often find her reading the Children’s Encyclopedia to Kallie and excitedly telling her about air, weather, and tadpoles.  😉  I know, I’m off on a little bragging spree, but I can’t help it.  My girls just make me so proud.  🙂

Back to Disney

No, we aren’t made of money, as it may appear since we just went to Disney World in October…I am always on the watch for great deals, and the one I found in early May was SO amazing that we had to snatch it up and leave just 3 days later.  Very against my nature.  😉

Back at our fave hotel, Saratoga Springs Resort:

As always, first thing we did was hit the pool:

Kallie was out on her own in floaties for the first time:

The next morning, after some all-important map consulting…

We geared up for Magic Kingdom:

This time Kenna had a disposable camera and she was too cute snapping pics:

The next day we were off to Typhoon Lagoon, aka heaven for Makenna and Mark:

I just love this picture beyond words…Kallie is definitely acquiring the map obsession from her big sis:

They pored over every nook and cranny in every park through those maps.  It was a great distraction!

Then we headed to Epcot for a boiling hot day:

In Mexico…check out Kallie’s tiny sombrero:

I couldn’t resist:

Next day was Blizzard Beach:

Cinderella tatoos 🙂

Back to Magic Kingdom to do what we missed, see the princesses, and for fireworks:

The best Disney parade of all time is their “Move It, Shake It Street Party” parade.  They do it several times a day, and the characters come off the floats to dance in the streets with everyone.  I’m pretty sure we caught it every time, every day.  Kenna loves to get down with Goofy:

“Come on, let me see you shake your tail feather”…we sing this around our house ALL the time 🙂

Last day was Animal Kingdom:

Kenna got the ultimate face painting:

Kallie was in awe, and kept staring at Kenna’s face…when they were back in the double stroller, Kallie kept straining around the divider to look at Kenna’s face, and Kenna requested my pocket mirror so that she could hold it and stare at herself too.  😉

Another trip for the memory books!  We already can’t WAIT to go back.  🙂

 

Back to School

Yes, you read that right…just as all the schools are letting out for summer break, we’re starting up another year.  We got on kind of a strange schedule starting way back when Makenna started preschool, but it works for us.  We pretty much school year-round, and then take a month off for Christmas, a month here or there, and of course we take off for vacations.  We’re still several months ahead of schedule for her age, so I guess we’ll keep going with the flow! 

Kenna finished up kindergarten back in March, so it was very convenient that our “summer” break fell during the whole month that Katy and Jake were here.  Then I kind of dragged my heels through May (following a Disney trip early in the month), and we officially started 1st grade a week ago.  It’s gone a lot smoother than I anticipated, though we’re still adjusting to the bit heavier workload.  Kallie is SO into doing “stool” at her desk with her “twacing yines” (tracing lines) workbook and her “mott-uhs” (markers).  I’m sure it will get old, but for now she’s just loving being a part of our school day.  She gets several private tutoring sessions a day from big sis too.  😉

Box Day at our house!:

Again, feels weird, but our co-op just ended for the school year and we had a big picnic and play day for all the kids.  Despite the awful heat, we all had fun.

The kindergarten and 1st grade students got to lead the pledge this time (Kenna’s in the blue):

There was lots of chalk art, bubble fun, jump roping, rollerblading, scooters, food and cake!

My sweet girl 🙂  How much longer, I wonder with a lump in my throat, will it be before she’s too cool to say that in front of her friends?  We left that day and had a chatter-filled drive home about which toys are too babyish for her now, and which things she’ll look “way cooler” doing (rollerblading, riding on a bigger scooter, etc)…..sniff.  Her little kid days are numbered.  😦

Where you been??

Well, I don’t know what everyone else has been up to, but we had a busy and super fun April and May around here.  April brought us a HUGELY unexpected surprise visit from Katy, Jake and Levi.  Now, if you know me, that’s about as good as it gets in my world.  Their 2 week visit turned into a month long visit, and being able to hang out and just have a daily life together was the best thing ever.  The girls had a blast hanging out with their cousin, and Kate and I had tons of sister time.  I had the worst time trying to scale down which pics to post, but here are some of my faves…

Katy and I started our time together with some hardcore daily workouts and bike rides with the kids, which was fun when we weren’t getting swooped by the Blue Angels (poor Levi had a VERY traumatizing experience).  I think there is no better workout buddy than a sister…you can just let it all hang out.  😉

We attempted an afternoon in the kiddie pool, which was a little too icy still for the babe:

Hanging out downtown with some music and lots of family:

We even had a sleepover  🙂

Easter egg hunt at the park:

Poor, poor Levi….that bunny scared me too, haha…

Easter morning at church:

Levi finding his basket:

Kallie searching for hers:

And Makenna’s reaction to hers, hahaha:

We spent some time on the boat, of course:

and on the beach:

Lots of the blankie game:

Another boat day:

Mark and Jake bridge jumping:

Even though they stayed so long, it was over in a flash.  We sure do miss this little babe…lots of fun memories though.  🙂