Tyler's Taekwondo classes are really starting to wear on me. Classes are 2-3 times a week since he's in the Black Belt Club, but with our busy schedules we only go twice a week. Even that feels like a lot sometimes. I hate to have to pull him out but it's 1) so time consuming 2) pricey and 3) I have to learn his forms and teach it to him at home and practice practice practice. On the other hand though, he is 1) getting much better at it 2) enjoys it much more since he gets to do weapons! We'll need to really sit down and re-evaluate whether or not we will keep it up. He'll be testing for his purple belt next month, but he's still quite a ways off from Black Belt. They had picture day this week - it was quite a fancy set up. We had to go back later in the week to preview the photos before picking the ones we liked. I didn't like the idea of having to go back, but it totally made sense after I did. There were so many cute pictures of Tyler! Will have to add a few once we get the CD back. (Yes, I bought a CD with the photos. Couldn't only choose 1 or 2 poses! I'm a sucker.)
Tuesday was a volunteer day again at Tyler's Kindergarten class. The kids have been learning about Thanksgiving and made pilgrim and Native American accessories. There's a lot of talk about turkeys. Tyler loves himself some turkey legs, which is totally different from an actual turkey, but he doesn't care. Here's a photo of him and his friend Nevan. How cute are they? (Side note for me to remember: Tyler had his swim class in the morning where I saw a certain crazy person. Let's just say her need for drama totally ruined my day!)
Quick playdate on Wednesday with my friend Linda and her daughter Tiffany while our boys were in school. My goal that day was to get Katelyn tired out before putting her down for a nap, which is our usual Mon/Wed/Fri routine. Except this day, for whatever reason, she wouldn't go down for a nap after we got home. Grrrr. She could tell I was irritated when I finally gave up and let her come out of her crib. She played quietly by herself while I tried to get stuff done. But it still threw off my whole morning!
Thursday was Tyler's last soccer practice. It was COLD! Not complaining of course, because I love the cold and treasure any cold day we get (especially with the ridiculously long and hot Summer we had). Tyler got to lead his friends in some warm up exercises.
Katelyn's friend Emmy wasn't there tonight so she got to watch the iPad. She is so obsessed with Ariel. Her favorite Disney princess by far. She'll play some games on the iPad at first, but she'll always end up watching the Little Mermaid. She can fast forward through the parts she doesn't like (learned from Tyler), so it's an even more enjoyable experience for her now!
The kids took home one of their Thanksgiving costumes on Thursday. Their Fall Holiday Feast was the next day and they kept their other costume at school to wear for the party. I'm quite proud of the little papoose baby holder that Tyler is wearing below, since we made them on Tuesday when I volunteered. Try helping 15 kindergarteners string yarn through hole-punched holes... I ended up quickly undoing a lot of them and redoing them so that they would come out nice. Haha! Tyler really liked his headdress, tribal beads and baby holder. He added his binoculars and storm trooper mask himself. Katelyn really liked these too, and knew that she could only wear them when Tyler was off at school and wouldn't know! Haha!
Friday was the Fall Holiday Feast. I wasn't able to volunteer that day since I had Katelyn but my friend Bonnie did and sent me some photos. They originally had planned to make this day an early day for all Kindergarteners, which meant Tyler would need to be at school at 8am instead of 10am. I am SO glad they didn't. The last two times they did this have been disastrous days for me. Because they involved interacting with a certain crazy person. Thank goodness they kept it a normal schedule!
Friday night - movie night! We had wanted to take the kids to see Wreck-it Ralph last weekend but didn't make it since Will's golf event ran long. They had been asking for it ever since. We headed to a showing at the Spectrum that evening - actually much later than I would have liked (6:40pm or something?) but the kids did great! Super cute movie, I even found myself tearing up at one point. Afterward the kids would say "I'm going to WRECK IT!!"
We rarely have the kids out and about late at night. The Spectrum is so busy too! It was quite chilly but Katelyn really wanted to take a picture with the horse outside of PF Changs. The restaurants were all super packed after the movie (it was past 8pm?) so we came home and made scallops. We cooked them too long (wah) though.
Saturday. Tyler's last Soccer game! I had my fingers crossed a little hoping that it would rain. Tsk tsk, I know. But it didn't. We headed to the park for a pizza party before the game. Yay, Katelyn's friend Emmy was there to play with! She just turned 3. They are so cute together. Her mom is friends with a mom who is good friends with the crazy woman. So... not sure if Katelyn and Emmy will have playdates in the future. I know, how lame is this sounding? I finally am realizing that to avoid drama, I need to try to avoid certain people who seem to attract it.
The kids all got little trophies, which were a hit! Tyler LOVES trophies.
Video of Tyler at the pre-game soccer party. It's cute all these little friends that he has made over the last few months playing soccer:
It's GAME TIME! Very confusingly, our team called the Red Dragons, was playing another team called the Red Dragons too! Their uniforms had a darker red though, so we could just barely see the difference. There was a lot of cheering of "Goo... um.. Red.. Dragons! Lighter Red Dragons? Um.. go Dragons!"
And to our delight, Tyler scored a goal! Whoohoo! Go Tyler! He was quite pleased with himself afterward.
Lots of fun for Tyler's first Soccer season. We will probably do it again next year. Team sports are good! Next up, basketball!
Afterward the kids had a quick bit of park fun. Then it was home and down for naps!
Tyler is quite a lucky kid. Earlier in the week, when his grandparents asked him what he would like to eat this weekend, he told them 1) soup dumplings 2) potstickers and 3) green onion pancakes. Instead of choosing just one thing from the list, the grandparents made all three! I never knew you could make soup dumplings at home. Tyler was so excited to help make the skins and he did a pretty good job too! The soup dumplings were a hit and he loved them.
After dinner, while Will and I chatted with his parents, Tyler watched a Monkey King video that Will's parents had. It was some sort of martial arts performance following the story of the Monkey King. Here's a video of Tyler doing his Monkey King impression- not bad, right?:
Sunday. We had plans to head over to a friend's house for a potluck and I had volunteered to bring fruit tarts. I know, I know. What was I thinking? In my defense though, we had had them a couple weeks before at a Halloween party and my friend who made them had insisted that they were super simple to make. I heard "super simple" and was sold. I was lied to. Maybe it is super simple for someone who normally cooks and bakes, but since I do neither - they were the biggest headache of all. Making the shells from scratch made me want to bang my head on the wall. I even tried to see if I could find premade shells so that I could bypass the whole thing. When we couldn't find any, I had Will buy a couple Marie Callendar pies as backup since I had THAT little faith that they would turn out alright. But... they turned out really yummy! They were very popular at the potluck too, especially with the kids. Some of the parents even thought they were store bought! (Uh.. ok they weren't that good, but I'll take the compliment!). Yay for actually being able to do something in the kitchen. :)
My friend Paula's house in Woodbury is ridiculous. I love it and want to move in immediately. Why doesn't my house look like that? Even though our house is smaller, why can't I decorate it to look like that? I end up with such house envy every time I visit a nice home. Why do I have so much clutter and absolutely no sense of interior decorating style? I have given up though, and have decided that I will not try to make my house look the way I want it until we are in a new house. Then I'll really think about pieces of furniture and decorations. Until then, I'll happily live in our mishmashed house. So many kids! These are all Kumon kids, so hopefully they're all on the path to being smart and successful. :)
The Kumon moms! Love these gals, they are so sweet and drama free. Plus they seem to really have all their stuff together. Oftentimes I feel like I am a circus act, trying to keep all the balls in the air. Being a stay-at-home mom is not easy! These ladies have it down and make it look so easy. Plus they are into Chanel bags, which make me drool. Haha!
After dinner all the kids settled in to watch a movie. I think they watched Madagascar 3, which was a perfectly chosen movie since it kept all the kids' interest! The adults all headed outside (right outside the window here in the back) and hung out on this beautiful lighted gazebo with couches and a wood fireplace. (I know, what a ridiculous house. I love it!).
How cute are Norah and Katelyn?
Video of Katelyn singing, rapping and dancing:
I would say this was one of the very few times, if not the first, of a playdate we went to where ALL the adults were outside hanging out and chatting. It was amazing! It was almost like this was an event for the adults and the kids were just there to hang out by themselves. I felt so grownup, haha! I love that it is possible to let the kids do their thing and have all the adults do their own thing as well. We all had a great time and there was very little alcohol involved. Haha!
After a while though, Katelyn wanted to come out and join us. I don't mind, she is so well behaved most of the time when we are out in public. She saves her tantrums mostly for Will and I in private.
And to end this week's post, a silly photo of Katelyn! No matter how exhausting or frustrating a day has been, she always is able to bring a smile to our faces. She is so talkative and really will say the most hilarious things. If only she was a little nicer sometimes...
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