Since my last post, we have had a kiddo with a stomach bug on top of testing positive for the flu, a princess tea party, another kiddo with the flu, Valentine’s Day festivities, basketball games, some intense games of Uno, buying a new (to us) car, another kiddo with a stomach virus on his birthday, leprechaun visits, and we have booked our vacation for this summer!

I signed Klara up for a Princess Tea Party event held at a local church. Jordan was so excited to take her, but she kept insisting that she wanted Kylan to be her date. He won’t admit it, but I think Kylan was thrilled she wanted him to go. We new beforehand that they would be doing her hair and makeup, so I encouraged her not to wear her own. That girl loves her bright red lipstick.

The tea party was extraordinary! The whole set up was picture perfect. The princesses walked the red carpet to have their hair, makeup, and nails done. Once they were finished, they walked the red carpet to princess music and the wonderful people who helped with the event stood at the end clapping and cheering for them. You could tell they felt like real princesses.

The food was spectacular! Cucumber sandwiches, strawberry cream cheese sandwiches, princess wands (chocolate covered pretzel sticks), fudge, cookies, fruit kabobs, chicken, punch, and hot tea. Klara enjoyed being fancy with her tea! Drinking out of the real tea cup, having little gentlemen pour her cream and dropping in a sugar cube was lots of fun. The cutest part of the whole thing? When she kept calling Kylan Eugene. Because obviously she dressed up at Rapunzel.

Valentine’s Day will forever be one of my favorite things about being a mama.

The kids school had Muffins with Mom and of course I wouldn’t have missed it for the world! Klara had the flu and couldn’t be there, but she went to Donuts with Dad a few weeks later!

Kylan, along with the rest of the kids and staff that helped with the Camp Compassion event, were recognized at a school board meeting and received certificates for their hard work!

Koby had started struggling in school, so his teachers and I had to come up with some ideas to help his school day become more successful. Now, when he arrives at school, his teacher pushes him on the indoor swing while he listens to calming music for 10 minutes before his school day officially begins. At home, rather than punishing him for meltdowns and BAD behavior, I have chosen to reward him for his GOOD behavior. It has worked well so far, but we are only going into week 4. I made him a behavior chart and if he is cooperative and tries his best, he earns a sticker for that day. He also knows that if he has a hard time, but can pull himself together and overcome it, that he will earn a sticker. We aren’t expecting each day to be perfect, because we can’t even expect that from ourselves and we’re adults that aren’t on the spectrum. If we have at least 4 stickers at the end of the week, he earns his prize. He chooses a “prize” on Sunday evening, so he can be reminded of what he’s working towards at school all week. The first week he was working towards an ice cream party at home, then for fried oreos and ice cream, then to use some of his birthday money to order things on Amazon. I let him choose his rewards because they are more meaningful to him. And if he makes it an entire month with at least 4 stickers each week? He can choose a bigger prize, such as the trampoline park, going to see a movie at the theater, or to the local Hands On Museum.

Koby and Kylan both made the honor roll again this 9 weeks!

Leprechauns came on St. Patrick’s Day and we had green oatmeal and green toast to celebrate!

Basketball season came to an end with our boys winning the championship game!

On tournament day, we played our first game at 9am. Another game at 1pm, 4pm, and the championship game was at 6pm. The crazy thing about it was that day was also Kylan and Koby’s birthday party. Conveniently their party was located in the same school right down the hallway, so the basketball team came for a swim and party food before their next game.

Yesterday our basketball coach held a celebration for the team at his home and we couldn’t have asked for better weather, better food, or better entertainment. There were burgers, hot dogs, baked beans, chips, potato salad, cole slaw, veggies and dip, fruits, cookies, cupcakes, brownies. You name it, it was there. The boys shot basketball, played Twister, frisbee, and passed football. There was a game of Uno going on in the dining room, the teenagers had games going in the living room, and most of the adults gathered in the kitchen for conversation. And Klara? She has a boyfriend now. He is the little brother of one of Kylan’s friends. Klara kept saying she wanted to play with him, but that she was, “too shy.” They eventually started playing and played together the entire evening! They looked for cats, played Twister, shared cookies, built a stick house, and Klara said, “Good thing we both got our Nikes on!” Because she says best friends need to match.

While they were gathering sticks I overheard Carter say, “Hey, you wanna be my girlfriend?” Klara said, “Yeah, sure!” Carter said, “I have another one, her name is Corrina. But you’re my best one, okay?” Klara wanted him to come home with us, he wanted her to go home with him, and they shared a sweet hug when they were leaving.

We go to our baseball team’s meet and greet this weekend and we are so ready!

In the classroom

We celebrated our 100th day of school.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day week, we made love potion, used candy hearts to graph colors, and had our class party!

The week of President’s Day, the learned about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and money.

We read Laura Numeroff books and celebrated with fun foods and activities each day.

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day!

For the first day of spring we were fortunate to have lots of sunshine and warmer weather, so we went on a scavenger hunt!

What are your favorite things about spring?!