January and February {2023}

January and February weekends were full of basketball games.

Sam played on a team with three friends from school (Lewis, Nolan and Daniel) and two new friends from a different school (Michael and Oliver). Lewis's dad coached and the boys learned a ton. This was the first year Sam was tall enough and strong enough to shoot a basket. He had a great season.

Ellie played on a new team this year. She joined Sophia's team. Last year, Ellie's team didn't win a single game and she was often the only kid to score a basket. They finished at the bottom of the 4th grade without a single win. This season, the new team played so well in seeding games that the ended up in the top division of 6th grade even though most of the team was only in 5th grade. They struggled in that division and only won one more game, but they always played hard and learned a lot. 

This is the kind of entertainment that results from a six day weekend (Chiefs parade day plus conferences plus Presidents Day). They might be bored but I definitely wasn't!

February is usually the longest month of the year. It's so cold and so gray and we are so over winter. This year it wasn't. It wasn't long or particularly cold and we got a lot of sunny days perfect for bike rides around the block... or swim birthday parties with your best buds. Ellie had one ice skating birthday party and two swimming birthday parties in one weekend! 

Steve and Nathan Bailey were in town to watch the Superbowl among Chiefs fans. We got to see them one afternoon. We hadn't seen Nathan since we visited them in California in the fall of 2020.

Every morning when we drop the kids to school, Sam gives me a kiss on the cheek. Ellie leaves us at the sidewalk often without even a hug and hurries into school with her friends. Sam hangs out with us until the very last minute, sometimes even stalling with five more kisses per cheek per parent or a sandwich hug. Having a six year old in a house full of teens and preteens is pretty amazing. Never grow up, Sammo!

So much time on the sidelines. His favorite was halftime of Ellie's games when he could go down on the court to try to shoot on the 10 ft baskets. He can't quite hit the rim. 

Ellie's new dance studio puts on a parent performance. She wore false eyelashes and we had to straighten her hair. She was feeling pretty good about this. She was made for the stage. Love that girl. 

The fifth graders got to go to the Kaufman Center to play their recorders with the KC Symphony. Mr. Nichols asked me to chaperone and I was kind of dreading it, but it turned out to be way better than what I was imagining an auditorium full of recorders to be like.  

Post soccer practice bacon. Zach eats at least two dinners a day right now. Juno would like to do the same. He officially passed Anna in height but she will not agree to photo proof. 

Ellie spent an evening at the high school with the dance team and then performed during halftime of one of the boy's basketball games. Sophie and Sophia both joined her and they had a great time. The clinic was for kids pre-k through 8th grade and one of our neighbors and some of Anna's favorite kids to babysit were also there. 

 

KC Chiefs

We love this team and this city. For the second time in four years, the Chiefs won the superbowl. The last time they won, we were in Australia and we celebrated from afar so this is the Chiefs’ first Super Bowl win while we are in the northern hemisphere. What a great time to live in Kansas City. 

The kids had a day off school to celebrate and attend the parade after the Chiefs Superbowl win. We found a great spot to watch the back of people's heads while the parade went by. Haha! Actually there was a fence behind us that we could climb to get a pretty good view. The fact that recreational pot was recently legalized in Missouri where the parade took place was evident. 

Union Station was decked out as Chiefs Station and we made a trip down there during our second snow day of the year. We didn’t get much snow, but it was enough to scrape together a sledding ramp. This is the stuff childhood memories are made of. 

Snow Day

Wednesday, January 25 was the first snow day of the school year. They made the call sometime around 5am so we went to bed thinking we would probably have school the next day and then woke up to discover we didn't. 

There really wasn't enough snow to sled, but Ellie and a few friends attempted it anyway before spending the rest of the afternoon at Hope's house. Sam played by himself for a good hour before calling me outside to build a snowman with him. He named the snowman Jake. 

These two LOVE the snow. Juno was living her best life. 

Anna was really happy about the snow day because it meant she had time to catch up on school work and tests were pushed back to the following week. 

Zach spent most of the morning laying on the couch and most of the afternoon playing video games, but he did come outside for a while. He even put on pants. No coat though. That has only made an appearance once or twice this winter so far. 

After Sam had played with me, played with Zach and played with Juno, I decided to phone a friend. Lewis came over for a couple of hours and the boys had the best time playing basketball, playing in the snow, playing with Lego and playing with air dry clay. 

There was enough snow to cancel school but not enough to cancel evening activities so it was back to busy that evening with youth group and dance. It was a great day. 

Ellie’s 11th Birthday Party

For her 11th birthday, Ellie decided she wanted a mall party. Not having any idea what a mall party is, I asked Ellie what she was envisioning. Oh, you know, all my friends and I are going to go shopping at the mall together, was her reply. I asked for clarification: "So a bunch of ten and eleven year olds are going to have wads of cash at the mall and I'm going to be responsible for them all?" Yeah, that was the general idea. My general idea was: no. That is not going to work. Ellie and I tossed around a few more ideas and finally decided on a mall scavenger hunt. I wasn't sure how it would go, but it turns out it was an absolute blast. The girls all had so much fun. 

Ellie wished she could be in a group with all her friends, but we decided smaller groups of four girls would work best. I took Ellie's group that also included Sophia, Izzy and Madison. Anna helped me.  Dylan had our Sam, Ellie's friend, Sam, Brecken, the other Sophia and Sophie. Hazel's mom, Emily, chaperoned Hazel, Hannah, Etta and Annie.

 The girls got points by taking photos of the items on their scavenger hunt list like a photograph of Patrick Mahomes.

My

All four girls midair jumping in front of the carousel. Sloths and a star. The whole group on a couch (this turned out to be one of the most challenging since the mall was busy and the couches were always occupied). 

The Hazel, Hannah, Etta and Annie group found the pink rose unicorn! All the groups ended up finding all the items, even the ones I thought would be the most challenging in an hour or less. 

After all the groups were finished, we came back to our house for pizza and ice cream followed by a movie that some of the girls wanted to watch and most of the girls were too noisy for anyone to actually watch it. 

My littlest girl isn't so little anymore!