Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

We hit the pavement (literally) this afternoon with all the wheels...bikes, scooters, skateboards and roller skates. We were all over the cul-de-sac with our riding gear. I would have pics, but I was in my roller skates as well and was too nervous to take the camera out with me. What fun...chilly, but fun!!! Can't wait for the weather to warm up...we'll be out there ALL the time!!! :)

Talking on the Phone!!!

In calling Ms. J this morning to catch up, Ken answered the phone. How fun is that? Well, Little Miss A overheard that I was talking to Ken and immediately needed to talk too. She picked up the phone and walked straight to the book nook closing the door behind her. (Ya think she's seen this before? I swear I can't carry a halfway intelligent phone conversation without constant interruptions so I am always "on the run" while on the phone.) Now I am the chaser of the one on the phone. Fun to see the tables turned...maybe they now have some kind of idea how it feels. :) Once I finally got my hands on the phone to potentially talk to Ms. J, Mr. D started freaking out that he didn't get to talk. Apparently Mck was the same way at Ms. J's house. So D got to talk to Mck, then Mck and Little Miss A got to chit chat as well. Once the kid conversations had subsided, I finally got to talk to MY friend. We just LOVE our bffs!!!! Sad that we don't get to see them often enough. Can't wait to see you guys tonight!

Ice Skating at School...

As part of wrapping up their winter unit at school, Ms. A had an ice skating party in class today...sliding through shaving cream. Fun, right?!?! A project Mommy would never have taken on at home. :) Little Miss A and Mr. D said they had so much fun. I was so sad to miss it, but I had an office campus meeting all day, so wasn't able to witness this amazingly fun event. Thankfully Ms. J said they took lots of pics at school so hopefully I can get my hands on a couple to add to this post. :)

January or July?

Okay, both months start with a J and end in a Y and that's pretty much where the similarities end. Not that our local weather has been particularly warm or anything. In fact there were days this week that were bitter cold, but my little girl CONSTANTLY wants to wear her bathing suits after school!!!! She gets home and changes. It's actually kind of fun to see just how much she has grown since summer. The one in this picture was actually a little too big at the end of summer, but is decidedly smaller now. :)

Not sure what this about or where the idea is coming from, but tonight she has convinced me to let her go swimming in my tub. Maybe we left swimming lessons too early, but after my earlier post this week, I can't imagine having "one more thing." I'll take tub time swimming any day!!! :)

Love the People...

Mr. D made a sign yesterday after school that read "COME. ENTER." He took it outside to the front balcony and starts screaming to the neighbors, COME...ENTER!!!! Inviting all these people to our house. Heads up, we really don't know our neighbors yet, so they probably now think we are CRAZY!!!! (Not that there were any questions prior to this with all the crazy noise that constantly seems to permeate from our house. Mr. D STILL only has one volume level and that is...EXTREMELY LOUD!!!!!) Mr. D is now insisting that we need to have our neighbors over for a party.

Well, apparently it wasn't limited to this one incident, the invitations continued at school today. All his classmates and their parents, pretty much anyone who would listen, now has an open invitation to some FIRE party at our house this weekend. WHAT?!?! Oh yeah, he's telling everyone that he and his Daddy are making a big fire in the backyard and we'll be having smores. Yes Aunt K, he already has his and Little Miss A's smore sticks out from this summer. He is ready to go!!! He started asking if he can call his friends. I guess we need to consider having a get together at the house sometime soon since their birthday is still a LONG time from now. :) Crack me up...he just LOVES people!!!!

Kitchen Chemistry

I am in the middle of a kitchen chemistry project with my 2nd graders at school and have been having so much fun that it made me realize it had been a while since the Caswell Kids had an afternoon in the kitchen with Mommy! So, we went straight home from school and made chocolate chip cookies. Our usual version is to grab the package out the fridge, open, place the cookie squares on a cookie sheet, bake, done! Nope, not today, we measured, we mixed, we tasted and baked it together. It was awesome!!! I miss our old Cooking Club we had with playgroup. Maybe we'll start a new group with some neighborhood friends instead. :)

After School Activities...

Holy crow, adding gymnastics to a school night on the same evening as dance made for a whirlwind of an afternoon. Seriously Ms. J, I have NO IDEA how you've been doing this ALL year with ALL FOUR!!!! You are my hero!!! :)

turning cartwheels

We left school at 4:00, raced through sonic for drinks...we haven't done that in a LONG time. (What a nice treat!) Got to gymnastics right as class was starting.

Mr. D at 4:00

We were there for an hour, then it was off to dance. Got to dance class right as it was starting. There for another hour.

ready to go...

Finally on our way home since leaving for school that morning at 7:15 am...it's now 7:15 pm!!!! What a long day!!! I'm exhausted...surely Little Miss A and Mr. D are too.

free dance

At home, it was dinner, tub, bed, done! What a whirlwind!!!

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

In honor of today, the kids have been learning about Chinese culture and among other things made lanterns and a giant dragon to parade around the school. With instruments in hand, they hit the hallway this morning. The kids all did great. They loved seeing other kids in the hallway and were all smiles as they walked through the different neighborhoods of our school. What a fun activity!!!

Harry Potter

I know I've posted on this before, but seriously my son is OBSESSED with Harry Potter. After Halloween I raided the costume store for anything HP thinking how fun it would be to have a Harry Potter birthday party next year. Well, I was so excited about it all, I couldn't resist and showed him everything I found. After the purchase, we placed everything in the attic. Although recently he has been asking almost EVERYDAY if we can get it down. (It was going to be a REALLY long year if I didn't give in...I'm a softie I know. It was so much fun to see how excited he got about everything. In hindsight I probably should have just done this for part of Christmas instead. Oh well, he is heaven. :)

Everyday at school he wants to make badges, paint a scar on his head, you name it. I'm telling you he LOVES Harry Potter and anything witch/wizard related. :)

Roses...

Last week one of Little Miss A's dance friends received a rose from her Daddy after class. Of course, Little Miss A REALLY wanted one too!!!! So, when D's surprise showed up on the doorstep (that's another post for later) Daddy brought home a beautiful pink rose for Little Miss A and a red one for me. (So sweet!!!) Our daughter was in heaven, okay I won't lie, I was too!!! She wanted to find just the right vase to put it in and make sure that it had plenty of water. Two happy girls!!! Flowers may need to be a more frequent occurrence in the Caswell house. :)

Gymnastics...FINALLY!!!!

After a LONG time on the waiting list at the gym Mr. D took gymnastics at last year, we finally got into Ms. L's class. YEA!!!! D was so excited to start back in. The class was far more challenging than last year. It was really obvious that we had missed the past 5 months...I guess we need to stay enrolled through the summer to keep his spot for next year. :) It was really fun to watch the kids though, there is this little boy in class that must be at least a head taller than Mr. D that was turning one handed cartwheels!!!! WOW!!! It won't be long until Mr. D is right there with him! :) As we were leaving, I was catching up with one of my friends that has her daughter in the same class and Mr. D took the opportunity to climb the handicapped parking pole. Gymnastics brought out this side of him last year as well....little monkey. Here we go again...let the games begin!

Happy New Year...a little late!!!

What a way to ring in the new year...a fun, relaxing evening with family!!!! We decided it was going to be an afternoon of appetizers and a hibachi dinner later in the evening. As the snacks were laying around, Mr. D decided he needed a few of the paper bowls we had out. The little man headed upstairs for his next creative activity and comes back down claiming that he needs string. Since we didn't have string he had to get creative. The project...he had single-handedly created party hats for everyone. He decorated the tops, punched holes in the sides and slipped dental floss through each hole creating the perfect hat strap. The picture above was taken at EXACTLY midnight with everyone in the party hats to celebrate the occasion!!! It was awesome!!! The kids blew bubbles and did poppers on the back patio and even had "kiddie bubbles" with the adults.