Valentine Cake Wars

One of our very favorite parts of February is Valentine Cake Wars!!! While we don't physically bake cakes, we definitely do a good job of pretending we do!! We use the next best thing- chocolate playdoh! This is probably the boys' most favorite thing about Valentine's Day!! We've collected some fun doo-dads over the years to accessorize our cakes! The boys like for me to give them a challenge and then I come back to judge their displays! They're so cute!! I love that they love festive holiday play still!!

Wyatt's 2nd Meet

Wyatt had his 2nd gymnastics meet just two weeks after his first. He walked into the gym like he was ready for action! This meet was a little different than the first. More relaxed and not as intimidating. Which I think led the boys to feel a little too comfortable. While they all did a great job, there was definitely quite a bit more goofing off between turns and it showed during their time on the events. But overall they all did awesome! Since this was a smaller meet, Wyatt was judged against the 5 and 6 year olds. So out of the 7 kids in his age division, he got 5th. He was a little bummed, but he was happy to be on the podium nonetheless! Their team earned 1st place All Around, which means every meet this season, they have scored 1st! Pretty awesome!!

Two meets left in the season! We can't wait!

Grant's Valentine School Party

First graders are so much fun! They're goofy, they're silly, they're witty! Just a ton of fun! I've had fun being room mom for their class this year! I also help out in the class once or twice a week, so I get to see these kiddos quite often! I love seeing Grant interact with his friends and teacher. Makes my heart happy to know he likes everyone and everyone likes him!

Planning the activities is always fun too! Gives me flashbacks to some of my teaching days! They all seem to like what I come up with, so I feel like its been a successful school year as far as parties go!! Woohoo!

 Owen, Rishi, Keegan, Grant, and Max

February School Fun!

Holiday themed school games are still all the rage around here! I'm hoping that doesn't change anytime soon because its just so much fun!! Of course Grant never gets closet to this table, but Wyatt can still often be heard asking, "Do you want to play a school game?" We have fun and he doesn't even know he's learning. Well, I'm sure he does because he's just that smart, but at least he's smart enough to know that learning through games is the best way to learn!!

This game here he is adding red and pink hearts

 Here, he is reading and sorting long vowel and short vowel words

 Here he is reading and sorting CVC words

 More long vowel, short vowel! I just love the footie jammies!

 Using pink and red hearts to make and write words

 I love my little learner and his eagerness and excitement throughout each holiday!!

January? Where Did You Go?

Somehow today is mid-February and I didn't blog ONCE in January!! I haven't even finished Christmas yet! So in order to catch up this one post is going to be all about January! 

January was a very strange, difficult, and ridiculously busy month. Most days, I couldn't tell if I was coming or going, and definitely didn't have time to sit and blog!!

January started off with a few more days of Christmas break, which was super enjoyable! Once school started and gymnastics picked back up, our days were starting to get filled fast! Our business has hit the floor running. Starting a business definitely takes more hours than there are in a day, so we had our fair share of coaches calls, networking events, and day to day tasks. We probably looked at 20+ houses this month and put in lots of offers! (I should just write a whole post about the business) So for the sake of this post, let's just say work kept us BUSY!!! 

In early January, my dad suffered a major setback with his knee replacement surgery. Extended hospital stays and loads upon loads of doctor's visits were the story of the month. Emotions ran high, energy ran low, and our brains were fried!
The boys kept us busy with school, and gymnastics, and their just normal day to day requirements. I think we ran on auto-pilot most days and just kind of rolled from one event to the next! I did take some pictures, so here is January in a nutshell.

Intentionality was not my strong suit this month. I wasn't intentional with my time, with my children, with my husband. Thank goodness for these little picture reminders to help me see the good we had, when all I can remember is the busyness!!!

Wyatt's First Gymnastics Meet

Wyatt has been enthralled with gymnastics ever since he started 1.5 years ago. In August, he moved from Blue Valley Rec to 360 and his love for gymnastics has grown even more! He literally gymnastics all over the house! That's what we like to call it :) The world is his gym! I love it!! Initially, Coach Eric said the three littlest boys on the team (Wyatt being the youngest) were going to start competing in March, but they all developed and honed their skills much quicker than he imagined, so he was ready for them to start competing in January. We had gone to a meet in November just to kind of watch and see what happens, so that would hopefully decrease the "newness" of what a gymnastics meet is all about. So when January's meet rolled around, Wyatt had an idea of what to expect, although he still was quite nervous. Moreso because he just wanted to get a perfect score and he was worried he wouldn't. Silly boy! I told him nobody would get a perfect score, so it didn't matter! Just do your best little buddy!! And that was exactly what he did!!!! He was so focused, never cracked a smile! He sat on the chair between events and just waited his turn. I imagine he was probably going through the routines in his head. He was just so darn cute to watch!

Look at that team of little cuties! They went in height order, Wyatt being the shortest, which meant he went last on each even. The oldest boy on his team is 12, with Wyatt bringing up the rear at age 5.

 First up, pommel horse and mushroom.

 Second, rings- his favorite!

 Third, floor routine! His second favorite!

 Next, parallel bars.

 Then, high bar. On this event, he actually was swinging and lost his grip and fell. His coach caught him and there was a fluffy mat under him, so he didn't get hurt. He popped right back up on the bar and finished his routine.

 And finally, vault. Which I didn't get any pictures of, but you can see the set up for it right behind the picture of him on the high bar.

Then it was time for the awards ceremony. We knew he would be judged against the other 5 year olds in this meet. It's usually 5 and  year olds, but since this was such a large meet, they had to break them up. But that was good for his first time since it lessened how many kids he was up against. He wound up placing 2nd, and was so excited!! He did tell me afterwards though, "I just imagined myself standing up there on the #1 spot though!" Later, we found out that if he hadn't fallen off the high bar- which is a full point deduction, he would've taken first! But we were so darn proud of him!! He really did do his absolute best and watching him was so AMAZING!!! Honestly, I can't remember the last time I was that nervous for anything!!! Butterflies like I hadn't felt in a LONG time!!

 Their whole team took 1st place and were soooooo thrilled!!

Look at that cute medalist! We are so so proud of you Wyatt!!!

His scores: 

1st place on Parallel Bars and Still Rings

2nd place on Floor

3rd place on Pommel Horse

4th place on Vault and High Bar

All Around score- 50.5 (2nd place)

Wyatt's Build a Bear Adventure

Wyatt thought over and over and over again all December long- "What should I ask Santa for?" He went back and forth between Star Wars Bionicle, Build a Bear Gift Card, Lego's, and an RC Rover. He just didn't have any idea what to ask for! Well, turns out Santa brought him the Imaginext Rover I told him NOT to ask Santa for because it was too expensive. So it was a good thing I had told Aunt Sara that he was hoping to get a Build a Bear gift card, but I wasn't sure if Santa was going to bring that. So she gave him the next best thing- 5 little boxes individually wrapped with a $5 bill inside. The perfect amount of money for a trip to Build a Bear!! So as soon as school was back in session, we hit up the mall just as it opened and went on a Build a Bear adventure!

He's a smart cookie and knows if he doesn't buy an expensive bear, he can buy more accessories for it! It was a tough decision, but my boys like their traditional teddy bears so he picked out this little tan one. He filled his heart with lots of great characteristics, and stuffed him with just the right amount of fluff- not too much!!

 And then came time for the accessories. This was a tough decision. So many Star Wars outfits. So many fun clothes, and shoes, and toys for his bear!

 In the end, he picked out a Chiefs outfit. After all, the Chiefs were about to head into the playoffs!! And because we had a coupon, he also got a pair of Star Wars jammies.

 He got him all dressed up and then it was time to name him. Um......this might've been the hardest decision of all! Wyatt always says he likes to pick a random word and add a -y to the end to come up with his bears name. Well, nothing was coming to him. Then he settled upon Harry, but then Henry popped up and he knew that was his new bears' name!

He definitely passed the snuggling test at home!

Welcome to the family, Henry!!