Our Sunday

We had a typical week.  Well, maybe it wasn't so typical.  There was another tornado on Thursday, while the kids were at school.  Both schools ran tornado "drills," but luckily it was just a funnel cloud when it went over our neighborhood, so we lucked out again.

Sunday was a beautiful day.  Jip had kid duty most of the day due to me being under the weather.  So, the blog is late, but I think I made up for it with the video of our videos.

We're enjoying Spring Break so far.  We're looking forward to hitting a couple amusement parks later this week before we have some neighborly Easter fun on Sunday.

As always, pics to come.  Until next time, cheers!

Tornado

We had our fill of excitement this weekend!

We got to kick our weekend off with a tornado on Friday evening.  Just after dinner, Jip and I got alerts on our phones that a possible tornado was in the area and advised us to take shelter.  Jip and I ran outside to look at the sky and found it swirling in a pattern that reminded us both of experiences on the Plains.  Soon after we closed the door, hail started pounding the house.  So, we scooped up the kids and hunkered down in the half-bath downstairs.  We waited for the hail to stop, then we opened the bathroom door and changed the TV to local weather.  The radar showed dark red and purple over our neighborhood, so we continued to hang out in the smallest room in the house.

See that look on Ryleigh's face?  That's the face of "seriously?"  That's the look of "I have the stomach flu and we're all crammed into this little bathroom when I need to be hanging out on the couch, near a trash can."  And, why is RJ in his pajamas already, when it isn't even dark out? That's right.  RJ was recovering from the stomach flu and had been home all day.  Yep.  Good times.

After the worst of the sounds ended, Jip ran outside and got RJ some hail.  It was mostly quarter-sized, but thankfully it didn't hail too long and inflict any major damage.  RJ asked if we could keep the hailstones. Sorry, buddy--we don't need a collection of hail to go along with your rock collection and shell collection.

A church just over a mile from us as the crow flies was essentially destroyed.  A neighborhood a couple miles to the east of us sustained a lot of damage, with over 200 homeowners reporting structural damage.  The National Weather Service confirmed on Saturday that it was an F2 and possible F3 that hit our area.  We counted ourselves lucky, with cars, house, and bodies unscathed!  It was intense, but the kids dealt with their first true tornado experience pretty well.

Everyone was feeling okay on Saturday morning, so we decided to proceed with all of our plans.  The first stop was the monthly Home Depot workshop.  The kids enjoyed building their bunny baskets--Mom and Dad liked how much easier they were to put together than the last couple projects.

After the workshop, we came home for a little lunch.  Then, we headed back out.  This time, we headed to Hampton to go to the first Stateside circus for the kids and the last Ringling Brothers circus for all of us.  Ryleigh was reluctant to go, but we are pretty sure she enjoyed most of it.  RJ loved all of it.  They both loved their souvenirs.

Thankfully, Sunday was back to normal, with just Ninja Zone and playing outside.  Ryleigh felt pretty rough a good part of the day, but we are pretty sure it was due to too much popcorn on Saturday.  :)

This week is the last week of school before Spring Break.  It should be a pretty normal week, and we're hoping the weather stays normal, too.  As always, pics to come.  Until next week, cheers!

Almost Off Training Wheels

Ryleigh announced a couple weeks ago that she was ready to try riding her bike without training wheels.  Finally, on Saturday, we had a warm day.  So, off we went to a city park.  Ryleigh was a trooper--she tried a number of times to ride.  She got frustrated and was ready to give up, but we convinced her to do one last ride.  The video is below.  She doesn't go long without any assistance, but we're pretty sure she felt what it takes.  A couple more outings, and we're sure she'll have it down.  Ryleigh is so eager to keep up with RJ and Aless, so the motivation is there.  She just needs to find a little confidence.

The rest of our week was pleasant.  We had a very nice evening with our friends visiting from San Diego.  And, Jip and the kids went to the new Power Rangers movie while I took a photography class.

We are looking forward to some warmer weather to wrap up our March. Hopefully we can spend some time outside as we enjoy this nice part of the year where it is warm, but not humid.

As always, pics to come.  Until next time, cheers!

St. Patrick's Day and Shenanigans

The kids were both pretty excited to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  Ryleigh had a bunch of green food and a rainbow fruit platter in her class.  RJ just liked the idea of everyone wearing green.  To keep them from getting pinched, I made them t-shirts, mimicking designs I found on Pinterest.  I think they turned out pretty cute!

Ryleigh decided she was cold, so she accessorized before she went to school.

Saturday night, the kids enjoyed some shenanigans by way of BrickHeadZ Kids' Night Out.  They participated in Nerf gun wars, building Legos, eating pizza and cookies, playing Minecraft, and more. Jip and I weren't quite sure what to do with 3 hours of free time on a Saturday evening.  We did manage to find some delicious Japanese curry and gyoza at a hole-in-the-wall ramen shop.  We reminisced about our days in Japan and kept telling the waiter how much we enjoyed the curry.  We then wandered around a few stores before getting to BrickHeadZ too early.  We sat in the car and let them get the most out of their time there.  They managed to stay awake for the ride home, but they were exhausted and actually slept until 7. Woo hoo!

Sunday morning we got some snow.  It was a surprise--it wasn't supposed to snow south of Williamsburg.  But, it snowed for a good 45 minutes before it turned back to rain.  RJ was at Ninja Zone while it snowed, but Ryleigh got to take advantage of our unexpected white stuff.

We are anticipating a quick visit from some San Diego friends this week.  I haven't told RJ and Ryleigh in case plans fall through or weather hampers the visit.  But, I'm crossing my fingers I get to see my friend Torii and her family for a couple hours.

As always, pics to come of our week, whatever it ends up holding.  Until next time, cheers!

Student of the Month

As I alluded to last week, we had something extra going on this week.  Drum roll, please...

RJ was named First Grade Student of the Month for Principles of American Citizenship: Honesty.  He was nominated by his teacher and then chosen by the other teachers and the principal.  Jip and I are very proud.  And, RJ was pretty proud of himself.

The blue sign gets to be in our window for a few weeks.

Way to go, RJ!  Love ya, buddy!

The rest of the week was pretty normal.  We had a chilly weekend, so we didn't get to do anything outside.  On Saturday, Jip took the kids to Jump for an hour of jumping on the trampolines to get rid of the stir-craziness.  But, the cabin fever returned on Sunday.  We're not going to get much relief this week, either.  Hopefully, school will be their outlet!

The kids finally got to finish putting their rooms back together, as it is now okay to have stuff on their dressers.  So, here are a few more pics.  First, Ryleigh's nightstand with pink drawers, her crystal lamp with color-changing bulb, snapshots hanging on pom pom fringe with glittered clothespins we made, and a couple other wall things I made.

And, RJ's artwork above his bed:

And, finally, RJ's nightstand with the small copper pulls Jip made.  The clear lamp base you see will be filled with Legos as soon as they get here from Denmark.

It's going to be a chilly week, but hopefully it will be otherwise non-eventful.  As always, pics to come.  Until next time, cheers!