Last Day of First Grade!

We can't believe we now have a second grader!  Time flies.  The class I teach next year as seniors were second graders when I started here.  That means Buddy will be in high school before we know it! EEK!

Buddy's First Turkey

Buddy shot his very first turkey this year!  We got him a small shotgun, so Daddy could take him during youth season.  He didn't like shooting it at first because it kicks pretty hard.  He got used to it though after some practice in the yard.  Daddy helped him call one in, and he shot it perfectly (right in the head).  It was a 24 pound Tom turkey.  Since then, he has also shot a smaller Jake turkey.  We aren't sure who was more excited, Buddy or his Daddy!

Easter 2015

Although we didn't get any organized group shots of the kids at Easter, I did get a few action shots during the egg hunt!  A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa who brought over 60 eggs for the kids to hunt for!  Half of them had cash!

Sissy was cute as can be with her shades on running around looking for eggs!

Little bro didn't look for many eggs because he was too busy opening them and shoving candy in his mouth!

Can you see the frustration on Buddy's face?  I think he is saying something like, "Where are the eggs Grandpa told us were over here!!??"

Drew was the big $$ winner.  He found the most eggs with cash!

Alli is running in the background trying to find her $$ eggs!.  I think Grandma is walking around  wondering where all those $$ eggs are that she hid!

St Lucia

Mom and dad took a much needed adults only trip to St. Lucia.  We went with some good friends of ours.  It is such a beautiful place as you can see in the pictures!

The view of our resort from Fort Rodney.

We got to try some tropical fruits with the locals.

We went zip lining in the rainforest.

Here we are at the volcanic, sulfur, mud bath.  Our skin is still soft nearly a week later!

Swimming Lessons

Now that the twins are 3, they can take swimming lessons without parents being in the pool!  They seem to really enjoy their teacher, Eric.

They have been to the pool a lot, so they have pretty much mastered the skills (head under water, blowing bubbles, kicks, etc) in the class already.  But, it is good for them to have some structured classes, since Buddy gets to do so many activities (basketball, soccer, baseball, etc).

They were having trouble listening last week, so we had to talk about how to behave.  Let's hope this week is better.  They cried when I told them they wouldn't be going to swimming lessons anymore, if they couldn't listen!  They just feed off of each other when misbehaving.  It was funny to watch Eric try to keep them in line.  One would start wandering away in the pool and while he was telling them to get back on the wall, the other one would start misbehaving.  This is exactly why they will NOT be in the same class in school!

Jayhawk Valentine's

For Valentine's day this year, we headed to watch the lady Jayhawks play basketball.  We have been to a few games already this year, and they are tons of fun for kids.  They have a play area set up before the game where kids can make posters and shoot hoops.

Sissy loves to pose with the cheerleaders and dancers!

A pic with Baby Jay!

After halftime, the Jayhawks came out in their Valentine's outfits!  Their shirts had light up hearts on them!

Bowling Party

We decided on a bowling party for Buddy this year.

He had to have a Minecraft cake!

Little bro bowled for about half of a game before he got bored!  There were not enough buttons to push, apparently.  Although, he did find the reset button a few times.

Sissy enjoyed bowling.

Here is the group of party people.  I was worried they might get rowdy and bored, but they all were great!

Seven

Happy 7th Birthday Buddy!  You are a strong-willed, stubborn, smart and goofy ball of energy.  It is hard to keep up with you most days, but we love you very much!  You are definitely a first-born child with all of your perfectionistic tendencies.

100th Day of 1st Grade

The first graders dressed like 100 year old people for the 100th day of school!  It was a cute idea, and there were several good costumes.  Buddy looked great with this mask on!

Here is Buddy with his good friend Ava.  They make a cute old couple!

Snow Fun!

While Dad and Buddy were hunting, Mommy took the twins out to play in the snow.  This is the first time they have had much time outside to play in the snow EVER.  It has always been such a pain to get them all geared up and out the door.  Now that they are older, it is easier!  They had fun, but only played for 20 minutes or so because the wind was howling!

Here, they are having a snowball fight!

Here, they are riding on the sled!

A special pic

I saw a picture like this (with the quote) a few years ago and immediately wanted one similar for the twins.  So, this past summer I took some pictures of them walking through our yard holding hands.  A few weeks ago, I finally got around to putting it together with the words.  I think it turned out cute.  Daddy thinks the quote makes it seem like they were mistreated or something.  Lol.  I just think it symbolizes the special bond that they (and other twins) have.  I have a couple of prints that I will frame and give to them when they are older.

Basketball Star

Buddy played in a basketball league in a nearby town in November.  He loved it!  I'm not sure he loves it more than baseball, but he still had lots of fun.  One of the area high school boys was his coach, so Buddy thought that was pretty cool.  He is now starting another league with boys from his class.  We had our first practice last night, and it seems like it will be a great team with lots of parents willing to help out.

Here is a little video of his mad skills.  Lol.  Disregard the fact that he took 10 steps without dribbling.

Twins Turn 3!

The twins turned 3 in November!

Their birthday present from us was a SURPRISE trip to Great Wolf Lodge!  None of the kids had been there before, so it was so fun!  We had the sickies earlier in the week, so we thought we might have to postpone our trip.  Buddy actually did get sick in the hotel room overnight, but he felt fine right afterwards.  Story time in the evening was great, and they all loved the water park.  I was surprised that even the little ones could go on most of the slides, as long as a parent was with them.

We went with a Mickey and Minnie theme this year.  Our daycare provider made us these awesome cakes.  Man, she really is talented with everything she does, right?!

We had the grandparents and great grandparents over for cake and ice cream.  Little bro really wanted green candles (for some reason), so he was excited to blow them out!

Halloween 2014

So, let's backtrack a bit here...  Halloween came and went so quickly.  I think all of the hype with the Royals was a distraction from the fact that it was October and almost Halloween.

We carved one of our pumpkins in support of the Royals.  Although they didn't win the World Series, it was great that they were actually in it this year!  If someone would have told me the Royals were going to be in the World Series back in June, I would have told them they were N-U-T-S, nuts!

Daddy went on his usual pheasant hunting trip, and this was the first year I felt like I could manage to take the kids somewhere by myself.  Grandma is always a big help when Daddy is gone, but we decided to try Gary's Berries on our own.  It was fun, and we had never been before.  The pig races were so much fun to watch, and Buddy even got to be a squeal leader for one race.  He had to chase and yell at his pig to try to get him to win!

Our daycare provider has holiday parties every year because she is AWESOME!  We went to the Halloween party, and she had lots of fun activities like pumpkin painting, a bounce house, and a barrel train ride.  At the end of the evening, we took a hayride.  I love the photo bombers in this picture.  Later this week, we will go to the daycare Christmas party!  We are lucky to have such a great daycare for the kids.

Since Halloween was on a Friday, we ventured to Uncle Matt and Aunt Coco's new house for trick or treating.  Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, and Peter Pan came home with tons of candy!  Uncle Matt dressed up as a scary clown and had fun tormenting teenagers all night!  We will forgive him for giving kids nightmares.  After all, it was his 40th birthday...

Almost Christmas

It's almost Christmas!  I have not been blogging as much as I would like to!  We have been busy just doing normal stuff.  It is hard for me to keep up with work, 3 kids, laundry, etc, so the blog has been waaay last on the list.  I will see if I can get better at this!

Daddy's work had it's annual Christmas party at the movie theater last weekend.  The kids got to see Santa, get balloon animals, get sparkle tattoos, and see the new Penguins of Madagascar movie.  The twins were a little antsy during the movie, but we managed!

Disney!

We had a great time at Disney World!  We visited all 4 main parks.

Sissy loved seeing Cinderella and eating dinner with the princesses!

Our awesome hotel with several Cars characters!

We had breakfast with Mickey and his gang!

The safari at Animal Kingdom was really neat!

 

We had dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant at Epcot one evening.

The Lion King area of our hotel!  Our rooms were Lion King themed!

The Little Mermaid area of our hotel!

 

One of our better group shots at Animal Kingdom.  Check out the giant tree in the background!

Everyone loved seeing the castle!  We can't wait to go back soon!

The newest...

Miller graduate!  Can't believe we are already done with Kindergarten!

Here he is with some buddies and his teacher!

March-May

Wow, is it really May?  Is school really out next Friday?  Time is flying by.  Here are some recent happenings:

•  Trip to Deanna Rose.

• Playing outside.  Little bro never gets off of his John Deere!

• We took Buddy skiing in Colorado, and he LOVED it! 

•  Turkey hunting!

• We had Easter at our house again this year.  The weather was nice and the kids had a great time as usual.  I think my camera got switched to a weird mode before I took this pic!

• We dyed Easter eggs.

• We went to the annual PTO carnival.

 

• My tulips bloomed.  Even Buddy enjoyed going out every morning to check which ones opened up! 

• Sissy is finally potty trained, except for at night time!  We plan to work on Little Bro this summer. 
• Prepping for Disney World!  We got our Magic Bands!!

• We lost our Granny in April.  We were sad, but she is happy and in a better place.

• Baseball practice started, and we have our first game this Friday!  Yay!

I will probably overload this blog with Disney photos next!  Woohoo!