Weekending it

The weekends here are same old-same old. Routine is good. Having time to accomplish all the chores is good, but it makes for some pretty boring weekends. We do literally all the house cleaning on the weekend, adult laundry is done on the weekends, as is grocery shopping. 

Kip does swim on Saturday mornings. 

More forts.

Kip got a start on making his class Valentine's.

Dan and Kip worked on the train construction.

Someone stole me phone for a selfie.

Play sand.

And "pooter time."

And of course, we can't forget the KC Chiefs are headed to the Superbowl which thrills Dan and I'm happy he is happy. 

Kip's Picks | School Lunch

This year Kip gets to eat lunch in the cafeteria every day. Although he had the free school lunch the majority of last year, this year year he is taking a lunch box. Mandy had the genius idea of making a menu for him to pick from every day. It promotes variety and he is included in what he would enjoy to eat. Kip fills out his menu every night after dinner and Mandy and I trade off putting it together for the next day. This is just a sheet of paper in a plastic sleeve protector. A dry erase marker wipes clean with baby wipe.

We put his morning snack in these cute parchment paper bags which seal closed with a little sticker. I got them at Target. Kip's favorite snack to take is Veggie Straws.

Kip likes the Arizona iced tea "juice" box for his drink. These drinks were MIA at the store for a solid month and we were starting to panic since Kip doesn't love most other juice boxes. So grateful we found a mega pack at the store last week which should last us a couple of months.

We use the Bentgo Chill lunch box which has a removable freezer pack under the tray. We add another ice pack to the top of his lunch box to keep everything cool.

When Kip takes something hot for lunch, we use this Omie box thermos. All you do is fill it with boiling water for 15 minutes, dump out the water, dry the thermos and put the hot food inside. It stays warm until lunch! His favorite hot lunch to take is Pesto Pasta.

I like finding fun festive napkins to throw in his lunch box. The best affordable place for a fun variety of cocktail size napkins is Home Sense or Home Goods. Right now we have a round of heart napkins for Valentine's Day coming up.

Kip requests the Entenmann's Little bites "sprinkle cakes" nearly daily for his lunchbox treat. He also enjoys peppers dipped in hummus and any kind of melon when we can find it.

Little picks and tiny forks added for a fun flare.

Happy munching!

Weekending it

A little update.

Mandy and I took Ivy to the podiatrist on Friday. She did really well considering we had a long wait to get a room and see the doctor. 

Unfortunately, Mandy and I felt really defeated after the appointment because, yet again, we have a doctor fully acknowledge the problem we see and yet give us no solution or support. Basically, "she has low muscle tone and that causes her to pronate when she walks." Nothing will fix the problem. And even more invalidating, "I've seen worse." Mandy and I tried to advocate for something that would give Ivy the stability she needs not so much to fix the problem but to prevent it from causing other problems like alignment or future foot/back pain. Nothing is proactive!!! It's all reactive. "Oh well come back when she starts to complain of pain and we can do something about it." UGH. Am I grateful it isn't something more significant? Yes, absolutely, but that doesn't mean it's not worth some support.

So, now I'm looking into pediatric PT for Ivy to get another assessment. Maybe you think, clearly this issue isn't an issue if everyone is dismissing you. But, no. It's mother's intuition. Ivy is over  2 1/2 and she cannot run or jump and both her feet fall inward when she walks. I've been telling doctor after doctor since she was an infant that something is off with her gross motor development and everyone agrees but then does nothing about it but pass us off.

Okay, anyways, moving on. We made pizza for dinner and the kids loved helping.

Kip is doing great in Level 3 swim. He is the only one in his class so it's basically a private lesson for the cost of a group lesson. It is challenging for him which is great since it is pushing him to progress. 

More forts.

Painting.

And snuggles.

Kip is home sick today. Selah.

Kindy Crafts & Projects

Some sweet works of art and activities to photo document:

Dan made this little turkey with Kip and Ivy one weekend while I was cleaning. 

And this is an instrument that Kip made in music class.

More from the holidays...

This is a little suitcase the kids made for the week before winter break. Every day they "traveled" somewhere new and learned about how that country celebrates Christmas. Super cute idea. Kip loved it.

I made a few selections and ran them through my tips and tricks for archiving kids keepsakes.

Weekending it

A slow and simple holiday weekend over here. All the chores all the time and bit of fun in between.

I am a certified fort engineer now.

Kip went to swim lessons.

And Dan is the master model builder helping Kip with this intricate train model kit that he got for Christmas. It is very complicated and thrilling.

We got the bounce house out for a bit of energy release indoors.

A good round of rainbow cars.

And Mandy and I took the kids to Barnes & Noble yesterday. It was newly opened and redesigned version of the store which I think is meant to imitate a small independent story. It was TINY and crowded and ugh, not a lot of fun but we still left with stuff we didn't need. 

Now, do you believe in miracles? Because frozen onions were in stock at the store this weekend. Could it be that I complained out-loud to the universe and it heard me was like, dang, "jig is up" and decided to bring them back in stock? 

You never know!