Tyler Trivia

Some things I've learned about Tyler lately. He loves board games, Scott Joplin (and other rag time music), and turkey, mustard and bread sandwiches. No mayo no butter. So, there you have it. Tyler trivia for the day.

End of the School Year

My sweet 8 year-old Tyler is done with second grade. How is that possible?!?! I got the pleasure

 of joining his class for the end of year party.

Party game...

Tyler and Mrs. Farrell (with her umbrella) :)

All the kids earned little awards. His was for outstanding performance in math. He thought it should have been for his sense of humor. :) The other moms who were there were very complimentary to Tyler, which always makes a Mom proud.

Since today was the last day of school, he brought home all of his school things. I enjoyed reading back through his journal. Lots of his entries were about our weekends, and I was tickled that nearly all of them started with what he had for breakfast on Saturday morning.

 This letter was kind of a surprise. I didn't know how he felt about Obama, that he wanted to be a paleontologist or what he thought about gun control. Interesting.

Science Night

Last evening, while Aubrey and I covered plants to prepare for the incoming freezing temps, and called Dad to wish him a Happy Birthday, Tyler and Wayne went to Science Night at Tyler's school. There were all kinds of hands on ways to have fun with science. When they got home, they were both as excited to talk about all the fun they had as they look in the picture. I heard about the physics of flight, plant germination, animals - like a tortoise wandering around, potions, etc.

 

 

Interesting Tyler

Tyler brought this home today.

 

 It made me smile.

 

 

It all looks right...except that he was 5 when he entered school. I found it interesting to see what things he decided to include.

Reader's Theater

March 7, Tyler's class presented a Reader's Theater. He did a great job, and I recorded short clips so that Wayne could see what it was about. (He was home with Aubrey for her nap time).

 

Snow Days

We've been in a drought around here. I've heard that we are nearing dust-bowl levels of drought. So, it's been awhile since we've gotten much precipitation. A winter storm was predicted to be headed our way, early in the week, but we're in Kansas. Things can change quickly, so we believe it when we see it.

 

Wednesday morning, around 9, I left my base school to visit another school. The snow had started to fall before then, but the roads were still fine. By about an hour later, the roads were slick and it was still coming down steadily. Evening parent-teacher conferences were canceled, so I got to come home at my normal time. The roads were decent by the end of the work day, and we enjoyed the snow. A novelty around here.

 

That evening, they canceled school for both Tyler and I for Thursday. We were excited and looked forward to burrowing in for an unplanned day at home. I woke up to lightning and thunder during the night and heard on the news the next day it's actually called thunder snow. I think that sounds funny.   And it kept snowing most of the day.

Around here, they don't have the kind of snow removal equipment we had growing up in Northern Indiana. Side streets are not plowed. We had shoveled the driveway on Wednesday night, but you never would have known that yesterday. As I struggled and huffed and puffed on the driveway yesterday, and the snow stuck to each scoop of the shovel, I stopped when I was a little over halfway done. It was heavy, thick, and I figured that even if I could get out of our driveway in the morning, I'd be immediately stuck in the thick snow still on the street. We ended up with 14.2 inches of snow. So, we weren't surprised when they canceled school for today too.


Playing in the snow today...

(Okay, most of Aubrey's snow play consists of eating snow).

 

Tunnels...in Kansas?!

 

 

Love it. :)

Dear Santa...

Just about every line of Tyler's letter to Santa (a school assignment) cracks me up...

I love the small talk at the beginning. Cats?! Totally deflecting his own naughty or nice-ness. Also, it's a good thing he doesn't believe in Santa so there's no false hope about that 3DS. ;)

Tyler Torture

St Patrick's Day

There's something fun and light-hearted about St. Patrick's Day.

Friday, while the kids played outside with the neighbors, I made a batch of Shamrock Butter Cookies for them to enjoy. They were far from perfect looking - but I love this melt-in-your-mouth butter cookie recipe.

Saturday, I made a treasure hunt that I found on pinterest. I printed out these clues (with a little shamrock on each one...I couldn't figure out how to import my document to blogger). Anyway, I hid these for Tyler to find when he woke up yesterday morning:

There once was a boy who I knew
He looked a little like you!
He got out of bed,
“Good Morning,” he said
Then he found something new in his shoe.

Inside of that shoe was a clue
Written from me to you!
“To find lots of gold
Before catching cold
Go put on a glove or two.”

My treasure is oh so great
So hurry and do not wait!
I dress only in green
and never am seen
I’m hiding under a plate.

You found me at last, hooray!
Thank you for coming to play.
I’m Leprechaun Pete
I’ve brought you a treat.
Have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Attached to this last clue, was this treat.

Only instead of Rolos, I used Hershey's Nuggets.

Later, Tyler and Aubrey enjoyed Leprechaun Floats.

What a fun day, and a fun way to kick off Spring Break!

The Hole

About a week ago, we set some limits on TV time. I know, we're a little late to the party. Anyway, this nicely coincided with some lovely weather. Aubrey just loves doing anything outside, but Tyler needs a little more nudging. That changed this week when he decided to dig a hole. He spent several evenings this week working on it. Aubrey found her way to him on Friday evening and Wayne snuck in a few shots of the two of them.

Oops! Spotted by our camera-averse child!

We were rockin' our KU shirts Friday as they played (and won)! that evening. :)

Weather craziness

Our winter has been exceptionally mild this year. Tuesday evening, Tyler had soccer practice and it was was windy, but he could still wear shorts and be comfortable. So, we were a little surprised to wake up to snow on Wednesday morning.

We got another slushy layer on Thursday morning. But, Friday and Saturday the sun was back and we enjoyed time outside.

Yesterday for lunch, Tyler and Aubrey had a little picnic on the deck. (Tyler is such a big fan of having his picture taken, as you can see).

Last night, Aubrey and Tyler played outside as long as they could...

Star Student of the Week

A few weeks back, Tyler was selected as the Mon"Star" Student of the week. I meant to post this for my parents, and finally got around to it...

Something to Love

Tyler was asked to bring a picture to school of himself with something he loves. He would be asked to write about it.

When I asked him what he wanted to take a picture with, he picked Aubrey. I asked several times, and he always answered that he wanted to pick Aubrey.

Granted, getting a half-decent picture of them together was a little challenging, but we finally got this one.

This morning, I opened his backpack to find the finished product.

Christmas 2011

May I preface this post by saying that we did a poor job of documenting our holiday with pictures? OK - I needed that disclaimer.

This Christmas season, like many before, I came home from work, we hurriedly packed up the car, and began our journey to Indiana. We had a fairly uneventful trip. Aubrey hated her car seat for long periods, as expected. Overall, however, it went well.

Our first afternoon/evening we spent with Dave and Teneesa Stuckey's family. We enjoyed catching up while the kids played together.

And the dads and kids did a little last-minute "Christmas decorating." ;)

I just had to include this picture - Dave cracks me up.

Christmas was definitely different this year. My mom was in Thailand with Lynette and Rusty anxiously awaiting the birth of their new baby boy, Henry.  Needless to say, we were all anxiously awaiting his birth and were thrilled when he was born on December 27 (late evening on the 26th for us) at a healthy 8 pounds, 10 ounces.  We enjoyed staying connected with phone calls and Skyping.

Henry Miles Polinder

Isn't he just precious?

Tim, Carrie and family arrived on Christmas day. We had our traditional fondue meal that evening. Grandma Polly joined us, which we really enjoyed.


Fondue - December 25, 2011


I'm including this little video for Mom, Rusty and Lynette's sake since they couldn't be with us. (At least, that's why we took it).



We enjoyed some snow while we visited. After a little sledding, the Gator was put to good use. It reminds me of my childhood, when Dad would pull us on sleds behind the snowmobile.





Zion and Aubrey



Layla Grace

We spent a day in Decatur, visiting Wayne's Grandma, Billie, and got to enjoy seeing Uncle Max for lunch as well. Then we headed to Indianapolis for a few days to celebrate with the Stuckey side of the family.  We packed a lot of fun into those days. We enjoyed a morning at Monkey Joe's with loads of indoor inflatables. We did a little shopping, including a visit to the Lego store for Tyler. It was Trader Joe's for me. (I need connections...just some way to get a Trader Joe's in Wichita)! We enjoyed some delicious meals out, my favorite being a delicious family-style dinner at Maggiano's. Yum!

And of course, present opening.

Doesn't Hollins just make you smile? :)

We had such a good time. It's so good to reconnect and enjoy just being together. The celebratory spirit of Christmas doesn't hurt either.

Missing you all already.