All About My Dad By Geremu

This past week I got an e-mail from Geremu's teacher.  I'd love to post the e-mail on here but I don't like to put anything too personal about my kids on the blog for fear my kids will one day be upset that I shared too much.  So I'm going to be vague about the e-mail.  The e-mail was written by his teacher but she was writing exactly what Geremu was saying.  The e-mail ended with "... period, did you write a period Mrs. U?"

I wasn't sure how to respond to the e-mail.  Do I praise Geremu for his punctation or discuss what was actual written?

Geremu has a new found love of writing.  He has always LOVED reading but now he enjoys writing too.  Most of his books are about animals (like full grown sperm whales) but this weekend he wrote a book about Nick.  Since I'm not a big saver I'm just posting the book here for record keeping sake.

All About My Dad

By Geremu

Pinterest This!

In January my sister sent me some ideas for Valentines from Pinterest.  This is my sister who is a solid mix between Martha Stewart and Betty Crocker.  In her spare time she sews cute, crafty things as seen here.  Seriously a-dorable, right?  Anyways, one of the things she sent me caught my eye...

I stole the idea and made it my own...

I know, I know, I know, I may have totally outdone myself this year.  

I really needed to redeem myself, the week before Valentine's Day was the 101st day of school and my kids were suppose to dress like dalmatians...

White Shirts + Black Duct Tape = Dalmatians

Our Winter Slip n' Slide

Sunday we received some precipitation in the form of rain.  For the first time since we have lived in this house we have standing water or ice (depending on the temperature) in our back yard.  Every day this week when the kids get home from school they have spent all of their free time playing outside on the mess.  Sometimes even successfully breaking through to the water.

Today Geremu put ice skates on, while I sat in the kitchen laughing my butt off.  At one point he was between two of the lilac bushes pulling the branches down trying to avoid doing the splits.  I'm pretty sure our lilac bushes days are numbered after watching Geremu use them to catch/break all of his falls.

 I opened the kitchen window at one point to hear what the kids were talking and laughing so hard about. Turns out one of them found some "Frozen poop!  Mom come out here and look.  You won't believe it?"

Geremu enjoyed wearing his ice skates so much that I found him at the top of the neighbors swing set/fort still wearing his ice skates.  

New House Rule:  Ice skates are only allowed to be worn on ice.

Jack fell down and broke his crown...

Geremu came home from school last week with a huge lump on his head that was black and blue and skinned up.  He slipped and fell at recess resulting in the injury.  Geremu's head swells up anytime he bumps it so the bump didn't bother me as much as the bruising- I could tell he hit it hard based on the color.  I didn't think to take a picture when he first fell so what you see below is the injury on the mend.

Tonight Cullen took a fall and hit his face pretty hard.  His mouth and nose were both bleeding.  Tomorrow I'll be taking him in to the doctor to get his nose checked, it is really swollen on his left side.  I'm guessing by morning his eyes, nose, and forehead will be black and blue.  

For those of you wondering Cullen's forced "Family Fun Night" was a huge success.  We played games as a family.  I think we would all agree that Headbandz was the favorite.

Snow Fun

I have a lot of stuff I should get done this weekend.  

Somehow snowshoeing with the kids ended up at the top of my list of things to do.

Nick wasn't feeling 100% so we left him at home 

and went to explore on our own.

I debated asking a friend to come join in the fun.
Within the first 10 minutes of exploring I was reminded why I usually don't ask others to join us.  

My kids have a agenda of their own...

And a pace that sometimes is hard to keep up with...

And at other times, not so hard to keep up with... 

They like to stop and play, which usually involves creating "forts" along the way...

There was a lot of singing, talking, and laughing.

 I vividly remember my Mom and Dad taking us out when I was younger (and even older) to cross country ski or hike in the bluffs.  

I specifically remember one weekend when my Mom and Dad couldn't join us.  When my Mom dropped off Chad, Megan, and I to ski she gave Chad a big bag of jelly beans.  We didn't know about the treat because Chad hid them from us.  When we got tired and were resting in the snow, Chad surprised us and pulled the jelly beans out of his coat pocket.  They were the BEST jelly beans ever!

Next time, I will remember to bring jelly beans.

Cullen just announced that tomorrow night is "Family Fun Night."  

I'm not really sure what that all involves, so we have that to look forward to...

Slip N' Slide

I was going through pictures from this past summer yesterday looking for a picture of my wedding dancer when I found a few photos that make me smile...  So I'm going to share.

This past summer we attended the Mehaber (Ethiopian gathering) again in Minnesota.  While we were there it was pretty hot.  My sister has a big hill on the side of her house and she set up a slip n' slide.  The kids had a lot of fun as did the adults but the slip n' slide wasn't quite long enough- we ended up riding the wet grass down about half of the hill.  So on our next trip to Minnesota the kids talked me into bringing our slip n' slide.  We put 3 slip n' slides together (one was a neighbors) and the result was fun for the whole family!

And my favorite picture, where it appears Nick takes out the kids...

I actually think the kids were on Nick's back and they all fell off.

Wedding Bells...

The weekend we were up north in January we got some excellent news.  My little sister Colleen got engaged...  

Colleenie is getting MARRIED!!!

We are all so excited for Colleen & Matt and their upcoming wedding.

Colleen, your Godchild (aka the Wedding Dancer) has been working on his moves for the last 6 years...

 

He's be more then happy to help you learn a few moves before your big day;)