Graduation Weekend

This past weekend we got to celebrate several graduations! A good family friend of ours, Dylan, graduated from my school Southeast of Saline--so we enjoyed his party and dessert buffet on Saturday. On Sunday, our cousin Sarah graduated from Belleville--although we skipped graduation, we made it just in time for the fun party at her house! Sarah will be attending Bethany College and we are super excited to have her close by--so told us she would love to baby-sit! Dylan made it into the architect program at K-State--so he might be building our house one day. A great weekend of seeing friends and family and eating wonderful food that we did not have to cook--woo-hoo!

In the last week, Miss Brynn has finally decided to do the walking thing and we are now officially doing more walking than crawling!

Brynn and Sarah at her graduation party.

Cousin Chris--and Uncle Curt got roped into playing basketball and football with Caden--he was hot and sweaty afterwards and loved every minute--thanks guys!

Chris helping Caden get a slam dunk!

My other kids--1st grade

Who remembers their first grade field trip??? Who remembers how exciting going on a bus ride was? Well, last Friday we took our 1st graders to Rolling Hills Refuge--weather wise, it was perfect! Taking kiddos through the zoo was pretty enjoyable as well--we split into our three classes, so it was a little more manageable, but oh the joys of riding a bus!

Thank goodness Rolling Hills is only about 30 minutes from our school as it was loud talking, laughing, and giggling from the moment they stepped on board. To top it all off, we had to have at the top of the lungs singing.

Here is an example--The Wheels on the Bus--many verses!
The top pick of the day by far was this:

MCDONALD'S, MCDONALD'S, A KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN AND A PIZZA HUT, A PIZZA HUT, A PIZZA HUT, A KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN AND A PIZZA HUT--MCDONALD'S, MCDONALD'S

This was sung at least 10-15 minutes on they way to the zoo and a good 10 minutes on the way home--are you jealous yet?? Oh the joys of teaching...and we still go til next Thursday!

A day with Aunt Kristi

The last weekend in April, Layne had to go to Chicago for a couple days for a powder show, so I took the kids to Manhattan for some Kristi Time. It was the weekend of amazing weather--so we headed to the Manhattan Zoo. Smaller, but beautiful zoo--tons of trees, a great playground, and a decent variety of animals. We enjoyed a Burger King sack lunch and then toured the zoo. We all enjoyed being outdoors and soaking up the sun! After the zoo, Kristi had heard on the radio that they were having activities going on at the Hey Baby store over by Target, so we drove that way and they had a fire truck and ambulance for kids to go through and a free jump house. Caden had fun looking at the vehicles and made several stops at the jump house. After naps--taken by all of us--we treated Kristi to dinner at Valentino's--a yummy Italian buffet--with icecream! Thanks for the fun day, Aunt Kristi!

Kristi and Brynn eating lunch.

Climbing on the playset.

Trying to figure out how to use a straw--or maybe just chewing!

This is how Caden ate his lunch--cheeseburger in hand, chasing the bird!

Caden and Kristi posing with the Tiger.

Kangaroo--check out the tongue!

Time to drag out the hats!

Beautiful Peacock!

Feeding the sheep at the petting zoo.

A fun statue with a bush growing as the body.

Driving the fire truck.

A picture with the Manhattan fire truck.

Looking at the ambulance.

Taking a quick break to say Hi to Aunt Kristi in the jump house.

Sunday--Daddy's home and it was nice enough to eat outside--
Daddy thought it would be fun to do see no, hear no, speak no evil---it was close to working!
Welcome back to the party, Daddy!

All about Caden!

April 26, 2010
Caden is 3!

For his birthday meal--Caden had a chocolate shake--and cheeseburger and fries!
Chocolate shake was definitely the highlight!

His birthday smile!

An awesome poem book about trucks from our daycare provider, Valerie!

For his 3 year old check-up, Caden weighed 31 lbs, 2 oz. and was 37 inches tall. He is in the 40th percentile for weight and 30th for height.

Favorite foods: Anything with meat and/or noodles! Some favorites include hot dogs, roast, cheeseburgers, spaghetti, and chicken lo mein noodles from Dillons!

He loves, loves, loves trucks and cars, baseball, basketball, and football and is outside any chance he can get.

Caden is a great counter to the number 10--at times up to 20, knows his colors, shapes, and phone number. He impresses us often with his sense of directions--he knows where to turn to go to Valerie's house---and tells us if we take a wrong turn, he knows which church is our church, and the other day when I took the kids to see Layne at work, pointed out to me where Valerie's husband works. Sometimes Val and the kids take lunch to Roger, her husband, but Val said it had been a couple weeks--wow!

A funny lately---our Parents as Teacher lady came to our house this week and did Caden's 3 year old test and Brynn's 1 year old test. She was seeing if Caden could balance on 1 foot--he did--not for long, but he did. LaNell started to write some notes and Caden was jumping up and down saying, "I can do both feet in the air!" LaNell told him that if he could get both feet up in the air, he would pass the test with flying colors. Caden stopped and looked at her and then laid down on the ground and put both feet in the air and said, "Look, LaNell--both feet in air!" We all laughed very hard and told him how impressed we were with his problem solving! And he did do very well on the test!

Caden also has an amazing love for books and stories--especially at night time. After stories, we say prayers and always do "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep." He has started to ask what is die like. We are telling him that you go to heaven to be with God. Tonight, he asked me again what die was like so I asked him what it was. He said it was to go up. I asked him how he knew that--his answer--Pastor told me! I guess he does listen at church!

Caden--we love you! Your joy of playing and learning new items is amazing! You do test many buttons, but you are also a great helper, friend, and big brother! We are so blessed to have such a healthy, happy boy!