Opposites Attract

The last 2 weekends were spent in opposite climates. A quick winter weekend trip to Okoboji to embrace all winter has to offer and a 5 day to Arizona to visit my inlaws. 

Backing up a smidge. The Friday we left for Boji was the kids Valentine's Day parties at school. Stella's last holiday class party since next year she will be upstairs in the middle school! Say what!?

Stella came home from school saying she wanted to make a Vday box. I was kinda surprised and had actually just gone to the dollar store that day and picked out Vday bags to put their Valentines in for both of them. Oh, well! She looked on Pinterest and decided she wanted a football field box, but wasn't too interested in doing the work herself. LOL! So since I was left in charge it certainly wasn't amazing, but she liked it. All P wanted was a gold box, so I bought some gold paper and wrapped a box. Easy and done!

Porters class had their field trip to the Science Center that same day, so they were at the SCI from 9:30-2, Vday party from 2:30-3 and school dismissed at 3:20. Pretty great day for him!

My group of boys. Andrew, Josh, Leo, Hank and P. These are the boys he hangs with the most in his class, so it was fun to spend the day with them and see them interact. 

We (moms and kids) left for Boji around 4:30 that afternoon. The guys actually all left around 10 that morning "to get everything ready" which means they wanted the snowmobiles for themselves before the kids got there. 

There was a lot more snow up there!

When the kids weren't outside they played iPads, Wii, tag upstairs, watched movies and built forts like this one. 

We celebrated Eric's birthday. 

Rosy red checks after playing in the frozen tundra. 

Jeff brought up his 3 snowmobiles. There are 2 big ones and a smaller kiddie one. This year Eric, Porter and Austin S. and Leo were old enough to drive the big ones on their own. They thought that was a big deal!

Safety first! Stella ready to drive one of the big ones. 

Grant, Stella and Averie. She will make a great babysitter in a few years. 

Tuesday evening found us on a plane bound for Phoenix! The kids didn't have school on Thurs or Fri, so they just missed Wednesday. Steve and Linda moved to Litchfield Park over the summer a western suburb and only a half mile from Chris and Kim. They are in the same neighborhood now so that was really fun! Hop on the golf cart and buzzed all over the place. I now realize I didn't get any pics of C&K!  It was great to see them and they are due with a baby boy the end of August! Kim looks beautiful!

Chilling in the pool, soaking up some much needed Vitamin D! His freckled really popped out from the sun. Love that!

iPads are more fun in the sun. Ha ha!

Splashing Grandpa 

Lots of pool time. Their house in on a golf course. I'm sure our crew didn't improve anyone's golf game with all our noise! 

Grandpa was so good getting in to swim and play with the kids. 

One day we toured the Arizona Cardinals stadium. It's HUGE! We got to tour the visitors locker rooms, suites and main level. It was very interesting. This was really fun especially since P became a big Cardinals fan a month or so ago. Steve and Linda live just 15-20 min from the stadium. 

They were setting up for a big motorcycle show on the main floor. 

Over 64,000 seats!

Maybe I'm the only who didn't know this, but the football field turf is on a bed that rolls in and out of the stadium, you can see it in the background. It's rolled in just for NFL games and takes about 75 minutes to roll all the way in. 

This is the courtyard you walk through to the front door. That door next to Stella isn't the front door, but a door for the "mother-in-law" suite. It's a beautiful house! This was a perfect place to play with some remote control cars. 

The same area, there a sitting area with outdoor fireplace. 

Looking out from the great room to the patio/pool. They have a wall of windows that push all the way into the wall and create a big indoor/outdoor space. 

Pool with the waterfall on. 

We completed a jigsaw puzzle! 

Went to a Wildlife zoo one day. Touching Stingrays! Eek!

We hiked the White Tank Mountains. Would love to go back and try a harder trail, we were limited on time that morning. 

At the end of our trail was a "waterfall", but really just a large puddle of water this trip. 

Last night we met up with Steve/Carolyn, Haney's, Casey's at Rawhide, a Wild West town in Chandler. There was a ton to do and we only got to see about half of it. Will definitely go back. I really wish I had a pic of the adults! The kids had so much fun together. They were a riot!! 

First (hopefully last!) time riding a mechanical bull!

Locked up! Connor was getting his pic taken with the actors from the gun show we had just gotten done watching so he's not in the pic. I kept teasing Matt that he wore that Iowa shirt just to make Mike and I mad! And he probably did! Hahaha!

Panning for gold!

January shenanigans and part of Feb, too!

January started off with a bang! The first Sunday Mike made his first full communion with the Catholic Church. He's been attending classes since October and will continue attending classes through Easter, but due to a few different factors he was able to "fast track" as he calls it and become Catholic before the Easter season. 

Mom and dad came up to help us celebrate this occasion. The night before we had them play some Wii games with the kids and it was pretty funny!! I don't have any pics of the cere the next day or the brunch we hosted afterwards, but it was defin a very special time and cause for celebration. 

Stella all dressed up for her JA Biztown interviews at school (more on that below). And she's not wearing lipstick, the carpool stopped for a treat that day on the way home and she got a red slush is so her lips are stained. I wasn't organized enough to get a pic of her before school. 

Porter working hard on his All About Me poster. He got to give a little presentation to his class a few weeks ago. 

On MLK day the kids were off school so we made plans to meet with friends at the Science Center because it was free admission that day. Pretty much all of the metro area had the same idea! The place was packed! 

After a quick lunch we met up with a few other families from my moms group for roller skating!

P's teacher sent me this pic of him giving his All About Me presentation. Parents aren't allowed to attend, which is totally cool with me! 

Stella wrapping up 1st season of bball. 

Part of her team. They had a great 1st season!

So back to JA Biztown. This is a program offered to schools in Iowa, not sure how many schools and how far they come from, but at our school kids starts its of JA Biztown in Kindergarten. It's pretty much learning about how a community works, taxes, etc. Each year expands from the year before. 5th grade is the final year and this field trip is a BIG deal! By now they've learned how to balance a checkbook, budget a paycheck, etc. This field trip was amazing. I had to go to a 2 hour training just to volunteer. The kids get "interviewed" for "jobs" they will hold at JA Biztown. Kids from the class can also run for mayor and District Attorney have to give speeches. Some kids made YouTube videos and whatnot. The kids from the class then vote for their favorite candidate. Stella wanted nothing to do with that bc she did not want to give a speech in front of the entire class. A few days after the "interviews" the kids find out what their job will be at Biztown. 

Stella ended up as CEO of the farm store. She was very excited about being CEO bc she earned more $$ as a CEO and therefore could buy more junk at Biztown. What she didn't know was that she had to give a speech in front of her entire grade the day of the field trip, but she did a great job! 

Stella and the CFO, sales manager and store manager of the Farm Store 

The entire 5th grade. 

Cold weather  = lots of board games for this family. Rex always seems to find his way into the game cabinet. More often than not we forget he's in there and close the doors on him until we hear him pawing the doors. 

Two Saturday's ago ended up as a mom/son day and dad/daughter day. 

Here is the highlights of P and I's day. 

He was my workout buddy. When I take the kids they like trying out all the different equipment. 

Out of order but he had a bball game that evening. 

Lunch at CFA after a good workout. 

After his bball game we met with with friends to watch the Iowa Energy game while the dads and daughters were at the dance. My friend had free ticket for the game through her work and we got to sit in the suites. So fun!

So the dad/daughter day started off in good ole Ames soaking up some Hilton Magic! Stella did an ISU women's bball clinic. She really liked it! Mike was also very impressed with the clinic and the ISU women's bball clinic staff. 

They stayed for part of the ISU girls bball game vs Oklahoma, but had to leave early to get back here for her bball practice. Mike helps coach, so they didn't feel they could miss practice. 

After practice it was straight to get ready for the daddy daughter dance. The theme was Dancing through the Decades. So you could go as any decade. Stella chose 90's Grunge and I told her no one would know what decade she was from. Afterwards she told me people kept asking why she was a farmer. LOLOLOL!!!! That cracks me up!

A friend sent me these pics she was there as a volunteer photographer snapping pics of the girls. 

I attended my 1st Caucus! Loved it! Packed house and I ran into quite a few neighbors and school friends. Will definitely do this again. I tried to get the kids come with me (Mike wasn't home), but they kept saying no. I saw quite a few of their friends. Packed house!

Last week was Catholic schools week and the kids had an early out so we had Eric over while Lucy hosted Berlins bday party. Warming up on a cold winters day with some FroYo. Haha!

Lunching with Stella and her homies. Porter never wants to lunch me me. That's cool! It was clash day for Catholic schools week. 

Last week was the annual school auction. Stole this from FB. Me and some of my SFA peeps. I also chopped my hair a couple weeks ago. It was a really fun auction and we are so grateful that nana and papa came up to watch our kids that night. 

Most of our auction purchases are "experiences" such as class parties, out of uniform pass, duct tape principle to the wall, etc. We did end up getting Porter's class gift this year (each grade is divided into 3 sections and each section of each grade makes a gift to auction off). This year P's class gift was a fire pit and each child painted a tile to surround the pit. I've been wanting a fire pit for a while so this was perfect!