Alphabet party!

Nola's Pre-K class had an end of the year party.  It was an Alphabet party!  They'd been learning the alphabet all year and putting together a book, so this was the grand finale!  It started with an invite that Nola wrote herself.

So cute!

She was so excited to invite me to the party.  She talked about it for weeks and kept telling me things they were going to do and then telling me she wasn't suppose to tell me :)  Maybe she needs to work on keeping secrets?  Actually, I'm fine if she never figures that out. 

I walked into her classroom on the afternoon of her party and one of her classmates told me that she lost a tooth.  I about cried right there.  I was not expecting her loose tooth to fall out so quickly!  She was so excited to tell me all about it. 

It turns out that her classmate, Ethan, lost a tooth that morning.  If I had to guess, I would say that Nola saw how much attention Ethan got for loosing his and decided her tooth was coming out ASAP.  She told me that she started pushing on it really hard with her tongue while they were practicing the song for the party and it popped right out! 

It was even the same tooth! 

Look how cute they are! 

Nola's class did a little play/song thing, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  Then they sang a few more songs and we played alphabet bingo.  Somehow we were the last two to win?!?  We were hungry after all of the fun so they served us soft pretzels that each kid made for their parent.  Nola made herself an "N" and me an "M".  She was so excited to show it to me.

Her teacher, Mrs Kluever, passed out the alphabet books they worked on all year at the end.  I loved how excited Nola was to show it to me. 

Nola had a great year in Pre-K at St. Bonaventure.  They were so welcoming from the very beginning and loved Nola so much.  She grew so much during the school year and learn a lot.  She also faced some unexpected lessons, like dealing with friendships and homework.  She made so many friends especially with the teachers :)  Every adult at the school told me one time or another that Nola was sweet.  She never left before giving everyone a hug! 

Next stop, Kindergarten! 

Easter

Hello blog world!  It's been awhile.  I've been busy, my sister and I actually started a little business.  More on that later... this post is about Easter!  

We went to Wichita the weekend before Easter to celebrate with my family.  It was a quick trip, but the kids had a good time!  They had an Easter eggs hunt and my mom and I got to go shopping :)

Robert stayed home to work, so it was just me and the kids.  I tried to get a nice picture, but it was pretty much impossible.

Nola struck this pose and asked me to take a picture.

We didn't have school on Good Friday, so we took the kids to Lincoln.  Robert and I had tickets to the Daniel Tosh show that night.  It was a great show and so nice to have a date night!

Saturday we went to the birthday party of a friends daughter.  They did a huge Easter egg hunt and the kids left with a ton of candy. 

We celebrated with Robert's family that night then headed home.  The Easter bunny stopped by the house and the kids had, yet another, Easter egg hunt!  

Our family Easter photo.  It's getting harder to hold that little boy still! 

Turk is super into peek-a-boo.  He was playing with the curtain at the hotel and with a crayon at dinner.  So cute! 

Nola's first dance recital!

We signed Nola up for dance this year.  She goes every Wednesday and I love that it gives me 50 minutes alone in the house :)  She goes back and forth about it.  Some days she can't wait to go, other days she throws a fit when I'm trying to get her changed into her hand-me-down leotards.  The whole thing is expensive so I was so thankful that some co-workers kept their daughters shoes and dance outfits.  There's also her costume, the dance t-shirts, and tights!  It's crazy, but I'm sure all activities are going to get more expensive as she grows up!

The theme of their recital was "Sea Us Dance" so her costume, naturally, was a sailor.  We went to the dress rehearsal the night before and she was pretty nervous.  She didn't really dance, just looked around on stage.  I was nervous that she would do the same thing at the recital but she did great!  It was funny because she was a nervous wreck about it all day.  Part of me thought she wouldn't go on stage but she did!

We invited family to come watch.  My mom came up and Robert's Dad and sister.  I waited to get ticket because I wasn't sure who wanted to come and ended up getting the very last row, there were a few rows behind us but nobody sat in them.  Next time I'll know to order them faster! 

Gramcy got her flowers.  She loved them.

After the recital we went to DQ to celebrate!  

Turk missed out on the recital and stayed at a friends house.  The whole dance experience has been good overall.  I think she really liked performing and I'm not surprised.  I've got her signed up for T-ball this summer and I'm selfishly hoping she likes that better, but I guess we'll see! 

Nola's dance photos :)

Christmas in Wichita

Oops- I thought I posted this!  Well..... here ya go.... two months later....

Two days after Christmas we packed up the car and drove down to Kansas to celebrate with family. We are so lucky that the kids are good in the car.  They're use to driving, both drive at least an hour a day for daycare (Turk drives 2!) so I think that's why they don't mind it.  We got down there around lunch time and then the girls hit the nail salon.  The next day we packed up a couple of cars and drove to Kansas City to see family.

We got to see my Grandparents, Aunt and cousins.  Plus my cousin's new baby boy :)  Turk was a little jealous when I was holding him.  At one point he crawled up my lap and kept scooting over until I had no more room for Miles.  Kids are funny! 

My Grandparents got the kids a few gifts including some money for Nola to spend at Target- she once told my Grandpa that Target was her favorite store! We didn't stay long but it was the first time we were all together in a while.  

 

It was a fun but very long day!  

 And this was Turk the next morning.  So cute! 

We had to wait to celebrate Christmas until John got into town, so Sara and I threw a LuLaRoe party!  We got to meet a few people and share our love of clothes.  Win win!  

We all spent a lot of time together, which was great.  We always have a good time laughing, playing games and....

My brother is the best bartender :)

After John got to town we were able to celebrate Christmas!  Nola was ecstatic, she even wrapped up a couple of her toys to give to people.  She's so thoughtful. 

Jessica and John took Nola to see Moana in-between their 5ks.

They ran one on midnight on New Year's Eve.  Robert and I kept them company at a bar near by unill they had to leave, then Kyle and Hannah joined us.  Not a crazy way to ring in 2017, but it was fun!!

We continued our terrible selfie taking skills the next day at another 5k.  Appropriately called The Hangover 5k.  We ran one together on our family Reycation over the summer so we thought we'd do it again. 

It was pretty much the same crew, I was technically John for the race.

We took a few pictures on the way to document my run.  I think I'm funny.  Really I just need an excuse to lay down every once and awhile. 

I got stopped when I crossed the finish line because they could tell I wasn't John!  The others bailed and left me all alone to possibly go to 5k jail!  But it turned out ok, they just wanted to get my real name so the times could be accurate.  In the end it was better for John, he didn't need a 45 minute 5k on his record....

It was such a fun time, like always!  The kids love it and I love spending time with my family!  We're all just pretty tired after a few fun filled days!!