Late Night Saturday Crafts

I never thought I'd be doing this on a Saturday night.

Kari

We're turning to the right now.

Some big changes and developments have happened recently for Kari. Last week Kari started the transition of moving to the 3 year old room. It's been bittersweet for us as parents and for Kari because we loved, loved, loved her teacher, Vicki, so much. But Kari has been bored for a while now and Vicki has been telling us she's been ready to move up, but we couldn't as there wasn't a space available for her until now. Vicki also confidently reassured us that some of Kari's behavioral issues would resolve when she moved up. While she's sad to temporarily leave Joe and Aru behind (they'll be following Kari up shortly as more space becomes available), she's equally excited to be back with Jad, Zo, Mati and Audrey again. It will be good to have her little cohort back together.

Kari and Vicki

So, with anxious eagerness, Kari moved to the other side of the building. The transition has gone well and we are very pleased with her new teacher, Ms. Kelli. Kelli has an El Ed degree and taught kindergarten previously. It's nice that she's aware of the skills needed for kindergarten readiness. They have a "curriculum" of sorts which changes every two weeks. Right now she's learning the letter "H", reading a book about doctors, and learning about being responsible. The responsibility concept, to me, seems pretty vague for a three year old to grasp, but her school focuses on six pillars of Character with a coordinating phrase ("I try my best and do my part.") -- responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship, trustworthiness, and respect- and they focus on the pillars for two months at a time.

Kari's also proudly doing her own buttons now, too.

Home Improvement Project, Part II

Dad and I finished laying flooring up in the garage attic. We created 80 sq. ft. of new storage space. It was a good father-daughter project.

Chicago

We just returned from a fabulous overnight trip to the Windy City. Part planned and part surprise, the jaunt turned out to be a fabulous time to spend together as a family and also served as an early anniversary celebration for Kevin and me.

We arrived to our hotel just in time for naps. As I was also resting my eyes, I was absolutely incredulous when I heard someone inconsiderately rapping on our door. I quickly threw open the door hoping it wouldn't wake the kids to find my parents on the other side with huge smiles on their faces. Kevin had arranged for my parents to come down and spend the afternoon and evening with the kids so we could go out for dinner. Since this was part of the surprise, I certainly hadn't packed for the occasion and the second part of the surprise included an impromptu shopping trip to pick out a dress and a pair of shoes. This was nothing short of a Pretty Woman experience! While we were out, Kari and Grand-PO went down to the pool and swam. More likely, she jumped in the water probably 100 times and completely wore herself out.

We shopped and we dined. This was truly an interesting experience. Kevin noted for being in the midst of a down economic time, there sure were plenty of people breaking out their plastic at Bloomingdale's. It was particularly fun finding a dress and all with plenty of helpful sales associates waiting on me like I was royalty.

We had an exquisite dinner at TRU. We had seen the chef featured on Top Chef Masters and although being novice foodies, had to check him out. It was a three-course tasting menu that gave us some seafood, prime ribeye and venison. Yes, Holly ordered venison and it was delicious. The dessert was phenomenal and actually included several small little treats after the main dessert course.

The restaurant staff paid particular attention to us throughout the evening. Much to my (continued) surprise when I opened the menu it said "Happy 10th Anniversary Holly and Kevin". This was awesome and they let us take the menus home with us as a keepsake. After many of the waiters wished us Happy Anniversary, we were treated to a special cupcake that was delivered on a long plate. Written on the plate in white chocolate, in cursive penmanship that would be difficult to replicate with even a pen and paper let alone food, was another Happy Anniversary Holly and Kevin. It was a wonderful and unforgettable evening.


Sunday was a bit chillier than expected, but we still ventured out and headed over to Millennium Park to see the Jelly Bean, to Buckingham Fountain and then walk along the Lakefront. We're not sure why (actually it helped burn the multitude of calories we ingested) we did all the walking, but the kids were wiped out by the time we returned back to our room, just in time to check out and head back home.

Crawling

It's official- the little guy is crawling now.

Fun in the Mountains

Well, our first trip in the sky with all four of us is complete and it couldn't have gone better. OK, well, maybe if Bryce hadn't entered the trip with an ear infection that might have helped. And, had Kari not started complaining of ear pain after the first leg to Minneapolis that might have helped (she ultimately was diagnosed with an ear infection, too, the first day we got to Colorado).

But we did arrive in Colorado Springs safely and without much fuss for a wonderfully long weekend with my sister and her family. Amy and Jason have two beautiful girls - Keira and Audra - with whom we want Kari and (now) Bryce to get to see as often as possible.

The weather held up quite well considering this seems to be an up and down time of year in the Springs. We were able to venture out to a park, hit the popular Zoo on Mother's Day and eat out a few times. All in all, the kids couldn't have been more well behaved.

It was particularly wonderful to see how Keira and Audra interacted with little "Bryce Babie". They loved touching, holding and tickling him. And considering Bryce took the beginning movements of his first true crawls at their house, they weren't the least bit jealous.







One of the highlights was going to a Japanese steak house - they type where they cook on your table. We rolled the dice thinking the kids would at least be entertained. Sure enough, when the chef lit the table on fire and then made a bunch of noise, it kept them occupied with smiles and wonder. Actually, the girls did incredible jobs eating, too (thanks to the kiddie chopsticks).The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo proved once again to be a wonderful stop. On this our second tour of the Zoo, the girls loved feeding the huge giraffes upon entering the complex. But then we went and saw all kinds of new things. Hippos, a moose, snakes, mountain lions... and much more. We also all, well except for daredevil Holly and little Bryce, ventured up the ski lift that takes you over several animal habitats to the top of the mountain and zoo. All of the girls did great and we loved the views from up top.

Part by accident, part on purpose, it ended up being a pseudo Purdue Day at the zoo. The girls all had matching pink Purdue shirts and the moms did too!

The kids got to do lots of puzzles, watch some videos, play games and much more. We're thrilled to have had the chance to spend a memorable Mother's Day with two great Moms and a bunch of incredible kids.

Possibilities

While out in Colorado, our good friend Ryan took it upon himself to complete a little home improvement project at our house.

Imagine our surprise when we came home and saw this:

I had been wanting a folding attic ladder in our garage for a while and Ryan had promised he would help with the install sometime this spring but we hadn't talked about it in a while, and quite honestly, I had forgotten about it. He labeled it a Mother's Day gift (even though it was for both of us, he knew I would especially appreciate it.) Ah, Ryan knows the way to the practical side of my heart!

I'm absolutely giddy with the storage possibilities that lie ahead. We really do have some of the best friends in the world around here and we are so fortunate.

Thanks, Gumpy.

Granola

I think I've officially perfected my granola recipe. Actually, I can't really call it mine; my cousin Heidi was kind enough to share her recipe with me. I've tweaked it a bit (mostly made it a bit sweeter) and now I can't make it enough. Kari and I both love to eat it with yogurt. I wish y'all had Emeril Lagasse's Smell-o-Vision right now. It's de-lish.

This week is Teacher Appreciation week at Kari's school. I made a double batch of the granola last week and decided it would make a nice gift for Kari's teachers. Using yogurt bottles from Traders Point Creamery turned out to be a great gift-giving vessel and it felt good to re-purpose the bottles rather than straight recycle them. I also found some free gift tag templates from a pretty cool blog I happened to stumble upon.




This afternoon was beautiful. After Bryce's less than stellar nap (again), we spent some time outside. It was so nice to just sit in the grass, feel the wind on our cheeks and watch the birds fly around.

Tomorrow is the Lafayette Farmers Market. We didn't have time to go to the season opener on Saturday, so Bryce and I will head down tomorrow and check out what's available in the early season. Likely a lot of asparagus and crafts.

By The Numbers

Yesterday Bryce turned 9 months.

5 teeth
Sleeps 10 hours a night
17 pounds 14 ounces, 10th percentile
27.5 inches, 25th percentile
Sucks the last 2 fingers on his right hand, or
(1) thumb on his left hand
Up on all 4's ready to crawl