Recent photos

Two smiling two year olds, Katie & Kate

We recently met up with my friend Brenda & her family.  Kevin, Nate, Garrison & Brandon were very serious when racing one another at Incredible Pizza

 Katie & Elliana played games too:

Elliana was a great help, she read books to Katie!

Last weekend in Chicago we had an early birthday party for Katie.  Grandmom & PopPop got her the Fisher Price My First Doll House.  Both kids are having fun with it!

I'll post some photos next week - after Katie's party this weekend!

House project - done!

New house wrap, new siding, new trim, new deck and a fresh coat of paint - it's like our house got a face lift.  Well, sign me up, because she looks great!  We are super proud of our house right now that this project is completed.

Here she is looking all shiny & new:

The ripped off our old rotten deck:

3 stories of siding required scaffolding:

Working on the front of the house:

Partially painted, part of the deck is done:

Primed and ready to paint:

View from the back yard:

Needless to say, we'll be spending most of the summer enjoying our new house :)

Easter festivities

Pirate balloon swords were the party favor, we had a bunch leftover so Kevin & PopPop had a duel.

After recovering from the fun of the birthday party, we moved on to the Easter celebrations!

Uncle Brian sent the kids a basket

Katie insisted on dressing herself, can you tell?

All dressed up for church

The Easter Bunny hid the eggs while we were at church.  The kids enjoyed an egg hunt in our yard yesterday afternoon. We learned that Katie can fit a few too many jelly beans in her mouth at once!

Happy Easter!

5th birthday - Pirate Party

We celebrated Kevin's 5th birthday with a pirate themed party.  The kids from preschool were invited to our local Y to swim.

Before they walked the plank, cupcakes & presents!!!

Baby sister Katie even got into the pirate themed party: 

 Cousin Tyler (6 months) slept through the excitement of opening the presents:

 The kids had fun in the pool!

Thank you to all who helped us celebrate!!!!

Kevin's 5th birthday was terrific!  He started the day by wearing his new Wild Kratts Creature Power t-shirt!  He LOVES the show Wild Kratts on PBSKids!

At preschool, he shared treats with the class and all of his friends sang happy birthday.  Nate came home in the afternoon and we gave Kevin his new bike.  It's a bit bigger than he is used too, but I'm sure he'll get comfortable with it quickly.  We all took a trip to the Science Center where we raced lego cars, built rockets, explored the ball wall and bubble centers.  We ended the day with a trip to the "fancy" McDonald's (ie - the one with a play area).  Both kids had a great day!

More pictures to come after his pirate themed birthday party on Saturday.  Ahoy!


At 5 years old, Kevin can:
-Nearly read from many of his favorite books
-Write all letters & numbers.  He's interested in spelling words and sounding out many words.
-Still loves to play with matchbox cars, dinosaurs, superhero toys & tinkertoys
-Dress himself, but has no interest in picking out his own clothes yet
-Climb, run, hop, gallop, skip and do all the big kid stuff at our favorite local park (this is so frustrating to Katie, who wants to do everything her big brother can do!)

Ice cream faces!

It was nearly 90 degrees here last Sunday - what an excuse to stop for ice cream on the way to an easter egg hunt!

Writing

We have noticed a HUGE improvement in Kevin's writing over the past few months.  At the start of the school year he refused to write his name and hated to color.  Now, he loves to "take notes" at school, write lists and attempts to spell.

Well, his 5th birthday is two weeks away.  Kevin is constantly talking about toys he would like for his birthday.  I decided to have him write his own wish list.  In case you can't make  it out here here is what he wrote:


1.  Bumble bee (transformer)
2.  Autobot Arc Replacement guns (transformer)
3.  Fish
4.  Bike
5.  Dinosaurs