Happy Birthday!

Today is my firstborn daughter's birthday! It is so hard to believe she is seven. How I hate to see my children grow but it is so sweet to see her turning into a such a nice young lady. And when I look back and say "where did the time go?" I will know because we have spent them together. Kaylee wanted a dog party this year. It was a lot of fun. We dug up dog bones in the sandbox, painted dog figureines and played doggy, doggy where's your bone. She had a lot of fun playing and laughing with her friends. She had a cookie cake with pawprints on it. After her party we went to Outback to eat and as I type they are watching a movie she got for her birthday. It was such a wonderful day! So in honor of my baby's 7th birthday here are seven things I love about Kaylee:

1. She is cute as a button!
2. She is very caring and always takes care of her siblings and friends.
3. She loves wearing dresses and lip gloss, but also plays in the dirt.
4. Even when she is scared she will put on a brave face and try.
5. She loves to read and learn.
6. She always writes me little notes to tell me she loves me.
7. She loves to laugh!

Happy Birthday Kaylee and I love you!

Fun times!

Well it has been fun times around our house this week. We got to enjoy daddy home for Thursday and Friday so the kids were excited about that! It was also a restful week since for the public schools it was spring break. Most things were cancelled so we didn't have to run around as much. We still had gymnastics and baseball. On Tuesday we went to the library for a presentation on Lewis and Clark. The man brought lots of artifacts and even dressed up in costume. Zack really enjoyed that. After that we went with some dear friends to the park and had a great time in our 70 degree weather. We celebrated St. Patricks Day and last week we did our St. Patricks Day lapbook. We learned a little about Ireland and some of the legends. This week we also went to the mall and listened to a bagpiper play. On Wednesday we had our homeschool group day and Kaylee made a pysanky egg. That is the Ukranian egg decorating with hot wax and dye. It was very cool! Zack was more interested playing with his friend (a boy) since all of the kids doing the project were girls. Zack's allergies have been really bad lately so we have to go to an allergist next week. He is going to get retested to see if he has new allergies. When he woke up the other day one of his eyes was swollen shut. I had to give him zyrtec and benedryl. We also went to an egg hunt and they had fun with that and of course got some candy! Well we know Zack is growing up but his latest news caught me by surprise. He told me he had a crush on a girl on his baseball team. Every night he would say how much he liked her and then he said he wanted to get her a necklace. I wasn't sure what to say to that! I told him that he could but he was too young for having a "girlfriend". He picked her out a necklace at the mall and even got his sisters something! He has such a tender heart! Last night he gave her the necklace after practice. She just kind of looked at it. Then later some other boy showed up and then she started being unkind to Zack. My heart just broke for him because he was so crushed! I had a feeling this would happen but I had to let him do this on his own. Yesterday we went on our first real hiking adventure. We went to the dells which is a rocky area next to the lake. It was a tough hike going up the rocks but the kids had a great time. Even Avery made it to the top. We took our picnic up there and were just sitting down to eat when the wasps came out. They were huge! I am always fearful for Avery since she had a reaction to a bee sting. So we packed up and went back down and then went to the park to eat. It was such a great day to be together as a family. Well I hope everyone has a blessed Easter! We will be celebrating at church in the morning and then having fun the rest of the day!

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!

Today we celebrated Dr. Suess's 104th birthday! We had such a fun day. We did some things at home and then went to the library where they had a party complete with cake. The kids had a blast. After that the kids all had swimming lessons. This was Avery's very first time. She loved it!


A reading at the library

Having cake!

The girls being sneeches.

Zack reading The Cat in the Hat.

Avery pinning the green egg on the plate

Kaylee trying her green eggs and ham

Zack trying his green eggs and ham

Avery eating her green eggs and ham

Kaylee working on a word search.

Avery working on her letters

Kaylee pinning on her green egg

Zack doing his turn

Kaylee reading The Foot Book

Doing a craft

Kaylee with her hat

Zack with his hat

Avery making her hat although she never would put it on!

Zack doing his word search

It was a wonderful fun day in our homeschool!

Has it really been that long?

Well it's funny how time goes by that fast!We have been so busy keeping up with all of our activities. It is funny that we home school but we aren't home much! The kids have been busy with gymnastics. They are all in a class now and they love it. Wednesday nights are busy with church for the kids. They have both made a new friend there and have so much fun! Zack is signed up for baseball. That should start anytime now. Zack just had his last swimming lesson in this session but next week we start a new session and ALL the kids will go. Avery has never had a lesson but I know she will do fine. We have also been going to church every Sunday and then we go eat lunch and go to the Y to swim. I have really been enjoying these family days together. Zack is also still going to cub scouts. He really loves it and wants to earn one of the hardest patches. The nature conservation award. He loves nature so much and he is really working hard. His pack just did a slen up for a widow yesterday. He will be having the pine wood derby soon so he is working on his car. We are still keeping busy with our home school group.
Zack is so interested in the Iditarod this year that we just started doing our sled dog lapbook. They are having fun with it. We also signed up online to follow 3 mushers on the trail to see how they do. Zack of course based all of his choices on who had the cutest dogs!
It will be a crazy week next week since Keith will be gone to St Louis!

sick :(

Kaylee is sick. She wasn't feeling well for a couple days. We all know Kaylee is not well when she doesn't eat. That girl loves food more than anything alse! Of course it happened the day we picked up daddy from the airport. Last night and today she has been the worse. Her temp is up to 103 and 104 and she has been caughing and gagging from some crud in her throat. I feel so bad for her. She slept in the recliner and I slept on the couch. I hope she will be better tomorrow!
On another note we got Gram to the airport safely although not on time! Since we were late her bags did not make it onto the flight. I felt so bad since it was my job to get there on time! The airport was a little confusing too so we will blame it on that.
The day after we took Gram back we drove down and picked up Keith. The kids were so excited and they all made signs for him. We were sure glad to have him home. Avery got a little sad every night and said "it just isn't right without Daddy!" I am glad that is over with. We went out to Red Lobster last night for our Valentine's meal since Zack has swimming lessons on Valentine's day.
I posted pics of Kaylee's first gymnastics class and Zack at his cub scout meeting.
I will update tomorrow!

Busy, busy

These area few pics from our week!

Well this past week has been a busy one. Now that we are finally settled into our new home we have joined up in some activities to keep the kids busy and get their " socialization". Zack has joined cub scouts last week. Tomorrow he will get his first patch at our den meeting award ceremony. The pack is very small, only 3 boys but he had such a great time! Last week they made bird feeders out of milk cartons. In June he will move up to Weblos.

Kaylee joined girl scouts. I am not real happy with the troop though. They don't really DO anything that has to do with girl scouts. They don't sell cookies or go on field trips or get patches. They don't even need a uniform. Basically they just do a craft time every other week. I think it will be fine since there is only a couple months left but then next fall we will find another troop.

Zack also started swim lessons yesterday. He is in the highest level and the teacher even had him demonstrate a couple things. He had a lot of fun.

Kaylee starts her gymnastics class tomorrow. I think she will have a lot of fun and she is pretty talented too. We will see how it goes!

The kids have also started going to church every Wednesday night. They really have fun. Avery is still too young. She does go to her class on Sundays though and she likes it.

Zack is showing a lot of signs of anxiety lately. He was crying for 20 minutes last week when I took him to church. He kept saying he can't live without me. I felt really horrible but I had to make him stay. He finally was okay when his friend got there. It really breaks my heart and I feel like such a meanie but I knew it was good for him to stay. I think I might need to have him talk to someone. He has a hard time going to sleep and is having a lot of tummy aches. He has to keep giving me hugs. I know a lot of it is from the move and also Keith is gone. I will have to keep an eye on him.
We had our homeschool valentines party today. The kids had a lot of fun giving and receiving their cards.
We have to say good-bye to Gram in a couple days! It will be so sad!!!