THE GRINSTEAD FAMILY

HALF WAY THROUGH FEBRUARY!!

February is flying by, I can't believe it is already Valentine's Day!

I had a meeting with my boss about this year's Talent Show. Yes, I signed on to do it yet another year. This will be year #6!
UNI Children's Choir started up again. Allie is excited for this semester's songs. They meet once a week on campus & sing their hearts out.
We had our first baseball meeting and figured some things out. Practice starts in March already.
Jake attended 2 UNI basketball games. One game, he got to sit in the box seat. He thought he was hot stuff.
Jacob spent this night at Paul's house one night & Adam's house another night. Allie spent the night at Aliah's house. Allie also went to her friend Madison's house for a play date.
Jacob attended a baseball hitting clinic on Wartburg's campus. He came home so pumped up about what he learned. He can't wait to start batting practice.
Allie and the UNICC sang the National Anthem at a UNI women's basketball game. They sounded wonderful.
Allie is still going to tutoring each week. It is really helping her out a lot.
Allie sold almost 250 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. WOW! She hopes she is the top seller in her troop.
We were supposed to go see Blue Man Group at GBPAC in January. The show was cancelled when a sprinkler pipe burst and flooded the stage. The show has been rescheduled for September.
We had PJ Day at school. I'm not sure who was more excited to wear comfy clothes to school, me or the kids.
Scott and I went to a charity event at PIPAC. Our friends are the people who oversee the charity and it takes terminal or very ill kids to Disney once a year. It is called Magical Mix Kids. We had a great time bidding on things during the live and silent auction. We came home with plenty of things while support our friend's cause.
Scott and I also attended a surprise birthday party for one of my co-worker. Her kids threw her a great bash for her 60th birthday. What fun.
The kids and I went to my Uncle Dave's house for our annual Fischer get together. It was so fun seeing my aunts, uncles and cousins. There are now 14 great grand kids and one more on the way. The little ones had so much fun playing together. We will get to see everyone again in August when my youngest cousin Brooke gets married.
Allie played in her first basketball tournament. Her team did pretty well considering they had never played in a game before! They also played older kids & held their own. They didn't win any games, but improved in each game.
Jake had to do a big report on President Taft. He wrote a report and then had to dress up like Taft and give an oral report. He got an A!
We had 2 snow days because of a blizzard over a lot of the US. We got about 10 inches of snow and lots of cold air too.
Jacob had a basketball tournament and placed 2nd. I was supposed to take him and woke up in the middle of the night with the stomach flu. Luckily, I had good friends and someone took care of getting Jake to and from the tournament for me. Thanks to Jenny!
We spent the Super Bowl at our friend's house. We cheered for our Steeler and darn it, they couldn't pull out a win. Jacob & I were pretty disappointed.
Jake had Safety Patrol duty during the bitter cold days last week. Many mornings the wind chill was -30! He said he was freezing.
Allie had her vocal music concert. They sang songs about segregation and did a great job. My mom came up and saw her concert. We also celebrated my birthday that night with dinner at Beck's.
Our school got to make a video called the "Interlude Dance" with some UNI students. It is a dance that they do at the UNI basketball games and it is a big hit with Panther fans. The creators came to our school & we had a school wide dance. The kids thought it was great.
Scott and I had a date for my birthday and Valentine's Day. We went to a fancy restaurant in Waterloo and then out for a couple of drinks. It was nice to be kid free for a few hours. We went out as a family for my birthday to the Brown Bottle. YUM!
I had Jake's conference. He got 3 A's and 2 B's. His ITBS scores were great in math & science. He dropped significantly in reading though...I'm not sure what that was all about.
Allie is home sick today with a fever. She was so sad that she had to miss the school party. Jake got his "girlfriend" Claire a Valentine's gift this year. He's so thoughtful.