Kota Tumbling

Miss Dakota takes a tumbling class one night a week and she LOVES it! She asks every day if she gets to go to 'nastics.  So far her class has learned forward and backwards rolls, walking forwards and backwards on the balance beam, and they do a lot of climbing and jumping to improve gross motor skills and balance.

Sorry for the blurry picture, but that's our little Dakota in white with her hands raised above her head. She was ready to show off her skills!

Sitting patiently with her class while her teacher gives instructions.

Standing on top of the mats, waiting her turn.

Go Dakota Go!

Heading to the trampoline.

Woohoo!

Jaxon Tumbling

Along with hockey, Jaxon is also taking a tumbling class one night a week. He loves it and comes home every week and uses our living room as a tumbling mat (I have no idea where he got that idea from). They started with backward and forward rolls and now are progressing to cartwheels and straddle rolls. The tumbling has been such a great outlet for energy, plus they work a ton on gross motor skills as well as flexibility.

Warming up with the pike stretch.

Perfecting his backward roll.

Pretty sure the trampoline is the kids' favorite part!

Showing off his balancing skills on the balance beam.

Jaxon and buddy, Griffin, waiting their turn.

The siblings watching patiently.

Jaxon's Art Work

As much as I want to save EVERYTHING my kids make, it's not possible. I mean they're only 2 and 4, the cute, handmade art will only increase from here, so I have to pick and choose. My mom had the fantastic idea to buy a 3-ring binder and fill it with page protectors, then put the projects and art I can't live without in the binder. My goal is one binder per year, starting with preschool. That's managable, right? And it's much easier to store and label things that way. So for now, everything gets displayed on the fridge for a few days, then when the space is needed for the next great art piece, I decide if it's something we keep and it goes in the binder. Things that don't get kept, I try to take pictures of, so at least I'll be able to look at them for years to come. Here's some fantastic art Jaxon did during free time at preschool one day:

I must add that he is super proud of the fact that he knows how to spell everyone's name in our family. And since this photo was taken (about a month ago), he has learned to write our names with lowercase letters and our bodies now have arms, feet, and sometimes clothes and shoes! Kid art rocks!!

Preschool Halloween Party

I was blessed with the task of organizing Jaxon's Halloween party for his preschool class. Halloween is, by far, not my favorite holiday; something about grown people dressing as weird, bloody zombie-looking things and ringing my doorbell on October 31 has somehow ruined the kids-in-adorable-costumes-parading-through-the-neighborhood-together part. But, I was thrilled to help with his party and spend some extra time with my little guy.

We played Pin the Nose on the Jack-O-Lantern, the kids made an adorable spider craft, we read a fun story about a monster, they decorated their own cupcakes for snack and we finished with a game of "Hot (Potato) Pumpkin". It was awesome seeing Jax in his element, interacting with his friends.

Enjoying his plain cupcake - no frosting, no sprinkles - he cannot be my kid! I wanted to take his little bowl of orange frosting and eat it myself, but figured that would be inappropriate.

Friends from preschool enjoying snack.

And more friends.

And some more - there's his buddy, Griffin all the way to the right.

There are only 5 girls in his class (and 10 boys), pray for his teachers.

Sissy came to the party with me and she was perfect. They had one extra chair during snack, so she found her way to it and decorated her cupcake like a pro - now she I can claim!

Hockey

Jaxon has decided he wants to play hockey, so we decided to give it a try this year. Our town has a great peewee program run by our parks and recreation department. It is broken into 3 sessions and runs from October until March. It is three nights a week, 45 minutes each night. We've been warned that it is an extremely expensive sport once they get to about high school age. We're just planning to take it one year at a time for now.

He has been playing now for several weeks and he LOVES it. He is very determined and doesn't get discouraged. Ever. For now, they are learning to skate, but beginning Monday, they will add hockey sticks. We've got some better photos than this, but I wanted to get something on here since it has been awhile since my last post. He is the cutie in the blue and black pants with the red sweatshirt.

Jaxonisms and Dakotaisms

Funny things heard from the mouth of our four year old lately...

- "Mom! I can spell DVD now, want to hear it? D - V - D!"

- This morning we woke up and it was a bit foggy outside. "Mom, why is it so fRoggy?"

- Jaxon took a toy, that belongs to Dakota, and insisted he got to play with it because he found it first. That is the standing rule in our home, but it upset her very much. And it was at a very stressful time in the morning when I'm trying to brush teeth, brush hair, wash faces, pack backpacks, pack lunches, hustle everyone out the door and toward the car...so I said, "I know you had it first, but look at her. Does it make you feel good to see her crying like that?" His reply, "I'm actually not looking at her, so I don't know." Wow.

- Regarding his buddy, Griffin, "Mom, I love Griffin's voice."




And from the mouth of our 2 year old...

- Anytime there are sports on a TV screen, she yells, "Go K-State Royals!!" Perhaps there is a bit of confusion with the teams we are cheering for lately.

- She loves to eat anything anyone else is. Lately she wants to eat Jason and I's pistachios and asks for: "More pidasios please."

- She takes a tumbling class through the Parks and Rec department (as does Jaxon) and every night she asks if she gets to go to "Nastics".

- And some may not appreciate this humor, but this is one funny that I don't want to forget about years down the road; recently we were among a group of people and it smelled like someone passed some gas. Dakota then says, "Someone pooped in my nose." Her way of describing what she was suddenly smelling, I suppose.

Cuddles Visits

Jaxon has a fun activity with his preschool class that involves a visitor coming home with him. He was very excited the third week of school when Cuddles, the teddy bear, was sent home in Jaxon's backpack. The teacher encourages Cuddles to attend family activities throughout the days he is with your child, then there's an opportunity to journal about your time with Cuddles. We had a good time reading the journal entries from his classmates who have taken Cuddles home the first few weeks, and especially enjoyed the story of a classmate's sibling throwing Cuddles into a family pond (don't worry, Grandma got him all washed up). I decided to take some pictures of Jax and Cuddles (as suggested by the teacher) so he could share them with his classmates.

Cuddles met Daddy on the computer since he was on a trip that week.

Cuddles rode in our car to Jaxon's tumbling class. Jaxon made sure to buckle him in for safety.

Cuddles waited patiently with Jaxon and Dakota while chocolate chip cookies baked in the oven.

Jaxon wasted no time introducing Cuddles to his fleet of airplanes.

Fishsticks and applesauce for dinner! Cuddles decided to pass, as he was holding out for some honey.

Marigold Festival Parade

The kids and I went to the Marigold parade again this year. Unfortunately, it appears that the parade will be during drill weekend every year, so Jason may never get to see the parade with us. We love this parade because we get to watch it with our church family. Some friends from church live right on the parade route and invite people each year to enjoy the parade right from their front yard.

Jaxon and Dakota entertaining each other with friend, Owen.

I'm not sure hwat she's holding out for here. Probably candy.

The kids with their friend, Ethan.

Rodway Reunion

We met up with our wonderful friends, Chris and Mae, in Indianapolis last week. We first met them in Mississippi, when we arrived down there for pilot training, four years ago. Jaxon was just six months old then, and they got to watch him grow up and embrace major milestones as a baby. They are part of the Air National Guard unit in Bangor, Maine, and because of distance, it has been very difficult to get together. When we discovered they were coming to Kentucky for a visit, we knew we didn't want to miss an opportunity to see them.



When we all arrived in Indianapolis, we were hungry for lunch. Our plan was to meet at the hotel around 12:30. I was so excited when they called that morning to say they were on track to be there right about 12:30. "Us too!!" I replied. A few hours later they called to confirm our ETA and this dork realized I had planned for us to arrive at 12:30 central and Indianapolis is in the Eastern time zone!! We were an hour later than planned, but still made it by lunch time. After lunch we laid the girls down for quick naps, then headed to the hotel pool to SWIM!!

Hello beautiful Sophia!

The next morning, we headed over to the Indianapolis Zoo.

All Aboard! Riding the train was the only thing on Jaxon's To-Do list for the zoo.

After the zoo, we started to walk back to the hotel, but the boys wanted to do a quick treasure hunt for a Geocache.

My first Geocache!

First Day of School

Yesterday was Jaxon's first day of preschool! It's hard to imagine that the tiny baby that once fit in Jason's hand is old enough to go to school. He is enrolled at a small school three mornings a week. He is very excited about preschool and I'm positive he'll have a wonderful year. He has two teachers and only 15 kids in the class. He had a huge grin on his face going in yesterday and a huge grin on his face when I picked him up. It's going to be a fabulous year!

Dakota is going to the TLC program that Jaxon attended last year. She will go every Wednesday morning for 4 hours. Yesterday was her first day of TLC and she had an excellent day. She didn't hesitate to go in to the classroom and had LOTS to say about "school" when I picked her up.

Are you trying to figure out what I'm doing with my time for 3 hours every Wednesday morning? Well, I have to be honest, it was a difficult choice to enroll both. I know Jaxon will thrive at preschool, so there was really no debate on whether or not he'd go. I wanted to keep Dakota all to myself on the days Jax is at school, but Jason really encouraged me to take one morning a week for myself. Already I've been able to schedule doctor's appointments, dentist appointments and hair appointments, kid-free, on Wednesday mornings without paying a babysitter! But don't worry, it's not all business, I did manage to sit at Starbucks for a full hour and read on my first Wednesday morning of the school year.

Ready to start TLC.

"A picture with my backpack mom."

Both kids ready for a new adventure.

Not sure how well you can read it, someone let the dry erase markers dry out. It says: First Day of Pre K ~ September 5, 2012 ~ When I grow up I want to be A Hockey Player.

A picture outside his school.

Jaxon and his buddy, Griffin, excited to start preschool.