Yesterday, Luke’s class celebrated their 100th day of school.

His teacher shared some pictures (I love her). They had a glow stick dance dance party and then had some fun making messes while practicing writing sight words.

They built towers using 100 paper cups.

Luke told me, “Mom, when I’m 100, I’m gonna be a cop.”

I am so thankful for the awesome teachers at the boys’ school. They do so much to make learning fun for their students.

Well, actually, it was Adam. He received the Sacrament of Reconciliation tonight when he made his first confession.

He was so nervous, but did a wonderful job. It really threw him that he was face to face with the priest. He thought it would be in the confessional and there would be a screen separating them (I’m not going to lie, that would make me nervous too).

I didn’t ask him what he confessed. He did tell me that his penance is to be extra nice to me tomorrow though (I like that priest).

After the service was over, he lit his candle for Papa. Adam does this every time he’s in church. Then he says a little prayer and always ends with “God Bless Papa”.

We’re super proud of this kid.

Yesterday afternoon we took the kids to go see “A Year with Frog and Toad.” We’ve read the stories together before and listened to them while driving during our travels. Our van doesn’t have a TV or DVD player in it (by choice), and the kids love listening to books (so do Dave and I).

The play was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed it. Adam is already trying to talk us into getting tickets for a couple more upcoming shows.

Maggie and I stopped at the Dollar Store on our way home from a play date with friends yesterday. She talked me into getting her this hat (it wasn’t hard, I don’t normally practice much impulse control there).

And for only a dollar, it was definitely worth it. She wore it all afternoon and kept tipping her hat and saying, “Yeehaw! I a cowboy girl!”

The boys brought home their midyear report cards. Kindergarten students only get two report cards for the year, so this was the first one for Luke.

His teacher wrote, “Luke is a pleasure to have in class. His kindness is contagious and he is a great helper. Luke has made a lot of growth this year.”

Adam’s teacher said, “Adam is a great student. He does well in all academic areas. Adam does a great job helping and supporting his peers. He is a delight to have in class. Keep up the good work!”

Dave and I are very, very proud of both of them.

We started our 2017 in Indiana with Dave’s family.

The kids were thrilled when we let them “swim” in the giant tub. They thought it was even better when Dave added bubbles.

Adam was so excited to turn in his reading marshmallows. He was supposed to earn 10 marshmallows over Christmas break (each marshmallow equals 20 minutes of reading). He ended up with 25 marshmallows!

Unfortunately, shortly after that marshmallow picture was taken, Adam started to feel really crummy.

Luke was able to go back to school on schedule, at least until he got sick too.

All three kids ended up with the flu (Influenza B to be exact).

Adam ended up missing five days of school and Luke missed four. It was rough around here, but they’re all healthy again now (thankfully).

Maggie had a make-up gymnastics class and I got to go into the gym with her.

The kids used some of their Christmas money to buy luggage. They each picked out their own colors/pattern. I feel like we need to plan a vacation now so we can test them out.

Maggie was thrilled to transfer her ballet shoes and tutus to her new dancing bag.

Adam’s class has started working on cursive. I’m so glad his school still teaches it.

Okay, so that’s pretty much what we’ve been up to so far this year (the boys are both playing basketball too – but no pictures of that yet). The week or so of dealing with the flu really threw us all for a loop – it was not a fun start to 2017. We’re working on getting back into a routine around here.