1st snow of the winter (fall) season

Holy cow!  Huge flakes just floating down for probably about an hour today.  And so early too.  Of course I killed my camera's battery last weekend at the pumpkin patch (and haven't taken the time to charge it) so I couldn't capture it any way other then on Matthew's shirt, with my phone.  Matthew might just get his wish for more snow slides this winter after all!

Mostly May wrap up

Spring was up and down temperatures all the way through May.  April 23th it was snowing like crazy. 

 April 27th Matthew went to a preschool friend's birthday party and had a blast.

 Then May 2nd it snowed again!  It was hard to start growing anything this spring because it kept freezing.  Last spring we were about 6 weeks ahead, this year about 6 weeks behind, but at least we were getting moisture.

And the video his teacher shot.

 May 4th was supposed to be a rainy day, but it held off and we were able to have sidewalk fun at Auntie's house.

We each drew a tree.

 May 9th was Matthew's spring music concert.

 Glad he loves the camera again!

 Here are the preschoolers performing.  I was the aide for them all year.  I'm going to miss them.

Boy he knows when the camera comes out doesn't he!  It was a great concert.  I wish that I could post the videos of them singing, but it won't let me for some reason.  I should look into it.

 The next day we took off bright and early for Matthew's field trip to the zoo.  Here Matthew is with Meagan, the little girl we walked around with.

 Matthew and Kaylen, the little girl we sat on the bus with.

It was a long but fun day.  I'm glad I took the day off to go.

May 12th was Mother's Day.  My aunt came and we all went to eat with my Grandmom.  I'm glad we did, as it was the last one, even though we didn't know it at the time.  The photo from lunch is in Grandmom's post.  Matthew woke me up with breakfast-in-a-bag he made at school.  It contained a breakfast bar and a tea bag-like coffee packet.  It was great!  I really need to take a photo of the bag, it was really neat.

May 14th was Matthew's snack day and the day they celebrated his birthday.  We decided that I'd make funfetti cupcakes from scratch and decorate them like a flag.  I think they liked them.  Wish I'd gone in.  Matthew certainly was excited.

Since we are in TX for Matthew's birthday, I thought we'd skip the birthday party this year, but Matthew refused, so May 17th we had 5 of his favorite friends (Mordeci, Treyman, Shayn, Jack, and Mitchel) meet him at the park and then we fed them pizza and cupcakes.  I can't believe it but I totally forgot to take 1 SINGLE photo.  But they had a great time.  Best part for Mom?  Phil flew in that day and surprised Matthew.

 May 22nd was the last day of school.  To see how much he grew and changed, go the the 1st day of school.

 Lining up his new cowboys and indians from his party to take the last day of school photo his way.

Ah, that's better!

 The 28th saw us driving through Moore, OK. 

The cars all destroyed and tagged with the x's really got to me.

What a whirlwind of a month!  Glad it's behind us and school is out, but I keep wondering when the summer is going to start being lazy?

March madness

 March started off with a bang.  March 9th Matthew decided his hair was too long and took matters into his own hands.  I was blissfully unaware being off shopping with a friend.  Matthew, on the other hand, was with the two people who allowed me to cut my hair, by them being unaware.  (Do you like the cheesy pose he did?)

 I about cried, but he was so proud of the "awesome" job he did I had to act ok.  The next day we hustled off to get it fixed.  And talked about how if it got too long again, to warn Mommy and not just cut it.

 New hair cut to present Mommy with her birthday present.  Went to school and overheard a teacher talking about me and the aide that works with me.  It was so good, it lit my hair on fire.  Happy Birthday to me.

 Friday the 15th Matthew didn't have school, so I took a personal day and started spring break a day early.  After 10 hours, we were at our spring break destination, Phil's.  And it was warm!  Matthew started off by building a huge lego sculpture.

It was pretty awesome.  And believe it or not, he'd accidently took some down before I could take a photo.  I love how my husband always hides or snarls when I rarely take a photo of him.

 When we got to TX, Matthew was amazed to find the bed of his dreams.  He's been begging for one since August when he first saw it.  Phil decided that Matthew had done so well at school, it's his Kindergarten graduation present and his birthday present.  Matthew is in love.  (Notice more cheesy poses?)  Phil may be the favorite parent for awhile.

 This is the "treehouse."  That place where all great ideas are hatched.

 Yeah, so Matthew went through a period last year until last fall, where he really didn't want his photo taken and wouldn't smile.  Now he directs the photos again, multiple photos, cheesy poses, and some unusual smiles.  Take this photo for instance.  I thought Isabelle was cute so I raised the camera and suddenly there was a man-boy posing too.  What a boy.

 While in TX, we were surprised to see that TX snails have totally different shells then KS snails.  Who knew?  Matthew and I were fascinated and Phil was underimpressed.  But then again, he was distraught that his weed eater was under the weather.

 We planned to stay till yesterday or today, but a big snow storm was rolling in to KS, so most unexpectedly we packed up and rolled out Friday.  It was very hard to pull ourselves away, but we did it.  Rolling through our territory at the end of a 10 hour drive, Matthew pipes up, "Hey, where's my snow?"  Bless that child, his one liners continue to kill me.

 Got up Saturday and nothing.  I started to think we should've stayed.  Sent Matthew out to ride his bike since he was wild.

Then I realized I couldn't see the river.  Maybe flying along the interstate at 75 mph might not be a good idea today.  Although alot of snow came down, it really didn't get bad, except for visibility.

 Today dawned and bless pat we had snow. The I-70 storm came through.  And that difficult child of the day before, was a sweet angel who went out right after breakfast to clear the snow.  Some days I'm so proud, some days I'm embarrassed by his behavior.  It's been a bit of a up and down year.

 Mom, Mom, come out, we gotta make a snowman, you promised.  Alright, alright.  So Matthew started rolling and I started taking photos.

 Everything looked frosted and beautiful.

 Then I started playing with the manual focus.

 It was heaven.

 Then it was back to work for me.  The bottom roll was so big, Matthew and I both were rolling it.  Then the middle was so heavy I barely got it up and it refused to sit on it straight.  Matthew was so proud it was taller then him.

 Then we decided to try our snow experiment again and see if our cup of snow would equal the same amount of liquid as the last time.

 We went in to read for awhile and when we looked out, the snowman had fallen.  So back out we went to fix it.

 It's a little smaller now.

It's official!  KS snow yields more liquid then TX snow!  (Probably this was just wetter snow though.)  We got enough snow and wind that we'll start back to school later tomorrow.  But not late enough to miss MIRP unfortunately.  Shucks.

Back to Back Snow Storms!

 Last Thursday, the 21st, we woke up to 8 inches of snow and it kept coming.  It was a snow day, no school!  Thank you Storm Q!

 We played outside and in alot.

 The sled that Matthew is pulling got it's first use again in years.  By researching it's name and number we discovered it's over 100 yrs old.  Don't bother trying to steal it, it isn't in the best shape!  It started out life as my Dad's cousin John's sled (and based on the age, probably 1 kid had it before him).  Then it became Dad's.  Then mine.  Now Matthew's.  Dad pulled us down the Headquarters driveway behind the truck on it.  It was soo much fun.  I wish I had photos.  As long as the family has owned it, it's only moved a mile in either direction.  Isn't that wild to think about?  Something wilder?  The building in the background is the one room school Dad and his cousins went to school at.

 The dogs got nearly drifted in.

 Friday was a snow day too!  We got enormous icicles, like when I was a kid.

 A shout out to my financial backer.

 Matthew's first snowman!

 He did it all on his own.

 We made a lot of snow angels. 

Once the driveway got cleared we did a lot of sliding.

 And there has been multiple snowball fights. I'm rather sick of them.

 Yesterday, after 4 days off (2 school days and a weekend) we went back to school.  Matthew's big tooth came out in his cinnamon roll.  He didn't know what it was so he threw it on the floor and left.  Seriously?  The other is halfway cracked off and he won't let us pull it.  Based on the last 2 teeth, I'm betting it falls out and he leaves it somewhere on the floor at school tomorrow.


As we went to bed we knew another storm was coming and we might have a snow day.

At the last minute they called it off.  The trees looked like this.

 I helped Matthew make a bigger snow man today.

And we decided to go on the trail.  Only humans to walk it since it snowed.  Beautiful and peaceful, until you notice the boy in the background sneaking up with snowballs.  Have I mentioned I'm tired of snowball fights?