Spring Break 2014

Playing with Grandpa in the pool

Eating lunch at Johnny Rockets. Small world , we ran into my distant cousin, Michelle Rychnovsky and her family (and she has a daughter in Stella's grade at SFA!, which is another small world coindence). 

We spent many hours in the pool!

Mike and Steve hanging in the Man Cave!

Checked out the Butterfly Gardens one morning.  

Stella turned 9 in Arizona!

We hiked Camelback on Stella's birthday with my cousin Amy and her 2 boys, Garrett and Connor, and another cousin of mine, Alison. 

Uncle Chris referring a game of air hockey. 

The kids could NOT get enough of Aunt Kim and Uncle Chris!

Stella blowing out her candles. 

Enjoying ice cream the next day. 

Mike and Linda went golfing one afternoon. I asked them to take a selfie! Turned out great!

Linda at dinner one night!

Kids shot a "gun" (BB gun) for the first time and loved it!

Heading out for din-din on our last night. 

a

Stella was tuckered out on our way home today. Monday morning will be super fun....NOT!!!

Last few weeks

Stella took a "selfie" (her first, I think!). Love it! Such a pretty girl! 

S qualified for 3 events at the state swim meet. So very proud of her hard work. She's a great little swimmer, but she did not enjoy her swim team experience so swim team days are behind us, unless P wants to try it out!

Having a sleepover with a bestie. They told me they were acting like gorillas! Ha!

We let S out of school 2 hours early a couple of Fridays ago, to cheer on Dowling! They ended up becoming State Champs! Here's Stella and Ally cheering them on with cotton candy on their noses!

I'm loving Hannah and I's time volunteering at the ARL! She's so good with the kitties!

Came home one day to find Mike cleaning out his car. Good thing I was sitting down! I've never ever seen him do that before!!!

P requested "boxer briefs" recently! Love this boy! And his briefs! Ha! :-)

Had our fabulous friends spend last weekend with us! So blessed to have the Kohls fam in our lives. Daddy Kohls and Baby Kohls pictured here. :-)

Past couple-o-weeks

We've been busy with our daily lives since I last updated. I swear all we Iowans ever talk about is the weather, but seriously....will this winter ever END?!?!?!!!

I had the pleasure of hanging with my good friends baby girl! Anna is a total sweet pea! She thought Stella's American Girl Doll table and chairs were a great place to have her snack. So cute!

Valentines Day brought class parties for both kids. P's Box was inspired by the Inspicable Me movie and Stella's box was inspired by her! Ha!

Porter really aged at school one day!

Stella stayed with a friend one night so P had a friend over for the night. :)

P downing a Pixiestix from his V-day box. 

We had a gorgeous night at Brenton Skating Plaza last week. The Plaza was closed for a private party, reserved for people who bought a spot through the school auction. The weather was amazing (for us!), the kids didn't even want their coats. 

We have a couple of Cardinals that have been hanging out in our bare trees this winter. Finally snapped a pic of one. 

This would be hail that covered our deck. It was much worse than this. I was just too depressed to take a photo 5 minutes after this one! :-)

Stella had her two besties spend the night and lucky P spent the night with one of his besties!

Stella made a Rainbow Loom sleep mask for Rex??.?.....

Stella and her BFF's playing in the snow following the sleepover. 

Stella is trying out basketball through the Y. Bless their hearts, they've lost every game so far! But she really loves it!

We had a double header on Saturday (and lost both games) so a bunch of us went out for a late lunch. 

And last but not least. We bought a basketball hoop. We can't have one of those nice ones that are permanently installed bc it would be directly in front of our neighbors window ( joys of living in a house with NO front yard) but this hoop has been a hit! Mike rolled it out to the end of the cul-de-sac and all the neighbors came out to play in the 20 degree weather. So fun!

First freezing week of February

It been another sub-zero week here in Iowa. At least there are upper 30's in the forecast. That sounds tropical!

Cool cat!

Intense game of checkers. 

I chaperoned Stella's field trip to the science center. Lots of fun!

It was the big school auction on Saturday. This event raises a ton of money for the school. This year was the 1st time I was on a committee, the decorations committee. I really enjoyed it and plan on doing it again next year. Friday I was at the school all day decorating. The committee had been doing stuff since last summer (I didn't start helping until November), so there was a lot of work put into the event. 

A shot of things getting ready on Friday. 

I was helping cover the walls with paper and saw P's class go by. They were headed to PE which was held in the parish hall that day since they gym was in full decoration mode! 

Saturday was basketball games for both kids. This was Stella's first game and I didn't get any pics of her game! They both had fun! P is in the black jersey. 

Mom was kind enough to come up and watch the kids while we attended the auction. Looking good before we headed out. 

The gym transformed! It looked so good!

A couple shots of the hallways. Each student had their photo displayed by grade. 

Sunday brought us Stella's sectional swim meet, this is where a swimmer qualifies for the state meet. She ended up qualifying in 3 events, 2 relays and 1 individual event (breaststroke). State is on March 2nd and then we are done with swim team!  How they keep busy between events....  Looking forward to a more relaxing weekend coming up. :-)

And lastly since we Iowans always have to discuss the weather. This is what my car read on the way home from dropping the kids off at school.  BRRRR!!!!! 

Week in review

We are still pretty much in hibernation mode here in central Iowa. The kids finally went outside for recess on Thursday, the first time in weeks! I saw Stella's teacher at P's bball game on Saturday (her son is on the same team) and I was like were you cheering and doing a happy dance in your classroom when your students FINALLY went outside for recess???!! (she was!!) lol! 

Even Rex, who is covered in thick fur, has even come to hate this relentless freezing cold winter. He will only lay on your lap if you have a blanket on you! Super funny. Love my cat! 

This past week was "Catholic school week" and each day the kids got to wear something fun and had a fun activity going on each day at school. Friday was out of uniform day PLUS crazy hair day! Getting pretty wild!! We called Porter's 'do a "bow-hawk". Haha! 

Friday evening Hannah and I took our cat campion class at the ARL! Yay! Loved spending time with all the kittens and cats. Now we've completed the bunny and small animals training and the cat training. It's been SO MUCH fun doing this with her, she's such an awesome kid! 

After spending the day skiing and snowboarding a few weeks ago, Mike bought him and the kids snowboards. Brother! But he loved snowboarding "back in the day", so more power to him. They went out today and I stayed at home and enjoyed the quiet time. :-)

Total repeat from FB, but last might was the daddy daughter dance. Stella did NOT want hot rollers in her hair, but her hair will NOT hold a curl at all. The hot rollers worked like a charm!

After pouting she was able to smile!

Mike and Stella. 

Porter and I went on a date too.  Ate at the food court and saw the movie The Nut Job. Loved spending the evening with my boy! 

And just a random photo. While everyone was gone today snowboarding I was hearing a noise from the back yard. We have small ponds in the back, not on our property. There was a guy snow blowing the pond! LOL! They play ice hockey during the winter on there and I've only noticed seeing them move the snow for their "rink" with shovels. We hardly have any snow, so I was cracking up that they hauled their snowblower down there!