Merry Christmas!

We expect a visit from the big man in red tonight, do you?  The kids are very excited.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This year we visited Santa at Caden's school

It's Monday

Can you relate?

It is hard to get up almost every morning but Monday's seem even harder!

Nap Mat for School

Avery Lynn needed a nap mat to take to preschool this year for rest time.  It needed to be small enough that she could carry it into school on her own and of course it needed to be cute so she'd like it.  After searching the internet for patterns I found one from this website,  http://sewlikemymom.com/nap-mat-tutorial/ that I liked the best.  Avery Lynn and I picked out some cute fabric and I went to town sewing it so it would be ready when her school started.  I made a removable cover for a KinderMat that you can find at back to school time at the store then added some straps to enclose everything together.  Then I made a pillowcase and blanket to go with it.  It was all fairly simple and turned out well.  There isn't much napping that has occurred on it since school started but I guess she is "resting" well on it.

Folded up and ready for school

Pretending to sleep

This picture shows the other side of the blanket

The under side of the nap mat

All closed up

Caden's 6th Birthday

Caden's 6th birthday fell on a Friday this year.  Since he was in school for the day Avery Lynn and I picked up McDonald's and met him at his school to eat lunch with him.  (FYI sometimes when kids eat lunch at crazy early times for school you have to take breakfast food for lunch because the fast food restaurants aren't serving lunch yet : )).  Anyhow he was surprised and enjoyed his sausage McGriddle and his hashbrown. For dinner we met Ricky at the Incredible Pizza Company to have dinner and play some games to celebrate.  It was our first time to experience The Incredible Pizza Company and I have to say it was a pretty fun place.  Although I think we may have gotten lucky because we've tried to go again since then and it was crazy busy...so busy we didn't stay, so I think we must have been very lucky that night when we went.  Caden got to do some games as well as do Miniature Golf, Mini Bowling (small lanes, bowling ball, and pins), and race Go-Karts.  He loved doing everything, especially him and Daddy getting 1st place in the Go-Karts!  We went home to have birthday cake and open presents before bedtime.  It was a good night!

Playing a basketball game

Miniature Golf

Avery Lynn loved bowling as much as Caden did

Caden had never bowled before and he walked up there and got a strike on his first try!  It was crazy!

Before they took off and left the rest of us behind ;)

He said he wanted M&Ms on his cake so we had a Blue Velvet Cake with M&Ms.

Caden's Birthday Party

This year Caden chose to have a Wild Kratts themed Birthday Party.  He loves everything animal related and loves watching Wild Kratts so that's what we went with.  We did a swimming party at MawMaw and Papa Dewrock's house in Cape,  Caden had a blast swimming with his cousins.  We played some games and the kids got to utilize their creature power discs.  I got a lot of inspiration and info for the Wild Kratts theme from a blog online found here for anyone who might be interested in doing the same theme.  What did people do before the internet???  Caden enjoyed the party and that is really all that matters.  The weather was good and we got to celebrate our boy turning 6!

The kids Goodie Bag Items

Cupcakes with Wild Kratt Toppers

The birthday boy in his cool birthday shirt!

Enjoying the pool

All the kids loved the slide!

The girls

Walking on ice blocks like a polar bear (for the polar bear creature power disc)

Safely carrying their platypus eggs (water balloons) to their nest.

Carefully placing the "eggs" in the nest for the Platypus creature power disc

Avery Lynn is Back to School

Avery Lynn had to wait a couple of weeks after Caden started before her school started up so she was more than ready to start when it was time.  She is loving the Mother's Day Out program she is attending.  The teachers are very loving and nice and I think she is going to learn a lot this year. She loves that she gets to take her lunch and take a nap at school this year.  Starting next week she will get to participate in Kindermusic and Tumbling once a week while she is at school.  She is SOOO excited about these.  Here are a couple of pictures from her first day.

Backpack on and ready to go

In her classroom ready to color

Back to School for Caden!

Caden is officially in Elementary School!  He started kindergarten this year and is loving it.  As I expected, he did great with the transition and has enjoyed meeting so many friends and becoming much more independent.  And Wow, I had no idea how much kids learn in Kindergarten these days. They are much more advanced beyond the stuff we learned back when I was in kindergarten.  The  days of the "letter people" to help you learn your ABCs are gone.  They are already doing sight words and reading.  Crazy!  Here are some pictures from the first day of school and a couple from later in the week as well.

Backpack on and ready to go

If you know Caden then you know he made this pose on his own

We got to school a few minutes before we needed to so we took a couple of  pictures in the car : )

And a silly face one

Another morning the first week

Walking into school

By one of many Pete the Cat bulletin boards in his hallway 

We Moved!

While most of you know this (since it happened back in June) we have moved from Columbia, MO and are enjoying our current residence in Tennessee.  I have tons of pictures and posts to come but I just thought I'd take a quick second to let you know we are still alive we've just been busy.

We absolutely loved our house (and our neighbors) in Columbia so it was hard to say good bye.  It was definitely the best first house to purchase ever!

We are enjoying the home we are renting now too.  It is giving us plenty of room to spread out and it is nice to have the guest room for overnight visitors.

The Butterfly House

 Butterflies, Butterflies, Butterflies!

I love the Butterfly house in St. Louis.  Ricky took me there on a date a long time ago (he could probably tell you the year but all I know is that it was before we were married) and it was so much fun.  If you haven't ever gone, I highly recommend it.  We took Caden there when he was 1 and he was in awe of all the butterflies flying all around him.  I'd wanted to take Avery Lynn for quite a while but it seemed to never worked out.  We decided to make a day trip over to St. Louis when Ricky had a day off so we could enjoy the butterflies while we were only an hour and a half away (aka before we move).  We all had a blast.  I didn't ever recall (because it wasn't something I would try to do as an adult and before when we went Caden wasn't old enough) but they have a rule that they tell you that you can't catch the butterflies.  It took some self control on Caden's part because boy did he want to try to catch them.... it's just his instinct.  But he is an animal lover too and he didn't want to hurt them (which is what they told him would happen if he touched their wings) so he enjoyed watching ever so closely and hoping that one would land on him (because that was OK).  Avery Lynn and I had a butterfly land on us (maybe it was the pink shirts) but they boys didn't.  They still had a good time too. : )  We saw lots and lots of butterflies!

Down on the ground scoping out the butterflies on the leaves.

You can see the butterfly that landed next to her (on the pictures right side)

Avery Lynn being a butterfly

Caden not being a butterfly : )

Avery Lynn holding the "dead" butterfly that Caden found on the ground

(These are the best smiles I get) Posing with a butterfly

Best picture of Caden from the day.  In a bubble with Cock Roaches surrounding him!  Nice, huh.