Silly faces, waiting for Santa!

mom... do you recognize these pj's??

Merry Christmas!!

Jack reads Kate a story...

These kids are as sweet as sugar.

Jack "reads" to Kate all the time.

He is very serious about it -

He has her select her story,

they sit down together

and he will read

Sometimes his stories are very scary.

A superhero is almost always involved.

Generally, he will also include the characters he sees on the pages of whatever book Kate selected.

In this instance, he is reading Little Mermaid,

But there is also a mean Dragon and a Giant.

We are also working on 'real' reading.

He knows some words by sight;

Batman

Super Friends

Green Lantern

and

Zoo

Guess what kind of books he and I read together?

Happy Halloween!

Karate Kid

This video is from Jack's most recent Karate test.

And,

A few photos.

You can just see how proud he is.

So Proud....

On Father's Day, this Dad taught his son to ride his bike without training wheels.

(yes, I'm a bit behind in my posts...)

This lovely girl stood roadside in her wagon and cheered her brother on...

(this was a video, but for some reason I can't add the clip. Maybe later)

This sweet boy got a bit sweaty, and a bit banged up, but he amazed us all...

By taking off with the first push and successfully riding all the way down the street...

... a little to our dismay, as we had not given him any instructions on how to stop the bike.

Ooops...

One big crash. But, he was right back at it.

Stay tuned.

Someone is getting a new bike this weekend - one that is not too small :)

I expect we'll be doing a lot of bike riding.

Mr. Manners

Jack was involved in an unfortunate school yard "incident" on Monday.

A stick that was in his hand somehow collided with his playmate Olivia's face.

In Jack's own words "she got a bleed".

As I signed the incident report I felt terrible for poor Olivia, and of course ready to dole out a serious punishment.

The teacher assigned to the playground that afternoon came and spoke with me, and assured me that this had been nothing more then an accident...

...that a number of children were waving sticks in the air...

and none of them were watching where they were going

and that Jack was not really to blame.

Relief flooded over me.

And then,

I paused to wonder -

Under what circumstances was it o.k. for a group of four year olds to be waving sticks around on the playground?

That was probably the most disconcerting part.

Jack made this for Olivia when he got home.

I hope she likes it.

Off to School

Jack and Kate worked together this morning to coordinate their outfits for school.

They were extremely proud of themselves

Jack insisted on a photo redo, he was not happy that Kate blocked her bat wings with her baby.

You can see, he's got his eye on her to make sure the second take was correct.

Kate & Morgan

Kate made a new friend today.

At a birthday party, she waited patiently in line to ride a pony.

When her turn came - she was particular, she wanted only to ride the "beautiful one".

I had her queued up to ride a tiny polka dot pony (it matched her dress).

She refused, and we restarted in line so she could ride the object of her affection- Morgan.

Jack had other ideas about how he wanted to spend his time...

Multiple runs down the double water slide

and a brief stop at the decorate your own cupcake station...

February 2008 Kate

I saw these photos cycle through my desktop wallpaper while I was on my treadmill a few moments ago.

Some of my favorite pics of Kate from her hat wearing days.

It would appear, that in Feb '08, Kate spent a lot of time sleeping on my bed.

And, no, the helmet didn't bother her at all... :)

Have a super day!

This is for you Mom!

Mom-

I hope you're reading this. This is our new tent. :)

Please note, the Christmas lights and the Astro turf.

Yup, we're all that.

This is Florida after all.

Most important, the kids have a blast.

Happy kids = Happy Me.

(this probably sounds familiar)

Here are some photos from our most recent escapade, Wekiva Springs National Park

Kate waiting for S'mores

Jack, indulging

This is Kate's happy dance

Jack is attempting to leap this fence in a single bound

This girl is way too happy. The water in this spring is always 72 degrees. It was refreshing, but I couldn't see hanging around all day in there. Kate, disagreed.

Jack, establishing a perimeter of superheroes around our campsite

The end of another day.

Could I be more proud?

Jack tested on Saturday for his "first" Karate belt.

As you can see, he passed his test.

He did an awesome job.

Sensei Julius really is amazing. I've never seen Jack listen so well.

I wonder if he makes house calls?

Jack broke two boards - one with his kick and one with his punch. And, he'd be quick to tell you he did them both on the first try.

And, Kate.

Jack's biggest cheerleader.

Not even his Mom claps as hard.

The booty dance

One of Jack's favorite words is booty. Unfortunately, it's now Kate's favorite too. Some days all I hear is booty this, booty that. What's interesting is that this love affair with the word began one day when Jack came home from school and announced that "booty is speaking Spanish for everything". I can't explain it, but it sure does make him laugh. From then on, booty has become an adjective that is sprinkled all over our daily conversation.

He also knows that it is a dance that involves shaking one's booty. Here's a sneak peak of him in action with his cousin- click triangle to play the video.

Did the Easter Bunny bring you a slip and slide?

It was really Aunt Mia who brought the slip and slide...

and for that, we thank her!

Two Cousins

This picture is the best depiction of how Kate and Matthew feel about each other :)

That's not to say that the Ely boys and the Helgerud children don't all love each other, but Matthew and Kate have a particular affinity for each other.

Kate, who rarely lets anyone carry her around, would let Matthew carry her everywhere.