A Date with Dad

G and Steve went to the annual Girl Scout He & Me Dance.  She was a fashion diva as usual....

Blowing me a kiss

How Time Flies.....

I've been really busy and haven't posted here in forever.  We had a great Christmas.  We spent the week after going down to St Louis for some family fun.  We hit their Science Center, Zoo (for Christmas lights) and City Museum.  The kids loved the City Museum so much that we're going back there soon to visit it again.  It's been a cold winter - kids have missed several days to the school being closed for "coldness".  All three kids are back in swim lessons.  Gretchen is enjoying swim a lot but has started asking about doing cheerleading again.  I'm on the fence because she hated going to the games and wearing the uniform but she loved practices and competition.  Not to mention, cheer takes over your life!  We've had a lot of fun with girl scouts this year.  We did a winter camp out (indoors) and saw a coyote.  And as many of you know, we just finished up the cookie season (may I never see another cookie....). Gretchen has started playing Minecraft which oddly enough may be good for her directionality since it forces her to use both hands (she has trouble with the midline).  All of the kids are anxious for winter to go and for spring to come!  Lots of pics on Flickr from the winter.  Check it out....

Christmas 2015

More questions about the fat man but she was good just in case!

Girl Power

It was a bitter cold Halloween and Gretchen had these plans to go with her friends trick or treating. I had offered up to go if her friend's parents were not going and with temps of 35 degrees they were not.  I layered up and put on a hat and we went.  We took the boys around the block and they got the opportunity to go with their friends on the block.  Once Evan's bucket was full, he wanted to go home so we dropped them off and headed over to another girl's house that Gretchen new.  The three of them plus her friend's little sister and grandma along with me were out the rest of the evening.  Gretchen has never wanted to walk too far on Halloween so I didn't think she would fair well in the cold this year but something about being with your friends, you just don't care.  We were outside for three hours and not until the end did she complain about sore feet and coldness.  I enjoyed listening to her be a girl.

Fashionista Witch

Gretchen wanted to be a witch this year for Halloween.  I promptly went to Goodwill to see what I could find.  I already had a spiffy feather rimmed witches hat.  I stumbled upon a dress that had fur around the arm and matched the feather beautifully.  Gretchen liked the dress so we were a go!  However for a few weeks we couldn't decide what kind of witch it was.... I said sparkly witch but she did not like that.... The day of Halloween Gretchen was prancing about her room checking herself out in the dress and hat and said, I feel like such a fashionista... 

First Day of School

She's a fourth grader now (scared and excited all at the same time). 

Summertime Sadness

Steve and I did our best (well mostly Steve) to make the last week before school a fun one.  The kids went to the movies, the park, visit with Grandma, Six Flags (twice), the zoo and MSI.  Also they took their first Metra ride (commuter rail) to get to the city.  All in all, it was a tiring week but I think they had fun!

Hiker Grrrls

This past Saturday ended all of the girl scout hiking I had planned this summer (3 hikes total).  We walked about 2 miles at each outing.  Even though there was much groaning about a 7am hike, these girls did it without much complaint....  Progress made....

Camping 2014

We did our annual camping trip to Devil's Lake this week.  It happen to fall during the boys birthday (the 22nd) so instead of hiking we went to Mount Olympus Amusement and Water Park in the Dells.  The boys were appropriately surprised and happy.  We didn't get a hike in but the water park walking wore us out anyway.  It was a great trip!  

Not So Bummer Summer

My and my other leader for our girl scout troop are doing a Not So Bummer Summer challenge with our kids that basically encourages them to do new things, get exercise, explore, etc over the summer.  I also planned hiking every month with the scouts.  Even though Gretchen grumbles about it, she's happy once all the kids get there!

4th Grade Mafia

Gretchen had a sleepover for her birthday.  I was so tired from it that I forgot to post the pic.  These girls are gonna be running things one day.  Lord help us!

4th Grade Mafia

Birthday Girl!

Well year 8 was not easy..... it felt like she's 8 going on 18 all year long.... but luckily we had several moments where she behaved like an 8 year old which made me happy.  No need to grow up too fast in my opinion.... the world isn't going anywhere that you can't go when it's time!  Sigh.... We love her to pieces and can't believe she's grown so fast right before our eyes!