Honoring Daddy

Earlier this week, Mike (Daddy) and some of his squad mates received a prestigious award from the Department of Justice for all of the hard work they have put in for a particular case.  It was a special ceremony, filled with pomp and circumstance.  Unfortunately, many things (nap time, school bus time, avoiding a fancy ceremony) kept Mom and the rug rats from attending his award ceremony, so we took him out for dinner tonight to celebrate.  (On his dime, of course...)  Great job, Daddy!  Almost makes all of those trips and late nights worth it!  Almost....  You deserve this more than any one we know!

The Littlest Nut(cracker)

Taming the Dragon?

We attribute this 100% to her learning to walk, but Nevie has definitely come out of her shell over the past month.  It's not like she was previously a wilting flower by any means, but she has just become so much more animated and fun.  Can she still dissolve into a fit of histrionics at the drop of a hat?  Yes.  But, she also loves to laugh, dance, and play joyfully.  She has become so good with her speech that she basically parrots her siblings endlessly, both to their amusement and chagrin.  She is starting to listen to reason (!) and calm down when we need her to.  She will always be our LOUD, EMOTIONAL little Dragon, but she's a fun one to be around these days.

Balls, Whistles, and Bribery

'Tis the season to start the winter Parks and Recs classes...  This time around, we signed Michael up for an Introduction to Team Sports class.  He gets to learn minor skills from a new sport (soccer, basketball, tee ball, etc.) every couple of weeks.  We figured that if one sport couldn't hold his attention for very long (we're looking at you, Introductory Soccer, from last spring!), he might have fun just trying a bunch of different things.  Traci had low expectations going in to the class, so she wasn't surprised that he opted to sit through all of the stretching exercises.  But, as soon as she bribed him with a package of licorice in return for his complete participation, he became a star pupil!!  He hurdled and kicked and scoooooooored!  The only negative for him?  He wasn't a fan of the coach's whistle, as evidenced by his doing the drills with his hands over his ears.  

While this was taking place, Traci couldn't help but notice a frustrated, beleaguered mom in the stands who was seething over the fact that her son refused to participate and just wanted to screw around on the periphery.  Oh, we've been there and done that....but Traci thought it might not be best to tell her to relax and resort to candy bribery....

As for Nevie, she wanted to participate in everything!  She was actually walking around kicking her own soccer ball for most of the class.  (Which is a good thing, because kicking is something we are working on in her PT.)  Maybe she'll be our super-secret sports star???

Maybe we should have named her Eve?

Pretty cool, but our Nevie is starting to learn her alphabet!  She does amazingly well mimicking the sounds.  As you'll see from the quick video this evening, she always stumbles a little on the "N," but really, how important will that letter be down the road for her anyway?

And, in case you were wondering, she did make it all the way through to "Z" (after some drama from getting her hand stuck in the dishwasher...just a regular Sunday night).

Snow Day!

Wow, it's been a wacky weather year already!!  With a projected winter storm blowing in, both the kids and Mike had the day off from work/school!!!  The snow didn't really start to fall until lunch time, so the kids had to wait a few hours before they could go outside to play.  But, after much pleading, Mike finally took them out for some sledding, snow angel-ing, and shoveling.  (The snow was too powdery for Michael's beloved snowmen.)  They actually lasted outside for awhile as Neve napped, so Mom got to spend about an hour on the couch with a book!  (WOW!)  School's already been called off for tomorrow, but Mike has to go into work.  So, here we go with another day to fill with winter activities!!

Party Pics

Like we said in yesterday's post, we really failed to get a very good picture of Katie at her own party.  But, we did capture some shots nonetheless.  Here goes:

As we mentioned, Katie's theme was FISH to go along with her swimming party.  Here's her cute cake, with all of her favorite colors!

Unlike last year's challenging TREE theme, we had an easier time coming up with things that were "fish"-y.  Here was our "appetizers" for everybody.  (Too bad, as reported to me later, all Michael ate the entire evening was the Swedish fish.  Nice dinner.)

While Traci was dashing around greeting guests and getting the room prepared (thanks, Parks and Recs, for not letting us into our room a minute before the party started...), Mike was stuck in the water manning all of the kids.  God bless him and the other dads that braved a swimming pool in mid-January!

One of the big hits for the kids was the giant floating alligator provided by the Rec Center.  The kids had a blast climbing on and conquering the beast!!

Hey look!!  If you squint really hard, you can make out Katie, just about ready to jump in with some pals!!!

Back at the party room (actually just a racquetball court!), we all celebrated with pizza and cake.  We didn't bring much extra in terms of fun and games in the room itself.  The kids took it upon themselves to take out all the exercise equipment left in the room to make their own games.  Here you see some of the girls "ice skating" on some exercise blocks.

And, of course, here is Michael marveling over his exercise block tower at the side of the room.  Only Michael....

Swimming with the Fishies

We had Katie's 7th birthday party this past weekend at the local parks and rec swimming pool.  It was a very fun (if a bit trying for the frazzled parents) night!  As his her tradition, Katie went a little off-kilter with her theme.  No, she couldn't just pick Hello Kitty or Barbie or something you would find at the party stores.  This year, she went with the theme of FISH.  Ok, so that wasn't so hard, but we still had to get a little creative.  Since we didn't get any good pictures of the birthday girl at her party, we'll just post this video tonight.  We'll post some more pics of the party tomorrow.  PS - Turn down the volume if you don't want to listen to some atrocious singing....

Magna-ificent!!

Michael's favorite gift from the holidays by far has been his new Magna-Tiles.  If you aren't familiar with this product, it is essentially a bunch of geometric plastic shapes which have tiny magnets at their corners.  They fit together with ease and make really cool stuff.  (Think skyscrapers!  Rocket ships!  Scarecrows!)  From the moment that he wakes up, Michael spills out the Magna-Tiles, Legos, and whatever else he can build with to begin his creations.  He really only stops to get dressed, go to the bathroom, eat (sometimes), go to school, and sleep (sometimes).  His goal today?  Build his version of Washington DC, which included the White House, Washington Monument, Smithsonian, the...um...DC Water Tower?? (see the Legos), and some tall skyscraper which would certainly violate DC's height standards.  The only downfall to this?  Our living room is in a constant state of shambles throughout the day.  Just ask Neve, who is just learning to walk through all of it.

Look Who's Walking...

At long last....all of her hard work is rewarded.  2014 is going to be a great year!!!!

Happy 7th Birthday, KRM!!!

Daddy Daughter Dinner 2014

As always, on the eve of Katie's birthday, Mike took her out for the dinner of her choice.  This year's location?  Red Robin!  With as much as our kids love that restaurant, it is hard to imagine that none of them had picked it for this tradition until now.  Anyway, it was yet again a great opportunity for Mike to catch up on all things Katie.

She is apparently "going to miss being 6 yrs old," "is really smart and a good speller at school," "tries to help her friends when they get hurt and are crying," but is not happy that, now that she is 7, her Dad is going to make it a point to get her to try new things and have new experiences this year.

Oh, and the excited (i.e., embarrassed) face when the Red Robin staff came out to sing "Happy Birthday" to her was priceless.

'Twas a Jolly Good Time!

Not a whole lot of time to write posts this week, but we wanted to throw up some pictures from our recent Christmas trip.   A fantastic time was had by all!!!

Our presents for Santa!!  Take a close look at Katie's note and read the last line.  "And can I have a bell from your sleigh?"  Nice last minute request, kid.  Luckily, she has a super-nice Daddy that ran to the dollar store to pick up three of "Santa's bells."  The look on their faces in the morning were priceless.

Somebody's ready for Santa to come!!!

Reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" at bedtime.  The kids were nearly crawling out of their skin with excitement by this point.

Now that's a @#$%-load of loot!!!!

One of Katie's favorite gifts:  her new Razor scooter.  (Sigh...this will certainly delay her wanting to take the training wheels off of the bike, won't it?)

Crazy Girl stacking her new soft blocks.

Michael and his new sleeping buddy, Scarecrow!!

And then Grammy Claus arrived, bearing a multitude of gifts.  (And, our small condo silently weeped....)

Hanging out with some cousins.

Our usually shy Nevie, bonding with cousin Kira (aka, Katie's 9-year-old idol).