Tuesday, May 24, 2016

End of Soccer Season

Things ended well for team Dynamite and Mini-kickers!  I'm very pleased to say that Ben ended his season on a positive note.  The last several weeks he was very involved, engaged, and listened to the coaches.  We even got an email from one of the coaches noting his improvement.  So happy that he seemed to enjoy it and I hope that we don't have to start back at square one in the fall session.







































Avery's team had an end-of-season picnic.




Avery received the Most Improved Player award.  As the only new player on the team and the only one to never have played before, she learned a lot this season.  Her coach had some wonderful things to say about her.  Now we only need to get a little bit more aggressive.  



Silver Dollar City

We got season passes when we went during spring break, so it makes for an inexpensive weekend getaway.



















Since it was within a week of Avery's birthday she received a birthday button and quite a few birthday treats.





































One of her treats was a free ice cream cone.  We bought Ben one because if you have kids you know that wasn't going to work for him and of course the smallest cone they sell is twice the size of the free cone they give away-haha.





































Ben LOVED spraying the people going by on the water ride.  I think he could have stayed there all day.

We also got soaked on the ride.







































Waiting to get soaked on another water ride.



















Day 2 was much cooler.  Ben got a little grouchy in the afternoon.




























































































Feeling a little better after relaxing at the condo.





































Enjoying their last Kinder eggs.


















Completely exhausted on the way home!

Thursday, May 12, 2016

7







































She is:

happy

sweet

kind

thoughtful

stubborn

shy

creative

generous

persistent

silly

smart

messy

sentimental

A look back at her 6th year:

She learned to ride a bike without training wheels (although she's still unsure of it).

She took gymnastics.

She learned to play soccer and played on a team for the first time.

She went to Mexico (for the second time) and loved everything about it.

She (as of next week) completed first grade and had a very sweet teacher.  Mrs. Miles has very high standards for her kids but I think Avery excelled under those conditions.  Among other things she is learning double digit addition, currency, how to tell time, and of course reading and spelling.

She remained close with her friends from kindergarten and made a few new friends in her class.  Her closest friends are Stella, Evie, Julia, Ashelyn, and Stella (and probably a couple more I'm forgetting).

She lost two teeth.

She still adores her brother and does most anything to make him happy.  They seldom argue or fight but when they do she usually gives in to him.

She loves all animals, insects, reptiles, birds, etc.  She really wants a bird (vetoed!) and a dog (someday...).

She loves stuffed animals, Shopkins, YouTube, mermaids, makeup, fairies, arts/crafts, drawing, poop jokes/noises, and fashion design.

She loves swimming.

Her taste in food is...diverse.  She tried raw oysters for the first time and liked them.  She continues to love shrimp, crab, and any kind of fish (as long as it isn't fried) (and she will eat sardines though her dad questions whether she really likes them or not).  But bananas?  Those are gross.  She loves mac and cheese and pizza.  She loves ice cream and any kind of candy.  She loves mushrooms, green olives (recently discovered), yogurt, hot tea, most any fruit, hard boiled eggs, bread, pickles, Nutella, coconut water, ribs, steak, spaghetti o's.  Did I mention ice cream and candy or anything sweet?  Dislikes include milk, casseroles, any pepper, and zucchini.

Her favorite places to eat are Subway, Andolini's, and Chick fil A.

She is such a happy kid.  She is perfectly content to play in her room or outside but is always up for an adventure.  I can count on one hand the number of times she's ever told me she's bored.  She can find anything to amuse herself from drawing to Legos to reading.  The only downside to this is that she leaves a path of destruction in her wake.  Her messes drive me crazy.  You can't see the surface of her desk and I develop a twitch every time I walk into her room.  She has sentimental attachments to every scrap of paper and every piece of dried Play-Doh in there.   I've learned not to hand her something and ask for her to throw it away because that always results in "hey, I could use this for something..."

We love you, baby girl.  Hope year 7 is the best yet.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Mother's Day and Avery's Birthday 2016

We had a pretty laid back day.  Avery got some very nice gifts that she had been wanting.





































The kids got to swim a bit.  I got a few hugs from my favorite little boy.







































We went by the little parking lot carnival and the kids rode a few rides.
























Back at home Avery opened up a few gifts from us (books and sketch pad) and some Shopkins from Ben.

I think Ben was over watching Avery open yet another present.  






































Happy birthday to our sweet girl and happy Mother's Day to all the awesome moms in our lives!

Monday, May 9, 2016

Avery's 7th Birthday Party

Saturday.  She was so excited all week.





































She had a soccer game earlier in the day, so first we had to get through that, then it was time for the party.
Birthday hat from school






































7!





































Indoor pool at the YMCA.  The setup was pretty simple.




















There were about 15 girls-friends from school and soccer teammates.


















And of course, family too.



























Dinner was her choice: pizza and garlic knots from Andolini's.





































The Y was a great choice for the party.  All the kids seemed to have a great time swimming.  Ben loved it.

Can't believe our baby girl is 7.   Another post to come about her actual birthday (and Mother's Day)!

Friday, May 6, 2016

April

Can I just recap the entire month in one post?  I think yes.

To start, we planted the garden.  Avery helped me plant and Ben was pretty much only interested in watering.  I am really a lazy gardener and don't mess with starting seeds inside or anything like that.  We put down some green onion, cucumber, and carrot seeds and planted some pepper and tomato plants.  The strawberries came back from last year and even spread.  We've already been getting strawberries off of them.


We took the kids to Natural Falls State Park for some hiking.  The big waterfall wasn't actually falling at that time but there were some very pretty hiking trails.  I was surprised by how much the kids actually liked and kept up with hiking.


We also had the kids' and Rob's first trip to the drive-in!  We saw the new Jungle Book.  The kids loved it and I could see us coming back more often this summer!  Avery and Stella begged to stay for the second movie, which didn't start until 10:30, and insisted they weren't tired.  We definitely didn't do that, and of course Avery passed out on the way home.



Avery had another couple soccer games, and a couple were canceled due to weather.  She is learning a lot about soccer and really seeming to enjoy it.  She continues to be most excited about the post-game snacks.



Coen's skating party was a hit.  It was Ben's first time to skate and he was determined.  He fell so many times but he told me "I don't need you, Mom."


Avery had Oklahoma Day at her school.  She learned that "things were really bad back then."  They learned how to make butter and even experimented with various forms of old-fashioned punishment including the dunce hat and putting you nose on the wall.


The kiddos also got to go to their first crawfish boil.   Avery, who loves all things that come from the water, liked them but didn't like that she saw them all in the cooler while they were still alive.  She didn't eat too many, I think because of that, but none of the other kids would even try them (they all enjoyed hot dogs).



Avery had a day out of school so Mom and I took the kids to Beaver's Bend State Park in Broken Bow.  It was beautiful.  We probably hiked 10 miles over the 2 days we were there and the kids did so well (Ben only had to be carried a couple times).  Avery's favorite part was crossing the streams, I think.  They got to roast hot dogs and marshmallows over the campfire.  The weather was incredible and the state park was so pretty.  I don't think we saw everything there is to do there by any means.  Definitely a place we would return to!


To finish out the month, we took the kids by the Touch-a-Truck event at the local library.  Of course Ben loved all the different vehicles and couldn't figure out where to look or go first.  Avery loved climbing through the cars and trucks, too.  Hats off to all the people that bring the vehicles out for the kids to see, including police, fire, storm trackers, city vehicles, and lots more.


I think that's the highlights of the past month!!  I'm going to try to get back to more frequent blogging so I don't have to do massive recaps!