Donuts at Church

I usually pick him a white frosted donut, but they were out today. If you have to ask why, look closer at this sweet boy. He had chocolate everywhere and he now eats donuts like his sister. Eat all the frosting off the top and then decide if you want to eat the bottom half. Most of the time the answer is no, but sometimes they eat a little of the bottom or pawn it off to Mason. Mason is opposite, he would take most everything plain before condiments and frosting. Mason and Rob eat the middle pieces of cake while Ellery, Bryson, and I eat the frosted edges. Thank goodness we have 4 corners on a cake and I only have to share two of those corners! 

Jump and Sit

Bryson is fearless and loves to jump on the trampoline with the big kids. Who am I kidding, this kid loves to do anything a bigger kid does. He is his newest trick on the trampoline! He can jump and sit!

New High Score in Bowling

Improvement, that is all one can ask! We have another prized bowling trophy!

Lost the FIRST tooth

Mason went to school today with his tooth still in his mouth. He came home without the tooth in his mouth! I guess he was playing with it at free choice centers and played with it so much it fell out!
He wanted to write the tooth fairy a note before he went to bed, and the tooth fairy wrote him a note back and signed it in red glitter. She also left a little glitter on the window seal, Ellery didn't like another person coming into the house at night. We had to reassure her that the tooth fairy wouldn't use her window or come into her room! Mason was very excited and was hoping the tooth fairy would bring him $10 so he could buy something ikspisiv aka expensive! His tooth fairy only brought him $1, but it never hurts to ask!

Dear Mason,

Thank you for the nice note. I really enjoyed it! I hope you save your money so you can buy something expensive. I will keep your tooth safe in a jar.

Love,
The Tooth Fairy

Bryson-20 Months

This little man is growing up. Our new favorite things to do is closing doors and light switches.  He is getting tall enough to stand on tippy toes to switch things on and off, or he will stand on whatever structure is available.

Work Party

I have been working part-time for N2 Publishing. I am the ad manager, basically I can put project management on my resume which isn't a bad thing. I work very part-time a few tradition hours, but a lot of non-traditional hours. I think it is a sweet gig!  We had a fun get together at the lake with everyone one afternoon and this kids were thrilled to go out on the pontoon boat!

The Tooth Fairy Pillow

Since we have such a wiggly tooth I decided I better get busy on making a tooth fairly pillow. I found a monster picture online and showed it to Mason along with a pillow with an M on it. I wanted to make the pretty M pillow in matching colors of his room, but Mason fell in love with the monster! It has a lot of endearments, and it doest look like the one I showed him online, but I had fun making it one afternoon!

Letters To Great Grandma Gray

Mason and Sam wrote hilarious letters to Grandma Gray thanking her for the candy and now I can't find it? Rats! If I find them I will update!

Left vs Right

Ellery is taking twirling lessons and we were practicing and she informed that Mrs. Sue doesn't know her left from her right. I was confused at first and then I figured it out. The girls face her and the teacher faces them. So when the teacher says left she actually goes to her right and vice versa. It is because she goes the same way of the girls so they follow.  All I know it is cautions a bit of confusion for Ellery on her left and right. She is our thinker!

Mason 3rd Quarter Report

Per Mrs. Farley: Mason had a great 3rd quarter! His strengths include: letter recognition, sound knowledge, number recognition, counting sight word knowledge, rhyming and sequencing pictures and events. He is very capable of writing his name, numbers, and letters neatly and ""the school way" if he slows down and focuses on the task. I believe Mason could be doing much better in the area of math-but in most cases he's not listening to the direct tins, he's not paying attention to the details of the task and hurries to get done first. I will continue to remind Mason that we only want his BEST work. I hope Mason has enjoyed reading all kinds of book sot his family. He is rockin' and rollin' with his reading.

We have a wiggly one

We have a wiggly one, a really really wiggly one!
We have our first lose tooth! Mason can't stop playing with it. I can tolerate a lot of things, but wiggly teeth--not so much!

From Cheerleader to Volleyball

We have now progressed from Cheerleader to Volleyball player. Ellery loves wearing her outfit now minus the skirt!

Pretty Pretty Princess

Ellery got the Pretty Pretty Princess game for her birthday and it is a F-U-N game. Bryson doesn't want to sit and play, but he wants me to put all the jewelry on him and he walks around like he is one tough boy in jewelry. The object of the game is to collect all your color jewelry (ring, two earrings, bracelet, necklace, bracelet) and have the crown in your possession! The Chaplin object of the game is to collect the crown. I am not sure if we have ever completed the game because everyone enjoys stealing the crown from whoever has it and loses focus on collecting their color of jewelry.

March Madness!!!!

Who doesn't love March Madness? I do enjoy watching college basketball and it is super exciting when your team does well. Not to mention watching MU get beat by Norfolk State Spartans in person. Plus who doesn't love watching the Spartans cheerleading squad and since they beat MU we will get to see them again. Nothing fancy but some great traditional cheerleading chants. Rob and I got tickets to the Omaha first round sessions. We went down early to enjoy the KU pre party, but we were enjoying ourselves in the party and we thought the MU game would be a blow out not an edge of the seat game. We decided to go in early and watch the end of the game so we could say we witnessed this event live! All I can say is we got our moneys worth. It was a fantastic night watching basketball. Our original seats were up high because we didn't want to pay that much for tickets. The first night we moved down to good seats, but the 2nd round game we traded tickets to get to sit on the 6th row. Trading tickets is a stretch, we poached them off the Norfolk State team. Oh, but watching KU play at eye level was spectacular. Thomas Robbins is fun to watch on TV, but he is eye candy on the court minus the tattoos.

The leprechaun left footprints....
Mason loves it when the leprechaun visits, Ellery not so much! She has been worried all week long about the leprechaun and was very concerned about him coming into her room! He didn't go into her room, but he did go into Mason's room and mess up the books and threw all the underwear out of the drawer.
Per Mason""He also took my underwear and threw it all around, but not the ones from my body!" with a sigh of relief on his face.
The leprechaun also left a few green footprints in the house that lead onto the deck, down the steps, on the patio, and into the garden. He dropped his box of gold in the garden and left his hat on the fence! He also messed up a few things around the house before he got paint all over himself making the treasure map. A difficult map that says "my gold is outside."
The kids were thrilled and excited and after the excitement wore off we had our yearly tradition of Green Milk. The tradition that Grandma Debbie did with Uncle Dan! Ellery was slow to warm up to trying it, but with a bit of persuasion ended up tasting it. She could tell by the looks of it that it didn't taste good despite that her brother kept telling her that it didn't taste any different!

GO KU

Better start saving our pennies now so she can go to KU.

I found sunglasses

Oh, Bryson has found sunglasses and not just any pair. Only pink will work for him!

Nana Visits

We had Christmas in March with Nana. The kids were excited to see her. She introduced them to squinkies. She gave them to Ellery, but Bryson thinks they are his. It is always a joy watching the kids with her.

The Rose Theater

We really enjoy the Omaha Children's Theater aka the Rose Theater. A fun activity for us to do as a family. We were proud of the kids to actually take a picture with the cast. Usually they won't get close enough or cry if we get to close, but they are growing up!!! They actually requested to stand in line to get autographs after the show!

Ellery 4 Year Check-up

Height: 39.1 (35%)

Weight: 32lb 2 oz (25%)

BP: 90/58
Ellery wasn't near as excited to go to the Dr. We opted for her to get all of her shots so when she comes back for her 5 year check-up/kindergarten physical she won't have to get any. She wasn't prepared and wasn't scared to show her feelings. She did however enjoy the stickers and bubbles she got for being so brave. She remains our tiny below average kid in height and weight, but her personality is big and mighty and makes up for it! If she doesn't start putting on the weight she is going to go to kindergarten in her 5 point harness. I am not sure she will gain 8 pounds in the next two years??

Bryson 18 month check up

Height: 33.25 inches (65%)

Weight: 24 lb 13 oz (29%)

Head Circumference: 19.09 inches (64%)
Everything checked out for Bryson. We are concerned about his lack of speaking or talking, but he has a lot of people who do the talking for him. We also reward him for his tapping and crying. We have no doubt he is absorbing it all in, he just doesn't have the desire to show us verbally. 

Hair Cuts for everyone

We got haircuts today! Bryson's hair is shaped up and makes him look like a little boy now and not a baby. Mason looks like he is going to enroll in the Army. Mason sat down in the chair and asked for a #1 all around. I was a bit surprised by his request, but decided to let him do it. I am just sad I had to pay for it. If I had clippers I could do it myself. We might need to invest in clippers in the near future! Mason doesn't know what to do when we stand next to him because we can't help ourselves from touching his hair and we are more or less petting him!

The New Way to Wear a Coat

Ellery has always been on the independent side so dressing has always made an interesting time for us. I let her pick her outfits during the week, but on Sunday I tell her I get final say on what she wears and it has to meet my approval. We still have some interesting discussions to get us into clothes, that don't quite meet my standards, but compromising is in my vocabulary even if others in our family don't think so-Rob.  Today she decided to wear her coat as she felt fit-upside down. I am not sure if she meant to do it or just liked her mistake?

Darts

I hear "don't worry, Mason I am coming to help you." Ellery was coming to help shoot down the darts next to my new light fixture that Mason stuck to the wall. I actually think they shot a dart into the light fixture, but their lips are sealed! I don't think dart guns will ever go out of style in this house!

Dr. Seuss

Toady is Dr. Seuss Day! The kids got excited this morning and decorated the hearth will all the Dr. Seuss books and then got dressed for the big day. Mason wore his shirt to school, his class didn't do much to celebrate, but Ellery had crazy dress day. We put her hair in pig tails and braided in a pipe cleaner so we could bend her hair in place. Next time I will put a pipe cleaner in each strand so I have three rather than one to bend. It worked out well, but three would have been even more fun and bendy! She enjoyed wearing different socks and shoes for the day. Grandma Ellen made an appearance at her school and read her class a book. 

I was inspired by a craft she made in MDO the week prior. It was a cute hand picture made into Thing 1 and Thing 2. I decided to try to do it on t-shirts, but bought red color shirts and I should have bought white. The project was already in progress so I adapted to make it work on red. They could be better, but still make me smile and I enjoyed making them!

Globes and other school stuff

Today is Justin Bieber's birthday. Not something that I know, but learned while I was volunteering at Mason's school today. They have been making paper mache globes and today we painted them. (Mason is holding the globe he made in the picture) Since the only color we were painting them was blue, the kids were able to chit chat amongst themselves while they worked.  Lots of fun things were covered, but one little girl was super excited about the day and went on and on about Justin Bieber and that today was his birthday. I was watching Mason and he was oblivious about what was going on and not really interested. He finally stopped painting to ask "who is Justin Bieber?" His school friend looked at him like he had three heads. Priceless! I wanted to tell them that Justin Bieber is close to having the whole girl population eating out of his hand, but stuck with singing the song he's got the whole world in his hands thinking of a different man!