Easter Recap

Easter was so much fun! Kendra really got into the whole egg hunting idea, and had a wonderful time with it. The Easter Bunny brought her a basket full of stuff - a kit to make pressed flowers, some new workbooks to work on learning to make letters, a cute summer outfit and socks with chickens and Easter eggs.

We invited our friends Katie and Brandon, with their son Donovan, to celebrate with us. We did the traditional dinner - ham, green beans, scalloped potatoes and a lemon raspberry cake for dessert. The food was divine and the company the even better.

After dinner we turned the kids loose in the backyard to hunt for eggs that the dads had hidden. Some were filled with candy and some with stickers. It was hard to tell if Kendra liked the stickers or candy better. She is such a sticker nut. There were probably 70 eggs for the two kids to find. (We may have gone a tad overboard...)

The weather was cloudy and chilly, but Kendra loved her sundress, so that's what she wore. Paired with a sweater, baby legs and boots she was very stylish :)

30 Weeks

30 weeks into this pregnancy and everything is going wonderfully! I have a crazy number of doctor appointments, but that's par for having a preemie last go round. I currently meet with my OB weekly, have ultrasounds every other week, and now have non-stress tests weekly. I passed my glucola test with flying colors, although I failed my vitamin D and iron levels test, so more supplements. I'm now taking 10 pills a day, plus all the Tums I can stand for heartburn.

This little guy is so much bigger than Kendra was. I have a lot of heartburn, and his kicks are much more painful. I'm actually being woken up at night from them! Little stinker.

We are still working on finalizing the room switch. As is par for the course of home improvement projects, Dan ran ethernet cable down the inside of the wall for the new office and it has since vanished. It has to be in the wall somewhere, but despite three new holes, the wires have not appeared. Back to the attic tonight to try to find them.

Uncooperative weather has made finishing the bookshelves we built tough as well. I need to take the actual shelves outside to paint, but we haven't had a decent day to do it. I was also hoping to strip the new (to us) furniture we bought for Kendra and restore it to natural wood. With all the rain and cold weather though, it doesn't look like it will be finished before the baby is born.

One bright spot is Dan's parents have finalized their plans to come visit and Kendra is already pretty excited. They'll be here in the middle of June. Chances are they'll meet their new grandson, but we just have to wait and see!

New Digs

We spent the day getting Kendra moved into her new room. Actually, she will be sharing a room with her brother, so they need the bigger of the two rooms. The biggest problem has been books. We had four bookshelves in our office, and they were all full. We have space in the new office for two bookshelves, so lots and lots of paring down. We've gotten it down to about 2 1/3 bookshelves...now we just have to figure out that last 1/3.

We still have a lot of little things to move, like Kendra books, stuffed animals and her clothes, but Kendra is sleeping in her new room. She is a little confused about which room is hers now, but she'll catch on. Dan told her to get some thing from her room, and she went to her old room. He explained that was now the office, and she said "Oh. Ok." and went to get what he asked from her new room.

I am tired and sore, but feel much better about us actually being ready for this baby!

A new first!

Today was Kendra's first self-served meal. It was just cereal, but a first is a first! (She also offered me some, but I declined)

Auction

After much work, Kendra's preschool dinner/auction/fundraiser is over. Despite me coming down with a massive cold on Friday, we all had a nice time. The food was surprisingly yummy, the kids were adorable and the band (Recess Monkey) was a total hit!

We ended bidding an many items, and won quite a few. Our most expensive "purchase" was an afternoon with Teacher Aaron. Kendra adores her preschool teacher and he offered to take up to two kids on an afternoon outing of our choosing. We've asked another preschooler friend of Kendra's to go along, and are hoping to schedule it after Little Man comes. It will be something special for Kendra - something to put the focus solely on her.

We also won gift cards to two different coffee shops, a new diaper bag with some fuzzy buns diapers, a really cute selection of baby toys for Little Man, a homemade apron for Kendra that is just adorable, and a really pretty necklace for me. It's metalworking, which is something I don't know how to do.

My jewelry ended up selling pretty well. The vintage necklace sold for $80. I was astounded. Maybe I should open an etsy store :)

Overall the auction took in about $12,500. It was just a smidge more than what they were hoping for, so all in all a success. This money provides a good chunk of the operating budget for the school.

Next year I may be more involved, as I have been asked (and said yes) to run for the school board. With Little Man coming up behind Kendra, we could have another 4-5 years at King Street, so I might as well get involved!

My Daughter's A Genius

I enrolled Kendra and I in a study on play based learning. The study entails an observer come to our house and interview us, do a twenty minute video of Kendra and I interacting, and a vocabulary test. They come back in 9 months to do it all again.

The vocabulary test consisted of four pictures and the tester asked Kendra to point to one specific picture. Some were nouns, some were representations of verbs. She had to miss 6 or more before the test ended. She made it all the way to 7 years old before she missed enough to end it.

That's right, my little chatterbox has the working vocabulary of the average 6 1/2 year old. Of course, I knew she was the smartest kid ever, but it's nice to have it confirmed :) (Actually, I was really surprised at how high she scored. I wasn't expecting that at all.)

Final Auction Piece

Here is the final piece I made for the auction.

We also donated a pizza party, courtesy of Dan's Friday Night Pizzeria. We'll have 2-3 kids over, Dan will make the dough and the kids can top their own pizzas. Depending on the ages of the kids, we'll watch a movie or play games or do a crafty thing.