Aunt Sara!

Aunt Sara tucked a trip to Kansas in between her class schedule and we were just thrilled to host her! Ben and I had seen both her and Josh while we were in Belize, but the boys hadn't seen Sara for a long time and they were ready to soak up as much Sara fun as they possibly could.

Noah has some amount of the "I'm in 4th grade and I'm really cool" thing going on these days. So while he got some quality Sara-time in, there aren't as many photos to prove it. Levi is a different story. He absolutely wore Sara out - always ready for the next activity. And my few photos do little to show how busy they were!

 Levi pretty much loved being in the suitcase and laughed and laughed and laughed, until he tried to get out on his own. He was strapped into the inside of the case, by his own "Safety first!" demand so when he tried to get out he ended up being stuck. Sara got him out, though. :-)

 Then they worked together to make a robot!

 It started out as just the big box for the body, but then it grew to having arms and legs and a hat!

 Sticky Paws is the nickname Sara gave Levi years ago. It's just as true today as it was when she gave it to him.

 Levi worked to decorate his robot,

 then they added a few special touches and it was declared complete!

 Noah was determined to get us all together for a game of family baseball out on the ball diamond he mowed near the pasture.

 Eventually, we all got set-up and played several innings of ball before the adults declared they were worn out. Between my poor baseball skills, and Sara (a lefty) trying to catch and throw with a right handed glove, we shared many good laughs. We found out the tricky part to having a ball diamond near the cattle pen is that foul balls can land in the cow poop. Oops.

 Ben flew to Washington D.C. on Sunday morning for a week long KARL session. But we kept on having fun at home, playing baseball and Frisbee outside, making pizza for supper and playing Uno before bed.

 Monday was Family Fun Day! Sara took us out to All Star Sports in Wichita for some mini-golf,

 lots of go karts,

 and bumper cars!

 I know, it's blurry, but isn't it kinda cool?

We had a great time! Noah's allergies got completely out-of-control so after our Family Fun Day he felt pretty lousy, but eventually his medicine fixed him up. And sadly, we had to take Sara back to the airport so she could get to Seattle in time for classes this week!
It was so good to have Sara here, we wish Josh could have joined her, but life is busy and complicated and matching up all the schedules just isn't always possible. Thankfully, we'll see them on the Schrag family vacation coming up in a couple of months!

Early March

Here's a rundown of some of the stuff that's been happening around here!

Wilbur is one cuddly dog. He just loves to snuggle in.

 Levi got some new teeth. :-)

 The weather has been amazing for early March and I've enjoyed several walks after work to try and soak it up.

 We used a Christmas gift card for the Alley in Wichita - and had a great time! Indoor Go Karts brought out the competitive spirit in the boys.

 Next activity at the Alley was bowling. I loved all the colorful bowling balls.

 Ben had been very busy with basketball, and it was such a treat to get some quality family time.

 We played arcade games, got snacks, and then met my sister and niece for dinner. It was a great way to spend a Sunday!

 Randomly one evening, Noah asked if he could make cookies. Instead of drop cookies, I convinced him to make bar cookies. He did a great job of measuring the ingredients,

 and he loved to watch them in the mixer.

 New life is springing forth from just about every plant all around us - what a glorious time of year.

 Ben was assigned the 2A State Basketball tournament that took place in Manhattan, KS. He had games one night, then had a whole day to himself before he had more games the following evening. I went up to Manhattan to hang out with him and we had a great time!
Varsity Donuts is a favorite of mine. I love their space.

 The display counter, the floor...I could go on and on,

 but seriously, the donuts are amazing! Peanut butter and jelly donut right here. It was amazing.

 Then it was just about game time! My dad and Noah came up, along with my aunt and uncle, to watch too. You can't see him, but Ben is the ref tossing the ball to start the game! And at the end of that night, another basketball season came to a close for our family. :-)

 The chicks are growing. They're in the very awkward and ugly adolescent stage of life.

 I would say that time will make it better...

 but eventually they'll look like this!

 Kansas has been outdoing itself with the sunsets lately.

That's a peak at what's been going on around here!

Fun at Family Reading Night

For a bunch of years, my mom and her colleagues at Goessel Elementary have put on Family Reading Night. This year, the theme was Space! And it was loads of fun.

First of all, we needed instructions!

 First stop for our group was outer space! Or, this huge plastic dome that we could pretend was space!

 Mr. Fast took us through the Skippyjon Jones book called "Lost in Spice," such a fun book!

 Next stop was Space activities, led by Mr. Loganbill. The first challenge was strength-based, we got to see how many crunches we could do in one minute. Mr. Loganbill explained that being fit and strong is very important to astronauts.
The second challenge was all about reaction time. How fast you could react and grab the ruler that your partner is dropping through your cupped hand.

 Clearly, Levi was invested in the demonstration.

 Here's Koy and Levi giving it a go. It was a fun challenge!

 The last challenge was to put a puzzle together while wearing big gloves like astronauts have to wear when they're working out in space.

 It was interesting to watch the kids at different ages try this one. The big kids were prone to cheating.

 But just before time was going to run out, they buckled down and really worked at it.

 Our last stop for Family Reading Night was the book swap. While some kids in our group looked for new books to take home, our boys and their friends did some reading!

 The older boys read to the younger girls,

 while the oldest boys oohed and ahhhed over basketball pictures and facts.

The evening wrapped up with drawings for new books, one per kid, per grade. It was funny how much Levi wanted to WIN a book, but if we GIVE him a book he's not excited. Hmmm....

Spring Music Program

Music programs are a big deal to our kids. They usually love the songs and sing them for days and days ahead of the program. And then the day to perform rolls around and their nerves kick in and suddenly they're not so sure about the whole thing.

This time around was no different! But this time, I had actually remembered to let our family at a distance know about the program so the boys knew they'd have some folks watching from far away via the live stream. I think that gave them some extra butterflies, but made them feel pretty special at the same time!

 As always, the kids did a fantastic job. There were lots of words and lots of fun actions for them to keep up with.

 After the program, my dad and I went to get the boys from their classrooms - but we couldn't leave until we'd seen all of Levi's latest creations, including his clean and organized desk!

 He was a little wild with excitement...

 In the hall, Levi showed us a poster he made. It was all about the state of Hawaii - we decided we should go for a visit to do more research. :-)

 We took so long in the 2nd grade classroom that Noah was just about the only kid left in 4th grade!

 He didn't have too much to show us, but he wanted to show off his desk, too. Gotta claim what you've got, right?

It was a fun evening and it's always fascinating to watch the boys and their classmates grow and improve throughout each school year.