Lunch with Kindergartners

Regina is great. It freely allows parents to drop in and have lunch with their kids at school. Lunch (rather, it should be called brunch since it's at 10:45am) with my kindergartner was pretty cool. I got to see how he gets through hot lunch line and enters his 4-digit code for payment. It's amazing to see how much he just knows how to do now...on his own!

Elaine got to join us for the mini corn dog bites, peas, applesauce, pretzels, and bug bites (graham crackers).

Peter with his friend Nick (from preschool days).

After lunch and an orderly chaotic line formed from the lunchroom to the playground. I must say it was the mind spinning and long walk with all those kids and Elaine. All of Peter's friends were eager to watch over Elaine on the playground since she was "little". Everyone wanted to catch her at the end of the slides.

Elaine had a different opinion; at times, she enjoyed the attention, but she wanted a bit of freedom.

Before I had to leave, Peter wanted to show me that he could do the monkey bars. I must say, I was really impressed by both this abilities and how much my baby has grown!

Little Girl play

Today I had the pleasure of watching my friend Katy's two precious girls, who are the same ages as Natalie and Elaine. We had all morning and it was a joy to watch the girls play.

At first, Sammy wasn't too sure about Elaine hiding in the couch.

The two little ones learned how to share and have a good time
with a book of animals.
(I personally love this photo)

The two divas played upstairs most of the time and came down for an appearance after a princess make-over.

And these characters, Finn and Sydney, had their own fun and kept each other company. They were good troopers in letting the girls chase them too.


I think we'll all sleep tight tonight (especially Mommy)!

Elaine's big girl bed

Elaine moved out of the toddler crib/bed to a twin sized "big girl" bed. We bought her bed from IKEA (love the MALM series). It was an easy 30 minutes to assemble and the bedding (I admit) I purchase months ago. It was a super deal from Target and perfect for Elaine.

And she loves it!

Character Counts - Hawkeye day at Regina

This week at Regina, they are celebrating Character Counts week. Every day, they have something special for the Regina Pillars of Character the kids are learning:

Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility,
Fairness, Caring, Citizenship, and Faith.

I was able to attend Monday's assembly, which was Hawkeye day with some surprise Hawkeye visitors. First, for Peter, it was a surprise for him that I showed up! He was so excited that he got to sit with me in the bleachers and chose to sit all the way at the top!

We got to see some Iowa Dance team members, Iowa kicker Daniel Murray (who - as a side note - is currently a student in one of Sam's classes) and defensive lineman Adrian Clayborn, and Herky. All the kids were so excited to see them, sang the Hawkeye fight song and were eager to give high fives to Herky.

Herky does look pretty cool.

At the end, most of the kids crowded the players, dance members, and Herky for pictures. Mrs. Poss' class were so good, lined up, and walked back to their classroom. Peter didn't seem to care for a photo opp with Herky. I could see he was just content that I was there. (heart melting)

Before I left, I seized a photo opp with Herky!

I felt pretty cool!
(Wait, am I - the Georgia Bulldogs girl - becoming a Hawkeyes fan?)

Lego build and the Mall of America

This past weekend the Mall of America Lego Store hosted a Lego Build event. It was a mural of thousands of 6 x 6 squares put together by the kids (and adults) who came to the event. I saw it as quite the opportunity as this mural will be displayed in their newly remodeled Lego store for years to come. So, with a little help from our friend "uncle" Tanner to watch Sydney and awesome Priceline to get us a 3 star hotel for $40, we hit the road north for the event.

By the time we got there, many squares had been filled and put in place, but there were plenty more to be done.


To my pleasant surprise, it was a calm atmosphere and not crazy busy. Natalie and Elaine were not as excited to participate, so they walked around with Daddy. Peter and I got our squares (his #725 and mine #22) and started to build.

My square was a little boring to build consisting of only one color but still crucial to the big picture!

After we finished our squares, we handed them to the mural builders who located the spot and tapped them into place.
The whole event took us about 15 minutes. Initially, my thoughts were "We just drove 5 hours to do 15 minutes of an event?!" but the smiles from Peter's face was worth it. Better yet, the day had just begun for all the kids.

As luck would have it, the Lego event was located adjacent to Nickelodeon Universe, the indoor amusement park. Honestly, the kids were way more excited about the rides than the Lego thing. Mommy might have been the only one excited about the Lego mural.

Kids were greeted by a shark (apparently, an escapee from the Mall of America aquarium downstairs). Priceless photo!

Next was the rides. Peter and Natalie's first choice was the Wonder Pets Flyboat. It was sort of a free fall ride for kiddies. It was still pretty high, and both Daddy and I weren't sure how Natalie would like it. Once the ride started, the looks on their faces told you exactly how they liked it.

Pure smiles from everyone, including Elaine patiently waiting on the outside.

Lucky for Elaine, there were rides that she could go on with one of us. First of the day for her was Blues Skidoo.

She had a great time going round and round, up and down.
Mommy does not do round and round rides very well but it was worth seeing her smiles. At the end of the ride, she stood back to look at it and said,
"Blues Clues FUN!"

Peter had quite the big boy moment: his first time in bumper cars. The mom in me wasn't too thrilled, but Daddy had no problems with it. So, off they went together. After seeing them together on the bumper track, I realized that Peter was definitely a big boy (and maybe Daddy was still young at heart).

I can't even tell who's having more fun!

Last ride for the girls was a Diego Rescue van ride...yet another circular motion ride. Mommy sat out with Peter while the girls rode with Daddy.

All of the kids were thrilled about the rides. Elaine had a super good time...it was sort of her first amusement park experience and she conquered it perfectly!

We did a little shopping at the mall, then headed to the hotel for the night. The next day was the IKEA and Trader Joes run before hitting the road back to Iowa.
This final scene is very reminiscent of the final scenes of the ride home from our last trip to Minneapolis.

What a fun weekend we had!

Princess Pudding Party!

Eating pudding in our finest with good friends!

What's so funny?

Oh!

Season in transition

Yes, my kids are in sweat pants and various levels of warmth in shirts and shoes (or lack thereof). Sure signs of the cooler weather in the air. But not too cold for an ice pop treat!