Mother's Day and Dad's Birthday

We celebrated Jon's 40th birthday this year very low key. I gave him a golf GPS, and the kids picked out their own presents for him. Macy chose a hook for hanging tools on the side of his large tool box (?) and Caitlin chose a screw/nail organizer. So, he may have only put 1 of those items on his list, but he loved all of them dearly.

For Mother's Day, the family let me sleep in and made breakfast for me. I requested no long lines at any restaurant, and to grill out instead. I got just what I wanted and Jon added a homeade breakfast, too!

The kids gave me some bubble bath (that I asked for) from Sephora and some hair product Jon picked out.

Jon and I were most thankful and appreciative of our kids and each other on these days!

Easter 2011 - We're Back!

It has been a long while since I have posted, so I know I have a few make-up posts to do.
Easter 2011 was spent in Wichita and Grandma Nancy started us off decorating eggs! The girls were surprisingly patient waiting for their eggs to become "vibrant" in the many colors of dye they drowned their eggs in. Macy consumed practically every color while Caitlin debated where to put hers.

Dad supervised and gave creative tips such as doing half the egg in one color (they slowly bored of holding the egg 1/2 submerged and just ended up letting it go allowing for a two-toned egg of the same color).

We decided we should have added at least one more dozen (I told Nancy 1 dozen was enough - who knew the hours of fun we could've supplied them with if only we had given them more eggs)?

The next day we moved on to duck cupcakes. My mom gave me a cupcake decorating book (to help support her book fair) and I felt that I needed to try it out. These cupcakes stressed me out. To top it all off, we forgot to put them out on Easter Sunday, and Grandma Nancy and Papa Don were stuck with 24 duck cupcakes after everyone left.

The girls shaped the beaks and stuck the eyes on, and they did great at their jobs. I didn't do so great at my job - the heads and tails didn't stick very well.

The afternoon was full of kite flying. Grandma got kites for the girls, and one of them just wouldn't fly. Grandpa and Jon tried their best - for quite awhile, but couldn't get that thing to fly. Brian, Carrie and Ashley came, and Brian felt he may have the magic touch, but that kite just wasn't meant to soar.

Caitlin had a blast. She was thrilled with flying the kite. I think she may have wished it was a tad more windy as she really wanted to run with it and she had the most fun when it started b-lining for the ground. It was so exciting and provided a challenge to get that thing back up in the air.

My Grandma Tootie would've loved this afternoon - she loves kites. I remember her kite collection that included Chinese box kites and one of those dragon kites that was like 20 feet long. I can't remember if we ever flew those, though, but we had our fair share of kite flying afternoons.

Macy and Caitlin were thrilled to take their baths early in the morning for 8:30 church. They put on their dresses with pride - these girls would wear flower girl, Christmas and Easter dresses daily if their mom let them.

After church, I saw the Easter bunny and made the girls stay "out of sight" so he could drop off the goodies! They did a good job and came out to a beautiful yard full of "easy" eggs for Macy, and "challenging" eggs for Caitlin. It's so intriguing how the Easter bunny distinguishes which eggs are for whom and the kids never question it!

The kids displayed their collection and got their big Easter basket later. They had a great day. The weather cooperated and they got to be outside - their favorite thing in the world. With all of the technology and the games, I'm glad that's still the number one choice on a Saturday afternoon with no plans.

VEISHEA 2011

Great Grandma Phyllis was so great to be able to come again this year on VEISHEA weekend, but opted to come the night before to see us instead of the chilly morning outside. What a smart woman... She played with the kids and the kids entertained her for a couple of hours. We were so glad to have gotten to see her.

And the next morning, we proved that the rain, freezing temperatures, and wind we brought in from the tornado state could not keep us from singing the ISU fight song, cheering on Austan Arnaud, eating 3 pork chops on a stick (Jon and Macy) and burnt pork burgers at 10:00am, and collecting tootsie roll after tootsie roll at this year's VEISHEA parade.

After the parade, we ventured to Perfect Lanes to play a game of bowling, jump in the Jump House, and play arcade games. Brian and Kelly threw bullets into the pins, Grandma pulled her "butt muscle" while challenging Jon to the best score, and Caitlin cheered as her 2nd half went better than her 1st half of the game. Talia and Macy alternated bowling and loved the Jump House...a little too much. As Brian took on Caitlin in air hockey, Talia threw up all over the Racecar game. Poor little thing had too much jumping.

Grandma and Macy scoring big at Deal or No Deal (Macy calls it No Deal or Yes Deal).

In the end, I'm glad cold, wind, and harsh temperatures couldn't stop us from seeing cousin Talia, Grandma Dawn, Aunt and Uncle Kelly and Brian, cousins Kara and her boyfriend, Andrew, Uncle David (quickly the favorite), Aunt Mary, Grandma Phyllis and just celebrating being able to spend time together.

Family Birthday Celebration

Just Jon, Caitlin, Macy and I celebrated the girls' true birthdays on their birthday at T-Rex cafe'. (Shocker)! They always are amazed at this place - the fire rain, the loud Triceratops and the scary T-Rex...and not to mention their food! I must admit, we are members of T-Rex's "club," and we get a free appetizer every time we go - cha ching! The service is always great, and their food is excellent. The atmosphere is something else and it's the first choice of where to go out to eat whenever we go! Happy birthday to the best things in our lives!

Solid Gold Dancers? Dance Party USA? Madonna, is that you???

I bet my sister had no idea that the Wii would be this much fun for our entire family...and I mean entire...

Each person that comes to our house and plays gets a character on the Wii game. This has been fun it itself. However, when Caitlin got Dance Party from Grandma and Grandpa Bishop for her birthday, we started a whole new disco party in basement, baby!

Note the 2 slackers in the bottom of the picture (Macy and Grandma Phyllis)...join in "Who Let the Dogs Out!" ladies!!! Who can resist?

Macy doesn't like to hold the remote, and her dances are off and on. However, Caitlin has learned to tell Macy after each dance that she won, and Macy screams with delight and hugs her sister like she just won a gold medal. Caitlin is pretty competitive, and works really hard to get her gold crown in dancing! Look out, So You Think You Can Dance! We're comin'!

"I tourn tree in Febooary!"

We celebrated Caitlin and Macy's 7th and 3rd birthdays together with family before senior night of Jon's basketball team. We were blessed to have Grandma Phyllis, Grandma Dawn, Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Don here to celebrate with us.

Caitlin got pop-its, clothes, DS and wii games, and books. Macy got shoes (which she's posing for the camera below...and yes, I am worried about her poses), strawberry shortcake dolls, polly pockets, clothes, books, barbies, and A NEW BLUE GUY! Great Aunt Sheila and Ole Uncle Mark sent some gifts and among them were these things called, Ugly Guys, which Macy immediately renamed Blue Guy, in memory of her old Blue Guy which was "put in the tash by mom cuz I put it in da tolet...after I peed in dere." We were so thankful to have another Blue Guy!

Macy got to choose the cake - purple (of course) Dora (double of course), since she only got to have a family party and not a friend party. Caitlin was fine with that.

Macy is quite the little 3 year old who still throws tantrums, will fold her arms and tell you she's mad at you if she doesn't get her way, hates being sent to her room (but is working on her "mad faces" so she doesn't get sent to her room as much), and mentions daily that "Dad - you my best fend." She often comments that nobody else can be Dad's best friend, Cakelin (Caitlin) has to be mom's best friend because Dad is already taken. Macy is a pistol, who will dance entire basketball games (especially high school ones where the band is always playing). People often dote on her and talk about how cute she is, and then when they talk to her, and tell her that, she then pulls out the, "I'm not cute! I'm Macy!" in her angriest tone. I then tell them that I doubt if they want to take her home anymore! As her parents, we wouldn't change that little stinker for one second! Her vibrant personalities, too-old for her age poses, snotty looks, statements and sneers are nothing compared to her love for her sister, her funny voices and laughs, and her complete satisfaction for being the baby of the family. She is a loving wonderful little 3 year old who brings us many joys, laughs, and definitely exercise! We love her more than she will ever know!

Seven Years Old...and sadly counting

Caitlin turned 7 this year and as I watched her with her friends posing for pictures and sharing squeals of excitement over girly gifts, I found myself sad and scared of all this happening too fast.

I am so proud of the little girl she is...so sweet with her sister and including her in almost everything she does. She loves school and talks about it a lot, but I sense some of her classmates "rubbing" off on her over the weekends when she hopes for a holiday on Monday. She can't wait for swimming and has mentioned her excitement for swimming lessons! She wants to get into karate terribly and loves to read. I have seen so much growth in her reading this year, and we are working on math (help!). Her teacher describes her as such a pleaser and says all the teachers want 20 of her in their room. Mrs. Plessl says she's where she's supposed to be in all subjects and about the middle of the class. Jon thinks I was upset by that, probably remembering our graduate school years together where I strived for A's on everything, but I was actually quite pleased. I so don't want her to try to be perfect on everything - that's so hard on a kid. She certainly is perfect in our eyes. She's very well behaved, with the exception of rambunctiousness and rough - housing...I don't know where my kids get that, but they can jump off the back of the couch and fly off the beds to the hall with the best of 'em. She's a happy kid who is very sensitive, especially with her dad. She backs mom no matter what - Jon will try to poke fun at me and get Caitlin to join in and it's so cute how Caitlin refuses. I use that as much as I can to win "discussions."

For her birthday, we invited all the girls in her class to a movie, Gnomeo and Juliet. They had a great time! We had them arrive 30 minutes before the movie, opened presents at the speed of sound and downed fruit punch and birthday cupcakes. To top it off, popcorn, pop and candy came with the package and all 10 girls were full of sugar!!! They did amazingly well (which was much to our surprise since they had screaming contests in the party room before the movie - Jon had to drop the hammer on that one)!