More Spicher Fun

Thought I would post a few more pictures of our time this weekend with my sister and her family. :-)

It was still really beautiful outside on Sat when they came, so we decided to grill out.  Pete made some delicious steaks for us and was even able to stay outside without his coat on!  Em and I had been shopping early in downtown Ottawa and got to enjoy the beautiful weather.  Why we didn't go to Starved Rock on Saturday when it was nice instead of Sunday when it was FREEZING I'll never know!  Guess we're gluttons for punishment. ;-)

Last time Kendalyn was here was in October when they came out for the Diabetes Walk.  She was very shy when she walked into the house, but this time?  She ran in and took off to play with her cousins within seconds of walking in our door!  She and Livie played together most of the time and had so much fun together.  They immediately got dressed up and made umbrellas with the k-nex pieces.  You'll notice Madie isn't in any of these pictures.  She was sick with a fever/cough, so we kept her quarantined for most of the weekend, so she wouldn't get the girls sick.

We had some steaks that were still a little frozen in the middle, so Pete had Jeff man the George Foreman with those steaks, while he was outside with the others.  We had some duel grillin' going on here!

Noah and Kendalyn played together some too and it's fun to see how much Kendalyn loves her cousins.  Since Jeff doesn't have any brothers or sisters, we're the only cousins she has in the area.  She kept saying, "I'm going to go play with my cousins now." and she'd run off to find them.  Hilarious!

I don't know if I mentioned the new book Livie bought with her gift card to The Bookmouse.  It's called "Pat the Zombie".  Ever heard of "Pat the Bunny", the sweet little children's book about a little boy and a little girl and a little white bunny?  Well, this book is an adaptation of that.  But, instead of hugs and smiles, we have intestines being taken out of the bunny and scratch 'n sniff dead people.  She was insistent about wanting this book and giggled and laughed through the whole thing!  I remember not letting my older two watch Spongebob, because it was too "grown-up" for them.  Now my 7 yr old is laughing at the bunny being fed brains.  I've failed her.  Anyway, she was really excited to show Uncle Jeff this book, but she had to wait for the girls to go to sleep.

Pete was happy to help snuggle Avery, so she could go to sleep. :-)  It was a fun weekend with them and we can't wait to see them again!  Thanks for coming out, guys!

Biscuit

A couple weeks ago we saw this pretty gray cat roaming around the neighborhood.  On a particularly cold day, Tater was barking like crazy and I saw her huddled up against our neighbor's house, trying to stay out of the wind and in the sunshine.  I felt so bad for her, that I got out a bowl of cat food for her and set it outside.  Literally, within minutes, she was out on our patio eating it all up.  She was later out front drinking water out of a puddle in the driveway.  I was setting out a little bowl of food for her almost every day.  We ran out of cat food for a couple days, so now that we've been back to the store, Madie decided to set out another little bowl for her this afternoon.  She must've been outside somewhere nearby, because again, within minutes, there she was, eating it up!  We can't adopt another kitty, but we can't just let that sweet little thing go without food.  We're going to make up a warm box for her tonight to see if she decides to use it to stay out of the cold.  Even if we can't adopt her, the kids are really enjoying trying to help take care of her.  They've named her Biscuit, as you can see from the title of this post.  Reminds me of all the times we took care of strays when I was a kid.  And, they almost always ended up in our house as a pet for a short time.  That won't happen with this one, but it's nice to know we're helping keep her belly full during these cold winter months. :-)

Fun With the Cousins

Em, Jeff, and the girls came out yesterday for the long weekend and we really wanted to do something fun together.  Mother Nature had other ideas, though.  What was a beautiful day of 47 degrees yesterday turned into a day of -1 windchills today!  That didn't stop us though.  We decided to head over to Starved Rock to check out some eagles and we were NOT disappointed!

Madie came down with a fever yesterday, so she and Pete stayed home both from church and from our adventure.  She's feeling ok, but didn't want to push it or cause her to get the girls sick.  We decided to have brunch at the Starved Rock Lodge - something I've always wanted to do, but we couldn't get a table until 1:30 (and that was after calling in a reservation YESTERDAY!  Since we got there about an hour early, after leaving church late even, we decided to go to the Visitor's Center first.  Em, Jeff, and the girls have never been to Starved Rock, so we were excited to show them at least a little bit of the place.

Noah and Livie wanted to show Kendalyn the big fish tank.  She really liked it!

Even Avery was fascinated by it. :-)

We checked out the stuffed owls and saw how their eyes followed you.  We went into the gift shop and looked around a bit before heading back up to the lodge.  We drove everywhere, so we could stay warm.  Just way too cold for any hiking today, though there were people hiking there today.

This is one of our kids' favorite sculptures.  I think Kendalyn liked it too. :-)

The meal was really yummy.  A big brunch buffet that everyone liked.  None of us walked away hungry, let me tell ya!

Had to take a quick picture of the cousins all bundled up, trying to stay warm.

I think this was Jeff's first time seeing a bald eagle in the wild.  He was really impressed!

While we looked at the eagles, all the kids played on this fish.

Kendalyn really liked carrying around the binos and periodically stopping to look through them.

We drove back down to the river to see more eagles.  We even got to see one fly right above us!  It was so cool!!

We were only outside here for a few more minutes before we just got too cold.  You can tell that Noah was already freezing in this picture.  As soon as I took it, he headed back to the car to get warm.  Livie and the rest of us followed soon after.  It was freezing and yucky outside, but we still had a great time!

Hoedown In Your Hometown

Madie had another dance at school on Friday.  I'm just posting about it now, because I couldn't find my camera all weekend!  She said this was the best dance yet!  I think it's because she danced the whole night and just loved it.  She even (gulp!) slow-danced with a boy three times.  There was a boy named Bobby who asked her to the next dance about 2 days after their last one.  He is the one she danced with, mostly on a dare from her friend Ashleigh, but she said it was lots of fun.  When I went to pick her up, she came out and started to tell me about it, then all of her friends came out and started showing me pictures and saying how "cute they are" and all that.  It was so cute and so funny, though a little surreal when you actually see a PICTURE of her dancing with him!  When I was talking to her, Bobby came out and walked up to his mom, who happened to be standing next to me and I didn't even know it.  He got the shyest look on his face and, even though Madie told him she just wanted to be friends, I think little Bobby likes her a little more than that. Just glad she's a strong girl who knows what she wants and who she wants.  Anyway, it was a great night for her and just another chance for us to see how much she's growing up.

The Train Table

I've been promising my 2 yr olds all year that I would bring in my train table for them to play with.  After the nice long Christmas break, I figured that would be something fun for them to come back to.  So, Pete and the kids helped me take it into the school on Tues night.  Katie (my co-teacher) joined me that morning to do a little rearranging to make room for it. 

This is our classroom.  We didn't move a whole lot around, but even with that big train table in there, it still seems pretty open.

I told Pete I may need to cut our gym time a little short today, because I know as soon as they get in this classroom and see the trains, I won't be able to get them to sit down for Story Time! :-)

Outside Fun

What a beautiful winter day!  The temps got up to nearly 50 and we had lots of sunshine.  Couldn't keep those kids inside when they got home from school.  I took down the Christmas lights while they played.

Noah and the boys quickly got out the pool noodles and had a noodle fight.

Livie had to show off her new socks!  She got these in a package today from my besties - Michelle and Teresa - along with some other special goodies.  She was thrilled!

Madie, though home sick with the flu today, got out there and played frisbee with Tater.

Yep.  Definitely a great day to be outside!!