Spring before the storm

Calgon, take me away, back to last week when we had 3 glorious days of weather. When we were able to use some new Christmas presents and play outside for the first time in months. 3 wonderful days with weather topping out in the 60s, glorious. Uncle Micah came one day and helped the kids use their new Christmas gifts.

Sissy is the cautious driver. Will not push the gas pedal down all the way. Likes to have something (in this case Beary) driving with her for comfort. She even wears the SEATBELT!

Big Boy, not surprisingly, drives like he is training for a Nascar race. His tractor does not go fast enough! He cranks the steering wheel like crazy trying to be a maniac. He makes race car noises and pretends to rev his engine. He pretends that it is a rocketship. He will not stop and I end up chasing him down the street screaming at him to come back. He would drive to Dillons and pick up milk if I let him.



Saturday was the KU/KSU game. Despite being a KSU graduate, I love me some KU basketball so I donned my blue KU shirt. I dressed my kids in their KSU garb to even it out.



It was an even better day to be outside on Saturday. The kids were more confident in their new driving abilities and had a great time.

The before picture:

The after picture: (as she is about to be the victim of Daddy throwing snowballs with the leftover snow from the side of the house) Actually, it is not so much an "after" picture as a "preparing-to-be-hit-by-a-snowball" pic. The after actually wasn't very exciting. Daddy missed.

Best field trip ever

Sissy's class took a field trip to Great Harvest Bread Co. this week and they had a blast! It was so interesting and the staff was so great with the kids. The building is small so the mommas all hung out in the front and feasted on free samples of bread straight out of the oven. Best field trip ever.













After the tour they passed out bread to the kids that they had just seen pulled out of the oven.



And they introduced me to my new obsession: White Chocolate Cranberry Cinnamon Swirl bread. Now, I am not a bread eater. Not tempted by it (usually), don't eat rolls or anything like that very often. However, when they cut this fresh for us every single mommy there said "put me down for a loaf of that!" Two days later I returned again for more!



Big Boy's class had a circus theme last week and the teachers made them into clowns one day.

Happy clown:

Sad clown:

Trying-to-make-a-mad-face-when-I-really-want-to-laugh clown.

Kansas Day!

The kids both had celebrations for Kansas' birthday at school and both came home knowing more about our state than I have known since 3rd grade. They have a new game- find a Kansas and America flag- when we drive and really have gotten into it!

In Big Boy's class they dressed up like cowboys and cowgirls. Well, lucky for us we just happened to have a cowboy costume! It was even show-and-tell day so he took Woody since they looked so much alike.


Sissy dressed as a prairie girl, and didn't she totally look the part?!?!






The best part about celebrating Kansas' birthday is that when they got home from school it was 60 degrees out! We headed to the park to meet some friends and enjoyed the gorgeous weather... before the sub-zero temps returned. It was the perfect day for a Sonic stop and a cherry limeade!

Winter funk

Ahhh! I'm so over this weather! I think January is definitely the worst month of the year. It's cold, multiple snow days, nothing exciting going on. Blah!

A lot of our focus and attention lately has been on deciding which school Sissy will be attending next year for kindergarten. We are technically part of Wichita Public Schools and our designated school Gammon is not an appealing destination for my child starting out school. Luckily, Wichita does have a magnet school system that we have looked into in great detail and it does include a few good schools. When we bought our house 3 years ago Sissy seemed so young and we thought we'd for sure have time to move into a better school district. Well, that 3 years flew by fast! The market is not how I want it right now for selling a house and we aren't really sure if we are going to be staying in Wichita long enough to make a move financially smart.

It is kind of a defeating feeling moving Sissy from a wonderful school (and expensive) to another where she will not enjoy the kind of opportunities she is provided now, even as a preschooler. A couple of the magnet schools I toured- ugh. However, we have to make a move and I have done enough research and tours now to feel like she will be in a place we are comfortable with. We've got two very strong options for this fall and will know in April for sure where she is going!

Other than that, we are business as usual. Pat and I are heading back to Manhattan on Saturday for a quick weekend away which will be nice. The kids are splitting up and having their first weekend away from home- my sister is keeping Big Boy and Gma K is keeping Sissy and taking her to a birthday party. They won't miss us a bit!

Snow day today. As Sissy said yesterday, "everyday I wake up and say, 'what the heck God, why is there no sun?' " I complain like crazy the night before because I hate when school is canceled on days they both have school; I love my free days! But we ended up having a great day. I have done 10 loads of laundry and cleaned out 2 closets. We're having a great dinner. It's a good day!

Sissy played "Rapunzel, caught in a rainstorm, playing in the snow".