I found this in Henry's backpack...

...and it absolutely made my day.

It was a letter from one of Henry's classmates thanking me for helping out on their field trip. This child will grow up to be a politician...I might vote for him, but not if he's running for president in 2036. Many of you know that Dylan (click here) has my vote for that election.

Dear Mrs. Nosek,
Thank you for helping out so we could have fun things to do. I hope that next time you get to come into class we can ever get more fun if it was even possible. So thank you again for being the best person that I have ever met. I hope you had as much fun as I did and let's hope it happens again!
Sincerely,
...

LOL! Love that child.

Those silly gingerbread men!!!

Would you believe it?! The gingerbread men that Evan and his friends at preschool worked so hard to make...

...escaped the oven!! Apparently it was too hot and smoky in there, so they must have climbed out to get a breath of fresh air. The teacher and the kids,

including Evan and Connor, were SO surprised!

Fortunately, the gingerbread men left a note, which led the kids on a hunt around the school.
Those silly gingerbread men...we found them hiding in the classroom.

Run, run, as fast as you can, we caught you, SILLY GINGERBREAD MEN!!

Yum!

Afterwards, we took the kids to the gym to play a few games. So cute...Look at Connor tickling Evan!

Giggle, giggle, giggle!

Class ended with the BEST serenade of songs...

Untitled from Sarah Nosek on Vimeo.

After class, my friend, Kathy, and I took Connor, Evan and their siblings to the park for a McDonald's picnic. Fun times!

Check out Connor's younger brother...how cute is he?!

A lot of fun was had...but this was tops...
There was a lot of foot and leg-burying going on.
We definitely brought home some dirty kids. :)

Despite that, what a fun day!

A Family Party for Seth and Caroline

We had a crowd at our house on Sunday. Some of our favorite people in this world were here to help us celebrate Seth and Caroline, including some of their cousins.

To see everyone else who was there, you can play this clip. You'll also get the added benefit of hearing our beautiful rendition of "Happy Birthday". :)

Untitled from Sarah Nosek on Vimeo.

Everyone spoiled the kids with some super fun gifts.

Seth and Caroline also received some more beautiful cards, including these from their very talented Aunt Karen. Aren't they sweet?
I know what you are thinking right now...yes, my parents DID give all of their cool card-making genes to my siblings. Not fair.

Here's Caroline with her sweet cousin, Nadia. These two spent most of the party playing school. They are so cute together!

Here's Evan getting a better view of the present-opening on Uncle Mark's shoulders.
And here's Seth doing a "dramatic reading" of the book that his Uncle Jim and Aunt Karen gave to him. Their son, Robbie, supervised from the stairs. My young 2 year old nephew loves our stairs. :)

He also loves Moxie's cage. ;)
When the party was over, I let Caroline unwrap the gift that we got for her using some money she got from Uncle Bill and Great-Grandma. She got her very own scooter!
She was one ecstatic girl because she can now join in the scooting fun with her brothers. ;) (Plus this scooter also has streamers and a BELL on the handle. How cool is that?!)

Happy birthday to my favorite 9 and 7 year olds! XOXOXOXO

Something just clicked today.

I'm not really sure what happened, but my little girl who had been very hesitant and timid on the soccer field suddenly wasn't today.
She usually gets relatively close to the ball, but not close enough to kick it. Today she had no problem getting close to the ball. She had some great success as a goalie, stopping a few goals.

She would grab the ball and quickly throw it back into play to her team mates.

She was watching the ball, quickly getting to where she needed to be.

She even stole the ball from someone on the other team that is a really tough player. She was really proud of that.
Several times I would get so excited by her play that I would cheer loudly for her. Most of the time she would just continue with her play. But sometimes she would smile sweetly at me, and get a touch distracted.

They finished off the game with high fives shared between the competing teams,
And then, last but not least, there was the snacks.
Caroline was so excited by how she played that she wrote a story about it when she got home that she immediately hung on the fridge. :) I am so proud of my little girl!

Our Birthday Boy

It's official. This young man is now 9! Happy birthday, Seth!
This morning Seth opened his "favorite birthday gift ever", a Spark Razor scooter.

Shortly after he took the scooter for a spin around the family room, we sang happy birthday to him and had a yummy breakfast of monkey bread and bacon.
He had a great day at school, and then played with his brothers and a friend after school. The new scooter got a LOT of use, and inspired some night time riding. Here's our boys on their scooters. (Click on this picture to see a close-up of Seth's crazy younger brother.)
How cool is this scooter?! Here's Seth showing how it sparks when he applies a special break.

Untitled from Sarah Nosek on Vimeo.

We all topped off the night by watching Diary of a Wimpy Kid together, which is a movie based on Seth's favorite series of books. Good fun!

Happy birthday, Seth! We love you!

Seth's Birthday Eve

He's almost nine! While the birthday boy and Henry went to their first cub scout meeting of the year, Caroline, Evan and I were busy getting ready for Seth's big day. Caroline made this sweet card for him,


and both Evan and Caroline decorated the kitchen.

Didn't they do a fabulous job?!
My amazing artist brother (Uncle Bill) made this card for Seth...
Click here for a post that explains why Seth thought this card was soooo funny...
And then to top off his birthday eve, Seth received this card from his super fabulous Great Grandma. Notice the picture she put in the card of Seth in the rocket...


Seth is definitely loved. :)

And finally...something that Evan drew in preschool today. It has nothing to do with Seth's birthday, but I thought it was cute...
Evan drew a picture inspired by one of his favorite stories, Harold and the Purple Crayon. I just think that it is so much fun when preschoolers get to the point where their drawings actually look like something. It's a monster. Yup. That looks like a monster to me!

A field trip with Henry

I am so glad that I got the chance to spend the day with Henry and his fifth grade class. We are all tired, but WOW did we have fun.
Hats off to the fifth grade teachers for planning two very special days that these kids will always remember!
We played all kinds of crazy games that encouraged the kids to work together. I came home today with a sore face and stomach from smiling and laughing so much.

These fifth graders are a fun bunch!

Good night all...time to catch up on some sleep!