Overdue

We had a very nice, but long overdue visit with our friends from MN the past few days. Ryan, Leah and Lauren flew in this week. We got to spend time with them on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We took care of Lauren Thursday night and had fun spoiling her at our house. I gave her some rides on the gator, which she loved. We had popsicles, swam in the pool and laughed a lot. On Saturday night, we went to a cookout in their honor and had fun playing bags, eating and being silly. It was very hard to see them go, Mom was very, very upset last night. Mom and I are hoping to make a solo flight later this summer to spend some time with them at their cabin. Schedules are busy, so we really hope something works out. Lauren is such a cutie and fit right in with our family -- you never would have known it was our first visit with her. Even Zach bonded with her and gave her hugs.

Poor Zach had a rough weekend. He happened to be standing in the wrong spot last night when the wind blew a door shut. His face caught the brunt of it, leaving a black and blue line down his entire left cheek. Then today, he got stung by a bee. He is very afraid of flies, bees and insects in general, so this experience did not help things. Fortunately, he is not allergic and seems to be ok tonight.

We went for a nice hike this morning and then to a park to play. I've been telling Mom a lot lately that I'm "outgrowing things" -- like the sprinkler park, playground and baby pool. Mom is perplexed and sad at the same time. She knows I am not intentionally being unappreciative, but it is frustrating for her and Dad when they try hard to do fun stuff for us and we don't have a good time. Hopefully, it is just a phase, or we're going to have to figure out what's really going on here. Maybe we need to take some things away to make them be special and fun rather than taken for granted.

I've got a break this week in between tennis lessons and swim lessons. We have a few things to catch up on, but it should be a relaxing week before the Holiday.

Hope you are doing fabulously well!
K.

Caution: High Altitude May Cause Nosebleeds

Tonight is the first night in my new loft bed. Mom and Dad didn't think it was so high when they put it together, but when the mattress came and rose an inch or so over the frame, they got a little nervous. Turns out they make these nifty bunk mattresses now that have the box spring kind of built into the mattress. Mom's pretty proud of herself for finding this on craigslist and lucking out that it was only a mile away AND they delivered it for us. The new bedding came today, although you really can't see the investment being it is up so high. The curtains will cover my "hideout" area once Mom's "sister" hems them up. Look out. Poor Zach REALLY loves my bed, so we let him get up on it tonight for a bit. Guaranteed now that we did that, he will be up there in no time flat on a daily basis. We really have to watch out and make sure the ceiling fan is off before I get in...don't need anyone losing any appendages.

I'm sure I sound like Captain Obvious when I say it was darn HOT today. 96 down here and no breeze. Tennis lessons were uncomfortable even at 9 in the morning. We found a cheap slip n' slide today at Aldis. My friend, Nicolo, came over for a few hours to play in the pool and slide with me. We had SO much fun. Mom kind of likes it when boys come over to play (for now), there isn't very much drama and it's very easy going. You can take the wildest, rough and tumble boy -- but put him one-on-one with a girl and he turns into a softie. Until he sprays you in the face with the hose, and then the moment is lost :)

Our pals Ryan and Leah are coming from Fargo for a visit later this week. We've never met their 1 yr old daughter, so we're really excited for that and hoping to get some quality time with them. I'm sure Mom will have me on cleaning duty tomorrow.

Hope you are keeping cool fools!

Katherine

Vacation after the Vacation

What a weekend! We almost need a couple postings to cover the happenings. Mom, Z & I headed up to WI on Thursday afternoon. We went to the Cave of the Mounds with Nana on Friday. It was a fun time. The cave was cool and wet. Our tour was very nice and the cave was extra drippy because of all of the rain -- cave kisses are what they are called. I enjoyed seeing all the sights and Zach was actually pretty good considering all the trouble that a 2 year old really could get into in a small cave in an hour. We kept Zach busy by pretending we were Dora and Diego on a dinosaur hunt in the cave. I scored big-time at the gift shop thanks to Nana. I got some cool rocks, a turtle necklace, some gemstones I sifted from sand and a crystal filled stone. We spent lots of time visiting with Gramps and Betty as well. On Saturday, Papa took us to the pool. It was perfectly hot and sunny and he even took us both in the big pool. Later that night, we met up with some extended family and went out to eat then off to watch the balloons launch. We got there just in time to see the balloons go up -- the only successful launch of the weekend! They flew right over our heads! Mom decided to hop right in the car and head back to IL so we could spend all day today with Dad. Us kids stayed awake the entire ride home until 11 pm! I kept busy by taking loads of goofy pics of Zach in the back seat, singing songs and looking for shooting stars.

I had a lot of work to help Dad with! My new bed was delivered on Saturday, so Dad and I spent this morning setting it up just right and Mom cleaned up around us. We bought a new mattress that will be here Tuesday -- hopefully my new bedding will be in soon as well and I can post some pics of my cool new loft bed and "hideout" area. After mattress shopping, we went to Old Chicago for dinner and back to the house to play outside for a bit in the humid weather. It's going to be a WARM one this week, but we'll surely find a way to keep cool. I've got another playdate on Tuesday, tennis lessons and our friends Ryan, Leah and Lauren are coming for a visit at the end of the week.

A very tiring, but super-fun weekend! Especially since Mom forgot the pack n play and had to sleep with Zach for 2 nights -- but he was ok other than kicking her a lot. Mom asked me my favorite part of the weekend....my first answer was the pool, quickly followed up by being happy to have seen so much of my family...and then the cave. In no particular order of course!

Have a faboo week!

K.

Got a Wiggler!

My lower incisor is about ready to fall off! I'm convinced it will be any day now, but Mom seems certain we have a few weeks to go. We still have to get to that gross part where it is just hanging by a thread. I have a few other loose teeth as well, but this one will definitely be the first. Just to be prepared, we ordered this sweet little tooth fairy pillow last week from Etsy.com. The lady was so nice to custom embroider a girly dino just for me. If I keep up at this rate with the loose teeth, maybe I'll be singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" come December.

Tennis got rained out. Boo! But we finally made a long overdue (ha ha) trip to the library. I signed up for the summer reading program. I get a "prize" for every 5 books read and if I hit 30 by July 23rd, I get to go to a party at the library. Shouldn't be a problem there the way we go through books at this house. Today, I picked out some Magic Tree House books, books on amphibians, dinosaurs, natural wonders of North America, early reading books and a Thomas book for Zach.

Ciao for now!
K.

Maybe they weren't so lame after all...

Someday, hopefully I'll look back and think that my parents weren't such super-nerds after all. Ok, maybe they were, but they tried. Mom and Dad went to see the greatest rock band ever this past weekend. Zach and I stayed at Grandma D's. We picked 3 gallons of strawberries from her garden. We partied like rockstars too...ate lots of ice cream, stayed up late and ran Grandma ragged. If food at Grandma's turns your mouth blue, you know you are having a good time.

I had a friend from class over for a play date today. I've got more tennis lessons this week if the weather holds up. Speaking of weather, hopefully it cooperates so we can see some balloon action in WI this coming weekend.

That's about all I got from here. Oh, and my new Venus Flytrap that I am super proud of. We feed it dead flies, he likes it a lot. Or she...not sure if it is gender specific, but I am quite sure that it has emotions. I am very convinced it smiles each time we feed it!

Later Taters!

Tennis Anyone?

I had my first lesson today. It went really well! We're just learning the fundamentals...how to hold the racket properly, controlling the ball and taking turns. We used big, yellow foam balls to start off with. I did a really good job "punching" the ball over the net. Mom wants to get one of those small, portable nets now to keep at home. We tried to play in the garage today, but the balls kept rolling down the hill! I love my new racket, it is 19 inches and just my size.

Now if only Mom and Dad could find the time to get out once and awhile and play for themselves!

Summer break is going well. We were going to hit the zoo today, but it was chilly and the line was really long. Instead we went to the store and worked on some writing at home. Mom is having me keep up on my journal that I started at school.

Our weekend was nice as well. Mom took me to the outdoor theater to see Night at the Museum 2. It was cute, but not nearly as good as the first. Since Sunday was rainy, Dad took me to see Up at the movie theater. What a lucky duck I am! Poor Zach had to miss out on both -- they fell during his nap time or bed time. He still had fun though. Lots of outside time on Saturday and he's always extra happy when Dad is home for the weekends. Zach is struggling a bit with having to share Mom's attention now. He is used to getting all of the focus in the mornings. He isn't too keen on having me home, but we do get along really well and I'm sure he'll be back to his old self in no time.

Have a grand ol' week.

K.

That's a Wrap

We had our last day of school today. By day, I mean 45 minutes. Kind of silly for the buses to run the kids to school and turn around and run them back home. But it was a technicality and no sweat off our backs. We picked up our "report cards". My progress report was about the same, pretty good all around. We got the results of our latest reading readiness assessments and 1st grade readiness scores. Sure, those are not the official names, but something along those lines. I scored 95% out of 122 questions for the 1st grade test. My reading/phonics skills were about where they were last winter, but still above average. All the worry of last year was finally put to rest. In the end, they went with their gut to send me to school and I flourished like a little flower. So far so good. Now in 10 years when all the "fun" stuff starts, it may be another story. The bus driver told Mom that I was crying on the bus ride home b/c I was sad to be done with school. This, in turn made mom cry and next thing you know, you've got two kids running up the street to the house with a sobbing mother drudging behind them, completely unaware of cars, dogs or whatever. The neighbors probably thought she was crying because she was sad that school was done for other reasons. To the contrary! Mom is super-psyched to have me home. Zach's 3.5 hour naps are nice, but things get a little quiet around the house and she gets lonely. We've got lots planned for the summer and some nice lazy afternoons together are in order.

The picture above was a quick shot...Zach was running the other way, down the road and Mom was just trying to capture those last few steps off of the bus.

What a great year it has been! Oh and since I stayed on the "green light" all semester for good behavior, I get to pick out a toy. It will be something dinosaur related, I can promise you that.

Katherine