Visit to the Dairy

I still laugh to think that we had Kevin take a day off of work to go visit a dairy with us and we even had to pay. But even crazier than that is that at the end of the day we upgraded to a year membership! Kim, you should start charging for all your visitors - who thought a dairy could bring in money:)

Besides the bus tour of one of the dairies and saw them milking the cows (things are quite a bit different than what I remembered as a little girl), they have a fun museum; 3D/4D movie which had Kaitlyn and Alyssa crying when they "squirted" milk; a birthing barn (it had a red/yellow/green light so you knew when the action was taking place - several were born while we were there); they had a jumping something which was awesome



They had a train


They had tractors the kids could drive on their own




And Bryson's favorite was the climbing wall/jug of milk. Everyone was amazed at how well he did. He did it over and over and over and then got dad to do it with him and then mom to do it with him. He kept saying that he was better than his Uncle Brody.








If you come visit Indiana, look at the fun things you can do!!!

Soccer

Bryson's first season of soccer is over and he had a great time. The best thing of all was that he got a goal at his last game. It was pretty exciting for all of us but most of all for him!!! He is quite proud of his first trophy!

His coach had the boilermaker express come give rides at the end of the year celebration. None of us had gotten to ride it before and we all got several rides and long ones too.

Last Day of School

Last Friday was Bryson's last day of school - I will miss having a kindergartener - such a fun time! We were invited to attend the school's award assembly. Kindergarteners are only able to get 2 of the awards they hand out. Bryson was picked as a winner of the Jeffrey Weiss Creative Writing Contest. (Neither Kevin nor I have ever received an award for being "creative"). We were very impressed with Bryson. We didn't know he had been in a contest but his teacher had commented to me at parent teacher conference about this story that Bryson had written at writing center on the theme "at the end of the rainbow" and she had said how impressed she was that it was all written by him and made sense. They awarded him a book with the winners writings in it. This is what Bryson wrote:

"Once upon a time, I was walking and I saw this big rainbow. I wondered what was at the end of the rainbow so I walked and I almost gave up but I finally reached it, and I found a wand. So I got it, and I turned it into a car, and I drove home."

(Bryson is the handsome one in the light blue shirt)

And here is Alyssa!!!

Baby Alyssa is not so baby anymore but still so much fun! She could even be our Hawaiian baby in her dress from her Aunt Kariana!

Alyssa is definitely a girl. She loves to talk on the phone as much as possible. I would say she learned it from me but I am not one that enjoys talking on the phone much, maybe she learned it from her dad:) (He is even worse though, he hates to even have to answer the phone). I think she was just born with it.



Alyssa even has a good imagination and will use anything to be a phone.



Kaitlyn has always loved shoes but Alyssa loves necklaces. If she can find one anywhere, it is immediately on her. She will have the most random necklaces on at all times. She had just put this necklace on and then noticed that Kaitlyn hadn't closed the pantry door tight, so she quickly found a box of cereal to spread on the floor. I was having so much fun watching her that all I could do was take pictures:)


Alyssa also loves playing outside. She begs any of us to take her out. She could swing for hours but also loves playing in the sand.





She is also way into reading. She loves to spread them out all over the floor and will just sit there reading them page by page.


Alyssa's current favorite food is bananas. She likes them even more than broccoli and loves to shove them in her mouth - check out those cheeks!




Alyssa likes to help during practicing time.


We love you Alyssa!

Dad of the Year

Dad of the year seems to be the theme in my recent posts, so why not continue!!! Kevin took Bryson on the father/sons campout last weekend. They had a fabulous time!

Bryson with his good friend Benjamin Dunford at the campout.



Several weeks ago Bryson came home from school and had checked out a book about making fun cookies. The day before it was due he was concerned that he hadn't gotten to make anything from the book so Kevin sat down with him and they picked out a recipe and then they made it together.

It was a pretzel cookie recipe!


I have taken the kids to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis many many times but it is never as fun as when dad is with us. He took the afternoon off last week and went with us!!! They had a new exhibit about comic books.




Kaitlyn loved the Curious George Exhibit.


Kevin, we love you! Thanks for being the best dad and always making everything fun!!!

Taulman Mile and Soccer

Today at Bryson's school they had the kids run the Taulman mile (named after the gym teacher). Parents come and cheer the kids (some even run with them), they close the roads, and hand out ribbons. I was helping block the roads and Kevin was once again the dad of the day. He ran it with Bryson. Kaitlyn was adamant she wanted to run also. I luckily was just a fourth of a mile down the road so we decided to let her try, she fussed the entire way - which is funny cause when we were running back to see the finish line she was fine:)

Coming to the finish line!!! Bryson was pretty excited that he was able to run the whole thing.



He is pretty proud of his ribbon - his first ribbon!


Bryson is also playing spring soccer. It is his first season playing. He has a lot to learn but is great at staying with it and really has an intuition about the game. His coaches have made several comments how good he is at analyzing where the ball will go - he is great at defense. (If you can see the back of his shirt it says Bryson #17)


He has great coaches who have let the kids have a chance at each position no matter how good they are. Bryson has gotten to be goalie several times and does a great job!



Bryson is the kid running up to the ball and kicking it

Dance Recital

Kaitlyn had her first dance recital last week. IT WAS THE BEST!!! She did a polka dot underwear song dance with her class and then they had a special daddy/daughter dance.



Kevin was roped into it and was really not excited when they said that the girls were so little that they really couldn't dance much so the dads would do most the dancing - Kevin was not excited to do "most the dancing", he was there to dance WITH Kaitlyn but I have to say that I am already figuring how to bribe him to do it next year. I LOVED IT!!! He was awesome and to see Kaitlyn's face dancing with him was priceless, she had a ball. Thanks for being a great sport Kevin.

Julia's grandma brought Kaitlyn flowers to the recital - Julia is our neighbor and is in Kaitlyn's preschool and dance class - we love her family!!!


Sorry I didn't get all of it, but this is my amazing dancing husband!!! (they would only let us video tape at the dress rehearsal and yes that it Alyssa hollering in the background that this dress rehearsal has lasted long enough)