Theodore slowly whittled down his naps over the course of the year. By the time we reached December, he was only napping involuntarily, usually on long afternoon car rides.
The kids love balloons. They don't even need fancy balloons, just regular blown up balloons that they can toss in the air and chase around until they pop.
One of our sliding doors abruptly stopped working during the tail end of winter. Luckily, we discovered it on the way to get an oil change. There was a snapped wire poking out, so I turned off the automatic door setting, muscled it closed, and took it to the shop. The mechanic checked it out and asked how much the automatic feature was worth to me. I told him not much and he replied, "$900?" Nope. Our kids have a 90s van now.
Theo makes me wait to turn off the car until the music ends so that he can finish the song.
Kaitlyn calls McDonald's Mickey.
Bryan has rediscovered Magic the Gathering and decided he's interested enough to assemble several decks. He also made decks for Olivia, Gretchen, and me. His efforts were met with varying levels of enthusiasm. He claims that the decks he has now (3 of his own) will suffice for quite some time, and then maybe he'll eventually add another one or two. We shall see. He is currently quite motivated to go and play with his friends, and actively tries to recruit non-Magic playing friends so that they, too, may share in the experience of being a nerd in high school.
Theodore has taking to collecting his things in one giant pile. He used to keep all his treasured belongings (all the dinosaurs he could find) in a backpack, but the number outgrew his space, so he started a small but tasteful pile on a table in his room. Over the next few days, the small but tasteful pile grew into a small mountain. No one is allowed to touch his pile, including, perhaps, Theodore. Any new treasure he happens across is immediately taken on a pilgrimage to the pile for safekeeping.
Theodore's if-then statements are if-then-if. "If I'm hungry then I need a snack if I'm hungry." It does make him sound very persuasive.
Matthias likes to do "by number" books. He started with sticker by number and very carefully peeled and placed all the little stickers. He is now starting to get into color by number, although the pencils are a pain to cart around. He's also been doing a lot of puzzles. He mainly prefers large floor puzzles that he can do himself, but he has a couple dinosaur themed puzzles of varying sizes that he'll do with me on the little pink table (which we then shut in a room so that Theodore can't ruin our progress). We went to the thrift store and found a new dinosaur floor puzzle and an unopened pack of colorful puzzles of varying sizes, which was very exciting. He's happier with the floor puzzle. :)
Olivia gave a Famous Ohioan presentation at the end of 4th grade. She was Victoria Woodhull, who was, among other things, the first woman to be nominated for president (but received no electoral votes). We called Justine to figure out how to dress Olivia for the 1870s and borrowed clothes from Elesha to make it work. Pictures in April.
Gretchen participated in the 3rd grade market fair and made little fairy houses to sell. A picture of some of her wares is in March.
I started running again last year (with Elesha and Jill) and this year we had some goal races in mind. Well, one goal race for them, but I added more because I like to have something to aim for. We ran in Carmel in April (10k for me, half marathon for them) and then did some local 5ks over the summer. Then I ran the Columbus Hot Chocolate 10k, followed by a Turkey Trot 4 days later. Bryan got me some super magic cheater shoes (Nike Vaporfly Next%2, which looks like a password but is apparently a shoe name) as an early birthday present and surprised me with them before the Hot Chocolate run. They are indeed fabulous, both for faster times and easier recovery.
June was the great road trip out to Colorado and back. The kids and I joined Justine and Joseph and their crew to caravan halfway across the country four hours at a time. Bryan stayed home to work. The kids and I began Sunday night with a trip to Indianapolis to stay with Jon Wey's parents. We spent Monday morning at the Children's Museum there and then headed to St Louis to meet up with the Bossards at the Gulseth house. Our (borrowed) tent got tested that night in the heat and humidity of Missouri. Thankfully, the camping got more pleasant from there. We stayed two nights in Kansas, once on the east and once on the west. Then we crossed into Colorado and when we reached Colorado Springs we had an airbnb waiting for us. Sarah and Ben were married on Saturday, and by Monday we were on the road again, taking the northern route through Nebraska and Iowa to come home. We mixed kids up between the two cars and had a pretty good routine of driving two hours, stopping for a picnic lunch at a playground, and then driving two more hours before pitching tents in the daylight. Not the most efficient trip, perhaps, but it worked for us.
