GWL

Oh man.  It's been a while.  We've done a lot since our last post.  I'm just going to play catch up the next few days.  This is the weekend we went to see our niece, H, compete at the Teddy Bear Gymnastics meet in KC.  After the medals and bear were passed out, we headed to Great Wolf Lodge to get wet.

FINALLY!!!

*whew!*

It took a few months, but the snow finally came.  After Santa left the kids sleds for Christmas, they've been hoping for snow, Lydia, especially.  She couldn't believe her eyes this morning when she saw the snow on the ground.  And the first thing she said?

"NOW WE CAN GO SLEDDING!!!!"

H's Teddy Bear Meet

The following are some of my favorite pictures of our niece, H, competing in only her second gymnastics meet ever.  I was blown away at how poised she was.

H and her teammates from Wichita Gymnastics.

Packed Weekend

We had an unusually packed weekend.  With the help of a last minute basketball cancellation, and a last minute scramble to Lydia's mini-recital I was unaware of, we barely made it!  Here is footage of Lydia's latest dance she learned in class.  Notice the itty bitty's on stage right.  They're only 2 but were invited to participate anyway.  Aren't they precious??

After dance class, we packed up the car and headed to KC for our niece's gymnastics meet and some play time at Great Wolf Lodge.  Those pics are coming.  Happy Monday!

Just some highlight photos from Cade's last 3 basketball games.  This season I only get to see half the games.  This year his team is called the Hokies and there are only 5 boys on the team.  These poor guys are loopy and beyond tired by the end of the game.  It takes Cade a good 2 hours or so to recover and get back to normal.

Sans Specs

Cade lost something the other day...

Can you tell?

His glasses!  He's sporting contacts nowadays.  He's been waiting so patiently for this and he's doing great with them.  Can't believe how much older and more handsome he looks.  Heart breaker. 

Dios mio, ayudeme!

Wii Can Dance

So these pics are from way back in 2011.  New Year's Eve, really, so it's still correct.  The kiddos hung out downstairs dancing the night away while the adults were upstairs waiting with baited breath to see if the guy on the motorcycle and the guy on the snowmobile would jump some bay at approximately 90 mph and land at approximately the same time on the landing strip.  Spoiler alert:  they did!  That's an hour we'll never get back. 

Party rockers in the hooouuuse tonight.

December Rewind

We got pretty busy the last couple weeks in December and I wasn't able to keep the blog updated.  So instead, you get this picture-palooza of a post.

Lydia's preschool class went to the Festival of Trees and got to see lots of decorated trees and make an ornament to put on her own tree.

Cade's concert was last Wednesday and it was amazing.  We have the best music teacher.  She has the kids singing like angels.  Every. Single. Time. I wish I had videoed the junior high songs.  One boy's solo brought me to tears.  Merry Christmas!

Now, I missed my cue on this next song and missed about 4 seconds of the beginning.  For those music students out there, that's only about 2 bars, and trust me, once you hear the song, you'll know you didn't miss anything.

Yes.

Happy, happy!

This is so cute I could explode! Have you seen this father/daughter duo on the new Hyundai commercial? Oh my goodness. This little girl is ADORABLE!! Here's a little happy to start your weekend off right. The videos from Cade's Christmas concert will take all weekend to upload (I'm sssooo not joking about that), but they are coming.

In Memoriam

Thank you, Sgt. Enzbrenner, for protecting and serving.  It was an honor to have known you. You will be greatly missed. 

Happy Birthday, Lydia

Lydia turned 4 YEARS OLD over the weekend.  We had the party at her new favorite place, Going Bonkers

It was a big hit and she had a blast.

Cade photo creeping.  It's pretty funny when you notice it.

Going Bonkers

The other day (week) Cade had the day off from school so we went to Going Bonkers.  We've (me and Lydia) had been meeting to check it out for a while, but never seemed to get our act together.  We picked up Cade's pal R and gave it a try.  It. Was. AWESOME!! It's Lydia's new favorite place AND it's an incredible replacement for Chuck E. Cheese's.

*shiver*

I don't have to step foot in that place ever.  Again.  

Thank you, Going Bonkers!

Lydia also picked it to have her birthday party later this week.

   

She waited so long to get on this swing and spent just about the same amount of time swinging on it.

Possibly the most annoying sound in the world...

You said it, sistah!

Happy Tired Halloween

Whew!  The past week getting ready for Halloween has wiped me out!  All I want to do is sleep for 18 hours.  Instead, I'll spend that 18 hours uploading pictures from said week.

It started out with the mother of all holiday traditions:

Now every month for the next 4 or 5 months, we get to re-watch all the old Charlie Brown cartoons.

Next up is Lydia' preschool costume parade and sing-a-long.

Hard to believe Cade was here just 7 short years ago doing the same thing.

Fast forward to yesterday to Cade's costume parade and Trunk-or-Treat.

This is Mrs. Doty.  Every year she has a killer costume.  This year was no different.  She was a friggin' GUMBALL MACHINE!!  Isn't it awesome??  She was counting on a bit cooler weather when she was making it and not the nearly 80 degrees we had yesterday.  When she came out, her bowl was all fogged up from the heat. Hilarious.

In the past, we usually had the drum line from Topeka High march us around the block.

This year our own drum line had the honors and they rocked!

Ursula and Ariel. And our 'Under the Sea' themed trunk. Those poor unfortunate souls had to pass me in this crazy get-up to get their candy. Some of the preschool kids were freaked out.  And so were Cade and Rusty. Cade asked more than once when I was going to take all that make up off. By the end of the night I couldn't wait to wash it off. Surprisingly, it nearly all came off with just water.  I couldn't get it off of the strangest place: mah pits.  Which is really weird because I'm pretty sure I didn't put any there.

Huh.

Cade was the only Finn at school.

Now back home to our own trick-or-treating.

In case you're wondering, Cade and Rusty went as Finn and Jake from Adventure Time.

If I hadn't promised Lydia I would be Ursula to her Ariel, we probably would have been Marceline and the Lumpy Space Princess with the guys.  How fun would that have been?

Strawberry Shortcake was the other ladybug with Lydia a couple years ago.

As usual in our neighborhood, we didn't get very many 'customers'.  Lydia would wait patiently by the door holding the candy bowl, hoping they would show up.  She'd give up and start playing then go running to the door the few times we had 'customers'.  It really was pretty dang cute.

Long Weekend Getaway

Cade had a few days off last weekend and we took advantage by heading over to KC for a few days.

And you know it's going to be a killer weekend when you set off the smoke detector in your hotel room in less than five minutes from walking in the door. True story.

We headed out to Coco Key first.

Lydia didn't remember being here before so it was all new to her.

 

Cade was lucky enough to have an old basketball team mate show up so he was able to run around with him and have some fun on their own.

What is it about swimming that makes you feel famished?  After driving around what seemed like HOURS after we left the water park, we found D'Bronx.  If you've never eaten there, you surely are missing out on some incredible pizza.  The hours long drive seemed well worth the wait.

Also, while we waited for our pie to be made, we got to graffiti the walls and booth.

 

Next morning we headed to Paradise Park, in Lee's Summit, MO.

It was a blast.  If you have a couple kids with an age gap like ours, it's a perfect place to entertain them both at the same time, assuming you're willing to divide and conquer parent-wise.

 He waited for hours for this to open.

Not right there, though.  He occupied his time:

 Finally!  He got to drive the go karts.  Then he got stranded on the track for a while.

Just par for the course on this trip, though.

After a lunch break, we came back and had a blast in the Foam Factory.
Not sure why we were the only parents in there playing.  I'm sure the other parents were wondering what we were doing in there.  I felt like saying, "Hello?  It's a freakin' blast in here!  Come play with yo' kids!"

Saturday morning, we attempted to watch the KU/KSU game, but found it better to do something else.

So we went to the Moon Marble Company.

Again, another win for activites to do with different aged kiddos.  They had all kinds of retro and unique toys plus we got to sit in on a marble making demonstration.

It was a great weekend.  Aside from the cash/credit/smoke alarm snafus we seemed to keep running into, we had a blast.  And we came home with a new favorite game.  SHOOTING MARBLES!  Who knew?  If you've never tried it, I'd definitely recommend it.  Going old school seems to be so in, anyway, don't you think?