Hello? Spring? Can you hear me?

Ok, I know March is over, but Cameron brought this home last week and it is worth sharing because we have been having the worst weather ever. I've always said that I'll take rain over snow any day and I still stand by that, but this year is a true test.  It feels like it's been raining for 5 months straight, probably because it has. Cameron tracks his "recess" weather at school and this a reflection of all of the MWF's of March. Yes that's right, 1 sunny day. I'm worried we are going to have to wait until the 5th of July before the real sun comes.

March Madness

My work had a March Madness bracket challenge so I thought it would be fun to have the kids help me pick the teams. I pulled up each team's mascot and had the kids pick the winner based on the mascot.  I was shocked at how many of them I had no idea what they were so we had fun making up names (Wichita State Wheatheads!) Cameron loved the "Little Leprechauns" (Fighting Irish) and it was really fun to go through the teams mascots with them. We went through all of the teams and Addy had also figured out the rankings so she did show some preference for the lower numbers, but they also picked some underdog winners based on the mascot. It made the tournament really fun to watch because we followed which of our teams were winning and kept track of each game. Out of the 64 team we correctly picked the final 2 and I ended up winning the bracket! I feel like I should have the kids pick out some lottery tickets!

April Fool's

For April Fool's day Addy was determined to play a trick on each person in the family. She spent a lot of time thinking about each person's trick. Even though she wanted to do a trick, she had a little bit of a struggle about how to do it. If it involved be untruthful, she kept telling me, "but that is lying and we don't lie!" I told her it was ok one this one day to tell a little white lie as long as you can follow it up with telling them "April Fools!" She wasn't sure, but decided it might be necessary. 

For Cameron's trick she decided to tell him that there was a real live monkey at the birthday party she went to at a gymnastic's studio. She said the monkey was on the monkey bars and he was doing tricks. At first Cameron immediately said, "you're joking, this is an April Fool's joke!" But Addy stuck with it and did a great job convincing Cameron and had very elaborate stories about the monkey. The best part was when we got home they told Brian and he also wasn't sure what to make of it and later asked me "was their really a monkey at this party?" But Addy had a different joke in mind for Brian. She really wanted to do something to his food. She was going to put a bunch of pepper in a sandwich, but then decided to put sugar on his potatoes for dinner. I did it and tried to make it look like salt, but maybe put a bit too much on. He didn't notice though! He ate all of the potatoes and then Addy told him about the joke and yelled April Fools. 

The best joke she played was probably on me. This morning I came downstairs and there was a cup of coffee in my mug on the counter with a note that said, "A cup of coffee for Mommy, compliments of Addy, enjoy." I had programmed the coffee maker the night before, and I was so happy to see a cup was already waiting for me. I picked it up, took and sip and then immediately spit it out! It was old, cold coffee! Addy had gotten Brian to make coffee the night before so he could leave it out for me. She got me good that little April Fool's joker!

The Master Man

Last week it was time for the parent teacher conferences for Cameron. We have just loved his teacher and it is clear that she loves Cameron too. She talked a lot about what a special kid Cameron is and how kind and helpful he is to all of his classmates. She said there are 4 main areas that they evaluate the kids on, and that the highest level is referred to as master and that Cameron is a master in all four categories! She said he is exceeding all expectations for his age. We are so proud of our sweet smart little boy.

100 days....late

Almost a month ago, Addy celebrated her 100th day of school, and apparently I forgot to celebrate it on the blog. Mom fail.

Addy had to come up with something to make that involved the number 100. She thought very hard and knew that she wanted her project to be made of legos. She came up with a very creative idea and ended up making the number 100 out of 100 pieces of legos. She was the first one to finish her project and bring it to school and then on the 100th day everyone had to explain and share their project with the rest of the class. Here was her explanation.

Why did you choose the project that you did?

Because I love legos! I was playing with them and I knew I had 100 legos. And could make the number 100. 

What were the hardest and easiest parts?

The easiest part was finding the pieces because I had so many. The hardest part was making the towers even. Because I could only use 100 pieces.

How does your project represent the number 100?

1. There are 100 lego pieces. 2. The legos make the number 100.

Great job Addy! And happy belated 100th day of school.

Spring!

Spring is finally here, although some days it's hard to believe. But the flowers are blooming and last weekend there was 1 day of no rain so we made the most of it. It was free state park day so we headed to one and did some hiking. It was awesome...except when it wasn't. The kids were great the entire time until it was time to go back up the trail. Addy protested several times and did a "sit in" refusing to walk up the hill. Luckily she was convinced to continue and we survived the adventure. We got some great pictures though and it was a good reminder of the sunny weather we will hopefully be getting more of soon. It has been a long rainy winter.

That'll be $5 please

Addy is almost done with the cookie selling "season" and the last part is selling with other girls in her Girl Scout Troop at stands outside of stores. She had her first round of stand selling last week and did great! The girls were very sweet to everyone who walked by and they did a great job selling cookies. Addy met her goal already and now they are just trying to raise more money for the troop. It was very cute to see them in action.