Christmas festivities 2012

Our Christmas season was full of fun!

December 19th, Nate took Katie to her class party at preschool.  I was due to take the treats & help at Kevin's class party on Friday, December 21st - but mother nature had other plans!   

The last two days of school before Christmas break were cancelled due to a blizzard!  We woke up to a very cold house on December 20th.  Our power was out for about 6 hours, brrr!  Compared to many people in Iowa, we were lucky our power wasnt out too long.  

  Needless to say, being snowed in with two kids five days before Christmas was rough.  To say they were excited for Christmas was an understatement.  They drove me nuts!    To keep them busy, we even got out the finger paints:

 ... but it was a good thing for me to be snowed in... I finished decorating the house, setting the dining room table, wrapping gifts, some baking, and cleaning.

My parents arrived on Saturday, Brian came on Monday evening.  The boys went to the iMax movie theater to see Polar Express, then we met up with the Spradlings for a family friendly church service at 3:00.  The kids were very well behaved at church, all of the adults were pleasantly surprised!

Stone Family Christmas Party at our house.  (19 people, 6 kids, almost 7 - baby Gogerty 2 is due this week!)

Isabel, Katie, James, Kevin, Tyler 

Today we went to the Science Center to play - Nate built the kids a lego fort: 

Around the house photos

Nate finally got a new phone, so he was taking some photos of the kids last weekend.

Friday night was family holiday movie night.  I surprised the kids with new Christmas pjs, we had pancakes for dinner, made popcorn and watched a fun movie.  They loved it - so did we!

Last Saturday night, Nate and I were invited to a fancy, adults only Christmas party.  It was fabulous!  Everyone was dressed up like they walked off the set of M*dMen.  To keep the kids busy while we got ready, they took a swim in our tub.  Katie used to be very scared of the jet tub, but now she loves it.  (this was an awesome way to keep them contained and very happy - might be my new go to winter activity!)

Thanksgiving

Roadtrip!

We had a very fun trip to Grandmom & PopPop's house for Thanksgiving.  The kids were sick with bad colds/fever/croup for part of the trip.  They rebounded with the help of some medicine.  Kevin loved playing at the "new" park nearby and was especially thankful the Uncle Brian gave him some of his old baseball cards & figurines.  He also spent a lot of time playing Battleship and Connect 4 (games that Grandmom saved from my childhood).  Katie wasn't feeling her best on this trip, but really enjoyed playing cars in the basement.

As a special treat, Grandmom took the kids to see a children's theater version of Cinderella.  They loved the live performance!  I wasn't sure how they would handle it, but they were entertained.

Nate and I got a rare chance to meet up with good friends. Great weekend - now bring on Christmas festivities (school parties, church pagent, cookie exchange, shopping - lots going on here!)

Catching up

Hold on - not fair - time is moving way too fast!  I think Halloween was yesterday!

Despite the look on Kevin's face, we all had a great time trick-or-treating with the Spradlings.

 Here's a photo of Katie during her preschool class party:

 2 Year Olds - preschool class:

We just attended Kevin's first parent/teacher conference.  His teacher said he is really progressing in reading and math.  Kevin has begged me to take him to Build-A-Bear Workshop for several years.  I told him it's a very special place and you have to do something extra special to go there.  We agreed that when he learned to read I would take him there to pick out a bear.  Kevin is still at the age where he LOVES stuffed animals (**** disclaimer - please do NOT take that to mean he needs more stuffed animals for Christmas!  Seriously, we might actually lose Katie in the house if we bring in anymore stuffed animals). A few weekends ago, Kevin and I had a date at the mall and this is his bear.  He named it "Smart Bear".  Why is Smart Bear in a wheelchair, you may ask?  I have no idea, he just really wanted the wheel chair and I caved.  He loves the bear and we are really proud of his reading.

We fit in a lot last weekend!

 Somehow Blogger jumbled these pictures up a bit - but you can see we had a busy weekend.  My parents came for a visit.  The kids got lots of treats and we all had fun.

Nate and I escaped for a trip to Iowa City on Saturday.  Neither of us had ever been to night game at Kinnick Stadium - I guess we were bad luck!  It was a lousy game, but a great day spent with Hawkeyes.  We visited some our our favorite bars & tailgated with friends.  The best part of the day was the Iowa Marching Band - that's how lousy the football part was!  While we were gone, the kids played with Grandmom & PopPop.  Everyone was in bed when we made it home at midnight :)

On Sunday afternoon we visited Living History Farms for their annual Old Fashioned Halloween.  The kids roasted marshmallows, listen to ghost stories, trick or treated and enjoyed lots of candy!

Darth Vadar and Hello Kitty are all set for next week's Halloween festivities!

The latest with Kevin

Kindergarten is going great!  Kevin really likes his teacher and he has started to read!  He is memorizing more and more "sight/popcorn" words each day.  If you ask him, he will say his favorite parts of the day are the bus ride with his new buddy Grant, lunch with is new best friend Pailey and recess.  I know there is some learning happening somewhere during the day, but he isn't too good about  sharing those details.  For now, we are so pleased that he's happy and adjusting well to being in school all day long.  That said, I feel a bit sad for him that he doesn't have much time to play at home.  Once Nate is home from work we have dinner then start the bedtime process much earlier than we did during preschool.  The kids are in bed before 8:00 (love that!)

Kevin's Top 5 Favorite things right now:

1.  Anything Star Wars related

2.  Chapter books such as A to Z Mysteries or Magic Tree House

3.  TV show:  still Wild Kratts and Curious George

4.  Food:  Spaghetti & Meatball soup and Pigs in a Blanket are requested a lot!

5.  Legos & iPad

The latest with Katie

Katie:
Katie and I are getting used to our daily routine without Kevin around the house.  When Kevin first started Kindergarten, Katie did not believe me when I told her he wasn't home.  She would wake up and look all over the house for him.  One day she even crawled into his bed to look for him, it was very sweet.

Katie's Top 5 favorite things right now:
1.  Games: Puzzles, puzzles, puzzles!
2.  TV:  Curious George
3.  Food:  Cheeseburger, popcorn, pears, apples, carrots & hummus
4.  Song:  Wheels on the Bus
5.  Book:  Lady and the Tramp (and she just saw the movie)

We enjoyed an afternoon at the zoo last week:

Katie agreed to pose in her new red coat (thanks Grandmom!)

My little punkin' 

 Preview of her Hello Kitty Halloween costume (before she smeared the face paint)