Welcome Spring!

This lovely spring kite, made by Claire, was just one of the highlights of her school's open house. We visited her classroom and met teachers all while introducing Kyle to his school for next year!

Claire walked us through the book selection and check out process in the library. 

Weekends lately are filled with time outside, bike rides and trips to the park. On a recent outing, Kyle pretended to fish with sticks and both kids skipped rocks.

We also spend time at the play structures, of course. 

Frida explored the beach. She unintentionally jumped in the cold water as well. Classic Frida. 

We've really enjoyed spending time outside in the warm sun. Hope it sticks around. 

And this beauty lost her other front tooth. Corn on the cobb season will be challenging, I think;)

Spring Break Trip

We headed to Florida again this year for spring break. Our flight left at 9pm and got in close to 1am Eastern time. Both kids watched a movie and slept on the flight.

With all the stuff to carry, I needed Claire to walk and pull her suitcase when we landed. She was a trooper!

Lucian's sister and her family were there the first 2 days of our trip. Claire and Lydia really enjoyed some pool and beach cousin time.

We cooked some meals in and went out for dinner most nights. 

Kyle is obsessed with dinosaurs as of late. Most pictures of him consist of dinosaur poses and roaring.

Even when wrangling a crocodile.

The sunsets were beautiful.

And the sand was perfect for castles and creations. 

We tried to spend mornings at the beach and afternoons at the pool, since it wasn't sunny there until after lunch.

We had more special visitors too. Lucian's grandma and aunt were there most of the week.

And Nana Kathleen made a brief appearance as well. They even watched the kids one night while Lucian and I went out to dinner alone!

We made another friend that lent us some capes. Love this shot of Kyle admiring his shadow.

It's been hard to return to Wisconsin spring. Snow in April just isn't right if you ask me. 

End of Winter Update

I volunteered for Claire's 100th day of school. I helped with activities in her classroom as all the K5 kids made the rounds to complete fun activities offered in each room. She seemed so happy to have me there and I enjoyed seeing her interact with friends and her teacher.

Recently at work (an edit company I work from frequently), I was treated to an Uber puppy! Uber WI paired up with the Humane Society and sent out adoptable puppies to snuggle with for 15 minutes. Emilio was super cute and adopted shortly after.

Speaking of puppies, Frida is growing and settling in with the family. She likes to nap with Kyle, or anyone for that matter, and is extremely tolerant of the kids. The other day I caught Claire rolling up Frida's ear like a taco then trying to put it in her mouth. The dog didn't even flinch. 

Kyle got a pretty significant hair cut. He looks adorable, as always.

And Claire had a music performance at school. It was called the Creepy Crawly Concert. The K5 classes performed three songs all together while some older kids acted out a story. She did great and was very excited to get dolled up for the occasion.

All About Kyle

Kyle turned 4 in December and asked for a "chocolate birthday." On his actual birthday we had a spread of the most chocolaty delicious bakery we could find. He enjoyed sampling a few things but didn't seem to enjoy our singing;)

He did better at his family party, but passed on eating cake that day.

Kyle is outgoing, bold and has a great imagination and enthusiasm. He is in Pre-K this year and will attend K4 next fall at the same school as Claire.

He draws a "masterpiece" each day at school that is often red and most likely contains some sort of fire, volcano or sand storm.

Kyle just finished his first swim class and will be in the next session too. He loves cars and dinosaurs and all kinds of adventures. He just mastered pooping on the toilet, which his parents love.

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated Lucian's birthday with his siblings last weekend. This cool cat made a sash from his gift bow before we headed out for some karaoke. I was too chicken to give it a try, but it was entertaining, none the less.

Lucian's brother and cousin share close birthdays, so each got a candle and birthday wish.

Then off to Saturday swim class for Kyle. He seems to be enjoying the session.

And an interesting shot I took of Claire in the hallway at swimming. Love this beautiful girl.

Museum Day

I haven't posted in in a while. I keep meaning to sit down and do a recap of Christmas and Kyle's 4th birthday and the last two months... but it's not happening. So I'm jumping to present day.

Lucian was off with the kids on Monday. They took a great trip to our Public Museum. Here's the photos I got via text.

Bugs (ewww)

Butterflies

Halloween

The kids' requests were pretty straight forward this year. Kyle wanted to be a red super hero and Claire a snow leopard. A google image search landed us on Baymax from Big Hero 6 for Kyle. He was quite happy to wear the costume around the house and even got to wear it to school last week.

Surprisingly, there was a girl's snow leopard costume easily available that made Claire happy too. She chose not to wear the white fur boot covers, but they would likely have been wet and muddy when we returned. 

Since Halloween fell on a weekend, our neighborhood trick or treat took place on the actual day. Unfortunately it was cold and raining the entire time:( The kids were happy to make it around our circle and head back in. The houses were happy to see us and rewarded the kids with extra candy.

We had to make a quick stop at the grocery store after. Kyle was happy to keep his costume on while Claire thought everyone would be looking at her and took it off in the car. She also didn't want her brother to see her off to the bus the day he was dressed up for school. It's interesting to watch her self-awareness and self consciousness develop. Makes me a little sad. The new car carts at the grocery store, however, made both of these kids happy as can be.