We spent the evening with an old friend, Jason Rooks. Jason was our roommate at one point in time when he needed a place to stay while finishing up his college degree at Mizzou. We hadn’t seen him in years, but we keep up via Facebook. He is in town for training and so everything worked out to have him over for dinner. We had a great evening just hanging out, enjoying a few drinks, and catching up on life. He really hasn’t changed much aside from being older and wiser. Andy and I were surprised to see how much John liked him too. Usually, John is shy around new people, but that was not the case from the beginning with Jason. We definitely have to make sure that we don’t go so long in between visits next time!
Option 1 or Option 2
This morning, Laura was crying about everything. This is a sure signal of one of two possible options: illness or extreme tired. Since she wasn’t running a fever, Andy assumed it was extreme tired. He left a note for Brian, her after-school babysitter, to encourage her to take a nap. Brian did exactly that, and I found her sound asleep when I got home from work – not 10 minutes *after* Laura got off the bus. We have one tired girl.
Easter Decorations
Another St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone and with that arrives the Easter decorations. The kids (and Andy too!) were a great help tonight as I decorated for Easter. The kids’ favorite is placing the Easter Baskets and plastic eggs on the stairway.
My favorite part of decorating for Easter is the ability to put out my favorite Easter basket and my favorite bunnies. They get a special spot on the wine shelf. (BTW, I don’t think Andy has a favorite. I know he likes all the decorations for every holiday, but I also think he finds great amusement in my need to decorate…)
I am sad that it is only two weeks to Easter this year! I especially love the years that we get to leave the decorations up for a while. Maybe I will conveniently forget that Easter is March 31 and leave the decorations up for another week or so after that…
St. Patrick’s Day!
It was a busy St. Patrick’s Day! It started with an epic Mom fail. While getting John ready for church, I realized he was wearing a pair of *Laura’s* pink underwear. The following conversation ensued…
- Me: John, why are you wearing Laura’s underwear?
- John: Because you gave it to me Mommy!
- Me: John, if I ever give you Laura’s underwear again, just tell me no.
- John: But you get mad when I tell you no Mommy.
If this isn’t a sign that *maybe* I need to slow down a bit when getting the kids ready for bed or maybe I need more sleep, I don’t know what is! And NO, I did NOT take a picture of my epic Mom fail… Though maybe I should have…
I ended up taking the kids to church and Sunday School because Andy is on call and, of course, he got a call right as we were supposed to leave. John is finally really warming up to the idea of Sunday School. I told him that he had to sit quietly through church or he couldn’t go to Sunday School. I’ll be darned if that didn’t work. As soon as the Sunday School opening was complete, he was off to find his teachers and didn’t even look back to say goodbye to me. Maybe he’s finally growing up a bit…
After church, we stopped at Target and then headed for home. Almost as soon as we got home, Andy left to go to the Mizzou’s Sigma Chi house to lead post-initiation training. In the meantime, I squeezed in some laundry and a tiny bit of cleaning. Tamara also stopped by to chat for a bit and drop off her laptop for Andy to work on. Then, we left to meet Jeremy at Flat Branch for our traditional St. Patrick’s Day afternoon meal. The kids tried Onion Rings for the first time (they are not fans), Andy got his Corned Beef and Cabbage, and the three adults had some tasty beer. Oil Change Oatmeal Stout for me please!
On a funny side note, Andy had to return to the truck to get his laptop to handle an on-call problem. On the way back into Flat Branch, he was stopped by an older woman who just had to give him a kiss. Turns out that she was related to one of the original writers of “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi.” Can you guess why he got a kiss?
After returning home from Flat Branch, I was pretty much done for the day. We gave the kids a bath, I finished up the laundry, and went to bed. It was a great, but very tiring St. Patrick’s Day!
Ridgeway Elementary Fun Day!
Along with Kathryn, we attended Ridgeway Elementary’s Fun Day annual fundraiser. Just like last year, Laura and Kathryn got their faces panted with Laura choosing a cat face and Kathryn choosing an angel.
Also like last year, John was largely interested in all the sports games. His favorites were basketball, which he’s ridiculously good at, and mini golf. After a quick lesson and some small adjustments from Andy, John easily holed the golf ball.
All the kids came home with bags full of small and larger prizes. They all said that they had a great time, so it was another successful “Fun” Day! We ended our Fun Day in the gymnasium to watch the Big Drawing. Unlike last year, we did not win a package, but you *might* be able to easily see why. The tumbler was so full of tickets that the tickets wouldn’t tumble when turned. To give you some perspective, the holder was 2/3 full last year…
Also unlike last year, we actually won three items in the Silent Auction. Chalk another $155 to Ridgeway Elementary from the Kassel Family. We won a Mizzou Sports Bag full of sports items donated by the Unit B classes, a Pampered Chef drink set, and two haircuts to Sport Clips. While it may seem like we spent a lot of money on the items, a rough estimate of cost puts the total worth of the three sets of items at over $300. I think we made out pretty well!
We all had a great time again at Fun Day! We appreciate all the hard work that everyone puts in to make all the “little fundraisers” into one big day of fun for everyone!
Beautiful Friday!
The weather was beautiful and we took full advantage. Andy fired up the charcoal grill, the kids played outside, Jeremy came over, Dan and Megan (some neighbors) made a surprise appearance, and we drank some good beer. It was a perfect Friday evening in March!
Laura decided to “fish” from the swing set for a while.
Uncle Jeremy and John played “table golf.” I *think* John was enjoying himself.
How do you tell that the weather is warm and beautiful at the Kassel Household? Make sure to check the charcoal grill!
It was a great Friday in March!
Kindergarten Registration and Volleyball
Today was a big day for John despite getting sick in his bed at 2 am and staying home from preschool all day. He is now registered for Kindergarten! Unlike Laura’s Kindergarten registration, this one was very low key. Since John gets to go to Ridgeway Elementary because he is a sibling of a current student, it wasn’t the big “to do” like it is at the other elementary schools in town. We went to the school office, they checked his paperwork, made a couple copies, and we were done. It was very easy. He was excited and we did stop into his classroom. He was shy with Mrs. Hanney, who will be his teacher, but he did seem very interested in his future classroom. We will take him to choice time in May to get him more acquainted with the classroom and we are also considering summer school for him. (And I didn’t take any pictures of Kindergarten Registration for John, but there also weren’t really any opportunities for pictures. It was just so different from when we registered Laura!)
After all that excitement, it was off to Culver’s for a quick dinner and then Andy took Laura to a Volleyball Clinic with the MU Women’s Volleyball Team held especially for Girl Scouts. Laura attended with three of her troopmates (Hannah, Reagan, and Annabelle) and they all had a great time! They shared high fives after each rotation. Go Daisy Scouts! When she got home, she told me all about the fun. She loved setting the ball! Maybe she really is my daughter after all. She’s a girl after my own heart. (Thanks to Tom Childs for snapping some amazing pictures! Today’s photo is brought to you by him.)
