Go Cats!

We're so excited it's time for college football! We practiced singing the fight song after dinner so Karsten could remember the words he had learned last year.  Let's hope K-State has a good season!

Mom of boys

When I was digging around in my purse for keys, this is what I ended up with. I started to gather up my bags and walk out to my car before I realized that this matchbox car would NOT help me start my car. :)

Little Liam

Liam is losing that baby look and behavior and starts acting more like a toddler all the time.  Those of you who are parents know this brings both positives and negatives.  Speech therapy is going fantastic and he not only is saying more words but he's using sounds to mimic what we say.  It may not be exactly what we say, but he mimics our intonation and makes a sound the same syllable.

We wondered how we would do without Karsten being with him at Gail's everyday.  He seems to be doing great and having fun playing with his little friend Quinton.  I think he may actually start talking more at Gail's as well since Karsten and Quinton's older brother are not going to be there to speak for their little brothers.

So far, his words are: Daddy, Mommy (FINALLY!), hi, bye, thanks, up, a host of animal sounds (pig, horse, cow, elephant, dog, cat), sorry, help, baby, me, mine, eeeee for monkey, t sound for truck, a sound combination that we attribute to Karsten, and a few others that I'm forgetting.  

Karsten likes to ask Liam if he can say words, then he will say "MOM - DID YOU HEAR HIM, I TAUGHT HIM WORDS!"

This trick of walking down the stairs and not scooting on his bottom is also new.  It makes me nervous, but so far so good, he 'usually' holds onto the railing.

Wordless Wednesday - Get up and play with us Daddy!

The guys

Today, Karsten lined up most of his characters on the coffee table with Yoshi, Koopa and Bowser on the sofa.  When we asked why they got to sit on the sofa, he told us that they were taking pictures of the rest of the guys.

Of course, why didn't I think of that?

He's giving the photographers careful instructions.


They listen intently - I'm sure their photographs will be perfect.


I was lucky to be able to sit with the photographers and take a picture of Karsten with 'his guys'.

Belated Celebration

Tonight we had a belated birthday celebration for me.  The boys got to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa while we enjoyed adult conversation, a relaxing dinner and wonderful wine.

A friend of mine at work recommended this place a while back - we've been once before and loved it! Our second trip didn't disappoint.


While my cannelloni was fantastic, I'd been looking forward to dessert.  These are gelato balls - raspberry gelato dipped in dark chocolate and drizzled with raspberry sauce.  YUM!


We had a great evening - thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for watching the boys!

Budding Chef

Our dinner routine is that I plan the meals and Scott cooks dinner.  It works well for us, because he's a much better cook than I am, plus if dinner didn't get started until I got home, we would eat super late.  Thankfully he's also willing to try new recipes, so when I find a recipe online, he's willing to give it a try!

Since Karsten's school is close to our house, Scott picks him up on his way home from work. This means Karsten will have more opportunity to help Scott get dinner ready.

Tonight's menu was teriyaki pork burgers and Hail the Kale salad.  Karsten got to dump the seasoning into the pork, then help Scott mix it all up.  Note the blue gloves - Scott always wears them when he mixes the pork, so Karsten wanted to be just like Dad!
We don't have a picture of him mixing the Hail the Kale salad, but he did a great job helping Scott massage the kale which is apparently very important.   Before we tried this salad (thanks Kenna for the tip), we hadn't found a way to prepare kale that we all enjoyed.  Now, all of us love this salad.  Tasty and so good for us!

Day Two

Day one of school was a success.  Karsten told us about how he played on the boat on the playground, played trains and played on the playground.  Are you seeing a theme?  We asked him what he learned and he said 'nothing, I just played all day'.  Perfect, I hope learning is always that fun!  We asked him what his friends names were and he said 'I don't remember them yet'.

On the second day, we packed his breakfast, talked about how he would eat when we got to school and talked about what all he would do at school.  Before we left, he grabbed this schoolhouse picture his teacher sent home yesterday and said it was the map to get us back to school.  There was a maze on the back of the schoolhouse so we followed the path on the maze to get us to school.  Karsten told me where to turn and off we went!

Mario Character Repair

As Karsten's Mario collection expands, we've had some characters get wounded while they play with Karsten.  Unfortunately, once a character is broken, Karsten is done with it.  He was SO excited to get DeeDee Kong as one of his suprises at Brett's wedding, but when DeeDee Kong lost a hand, Karsten was done with him (we think it's a her, but Karsten insists that it is a boy).

We've discovered that epoxy gorilla glue can repair most of the guys temporarily.  Princess peach repeatedly looses and arm and is not played with until her arm is reattached.  Donkey Kong's tie broke which benched him until it could be glued and Billy the Bullet's bottom fell out which caused major drama.

First Day!

Our day began at 6am when Karsten came into our room and told us it was his first day of school! I hoped hoped hoped that meant that he was going to love it and not be scared.

While we were getting ready, Karsten lined up his Mario guys and I quickly sneaked a picture of them with his first day of school sign.


How grown up do my boys look?  Can we put bricks on their heads to keep them from growing up?


Scott took Liam to Gail's so we could focus on Karsten when we dropped him off and to ensure that Karsten wasn't jealous that Liam got to come with us and go to Gail's while he had to stay at school.

Last night we made blueberry muffins because we thought they would be fun to send in Karsten's breakfast this week.  I even put a cute little dinosaur head it in to make a cheery breakfast, but he was having none of that muffin.  He told me he likes strawberry muffins and english muffins.  Got it.  The dinosaur head ended up being a good fork for his peaches.

Normally, he will eat breakfast at his school, but we thought we would ease him into one new thing at a time.  Today, first day of new school, tomorrow he would eat breakfast at his new school.


By the time Scott got back home, Karsten had finished eating and it was almost time to head to school.  We got the obligatory pictures and he actually cooperated with some good smiles!  There 'may' have been a small Mario guy awarded as encouragement.  :)


We're so excited for all that this year will hold for Karsten.  It's a completely new adventure for him and I know he will do fantastic.


Dropping him off at a school with teachers that I barely know is so scary, but I guess I should get used to this since it is only the beginning.  I can't wait to hear all about his day, the fun he had and the friends he made.


I wanted to get a few pictures of him in front of his school.  Scott told him to look at me and he decided to ACT like me because I was squatting down to get a picture.  Cracked me up!


When we all finished laughing, he stood up and smiled for a picture.


Then he was off - ready to go to school!  I loved his enthusiasm.


We got into school and put away his bag while he spotted a train and made a beeline over to play.

Soon the teachers started rounding up the children and getting ready to head to the classrooms. Scott said we should go, so I gave Karsten a hug and kiss and we left. We checked on him as we walked out past the other door to the room and again when we walked past the window.  He was playing with the trains and having a great time.  I hoped he remembered that we had given him a hug and wouldn't cry for 'another hug/kiss' as he occasionally would when I would leave Gail's in the morning.  I admittedly was a bit teary, so I wanted to leave before he thought I was upset.

Scott and I agreed that I could call mid-morning to check on him, and promptly at the time we discussed I called the school to check on him.  The director answered the phone and said she had just seen Karsten having fun and playing with his class.  He was having a fun day and hadn't had any tears.  So proud of him! I felt like I could finally relax once I heard he was doing well!

Wordless Wednesday - First Day!

A debate

When Karsten was going to Gail's, he took several Mario characters with him each day.  Thankfully, Gail was wonderful at helping make sure all of the Mario characters made it home with him each evening.

Thinking that one of his Mario guys may help him feel more comfortable at school on his first day, we told him he could take one character, preferably one of the small ones that would fit in his pocket.

Here he was moderating a discussion between big Mario and little Mario (big Mario's son) while they discussed who would get to go to to school with Karsten.  Good news - big Mario was wise and said that little Mario should go with Karsten since he could get in Karsten's pocket during recess, lunch, etc.


Bad news - little Mario didn't stay in Karsten's pocket all day.  He's currently roaming around Karsten's school on his own and we're hoping he turns up eventually.

Meet the teacher

It's finally here - time for Karsten to start preschool!  We went to school to meet his teacher and drop off his supplies.  As soon as we got into his classroom, he made a beeline for the toys and started playing while we chatted with his teacher.  I asked my questions and she gave us information about their class schedule.  It was nice to know what his day would look like.


Before we left, I asked Mrs. H if she would take a picture with Karsten.  Thankfully, he smiled the first time!
 

The fun begins tomorrow - my fingers are crossed that it goes well and he likes it!

Fun Day with Mommy

I decided to take a day off so Karsten and I could spend a day together before he went to school. I was looking forward to having some special time alone with him!

We started the day with donuts before we headed into my office to get a daycare form notarized and pick up our Door to Door Organics box.


After we dropped our box off at home, we headed for miniature golf!  I can't even remember the last time I played miniature golf, but it is a lot of fun with a four year old.  We were the only person on the course, which made our golfing very relaxing and fun.


Karsten thought it was so cool that he got to hit the ball through the bears legs, into the skeleton's mouth, etc. After each hole, he raced over to see what was up next.


I got my ball stuck inside this guy, so Karsten was quite the gentleman and rescued it for me.


'ARE YOU KIDDING ME' was his reaction when he saw this hole.


Look at that form - a future golfer perhaps?


We didn't really follow any rules in our golfing- who needs to count how many times you hit the ball or follow rules about how to hold the club.  The ball made it into the hole sooner than later.


We stopped for a water break during our game - we watched some guys at the driving range and chatted.  He was glad he got a yellow ball, but he said 'but you don't like it because it has Spongebob on it'.  True enough, Karsten.  I'm not a fan of Spongebob.  :)


Since I didn't think that the guys at the driving range would appreciate my request to take a photo, here is our selfie.  What you can't see is that we're up against Frankenstein - I thought he would be a nice addition to our picture, but my arm wasn't long enough to get him in there.


We stopped for lunch at Red Robin before we headed to a movie!


It's time for Planes!  I'm not sure if I looked at the movie times wrong, or if Fork and Screen is typically offered around lunchtime, but we were in one of the Fork and Screen theaters.  Next time we'll have to have lunch at the theater.


After the movie we headed home for a bit to wait for Scott to get home so we could go to Meet the Teacher at Karsten's new school!

What a fun day.  When I asked Karsten about his favorite part, he said it was the mini golf.  He had trouble saying miniature - it ended up sounding like ministry, so we decided we should just call it mini golf.  I love that he seems so grown up one minute, then a big word like miniature is tough to pronounce the next. Shows that he's still a little guy.

Thanks Gail

While I know it's good for Karsten to go to preschool and get experience in a bigger group setting, I was not looking forward to him leaving Gail's.  He's been at Gail's since he was three months old - so almost four full years.  I loved knowing he was having fun, learning and was in a safe, loving environment.

But alas, apparently things HAVE to change, so it was time for Karsten to move along to a preschool. Karsten's little friends Cole and Jaiden left Gail's last week, so he was the last big kid left for a few days.

We've been talking a lot about how he is going to a new school and he wouldn't be going to Gail's each day.  Even though we've been talking about it, I wasn't sure he understood completely.

On his last day, we wanted to give Gail a little something as a Thank You and to remember him. Karsten thought the baby picture was of Liam.


I wanted to get a picture of Karsten with Gail and Steve; however, he had just woken up from his nap and wasn't too chipper.


Huge THANK YOU to Gail for taking such great care of him for the past four years!  We couldn't have asked for a better place for him to spend so much time!

I love weekends

I love weekends.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my job; however, I look forward to evenings and weekends when I can be with my boys!  Unfortunately, it seems that these weekends go far too quickly so I try to remind myself to enjoy all of our little moments together.

When we go on a walk, Karsten is afraid to go down this long hill on his scooter because he doesn't want to go too fast and wreck.  Scott walks right next to him, barely touching him and it gives him the confidence to ride down the hill.


We had dinner at my parents for a belated birthday celebration for me.  It was so beautiful outside we enjoyed drinks while the boys played with these huge bouncy balls that my mom got them.


It was funny to watch Karsten try to sit on the ball - he toppled off a few times and dissolved in a giggling heap on the patio.  His giggles are contagious and he had us all cracking up!


I walked into Karsten's room after folding some laundry and Liam was waiting in Karsten's chair with a book.  Once Karsten was ready for bed, he climbed up next to Liam and read his own version of 101 Dalmations to Liam.  Liam kept looking at the book he was 'reading', but if Karsten stopped reading to him, he looked over at him to see what the problem was.


So stinkin' cute.


Story time was over and it was time to say goodnight.  It's so cute to watch them give each other goodnight hugs and kisses!


Until another weekend...

Peach Pickin'

I've been watching the Facebook page of a local peach orchard for a while, looking forward to continuing the fun we've had picking fruit this year.  They had you-pick days in the middle of the week - not exactly workable for working parents.  Finally, they offered you-pick on a Saturday, and we were there!  We had no idea what to expect - this could have been a flop.

We've had peaches from this orchard before and they are great - very juicy.  The boys were excited to get started and find some peaches.  This was Karsten's smile - are you convinced?


The boys had fun running up and down the rows.  The pink tape behind Liam blocked off the area closed for you-pick.


Liam wanted to take a bite of every peach he found on the ground.  This was problematic because there were several bad peaches on the ground, so my job was to make sure Liam didn't eat any bad fruit.


Sampling peaches fresh of the tree is a fun part of you-pick.


They told us that the reddish hue of a peach came from its exposure to the sun - it's like a suntan.


Liam discovering a few peaches that are actually still on the tree and not on the ground.


Looks like we need to get him a K-State hat that fits him.


Go cats!  We're ready for football season!


Peach picking was a success.  Now we need to find some recipes to use up all these peaches.  Any recommendations?