Go Panthers Go!

Tonight Katelin showed her school spirit by helping the Lakeville North HS cheerleaders cheer at their homecoming game! Katelin and her friend Briana went to a cheerleading clinic from 4-7 where they learned cheers and had a pizza party.  The evening ended with them cheering on the sidelines for 15 minutes at the start of the game.

I picked the girls up from school and Katelin said “This is gonna be awesome Briana!” (On a side note, Kate wasn’t too thrilled with having to miss her bus ride home, she absolutely loves riding the bus!) It was so great to see them so excited and brave when I dropped them off. She had so much fun! Unfortunately James was still not feeling great so we had to leave right after the cheers.

After the girls showered, had bed time treats and were watching a show I noticed they fell asleep on our bed. I thought it was too cute so I made Brian bring the camera up.  Just as he finished snapping pictures we saw a smirk come across Annie’s face.  It turns out the little stinkers were faking it.  Apparently they thought we would carry them into their room and they would not have to brush their teeth! Hilarious.  Oh, and their plan did not work! 

Round 2, for 2

This fall season is kicking me and James in the butt! My sinus infection/sickness is back and James just had to go on new medicine for his ears last night.  Thank goodness for our friend in the neighborhood who is a pediatrician.  I asked her to check out James’ ears and sure enough they are still infected.  The poor little man is running a fever, doesn’t want to drink/eat and is definitely not himself.  The ENT appointment in October can’t come soon enough.  I hate seeing him suffer but did enjoy some of the extra snuggles I got today! Here are a few pics we took yesterday when he was in a slightly better mood. He loves playing in the girls’ chairs.

And the fun keeps coming!

This past weekend was another one full of fun! We had an impromptu visit to IKEA on Friday evening.  Saturday started off with two more soccer games.  Katelin did awesome as usual with her team at an impressive 3-0 season so far. More exciting is that Annie actually played this weekend…and had fun to boot! After soccer, I had a much needed “me” day.  I got my hair colored/cut and then spent most of the day out shopping and had lunch with my sister. Unfortunately it wasn’t as relaxing or productive as I thought but I won’t go into all those details. I still got away for a few hours! The girls spent the day with our friend Melissa and her son Noah.  She bravely took them all to a play in Hopkins and then to DQ, a park and back to her house to play. Apparently Annie told Melissa “It is really fun going places without our parents!” The girls had an absolute blast and Brian got lucky and only had James for most of the day! Thanks to Melissa for treating our girls to such a special day. (These are pics she snapped during the outing.)

Kate’s static head on the slide.

Kate strikes a pose!

Annie asked Melissa if she wanted to see her pose!

Kate, Noah, and Annie enjoying DQ!

Annie’s silly face.

On Sunday Brian and I celebrated his birthday with a belated surprise outing.  We started the day with lunch at LaCasita (yum! I miss that place). Then I took him to a bar/bowling alley that has over 50 pinball machines! We ended up staying for 4.5 hours and missed our movie! Brian was in heaven and I had a great time too.  Good thing I raided his coin jug for quarters before we left! (SouthPark is my new favorite game and Bri still loves his Big Buck Hunter!) I am a big pull tab junkie so when I saw they had pull tabs I decided to buy $10 worth.  You should have seen our reaction when we thought we won $25 5 times.  Instead of winning $125 though we won $1!!!  I misread the tabs.  It was hilarious and I am still laughing about it today. We ended the day with dinner at Fogo…Brian’s birthday ritual. They kept asking us if we were celebrating anything special and we told them Brian’s birthday.  At the end of dinner they asked if we wanted dessert and we declined.  They ended up bringing us a free cheesecake regardless…to celebrate our anniversary!  We had to laugh and didn’t correct them.  And a special thanks to Grandma Nancy and Gramps for watching the kids all day so we could have a nice day out together.  It was much needed!

Kids Say the Darndest Things!

I had to take a minute and write down a few of the silly things the girls have said this week that have made me laugh. I want to be sure to remember these moments when they are older to share with them. How blessed we are to have these adorable little people in our lives!

1) I had just cleaned out the fridge and it was looking pretty empty.
Kate: "Mom, we have no food in the fridge. It is like we are cottage people."
Me: "Cottage people, what do you mean?"
Kate: "You know, like in Hansel & Gretel."

2) As we were getting ready for bed Kate started crying about her ear hurting.

Kate: "Mom, my ear really hurts. It feels like a racoon scratched it."
Me: "What?"
Kate: "Let me tell you what happened at school today. I was playing Rainbow Tag (and she proceeded to tell me exactly how that is played!) and I wasn't really watching where I was going. I was looking to the side and I ran into the wall with my ear. So now it hurts real bad."

I am not exactly sure how running into a wall with your ear equates to it feeling like a racoon scratched it. Not to mention, I am not sure how she would know what a racoon scratch feels like!

3) I was talking to the kids about my nephews upcoming wedding and that some little kids they know are going to be part of the wedding.

Me: "Jacob and Sam are going to be ring bearers in Mikey and Kim's wedding."
Kate: "Are they going to wear bear costumes?" :)
Me: After laughing hard I tried to explain what a ring bearer (not bear) is. I figured they wouldn't know what a tuxedo was so I said "No, they are going to wear a nice suit."
Annie: "A swimsuit?"

4) I was lying down on James' floor watching the kids play.

Kate: "Mom, let's cover you up so you can take a nap."
Me: "That sounds nice."
Kate: As she proceeds to cover me with James' blankets..."OK, we need two blankets because your body is so big."

Happy Birthday Brian

Brian had quite the birthday weekend! My nephew Michael had his bachelor party up at Cross Lake this weekend so Brian had a weekend full of beer, dancing, golf, beer, napping, beer, games, partying, and more beer!  Honestly I don’t really know what happened at all at this party other than he had a great time. I guess what happens in Cross Lake, stays in Cross Lake!  Happy Birthday Brian/Daddy…we love you! Hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Trying to get a photo with everyone looking! 

Daddy and his girls!

My little athletes…maybe!

Fall soccer has begun!  Last weekend was the first game for both Kate and Annie.  Katelin jumped right back into the swing of things and scored 5 out of the 7 goals for her team.  She was thrilled they won and had a great time playing.  She is a hustler, assertive and does her best to get to the ball to score or defend against a goal.  At times I wonder if her coaches tell her to pass more.  We remind her to do that but I also don’t want to be one of those parents that coach their kids from the sidelines, especially when I don’t know what I am talking about! This weekend they had another successful game win and more fun. It is sad to say that I am already hoping Katelin sticks with soccer and continues to play as she gets older.  I really enjoy watching her have fun, try hard, and do well! My favorite is watching her jump when she scores a goal or hug another teammate when someone else scores.

Annie’s first two games were a little rough.  You wouldn’t know it by the pictures I posted below though.  She looks all smiles with her friend Noah.  However I heard there were tears last week and more sitting on the sidelines than playing.  This week confirmed that.  She refused to play and would not even take her team pictures.  She was just too tired (or so was her excuse). She proceeded to tell me that she only likes spring soccer and not fall soccer.  In spring she was not a fan of the playing the first game but loved it after that so I am hoping she turns around and starts to enjoy herself.  If not, next Saturday will be her last fall soccer game.  Wish us luck!

A happy Kindergartner

The first two weeks of Kindergarten have come and gone and I am happy to report that Katelin is still loving it as much as day 1! I am however slightly overwhelmed with all of the paperwork that comes home to the parents and many of them are sheets of activities for Katelin to participate in.  We already signed her up for a cheerleading clinic this month and she gets to cheer with the high school girls at the Lakeville North HS homecoming game. Pretty exciting for a Kindergartner! I also attended my first PTO meeting and hope to become involved as much as I can with working full-time, taking care of three little rugrats, and trying to keep my house in order!

Some of the stories that Kate has shared with me that have made me smile so far include:

1) Katelin and her friend Noah walked another kindergartner boy in her class to the health office all by themselves.  She said she volunteered because she knew how to get there.  When she came back to the room, she walked in very quickly and did not disrupt anyone. She was very proud!

2) They searched for gingerbread men cookies around the school on Friday.  They even got to go into Mrs. Roos office (the principal) but they did not touch anything in her office but it did smell like cinnamon.

3) When I ask her who she plays with and who her friends are she happily tells me that she plays with a lot of kids.  “All the kids are nice Mom, I play with them all!” In fact, Katelin has already come home with four light-up Sketcher shoe key chains attached to her book bag that other girls have given her.  Today she bought rings and necklaces at Target for the girls who gave her the key chains “because that is the nice thing to do”.

4) Katelin was overjoyed on Friday when she got home and showed me a note the teacher made. Katelin was Mrs. Reed’s helper today and that means she got to sit in the red beanbag (she has been hoping every day to be the helper).  “The beanbags are Mrs. Reed’s sons though so we need to take care of them.  That means we can’t color on them or spit on them.”  She was so excited that we had to put the note up in our house.  Here is a picture of her note.

Doctors…our best friends!

It seems like one of the Clemens Clan is always sick! Brian just got over strep throat and a nasty cold, I am still battling an awful sinus infection that I have had for over two weeks and now it is little Jamesy’s turn. He has had a head full of snot for the past few weeks as well but today daycare called and informed me he vomited.  So I figured I would take him in to the doc to make sure he did not have strep and I also suspected he may have an ear infection.  Good news is his strep test was negative. Bad news is he has another double ear infection.  He just had the same thing in August and this is now like his sixth or seventh ear infection since he was 3 months old.  We have an appointment with an ENT for a tube consultation in October.  As much as I don’t want him to have to get tubes I know how successful they were for Kate so if it helps, I am all for it. It looks like the little guy is following in his families footsteps.  Amazingly just like his sisters, when he has these raging ear infections he is usually just as smiley as always.  James and I were playing in his room this afternoon and I got the rare photo opp when he would actually stay in one spot long enough for me to snap a pic!

Party Time!

Today we celebrated the end of summer and the start of the school year with the 2nd Annual End-of-Summer Neighborhood party at our house. I can pretty confidently say the kids had a blast! There was a lot for them to do including a bounce house, potato sack races, face painting (a new skill I can tack on to Brian’s ever-expanding list of talents), and of course the new zip line Brian installed in the back yard (we even had two 3-year-old girls brave enough to try it)!

This event last year was the first time we got some of the families with young kids from the neighborhood together and since then we have been lucky enough to form some good friendships (both adults and kiddos)!!  A fun day was had by all!

First Day Fun & Surprises

Today was Katelin’s first day of Kindergarten.  After the open house and orientation she felt ready for the day.  She woke up so excited and had no fears at all about her new adventure.  She was so brave! She had a great time waiting in line for the bus and riding it to school.

During the day I thought of her often.  Wondering if she was making friends, having fun, learning something new, how would she handle getting her lunch, what would be her favorite part of the day, etc. Funny how I was worried for my little girl but my little girl wasn’t worried at all! Glad she doesn’t take after me in that respect!

We did have a little scare though today.  When we got ready to get a picture of her coming off the bus imagine our surprise when she didn’t get off the bus!  Panic ensued as the drivers were communicating back and forth and no one had her on their bus.  I finally got a hold of someone at school and a mix-up happened where they kept her for the after-school program. Needless to say I was not very happy but I realize accidents happen and was just happy she didn’t end up on a wrong bus. When I picked her up she had no clue anything was wrong and loved KidZone and wanted to stay longer.

The entire ride home a I heard all about her GREAT day.  I am so proud of Katelin and so happy she had a successful first day.  I hope her enthusiasm for school continues year after year!

A few fun quotes on the way home:

- “I want to live at school.  It is so fun, I love it!”

- “Mom, there are 24 kids in my class. Mrs. Reed told the principal how good we all are.  We are awesome!”

- “Well for lunch you stand on the blue line and then they tell you to go get your lunch and that is how you do it.  The chicken nuggets were my favorite but I didn’t like the tator tots.  Mom, the Kindergarteners only get 13 minutes to eat their whole lunch!”

- “YES!  I can’t believe I got the “Me Bag” for tomorrow already.  Whoo hoo!!!”

- “My least favorite part of school was nothing.  I loved everything"!”

- “All the kids were so nice to each other.  We were being very nice kids.”