A Weekend in KC...

Over spring break, we headed to Kansas City for a long weekend...

The boys were super excited and enjoyed a ride on our cart up the elevator.

We walked around on the Plaza the first afternoon and evening.  It was 82 degrees..perfect!!! We ate lunch at our favorite dive, "Fred P. Otts.' jack enjoyed some ROOT beer.

Sam watched the first day of March Madness.

 

Since it was so nice, the boys wore shorts to show off their pale scaly legs!! Jack was SO happy!! Just love his super big toothy grin!

That night Jason and I ordered calamari (because we love it) but mostly just to gross out the boys!!

Yea, whatever, Sam!!

Sam practiced tying a tie. Jason had showed him how the week before...he's still practicing.

Jack told Sam, "Just wear one of these. You don't even need to tie it!  I look like James Bond after he goes on a mission!"

When we get back to the hotel, Jack prefers to make a "nest" on the floor beside Sam, instead of sleeping with Sam.

According to Jack, Sam takes  up the entire bed.  Doesn't look like he does!!!

The next day was back to reality with the weather. We walked to the Starbucks on the Plaza and had hot chocolates.

"Make mine a grande," Sam said, then in a lower voice, "but still at kids temp. please"

An Easter Hunt...

When the boys woke up on Easter Sunday, there were two eggs on their bedroom floor. (Make note that Sam and Jack sleep in the same room in bunk beds.) When they opened the eggs, they found this message...

Off to hunt...Jack was to look for baseball and monkey eggs, while Sam was to find basketball and football eggs.

 

Jack thought this was a pretty clever place to hide an egg!!

Moose just followed and watched the boys...I think she thought, "Wow, this is a lot of action early in the morning!"

We had the table set for Easter dinner...Sam check out all the cups.  Yep, our company drank out of those same cups that had Sam's fingers in them...yum.

Moose decided to stay in one spot and just watch...

Time to open the eggs...

 

Inside there were coupons for "special" days with family!

There were also puzzle pieces.  Both boys had to put the pieces together to figure out where the Easter bunny had hid their Easter surprise!  If you look closely, the "clue" is spelled in sticker letters.."Under your bed."

Sam found a creator Lego set...under his bed!!!

Jack put this puzzle together.  His clue was "in a locker."

He headed out to the lockers in our garage and the Easter bunny had delivered him a Batman vs. Bane Lego set.

Another successful Easter egg hunt!  Then we all went back to bed...not really, just Jason and Moose!

Way to go, Sam!!

Total parent brag post!!!

For a class at school, Sam had to write a one page essay to an author of his choice, telling that author how one of their books changed his life.  Sam wrote to J.K. Rowlings about Harry Potter...Harry Potter?  How could that change your life?  Well, read Sam's essay below to find out!

The real exciting news is all the "letters" written to authors, where entered into a national contest, Letters About Literacy. We just found out that Sam's letter was actually one of the three honorable mentions, in Iowa, at his level (Level 1)!  He was super excited and we were so proud of him!!

This explains the process:

There were 47,000 entries from across the country. The national Letters About Literature office read all these entries and returned the top letters to each state. A panel of Iowa judges for each of the three levels met to discuss the finalist entries and select Iowa’s first, second and third place winners and three honorable mentions in each level.

 

Earning finalist is outstanding given the number of students nationally and from Iowa.



Here is Sam's letter to J.K.Rowlings:

Dear J.K. Rowling,

                I was never really fond of reading long books with many chapters and rarely finished a book I had started to read. The books I choose were usually easy books with maybe 100 pages or less. But that all changed in third grade. My mom suggested a book for me to read, your first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. After I read the first chapter there was no stopping me!

                When I started to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone I decided to set a goal, which I had never attempted before.  I knew the last Harry Potter movie was coming out the following summer so I set a big goal for myself:  To read the whole series of Harry Potter before the last movie came out. This was an enormous goal due to the fact this it was over 5,000 pages of reading! In order not to be overwhelmed with reading 5,000 pages, I decided to set  smaller goals for myself or I might stop reading the books. My first mini-goal, as I call them, was once I finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone I would get to watch the first movie. That mini-goal kept me reading until I finished the entire book! Not only did I read an ENTIRE book, but I had reached a goal that I had set and boy did that feel awesome!

                Two main themes in I picked up your books, especially in the first Harry Potter book, was meeting new people, making new friends and being accepted for who you are.  I’ve had this struggle many times in my life for I have been to four different elementary schools in six years. This year in fifth grade I worried so much about who I was going to hang out with or even have a friend because I left my best friend back at my old school. I now realize that attending many different elementary schools I have actually gotten to meet many new people and make many new friends. I am slowly becoming more confident when meeting new people and making new friends, which is a life skill that will help me throughout my life.

                In fifth grade, at my fourth new school, I met one of my best friends, Luke. For the first week of school, I knew people, but didn’t have a good friend to hang out with.  I knew Luke from football, so I decided to ask him if we could sit beside each other for lunch. He said, “Sure!” Ever since then, Luke and I have hung out every day at school, during recess, at lunch and during class. I have gotten to know him even better when I was asked to be on a basketball team called the Sonix.  My parents showed me the team roster I was pumped! My best friend Luke was on the same team! I also was excited to see that I knew other people on the team because of all the schools I’ve attended. In turn, I’ve set many goals for myself in basketball, just like I did for reading. I’m very happy to say that I’ve accomplished a lot of my goals so far!

                 I enjoy setting goals for myself, after being inspired by completing your books,  and I don’t think that it’s possible to stop setting goals to improve my life. All of these goals I’ve set, and a lot of my accomplishments so far  started with reading a book in third grade. For that, thank you J.K. Rowling for inspiring me to begin setting goals for myself, following them through and being the new kids isn’t so bad.

Sam Belding

 

Kool-eggs...

I took on the challenge of dyeing Easter eggs this year. Usually the boys will do eggs with a grandparent, but not this year (no guilt!) so it was up to me.  I remember seeing something on pintrest on how to dye eggs without using vinegar so I headed to google...unfortunately, I spent the first 15 minutes googling jell-o instead of Kool-aid. Total blond moment!!  I found a lot new ways to make jell-o shots, but not how to use it for dye...suddenly it dawned on me...Kool-Aid!!

And then we were off to dye eggs...water in the bowls.

We added kool-aid...

Stirred, Sllllooooowwwwlllyyyy. I thought, "Great, Jack is already bored!"

While searching google, I saw you could put rubber bands around the eggs to create cool stripes and patterns! NOT!!  YOU CANNOT get a rubber band to stay around an egg!! The boys sure did try though!!

Jack was so proud once he was able to get ONE rubber band to stay!

The green egg has the rubber band removed and it does leave a line...not bad.
Do you like my egg holders?  I found some toilet paper rolls and cut them apart.  Where did I find them? Rather not share.

 

The grape kool-aid was a fail!

It makes the egg look brown.  If you leave it in the kool aid longer, it doesn't become darker, but the kool-aid becomes bubbly and wipes right off. I found that out!

Jack dyed most of his eggs green, orange and red.

 

Here is the final product...Jack's Easter eggs.  Notice the rubber band lines on the eggs.

Jack with his eggs...and who is that in the corner??

Moose of course!  She is never far behind!!!

These are Sam's eggs. 

 

And a pose with Moose!!

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

Oh...one last egg.  This is Steve.  Steve was smashed, but we still had to dye him!  Sam added a little permanent marker and we had "Steve." Steve went on a few adventures...but that is for another day!

Brave Boys and a Good Joke...

"KATIE!" yelled Jason from the living room.  When I got out there, he was looking out the window at our patio table. "Are those real?"

He was referring to these two robins on our table. My first response was, "OH MY WORD!  It was so cold, they froze to the table last night!"  He looked at me and said, "I don't know if they are real...look at their eyes." which, were very shiny.

So, let's send out the two bravest people in our household. Check out how Sam is holding onto Jack!!!

After close inspection, they were official deemed fake birds.

Yep, our old neighbor has been at it again...while we were out of town, he wired two birds to our patio table. We have GOT to think of some good practical jokes to "get even" with that man!!!