Ice Skating!

We wanted to take the kids somewhere fun last weekend and we settled on ice skating (much to Owen's disappointment!). I was a little leery too, at first, but I soon found that I had no problem on the ice and didn't fall once. Paige fell a few times at first but actually got the hang of things very quickly. She loved being on the ice! She even brushed us off so she could go skate by herself! Owen fell quite a bit but still had a blast and kept a smile on his face the entire time. He took frequent breaks in the penalty box:)

3 out of 4 of us!

Pat and Owen taking a break.

Paige on her own and having a blast!

President's Day

The kids were home for President's Day so we did a lot of relaxing but also some celebrating! We pulled out all the presidential material we had and the kids spent some of the day reading about our nation's leaders. We were down to one car and my phone was broken so Pat worked from home so I could go out and get it fixed. We also made some obstacle courses before we actually had to leave the house to get Paige to her acro class. Later I caught Paige teaching some stuffed animals about the presidents too! Good way to end the day!

Our Engagement Photos

I found some of our engagement pictures and decided to have some fun with them-

Valentine's Day

I almost forgot about our Valentine's Day! I made everyone cards and filled the kids little mailboxes with some candy. Then we had heart-shaped pancakes with heart sprinkles before we headed off to our party!

Pio party

Last week was filled with friends and parties! Here are some pictures one that was actually on Valentine's Day!

I don't think this was how the stickers were intended to be used but Owen was a good sport and let me decorate him

Rachel and I got in on the mustache action

There were games too! Things got pretty serious, as the kids all wanted to win. Paige was feeling the pressure so acutely that she almost dropped out of the games entirely!

Someone brought a virtual reality headset and Pat and Owen had a chance to try it! 

Fundraiser for a Friend

Paige's best friend and her younger sister have a rare kidney disease called ARPKD. They have a few different ways of fundraising throughout the year to raise money for medical bills, travel expenses, and possible drug trial participation. This past weekend they had a pasta dinner/raffle and Paige and I attended with some other friends. Paige was really nervous to be there but warmed up as soon as she saw Jaina and then moved on to telling me she was going to "do her own thing" and could walk around by herself. We knew enough people there that it was fine with me! It was sad thinking they needed to even be having a fundraiser in the first place but everyone I saw had a great time and they raised a lot of money!

Paige and Jaina

Paige, Reed and Browns player Jamie Meder

Another friend! 

Lava Cake

We had some friends over for a game night last week and I made this slow cooker chocolate lava cake. It was super easy and super good! I was worried the leftovers wouldn't reheat well but they were still great! We topped ours with whipped cream but ice cream would be good too

Valentine's Party

I joined Paige's class to celebrate Valentine's Day on Friday! There were treats and valentine's all over the place and the kids had a blast. The room captain set them up with a craft to make a caterpillar out of foam hearts too. Part of me wanted to limit Paige's sugar intake but I knew Owen was up in his classroom doing the same thing so I just let her go for it. And then we all went for it all weekend:) Paige loves it in this class, I'm already getting sad thinking about the end of the year!

Paige and Caden enjoying some snacks and crafts

Paige and Savannah turning their tongues blue with some Fun Dip

More Reading!

"MOM! I finished this book! I'm ready to read Magic Treehouse now!"

Chinese New Year!

We celebrated Chinese New Year on Monday in a very non-traditionally Chinese way. I made some Trader Joe's wontons, homemade fried rice and we tried some dried, roasted edamame before finishing the meal with fortune cookies. I explained to the kids what Chinese people might actually eat (dumplings, mandarin oranges, fish etc.) and we also talked about the Chinese zodiac and how it was the year of the monkey! The kids loved the story of how the order of the animals in the Chinese zodiac came about. Pat is working with a few people from China so he brought home some candy they had brought in. I'll report back on what everyone thought of it!

Soccer Tournament!

Owen's travel team participated in a soccer tournament last weekend and they did so well! They played three 27-minute games on Saturday night and they went all out. I was super impressed with their effort and skill. They won one and tied two which was good enough to get into the championship game on Sunday. Again, they played so hard that by the end of the game they could barely run! They ended up winning 6-2 and got first place!!

I wish this picture wasn't so blurry but I still like it enough to include it! Owen somehow did make contact with that ball!

Post-game meeting

They boys had some time between games to check out other teams.

First place trophy!

The whole team with the coaches! 

Reader!

I'm not sure how much I've talked about Paige's reading abilities on the blog. She's amazing! She reads everything she can get her hands on and often asks me to get her a book but to make sure that it's a hard one! Here are a couple pictures I took when I came upon her reading recently.

Open Gym

A local performing arts/gym moved to a new location nearby and was offering a free open gym. We went with some friends and when we got there we ran into even more people we knew! The kids basically knew half the people were there and they had a blast on the trampolines, beams, bars and rings.

100 Days!

Paige had her 100th day of school last week and in the kindergarten world that is big news! It happened to fall on the day I would normally volunteer so I got to see the festivities. I loved just walking down the kindergarten hall because all of the doors were decorated and you could hear counting coming out of most of the rooms. The kids had made 100 day glasses and portraits earlier in the day but Paige's teacher and I helped the kids make a special snack- 10 pieces of 10 different treats!

Run/Bike

This crazy "winter" weather has been great for running and getting outside! Pat and I ran while the kids biked and we stopped on the way back to see the beavers. There aren't actually any beavers there anymore but that's still how we identify the spot. We had fun hurling ice chunks into the river and sliding all over the rocks. It can be hard to get Owen out on his bike because he'd rather be kicking a soccer ball but I'm glad we all ended up together. Hopefully we can do this more!

Harry Potter

I was wondering how old Owen would be when he took an interest in Harry Potter! Well, the time is now! He's almost done devouring the second book!

Groundhog Day!

Happy Groundhog Day! I made the kid some groundhog-looking pancakes this morning and after a little bit of effort we found a video of Punxsutawney Phil's prediction-Hooray Spring!

Groundhog pancakes-not too cute to eat!

Ready for the big news...

Paige's pancakes got turned into a pig too:)