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Jack's school had a mini-graduation for his kindergarten prep class a few weeks ago. The kids sang several songs and took turns talking about their favorite things from the year. It was only about fifteen minutes, and even by the end of that, the kids were having a very hard time standing still! It was pretty adorable.
After Jack's ceremony was over, we hopped in the car and drove to Minneapolis for the weekend. We visited our good friends Melissa and Jason and their kids and another law school classmate drove up from Des Moines to visit. Five adults and five kids! It had been way too long since getting together, and it was a blast! Just an absolute perfect weekend. Since we didn't get up there until late on Friday, we stayed over until Monday to squeeze a little extra time in.
We started with a trip to the Zoo . . .
And a picnic lunch.
Melissa and Jason live close to one of Minneapolis's lakes, and we walked there for dinner and drinks.
And finished the day with a fire and s'mores!
On Sunday we saw the Twins beat the Blue Jays, and the kids got to run the bases afterward!
Happy 2nd birthday, Lydia!! Our sweet girl turned two last month, and we stretched the celebration over two weeks. Uncle Jimmy was home from California the weekend before, and then we celebrated with everyone else the next weekend. Lydia is a happy, happy girl. She loves to laugh and giggle and be tickled. She especially loves to laugh at her big brother! She has her two-year-old moments, and is quite firm when she knows what she wants, but nothing out of the ordinary. She can count to three and sing her ABCs (mostly). She also has a handful of other songs that she entertains us with on an almost daily basis. And this girl loves her books! She can sit for a long time among a pile of books, reading and singing out loud to herself. She might turn into our little bookworm.
Happy (belated) Easter! We celebrated with church, brunch, family, and naps! Can't beat it! Nothing much more to say, other than it was a great day.
Getting ready . . .
Almost there . . .
C'mon, Jack, just smile . . .
Oh well, close enough
Checking out their Easter baskets
Searching for Easter eggs at Grandma and Grandpa Lenoch's
We also ran in our first 5K of the season--River Run in Iowa City. It felt good to get the jogger out for a spin!
Jack was supervising Herky as he stretched with the kids before the Hawkeye Hustle
Stay tuned for pictures of Lydia's birthday, which is today! Happy 2nd birthday, big girl!
One year ago today, we moved into our Iowa City house! It's been a wonderful year, and we really love our new home. We've already made such great memories--playing outside with the kids in the summer, making forts in the living room, walking to the park, making pancakes and Christmas cookies. Although there will always be projects on our list, we've come a long way already in making it a perfect home for our family to grow up in.
We haven't done much in the last month. We've started some outside projects, done a little spring cleaning in the house, started the kids in swim lessons, used up a lot of sidewalk chalk already, gone through many, many boxes of kleenex as we continue to fight off our winter colds, and walked to the park a few times. Jeff has started riding his bike to work again, usually taking the kids in the bike trailer. The kids love it. Here are a few pictures that we captured in the last month.
Dyeing Easter eggs
Trying on her new shades
First time at Hamburg Inn
Watching the Hawkeye women play in the NCAA tournament
Enjoying the sand table
Our big guy turned 5 last weekend! He had "the best birthday ever!" according to Jack himself. We celebrated on Saturday with a party for some of his friends from school. We invited all of their families, and it was a nice chance to let the kids run around and for us to catch up with their parents. It was a pirate theme, which Jeff and I had fun preparing for. The kids didn't get into it quite as much as we had hoped, but we were still proud of ourselves for pulling it together. On Sunday, which was Jack's actual birthday, we celebrated with a waffle breakfast and a new bike! He has outgrown his balance bike, and we thought it was time he learned how to pedal. The one we bought is slightly too big, but he would have outgrown the next size down by the end of the summer. We've run the risk that he will get frustrated easily with this one, so keep your fingers crossed that he grows quickly this summer! Here are some pictures of his party--I haven't taken any of his bike yet, but it won't be long!
Walking the plank
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle walkie talkies!
Leftover cake on Sunday night and another celebration with family
Earlier this month Jeff and I took a day off work to take Jack skiing at Sundown Mountain in Dubuque. Jack did great! At one point we took him out of the practice area onto a real hill, and it was immediately clear that he was not ready. Jeff and I got mad at ourselves for trying to do too much with Jack too soon, but he was a trooper. After some tears and falls, we made it down. We gave him the choice of quitting then or trying to do more back in the practice area, and he chose to keep going. An hour later, he had mastered the training area and was ready to call it a day with some more hot chocolate! Our only goal for the day was for Jack to have fun so that he would want to go back again next time, and we succeeded. Not sure if we'll get out again this year, but by next year he'll be ready to pick up where he left off.
Also last month was Grandma Jane's birthday! She was feeling pretty recovered from her surgery and was just about to have her first round of chemo, so she was ready to celebrate with some cake.
