An Exciting Day at Preschool

The preschool had the Juggling Hoffmans come perform near the end of our day. Since all the kids in my class were with their parents I got to sit with Zach.
In case you don't know who The Juggling Hoffmans are they are a local couple that do different juggling acts like this:

They act silly and use audience participation to keep kids watching. Zach sure did a lot of giggling throughout the whole show. His friend Megan even got picked to help out with one of the acts.
They performed for exactly 30 minutes and then that was the end of our preschool day. The kids all seemed to like it and it was a nice break from a normal day at school.

Yet another snow day...

Megan and Kristin were both off last Friday (it was an optional conference day for parents). Then all the girls were off yesterday for President's Day. We haven't had a snow day for 2 weeks now, well, until today. I'm not sure why they didn't have at least a 2-hr delay instead. I guess the school district wants to see the kids go to school until the end of June!

I didn't take a single picture of the snow this time. I'm over it. (Of course I wasn't home since I had to go to work, we only had an hour delay.) Instead here's a picture that still has a little snow from the previous storm, this was taken last Friday.Since Megan was off from school last Friday she came into work with me. There was still a little bit of snow on the playground but we went out anyway since the kids haven't been out there in a really long time. They needed to run! Now after today we have to wait for the snow to melt off again. Fun.

Yet another activity...
As you know Lauren does karate. The woman that runs All Stars has been wanting Lauren to join for over a year now. To join All Stars you have to be invited, which Lauren was, but after attending the informational meeting last year we decided for Lauren not to join at that time. It was just a lot of time commitment at the karate studio and soccer season was starting in just a couple of weeks. They were very understanding and gave her an open invitation to join in at anytime. So...fast forward to now and... ...she's now an All Star. The karate studio is willing to let her do it when she can and they understand that she probably won't be able to do it much (if at all) during soccer season. So what does joining All Stars mean for Lauren? Not only does she have to attend her two instructional classes each week she also has to help teach one class every week plus attend the weekly meeting. The good thing about it is she's been doubling up. She's been assistant teaching a tot class and then right afterwards goes to her own class. So far it hasn't been that bad but then again it's only been a few weeks! Even though this gives me even more running around to do I keep reminding myself that she needed a new uniform anyway. :)

Valentine's Day

I always try to give the kids a little something. Lauren and I were at Toys R Us a few weeks ago getting a gag type gift for one of her friends when we got mesmerized by the Sing-a-ma-jigs. So we picked out 4 that we liked and I put them away for Valentine's Day.

I think Lauren loved them the best.
I added a $1 box of candy to it with a few Hershey miniatures, put everything in a 50 cent heart basket and voila!

They can either sing or chatter by themselves but when you put them together they harmonize. Too cute!

Indoor Soccer

Lauren's high school soccer team played indoor soccer this winter. There were actually two teams, the freshman and sophomore's on one and the juniors and seniors on another. Both teams played in the same division but in different brackets of that division. So during the whole season they never played each other, that is until the semifinals. Lauren's team ended in first place for their bracket and the other team ended the season in second place for their bracket. So that made made the two play each other in the semifinals.

What a good game that was too! The younger team (Lauren's) kicked butt and ended up winning and going on to the finals. The finals were this past Tuesday and yes, they won that too! Woohoo! Everyone got shirts that said Champions on it (Lauren's in the back row all the way to the left):
They keep games moving at that soccer club and Lauren was all embarrassed with me because they couldn't start the next game because I was taking this picture. Oh boohoo. Isn't that what my job is? To embarrass her?

Playing Catch Up

Snow and Ice (and lots of it)
During the month of January we had at least one snow storm per week. The poor kids missed so much school that they'll probably end up going until the end of June! No, it wasn't that bad but it was pretty bad. One of the last storms we had was actually part ice storm. The roads quickly got salted and were good to drive on but our driveway was another issue. Zach had fun ice skating one morning before we went to school...Yeah, he's not really ice skating is he? That's because I told him to stand still while I took his picture. I didn't want him falling and breaking anything!

Spirit Week
In preschool they had spirit week and each day was a theme. One of the days was sport jersey day so here's Zach and I wearing our Flyers and Eagles gear.

We also hat day, stuffed animal day, school colors day and even mismatch day. Zach was absent for mismatch day due to a stomach bug. That one would have been fun to do with him.

Zach's hair
I posted a few weeks ago about Zach cutting his hair. Well it had grown out some and didn't look quite so bad and then he cut it again, in the same spot. So...off we go to get his hair cut and about the only thing they could do was to buzz it, like this...He definitely has to wear a hat now when he goes outside!

Happy 11th Birthday Megan!

I can't believe that my little girl is 11, before I know it she'll be a teenager like her sisters. We started off her day by going over to Lowe's for one of their Build and Grow workshops. This project was building a heart shaped music box but the place was already full when we got there and there were no more hammers left. We waited about 5 minutes but then decided to just take them home to build. They still haven't built them, maybe that's a project for tomorrow.

We then went over to Perkins for a birthday breakfast. We mentioned to our waitress that it was Megan's birthday and she brought her a chocolate chip muffin with a candle in it and a bunch of waiters/waitresses sang happy birthday to her.After Perkins her and I did a quick trip to the mall. She has been wanting new long sleeved shirts so she found 3 that she liked plus another pair of skinny jeans. I also got her some earrings, flip flop slippers and a few accessories from Justice.

We didn't go out to dinner at a restaurant for Megan's birthday because our church was having a Valentines dinner that the youth were doing. Lauren and Kristin (and they even included Megan since it was her birthday) helped serve and of course Paul and I just had to go for dinner. This year they even had childcare so Zach came with us too. This is the second year that Paul and I have gone and they really do a nice job with it. The lights are off and candles are at every table. There are valentine decorations around, hershey kisses on the table and they even have printed menus. They always have two entrees to choose from and this year I got the seafood newburg served over toast points and Paul got the beef tenderloin. Both came with green beans, a baked potato and a roll and everything was delicious! Congrats to the chef on that dinner! Oh yeah, the youth did a great job with waiting on us too.

So then we brought Megan and Zach back home with us (Lauren and Kristin stayed for a youth lock-in) and it was finally present time. I had gotten her a new bikini, towel, flip flops and sunglasses that matched so now she's ready for summer.

She also got 2 new sweatshirts, new pajamas, "M" earrings, a water bottle with a strap and some new nail polish.

We call Megan "peep" so Paul had gotten her some Peeps, you know, the candy kind. Then when Megan and I were shopping in Justice at the mall I saw a stuffed Peep and just had to get it for her. Here's our peep with her peeps.

Finally...the end of the day and we got to enjoy cake. Megan picked out a cheesecake so we put the candles in that and she blew them out and made a wish.

Hope you had a great birthday Megan!