Away at State

Casey went up to Middleton (Boise area) for State basketball this week. Since he had a free hotel room with space for us the kids and I joined in the fun for the weekend.  We dropped Casey off with the team early Thursday; they got a police / firetruck escort out of town. The kids and I went later and headed strait to the school in Middleton. The team lost a key player two minutes into the game and couldn't quite get their groove back so they lost on Thursday. After watching a bit of the next game we went to the aquarium in Boise. The kids liked to see everything. Kendal got to pet and hold a boa and chatted with the worker for a while about snakes. (I kept my distance -Kendal doesn't get her animal loving ways from me.) She was more than willing to pet the sting rays and happily fed the fish. Peter liked it all but kept his distance for the most part.

Since our Thursday ran late with the Aquarium and dinner we took the kids swimming Friday morning after breakfast. Kendal was thrilled and loved being in the water working on her skills and playing around. Peter clung to us like he was near death, but warmed up a bit in the end. After swimming we went and picked up doughnuts before sending Casey off with the team. The kids and I went to H&M then chick-fill-a before heading out to Middleton for the game. The team pulled out a win! I bought silly putty and that was mostly the kids entertainment throughout the three days of games. They barely touched the other activities I brought. The kids would watch bits of the games, but were never fully immersed in the action. After the games Friday we joined the team for dinner at a pizza place near the hotel. Kendal begged to go back in the pool so I took the kids back swimming after dinner. Peter was more willing to get in the water, but still terrified if I tried to help him float or do anything swim wise. Kendal floated, played, and swam a bit.

Saturday's game for the consolation prize was at 9:15. Casey left early and the kids and I came after breakfast. It was a tough game and the girls gave their all, but came up short in the end. It was pretty emotional for the six seniors since it was their last game. Kimberly got a sportsmanship award for the players and fans. There was a lot of support from family, the school, and the community there for the team and we were loud and proud to be bulldogs!
After the game we headed out to get lunch and go to the zoo in Boise. The kids enjoyed the zoo. Kendal's favorite was the jelly fish like last year. She even plucked up the courage to feed the eager goats in the petting zoo area. Peter threw a few pellets their way but wasn't getting near them. The kids loved everything they saw. We ended with a ride on the merry go round. We hit the outlets for a couple of deals and then headed home.

I'm glad we were able to join Casey and the team for the weekend. It was a fun little get away for us.

Forever my Valentines

 Daddy is number one in our house. All afternoon Casey has been watching youtube Disney songs with the kids. He's telling them all about the characters and singing along with the songs. It melts my heart when I see these simple moments. I love these three so very much and I'm one lucky lady to have them as my forever Valentines!


This week. . .
We got to feed the missionaries on Thursday. Once the kids warmed up to the elders it was nonstop talking. I think Kendal shared everything she had to say possible and Peter wanted to share his toys with them. Thankfully our ward is full of active young families so it's probably the normal for theses elders to be surrounded by so much energy. It was nice to teach the kids about more about missionaries and missionary work.
Peter and I got to help out at Kendal's Kindergarten Valentines party on Friday. We played don't eat Pete, the kids also made a valentine for their parents, played a relay game, and ate snacks. Kendal came home with a bucket of sweet valentines that she's been sharing with Peter. She made Casey and I cute Valentines that she hid and gave us this morning. 
Friday night we went and ate a chili dinner at the high school and watched the end of the boys JV and part of the Varsity games. The kids didn't like having to sit by us the whole time (they have more space and freedom in daddy's limited attendance games ; ), but they did well.
Saturday the kids got to go to David's star wars party. Since then we've had to make light sabors (known as light savors in our house) and played action hero's.

 Kendal has Ray hair, and Peter is the temperamental robot PD3.

Lately. . .

Casey wrapped up his teams basketball season at the end of January. They had 11 wins and 6 losses over the course of the season. It was a decent team of girls this year; they played their best and did a good job. Casey has still been with the JV team helping them out and doing district games last week and this week. The varsity is top in the conference so Casey will join them for state next week up in Boise. The kids and I went to Casey's last game and ended up staying for JV and part of Varsity's games too. Let's just say it's the last games we've attended for the season and I'm not sad about it. (4 hours on a hard bench and 2 active kids : / For the most part the kids do well in games; they watch and cheer for a while and then amuse themselves when bored.  (note the picture below ; )They love seeing Casey and being at the games; also basketball is one of the few sports I can follow and like to watch so we attend most home games during the season.

Last week we had a good snow fall one day so the kids and I finally got around to making a full fledged snowman. They were proud of themselves for rolling the parts and packing him together. They even rolled some stools to sit next to the snowman. We enjoyed looking at him for a few days till our neighbors went out and destroyed it.  They were initially upset, but it was a good lesson about how we can't control what others do and how we can we deal with it. Peter made it all good by turning the snow mounds that were left into a pretend snowmobile that they played with Friday afternoon.

We got to have David, Becca, and Thomas over a couple of times in the past couple of weeks. The kids are getting to the fun age of playing all on their own and have lots of fun pretending together. One night they were over I set up games for the kids to play with. They all had fun and each won at all or at least one of the games.

This past week was a bit rough with district games and parent teacher conferences for Casey. The kids saw him for an hour Monday then not till Thursday when we snuck over treats before his conferences started. I had Kendal's parent teachers conference and got good reports that she's doing very well in class and has top marks in all of her work. Kendal has nothing but praises for her teacher and her class! She is also getting into level two books.

School was out Friday so we got Daddy to ourselves for Friday and Saturday. We just stayed home and got to play and create. The kids made a valentines banner with me. We pulled out the dominoes and created mazes to knock down. Kendal and Casey made some cool mazes, and Peter ended up turning his dominoes into train tracks.

We rented minions for the kids to watch Saturday morning. Afterwards we made and decorated Valentines cookies. Kendal even helped me make soup noodles Saturday afternoon.