The Kassel Family Project Life 365

We had a great weekend visiting family and friends!  We don’t get back there enough, but it’s so hard these days.  Travel with kids is a production, and a big one at that.  Thanks to Chuck and Karen Gilbert for letting us stay at their house.  We all had a great time and the kids loved playing with McDonough, the “fun puppy” as John said.  We ate some great food, had great conversations, and enjoyed looking for eagles in their yard.  We tried to get a picture of the kids with Chuck and Karen, but Laura and John had other plans.  So, we just took a picture of Chuck and Karen and McDonough’s head.  All in all, it was a fun weekend and I’m glad we went!

We went to visit Grandma Marianne and Grandpa Ralph in Astoria.  The kids were extremely excited to see everyone and they played with their cousin, Thomas, for quite a while.  We had pizza for lunch, chatted a lot, and the kids got to have Christmas in February.  John got more Matchbox cars and a puzzle.  Laura got a Crayola coloring kit.  Both kids got a large Toy Story coloring/sticker book.  It was really great to see everyone and we really enjoyed ourselves!

Since Laura did not have school today because it was a teacher workday, we headed to Illinois to visit family and friends.  We stayed in Nauvoo, IL, at Chuck and Karen Gilbert’s home.  Laura was very excited to discover that Chuck has an iPad.  She said, “I’ll show you how to use it.”  The two of them sat down and played Solitaire.

We had a great afternoon and evening filled with food, drinks, and conversation.  It was very relaxing and exactly what we all needed.  We even headed to bed early, but it was great to catch up on sleep and know that we had nothing to do all weekend except visit people.

When both kids were born, Aunt Jill gave them these pillows.  It’s her traditional gift when babies are born.  It became mine as well, because they are so unique.  I still keep them on the kids’ beds even though they don’t use them anymore.  Now, they use full-size pillows with pillowcases made from the same person.  I truly love these!  At times I wonder, “How old do the kids have to be before I have to put them in their memory boxes?”  I hope it’s a very, very long time from now.

“Satisfactory” and “Proficient” are all through Laura’s Kindergarten Progress Report!  She’s doing great and she’s exactly where she should be.  Our Parent-Teacher-Student conference was full of good news and information.  In math, she has met the end of Kindergarten counting and identifying goals by accurately counting to 50 and correctly identifying all numbers 1-31.  The only somewhat negative thing is that she appears to have anxiety when she knows she is being assessed.  That is something that Mommy can REALLY relate to as I am exactly the same way.  It’s nothing we can’t deal with though.  All in all, it was a great conference and we are very proud of Laura!  She even received a “Good Citizen Award” for being a good girl at school and following the rules.

This is Laura’s first school T-shirt.  Ridgeway Elementary School’s colors are blue and gold and the school mascot is the ram.  The words you see on the shirt are from the kids.  They asked all the kids what they liked most about Ridgeway.  The words are the compilation of those.  The larger the word, the more kids used that word to describe what they like most.

Newman is addicted to ice cubes….yes, ice cubes.  She MUST have ice cubes in her water.  In fact, she’s downright insistent.  She can make some serious noise when she wants ice cubes.  We feel that it is better to feed the addiction than fight it.  Two ice cubes in her water dish at least one time per day makes the meowing stop.  Trust me….no one likes a meowing, insistent Newman.