Spring Break

So it has been a little while since my last post. We have had little things going on here and there, but I have just been bad about taking pictures. The week before last, Jackson and Ellie had dress up days at school. Jackson’s was to celebrate Dr. Suess and Ellie’s was for Lutheran Schools Week. Ellie had more fun with it than Jackson did. She got to dress up in her pjs, her cheerleading uniform and her princess costume. She loved it. Jackson had things like silly sock day and crazy, mismatched clothes day. He just wasn’t that into it. I spent some time putting together a picture collage for our stair case and I like the way it turned out.
I had a good week of hardly having to cook a meal. We went to friends’ houses to eat on two nights, my parent’s house one night and Wednesday night is usually pizza night for us since it is our busy night. We started spring break at the end of the week. Lissy came into town on Sunday and Jackson and Ellie had a sleepover at my parents that night. So to repay them, we had them over for dinner Monday night.

On Tuesday Lincoln headed out early in the morning to go with my mom and Lissy up to Des Moines to meet up with Zane, Kaitlin and Owen so they could bring Kaitlin and Owen back to Kirksville for a few days. They were watching Lincoln for me while I took the kids to Bonkers in Quincy. We went along with Leah, Zach and Kate and Tiffany and her kids plus two more friends. We stopped at Steak-n-Shake first for lunch and then headed over to Bonkers for some play time. It is an indoor play area that has a big netted jungle gym type thing. The kids ran around for a couple of hours which was great. They had a lot of fun and it was nice for them to expend some energy because we didn’t have the nicest weather for our spring break. After they were done playing we did just a little bit of shopping at TJ Maxx and then headed home.
Yes, my kids are great at taking group pictures these days. We were going to go to Bentonville this past weekend but thought it would be a good chance for Sara and the kids to come to Kirksville since they were already in St. Louis. Jackson was also wanting to meet up with his friend Walker (Andrew’s college roommate’s son) down there and we found out they were going to be out of town. So we rescheduled the trip for when Bella, Brady and the twins have their birthday party in May. So we just hung around Kirksville for the rest of break. Sara and her kids were there for a few days along with Kaitlin and Owen and Lissy. Lauren came over to play with us on Thursday while Mary did some things around town. We got out some St. Patrick’s Day decorations. We had dinner with Andrew’s family Thursday night out at Tom and Mary’s. Lincoln tried on Mary’s cowboy boots and wanted to try on several different hats they had laying around. Tom just kept handing him the different one’s Lincoln would point to. This picture was with my phone so it is pretty dark.
Sara and her kids left Friday afternoon and then Zane and Andy, Autumn and their kids showed up Friday night. I helped Lissy with some shoots on Saturday. I helped her with Tab and Jonathan’s newborn shoot for Macy and also with the Schwend’s newest granddaughter’s 2 month shoot after that. It was a little over five hours but she paid me with some lunch from Wendy’s and a surprise Frosty. Even if it is a little tiring, it is always fun helping with the baby shoots. My parents thankfully watched Ellie and Lincoln and Jackson spent his morning out at the ranch with Andrew fixing fence. The rest of the day was really nice and the kids loved being outside. I didn’t really take any pictures except I did get one of sweet Owen in the hat Amanda gave him. So cute. But now it is back to school. The kids weren’t too excited about getting up this morning. My mom and I loaded up Lincoln and Ellie and headed to Columbia for a little shopping and it snowed the whole time we were there. It was crazy. Ellie and Lincoln did get to enjoy a quick ride on the carousel at the mall. It was Lincoln’s first time and he wasn’t scared at all. Again, please excuse the picture from my phone. And lastly, here are a couple pictures of Lincoln and Ellie. Lincoln loves putting on Jackson’s old red boots and I thought they were so cute with his Mickey Mouse shirt. And Ellie wanted me to take a picture of the puzzles she had worked on. Note the Cardinal’s shirt-her choice.