Easter Activities

Austin had his kindergarten screening.  Originally I thought we would be with him but that was not the case.  I dropped him off and picked him up in an hour.  I was worried because he learned his phone number right before the screening (we practiced and made up a song a week before the screening).  He also does not know how to tie his shoes yet.  He does know his address, letters, numbers, shapes.  He is good with numbers and adding and subtracting.  He doesn't read yet.  He can write letters well and needs practice with numbers 2 and 5.  These are all my observations.  We won't know anything from the school for about a month.

Last year I wanted to go to breakfast with the Easter bunny at the zoo but it was sold out.  This year, I made sure we got tickets.  I got tickets about a month before the event so had no idea what the weather was going to be like.  We got lucky and it was a beautiful warm day with high around 60.  That was fabulous for March.  We've had a very mild winter with little snow this year.

When we got there we went to breakfast first.  It was a buffet breakfast.  Austin slipped orange juice on him.  He is messy when he eats.  He usually gets messy when eating.  Luckily it wasn't too bad.  Then we went and got pictures with the Easter Bunny.  Austin and Sydney are not scared of the Easter Bunny.  They ran right up to him.  After the Easter Bunny, we went to the craft stations.  The kids made a bag bunny and a chick.

Then it was time for Easter egg hunt.  The kids were divided by ages 5 and under in were in one group and 6 and older in another group.  It was nice they were in the same group.  The kids had their baskets and collected Easter Eggs.  There were a ton of eggs to get.  Afterwards they turned in their eggs and got a prize bag.  It was a great Easter egg hunt.  After it was over, we walked around the zoo.  It was a great day for the zoo.

Our friends had an Easter egg hunt at their house and invited us over.  They had a lot of fun collecting the eggs.  Each of them filled their baskets with eggs.  In the eggs were candy.  The kids love candy.

Every winter, we try and take the kids to Great Wolf Lodge.  It's something fun to do in the wintertime.  Due to our schedules we were not able to go until March.  We went with our friends too.  We got there around 2pm.  We let the kids play in the waterpark until dinner time.  For dinner, I ran to Wendy's and picked up food.  We finished watching the Cavs game in our room while we ate dinner.  After dinner, we went back swimming.  After swimming, we went to show in the lobby.  Then we went to bed.  We were all exhausted.

In the morning, we went to breakfast at out hotel.  Then we went swimming for an hour.  We had to get home for Brian to get to work.  The kids had a great time swimming.  It was a fun night of swimming.

The next weekend we had two more Easter egg hunts.  One was at a local church.  It was inside because of the weather.  They were in a room and had to collect eggs.  Austin even won a special prize which was glow in the dark sidewalk chalk.

Our rec center had a aquatic Easter egg hunt.  They were in the pool and collected eggs.  Austin and Sydney were in different age groups.  Sydney went first.  She collected a lot of eggs.  She loved it.  Austin was next and he found the one gold coin.  He was so proud of himself.  There were hundreds of eggs and he found it.  He got a coloring book and chocolate bar.  He even told older kids in the men's locker room.  He talked about it all day long.  After the egg hunt, Austin had a friend at school birthday party.

Sydney can be the sweetest most lovable girl but also the most difficult.  It's her way or no way.  If she doesn't want to do something she doesn't do it.  It is simple things like going potty, changing her clothes or putting on her shoes/coats.  She does better with Brian because he will play the racing games with him.  I don't have as much patience and just want her to do it.

The kids usually don't nap anymore which means bedtime is around 8.  They are usually asleep by 8:30pm.  Sydney doesn't need us to stay in her room until she falls asleep.  Austin still does.  On night, I left her room while see was still awake.  I went to check on her an hour later and she was not in her bed.  I looked for a minute and could not find her.  Then I checked the top bunk and sure enough she was up there.  She climbed up there and made her own bed with her princesses (Cinderella and Anna) and was sound asleep. She sleeps with her princesses every night.  We couldn't help but be impressed with her determination and desire to do what she wants to do.

Sydney's gymnastics are over for the session.  We are waiting to fall to sign her back up.  With spring and summer coming, we are trying to decrease the number of activities.  I thought she would be more sad about not going but she is okay with it.  She does like staying home more than Austin.  We given the opportunity to go somewhere or stay home Sydney would prefer to stay home.

Austin is still in karate.  He says he likes basketball and soccer better but enjoys it.  However since he has started karate he likes to hit Sydney more.  He doesn't completely understand the difference between real life and karate.  We are working on that but Austin does get more time outs than usual and I think it's related to karate.  Both kids are still in swim class.  The instructor this session is not as good and we think the kids are actually going backwards.  Luckily we have a lot of other things going on so they are going to miss a lot of it.

We went to our last Monster's game of the season.  Austin really likes it.  Sydney just likes the snacks involved in going.  With the Cavs playoffs coming soon we are going to be busy with that.

Austin still continues to have issues staying dry at night.  Brian started waking him up before he goes to bed and that has helped.  He's only had one accident in the last week.  He now wears underwear at night.  Sydney has been wearing underwear for over a year now at night.  She just got it.  Austin is still working on it but we are happy with the progress he has made.

Kindergarden Exprience Night

We had kindergarten experience night.  It was at the school from 6-8 pm.  Austin was really excited. He dressed himself in a nice yellow polo shirt and blue pants. It just so happens to be the school colors.  We started the night off in the gym.  The kids ran around before it started.  It was cool because 3 other of his friends from preschool were there.  Austin has really come out of his shell.  He was completely fine running around with his friends and didn not mind what we were doing.  It was nice to talk with other parents.  Then the split us up into groups and we had a schedule for the night.

Our next stop was the cafeteria.  We learned about how the kids can buy lunch.  If Austin would buy lunch everyday, it's close to $50 a month.  I am going to have to figure out how to pack a hot lunch.  I heard about thermos.  Then we went to music class.  Austin got to play a game.  We checked out the library.  He will be able to check out 1 book a week there.  (Right now we check out about 30 books a week for our library).  We went to art class next, he got to make a necklace out of pasta.  He did a good job threading the pasta on the yarn.  We went to computer class.  Austin learned about excel and making graphs showing everyone's favorite color.  Then he got to do gym class.  All the classes were about 15 minutes long.  Then Austin went to a kindergarten classroom while they talked with us about kindergarten screening.  He enjoyed his classroom and his teacher.  We really hope he gets that teacher.  We were so happy they had kindergarten experience night.  We really enjoyed it.  I am excited for him.

Sydney been excited for her birthday since Austin's birthday.  Recently she asked if she would get married first or her birthday first.  For the first time, we said her birthday was before something. Sydney is curious who she will marry.  She thinks she is going to marry

We went to Cavs game that gave away Moondog and Sir CC puppets.  Austin wanted Moondog and Sydney got Sir CC.  They had fun with their puppets and having them sing during a time out.  The kids do a great job at the Cavs games.  We watched the entire game. We go at half time to get hair painted and tattoo.  Sydney loves getting her hair painted.  Sydney loves to eat snacks at the game.  Austin doesn't need the snacks as much.  He is more interested in the game.  We all enjoyed the game.

Since basketball is over, we signed Austin up for karate.  We wanted him to try it and see if he likes it.  It's interesting because depending on when we go, there may be adults in his class.  And all classes have different colored belts.  And the black belts team up with white belts to teach them things.  Austin follows right along and does well.  He says he likes it but likes basketball and soccer more.  He really likes when he can play dodge ball at the end of class.  The one thing I don't like about karate is they never explained why he can hit and kick people in karate but not in regular life.  He has recently starting to hit and kick Syndey.  Not completely sure it's related but believe it is at least a little bit.