MORE BIRTHDAY STUFF

Here are pics from Jake's birthday at school. He shared his birthday with Alex (the red headed girl in the picture with him). Alex brought cupcakes & Jake brought ice cream. The got to each stand in the middle of a circle and pick 7 "candles" (friends) to stand with them and they all sang a song about candles and birthdays. It was pretty cute!




Here are pics from Happy Joe's tonight for dinner. We ate with Jake's friend Paul & his mom. The Happy Joe's employees sang & ran the siren in honor of Jake.

Here are pics from swimming lessons.

HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY JAKE!!


The birthday boy came into my room this morning at 6:00 stating that "he was too excited to sleep". He decided to crawl into bed to snuggle up with me & fell asleep for another hour.

Once Scott got home from the gym & Allie woke up, Jake opened his gifts. He got a PS2 game & Magnetix from us and a chin strap for his football helmet & a mouthpiece from Allie (she picked the stuff out herself).

Jake decided on French Toast sticks for breakfast. After breakfast there was time to play his new PS2 game and head out the door for school. I'll post more pictures tonight of his school celebration & of dinner at Happy Joe's.

(In this pic he is showing that he is 7 with his fingers)

THIS WEEK

Thought I'd catch up with what has been going on this week & what is to come this weekend...

MONDAY: Allie's preschool teacher returned to school after being on bed rest and maternity leave since November. She was delighted that Mrs. Phillips was back. I went to Jake's school for the majority of the day. I did spelling with his class in the morning and had lunch & recess duty over the noon hour. Allie had her new pre ballet dance class on Monday night. We switched from Thursday afternoons and it was a GREAT decision. She loves her classmates & new teacher.

TUESDAY: I had a meeting on Tuesday morning and Allie got to play with her friend Olivia during my meeting. Olivia has a hampster and Allie enjoyed watching it run in it's ball all over the house. After the meeting, we got our hair cut...it was about time for both of us! The kids started swimming lessons last night with the BEST teacher EVER! Both kids adore her & learn SO much.

TODAY: I was able to get a few chores done today while the kids were at school and after Allie got home. Tonight, Jake has religion class. I was thinking all day today how 7 years ago I was in the hospital waiting for Jake's arrival...little did I know the kid wouldn't come until the next morning!

TOMORROW: Jake turns 7!! We'll open his gifts right away so that Scott can see him. He shares his birthday with a classmate so we have coordinated with the other birthday child and we are bringing ice cream for Jake's treat. I'll run that over in the afternoon. Jake's class is also making Stone Soup tomorrow. Jake volunteered to bring potatoes for the soup. Jake's friend Paul is coming home from school to play and then we will go to Happy Joe's for pizza and birthday ice cream. Then off to swimming lessons. (the pic is from his 5th b-day)

FRIDAY: I have a fundraising meeting in the morning. I am taking Jake McDonald's lunch to school for his birthday (on his actual b-day they were having pizza & he chose to have McD's on Friday). Michael & Kim are coming up on Friday afternoon for the weekend. Scott got court-side tickets to the UNI game on Friday night. Jake is SO excited he can hardly stand it!!

SATURDAY: Jake's bowling party for his b-day. He got to invite all of the boys in Mrs. Wyckoff's class (a total of 11). So far 9 are coming & the other 2 I haven't heard from yet. Thankfully, Scott is off of work to help & Michael/Kim will be there too! Allie has a b-day party to attend during Jake's party & she can't wait! Mandy & Ben are planning to come up mid-afternoon and will spend the night.

SUNDAY: Jake's family b-day party. Grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins will be here to celebrate Jake's b-day. The weather forecast isn't looking too good...we'll see how many actually are able to come!

That is our week in a nutshell...I'll post some pics throughout the weekend.

OOPS!!

I got an email from Jake's teacher over the weekend...here is what it said.

"I guess this is what happens when you haven't taught for two weeks!

Near the end of the day, I gave everyone a worksheet and tried to say, "Okay.........put your name on this workSHEET." Instead, the "sh" part of the word came out wrong. (Use your imagination.)

There are moments when I think no one in the room is listening to me. Not today! Several in the room shouted, "MRS. WYCKOFF! YOU SAID A NAUGHTY WORD!"

My guess is that no one remembers what that worksheet was about, but they'll always remember what I called it. :)Hope your day ended better than mine!"

SPIDER-GIRL & TRIPODS!

On Friday night, Jake showed us how he learned to do a tripod (the start of a head stand). Apparently, they are doing a tumbling unit in gym class. He also showed us other thing like walking on his hands & donkey kicks. He thought it was REALLY cool when Scott showed us how he could still do a head stand! Anyway, Allie observed some of this & must not have been getting enough attention because she came downstairs all dressed up...

ME & ALLIE

Today was one of those days that I realized how much FUN it is having a daughter. Not that my son isn't wonderful...there's just something about having a girly girl in my house that is FUN!!

It all started this morning after Jake was off to school & I was getting cleaned up for a shopping trip & lunch with Allison. She came bouncing in my room, still in her PJ's and announced that I was to come to a tea party in her room. I humored her & told her that I HAD to get my hair & make up done BEFORE I could come to her tea party. She was satisfied with that answer & went on her way. I went to her room to coax her into getting dressed and found a lovely tea party, complete with guests waiting for me to arrive. I had to take pictures of the company that I shared tea with this morning!!





After our tea party, I told Allie to clean up her room & get dressed. She asked if she could turn on her new CD player and listen to "High School Musical" while cleaning. I agreed. Upon my return to her room (which was clean & she was dressed) I found a dancing fool! She was using ALL of her dance moves while singing at the top of her lungs. It was really amusing!












After tearing Allie away from her music, we went shopping downtown and then hit the mall. We accomplished getting several birthday gifts and hit some sales at Younkers, Victoria's Secret & Bath & Body Works. We also ate lunch together...her choice...Burger King.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

We spent NY Eve with our dear friends Gopher, Annette, Amy, Johann

& their kids (Michael & Kim stopped by too). We went to a Holiday Inn. The kids got to swim (along with the dads), we ordered pizza, had some snacks/drinks & talked late into the night. We had adjoining rooms so the kids watched movies in one room & the adults hung out in the other room. We had an early NY countdown for the kids and they got to do a toast with sparkling juice. All of the kids fell asleep by about 11:00 except the Pierce kids...they stayed up 'til the adults went to bed. We had an awesome time!!

FISCHER CHRISTMAS

We spent the past few days visiting my family for our Christmas.

We hung out with Nana & Ben on Thursday. Will stopped for a game of football with Jake. Mandy came for dinner that night.

Friday...Kim, Mandy & I shopped while Nana & Michael babysat the kids. They had a ball playing games, watching movies and eating McDonald's. All of the family came for pizza dinner on Friday night, except Scott since he was working. We even got to meet Will's new girlfriend Anne.

Saturday...the kids, Michael, Kim & I took my grandma Marge out to lunch. We also took grandma shopping for a few things that she needed. We made it home in time for the Iowa game. Jake & Papa watched the game together. Scott arrived Saturday evening.


On Sunday morning, we all went to Mandy & Mike's house for our Christmas. We had a delicious brunch & opened gifts. Mid-afternoon we all headed out in our directions to celebrate NY Eve!!

CHRISTMAS


It has been a busy few days! We celebrated
Christmas Eve & Christmas Day here at home. It was wonderful!!


On Christmas Eve, we played several games as a family & we had a wonderful steak dinner grilled by Scott. We watched Home Alone & parts of A Christmas Story. We read several Christmas stories & got cookies/milk ready for Santa's visit. The kids went right to sleep & we gave them STRICT instructions that they couldn't get up until 6:00!!

On Christmas morning, Jake came in 100 MPH & and told us it was 6:02!! We had to wake Allie up & we all we down to see what Santa left. Jake got an Iowa Hawks football uniform (which he has worn for 3 days), a Playstation 2, Legos, football cards and a stocking full of stuff. Allie got Barbies, Mini Groovy Girls, a CD player & lots of girly things in her stocking. After we played with the Santa gifts, we opened our gifts to & from each other. Jake & Allie each made me WONDERFUL ornaments for my tree (with their pics in them), I absolutely LOVE them!! They are my favorite gifts.

On Christmas afternoon/evening, my parents came up and we grilled steak again, cooked shrimp and had tons of side dishes. We played games that night & now have Jake hooked on UNO.

Mom & I got up early yesterday and hit the after Christmas sales at the mall. We got some great buys. We picked Dad & the kids up for breakfast at the Waffle Stop. Dad & Mom left shortly after lunch and I began the fun task of cleaning up the house, putting away gifts & taking down decorations. I got all of my decorations down but one tree, which I will do this afternoon.

Here are some of my favorite pics from Christmas! The first 3 are pics of what Santa left for the kids, not including their giant stockings full of stuff. The rest are just snapshots that I thought were cute.

ALLIE'S CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

Allie had her annual Christmas program at St. Pat's yesterday morning. She did a wonderful job knowing all of her songs. My favorite was the "Reindeer Pokey". I've attached a picture of her "putting her antlers in..." and a of course one of the entire class.

JAKE'S WINTER PARTY

Jake had his winter party at school yesterday. We decorated Gingerbread cookies, played games, sang songs & read stories. The entire school wore their PJ's yesterday too. Note the class picture!

NEW MP3 PLAYERS

Aunt Kelley, Uncle Mike, Kate & Lucas gave each of the kids a new Disney MP3 player for Christmas last weekend. Both kids had me download some of their favorite songs. Allie chose lots of High School Musical, Kids Bop & of course her all time favorite, "You're So Vain". Jake opted for wide variety...the theme song to Rocky, "We will Rock You" by Queen, a High School Musical song & the Monday night football theme song to name a few! Both kids have been listening to their new players constantly...Allie even plays dress up while using her new player. Check out the picture! I'm not sure what she's supposed to be!

ANOTHER CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION

We celebrated Christmas & Hannakah with Scott's family this past weekend. It was nice spending time with his siblings & their families. Since we are all so spread out, that only happens about once or twice a year. There was tons of food, laughing & fun!!

For some reason, I didn't get a lot of pictures taken but here a couple of cute ones. Maddie & Allie putting on make-up, Lucas & his BIG blue eyes, Kelley, Mike & Kate with their funny teeth they won in a game & one of Jake with his new t-shirt.

CHRISTMAS PARTIES

We went to our first Christmas parties this weekend. On Saturday, the kids and I drove to CR to my Aunt Toni's for my mom's side of the family Christmas celebration. It was so fun seeing everyone. We only get together a couple of times a year, so it is nice when we can get together. The kids loved playing with their cousins. I don't think that we saw them the entire afternoon until the gifts were to be opened!!

On Saturday night, we went to my friend Sophie's house for our annual Kid's Christmas party. Each year, Santa makes an appearance and gives the kids an early gift. Typically, we rent a Santa suit/beard & beg a friend with no kids to be our Santa. This year, Sophie hired the Santa from the mall...he was AWESOME!! The kids were in awe...some even played with his REAL beard. Santa left each child with a small present to open...Jake got a set of football cards and Allie got a Fur Real chimp. Both loved their gifts and the early taste of Christmas.

Please excuse the bad photos...not sure what happened!

BIG NEWS!!

My sister finally called with the news of her ultrasound. She is having a girl. Of course, they aren't 100% sure, but didn't see anything to indicate a boy. Allie was really excited at the thought of having a girl to play with at Nana & Papa's house. Jake really was hoping for another boy!

This morning I was telling Jake about Mandy's ultrasound & that we'd know if it was a boy or a girl. He explained to me that you can tell if it is a boy or girl because "girls have long hair & long eyelashes". I about died laughing!!

Lots going on this weekend...look for new pictures by Monday morning!

WEEKEND

Scott went deer hunting this weekend so the kids and I were on our own. We kept busy as always!! On Friday night, we went to the movie Happy Feet (which was cute), mini golfing at the mall & then to dinner at Carlos O Kelley's. On Saturday, Mandy, Mom & Ben came to visit. We had a sitter come over and watch the kids so that the adults could go to the Men's Glee Club Christmas Variety Show. It was FANTASTIC! We can't wait until next year's show. After the show, we made the mistake of taking the 3 kids to the mall to eat at BK and do a little shopping....we should have ordered pizza in! I spent the day today baking...I only have a few more things to bake before I call it quits for the season. Scott is off this week, which I am looking forward to...not sure what we have planned for the week, but I am certain that we'll find something to keep us busy!