Snow/FLU/Rain Day???

St. Peter is having a HUGE outbreak of the FLU.  1/3 of the student body was out earlier in the week with the FLU.  On Tuesday night they canceled PSR classes so that kids wouldn't have to go the the germ infested school.  Wednesday the weathermen were calling for a lot of snow/sleet that was soups to start around noon.  All the area schools were calling school off at noon, St. Peter however called of the entire day.....in hopes of killing to birds with one stone.....getting rid of germs and a half day snow day.
Kirkwood Baptist still had a half day of school, as they follow the Kirkwood School District schedule.  Maddie was MORE than happy to go to school with me!!!  She asked me, "What week is it?"  When I told her it was "O" week, she ran to her room to find a variety of "O" books to read to my class.
She read the a read aloud, she taught then one-on-one how to play Go Fish, and she did puzzles with them.  She was actually SUPER helpful.....and actually a better "aide" than my real "aide" this year.

It pays to come to school with mom......

Once we got home, I was freezing, so I head to Jack's bed (the bed with he heated blanket) and took a good snooze!!!  When I woke up, I pushed up the shades thinking I'd see a ton of snow......NOT A SNOWFLAKE!!!!  The weatherman was indeed wrong!!!!

We then all thought we were going to play a quick game of Monopoly Jr...but we were WRONG!!!  Maddie and lost quickly, but Peyton and Jack went on and on FOREVER!!!  I think Jack finally won!

 Gus was thoughtful, and helping Mike with he banking.....

Mike mentioned to Maddie that maybe they should go to Grandma Jeanne's sledding hill, cause they actually got a lot of snow.  Then once he thought about it and the rush hour traffic he decided that maybe that was a bad idea.  But she has having NONE of it!!  The weatherman said it was gonna snow and then her dad opened his big mouth and this girl WANTED to go sledding.  She went to the garage and go herself fully dressed.  Snowboots, snow pants, gloves, hat....she was ready and there was NO telling her NO!  Mike had to find her a hill in St. Louis steep enough that the sled would work with no snow.  Mission accomplished.....they found hills steep enough at Laumeier Sculpture Park....Annie enjoyed it too!!!

Groundhog Day 2020

Well, groundhog Phil said we WILL NOT have 6 extra weeks of harsh winter.....he said that yesterday, and today we had 70 degrees and sunshine!!!  We will take it, and not talk about the snow that's in the forecast later in the week.
Mike was off today, so we took the dogs on a hike to the sculpture park.  They LOVED it!!!  They were jazzed the minute we asked them and got their leashes out, they knew it was gonna be good!!

Super Bowl

Well, we got back around 4:00 from Indy on Super Bowl Sunday.  I was not really "feeling" a Super Bowl party, I was tired.  Maddie was tired and needed to get in bed on time, Peyton still had the FLU, so Jack and Mike headed off to the Ronken's for a "mostly dudes" Super Bowl.  They had fun, we had a relaxing evening and ordered out Chinese and everyone went to bed!!!
Sounds like it was an exciting ending, with the Chiefs winning.

We DID watch the half-time show (us girls), and it was Shakira and J-Lo.  They shook their butts with hardly any clothes on and danced on a pole, totally inappropriate in my opinion.  Maddie kept saying, "Ew!  She has like a wedgie of something.....it's hanging out!!!"  She wasnt too sure about it either.  If a seven year old knows better, National TV should too!!

INFLUENZA for Peyton

While all the caretakers were away in Indianapolis (mom and grandmas), Peyton came down with influenza and it hit her HARD!!!  Poor girl had fever, chills, body aches, headache, bad dreams from fever, sore throat, cough.....had it BAD!!!  She called us, A LOT!!!  I know she wishes so bad we were at home to take care of her.
She did survive but she was happy to have us back.
She got sick Friday and couldn't play her basketball game against MQP, she was sick Saturday and couldn't play her Knights games, and then she had nothing on Sunday, and then missed school on Monday, which is today.  We aren't sure yet if she will go back tomorrow or not.  She's feeling "better" but still no energy AND 30% of the student body was gone today from STP.  Kind of makes me want to keep ALL of them home and away from the germs!!!!
We never took Peyton into the doctor but 6 our of 8 players from her StP basketball team had influenza A, so I'm just going with that!

By these pictures, take a guess at who had it and who DID NOT want it!?!?!?!

First On The Road Gymnastics Meet

Maddie had been looking forward to this since last fall when the schedule was released.  Her first out of town team event!  Her gymnastics team was headed to Indianapolis to compete in the Circle of Stars meet.  She did not compete until Sunday morning at 8:00am, so we did not need to leave until Saturday.  Our original plan was to leave mid/late morning Saturday, get unloaded, have dinner with the team and get up and compete.  Well, he coach gave them strict instructions that they could only swim until 2:00 Saturday and then they needed to be out of the pool.  Well, this meant we needed to get up early and leave by 7:00am so she had time to swim, as there is also an hour time difference.
Grandma Farm came the night before and stayed the night and Grandma Jeanne was there at 7:00 and we hit the road.
We got there with no problems.  Our room wasn't ready yet when we got there, but they went ahead and let Maddie use the pool while we waited.  A few teammates were also in there swimming, so they had fun!!!  Once the clock struck 2, it was time to get out.  We headed up to our room, Maddie took a bath and then we went down and had lunch in the restaurant in the hotel.
We ordered pizzas with the team for dinner in the hotel and then we had the girls in bed by 8:00, for our 6:20am wake up call.
The next morning we got up and headed over to the convention center for the competition.
Everything went pretty smooth, the meet in itself ran pretty slow, but otherwise, all was good.
Maddie did well and had her best meet yet.  Her first meet she scored a 36.2 and got 6th all around.  Her second meet she scored 36.225 and got 4th all around, and at this meet she scored 36.775 and got second all around.  So she gets a SMIDGE better, but those SMIDGES sure do count when you're talking about gymnastics!!!!
She took 1st on bars, 2nd on floor, 5th on beam, and 7th on vault.
SLGC took second as a team as well.  She was a happy girl!!!
We took some pics, went back to the hotel, got our bags, checked out, and hit the road.  We found a McAllister's to eat lunch at on the way home and we were back in the Lou by 4:00!!!  When we got out of the car, we were hit with some very pleasant 70 degree weather!!!!!

Pizza party time, and time for the moms to improvise with our cooler-making skills.  We did just fine!

We stayed at the Crown Plaza by the convention center and it was kind of like their Union Station.  This "train" in the middle of the hotel actually had hotel rooms inside of it.  Kind of cool!

Just getting there and getting ready.....but first, Maddie is always a sucker for a good photo opp!

First on bars.....

2nd on floor.....

SLGC got 2nd Place!!!

2nd overall and a team 2nd!

 Maddie's fan club!

Happy girls, happy coaches!

A School-Wide Project

I will only have all three kids under the same school roof for one and a half more years.....So I'm trying to embrace the simplicity and convince of it, and also enjoying things like this.  A school-wide project.  Take a guess at which flower belongs to which kid.......

Flower number 1:
Thank you for patience, attention, food, water, and love.  Thank you for all of the things you have given me.

Flower number 2:
Thank you for letting me have pets, thank you for letting me play sports, thank you for feeding me, thank you for letting me go to this catholic school, thank you for letting us go on trips, and thank you for letting me have playdates.

Flower number 3:
Addressed to Dad only, instead of both of us.  Thank you for putting up with me every day, thank you for providing for me and my education, I LOVE YOU, thank you for caring about my health, and thank you for teaching me life lessons.

SO, I do see that you can see their names on here, which ruins the game.  But here's the breakdown.....as few of words as possible (flower #1), goes to Jack!  Flower number two written in full sentences and thanking us for PLAYDATES goes to my SOCIAL  but, Maddie!!!  And flower number three that was only addressed to her dad goes to the girl that had lost her phone that week for back talking and was REALLY hoping her dad would give it back to her soon......PEYTON!!!

Catholic Schools Week

The best week of school was last week....Catholic Schools Week.  It's basically spirit week with a lot of fun activities sprinkled in throughout the week.
Monday was neon day: The other kids wore neon too, but they wouldn't let take a picture of them.

Tuesday was sports day.  Peyton wore her soccer jacket, Jack wore a cardinal jersey, and Maddie wore, hmmmm, I don't remember.
Wednesday was pajama day, no picture, but they all participated.
Thursday was western, only Maddie participated.  It was also bring a special person to lunch day, so Grandma Jeanne brought them all lunch and had lunch with them at school.

The three amigos, and the hats were NOT even planned....crazy!

Then for Friday it was Spirit Day!  They all HAPPILY participated!!!  Peyton's name got drawn to be in the volleyball game this year too.  She was so excited, however, it didn't end the way she had hoped.  The 6th and 7th graders play each other first, the winner of that plays the 8th graders, and the winner of that plays the faculty.  The seventh graders went up quickly by like 10 points, wasn't looking like it was going to be much of a game.  And then the 6th graders made a massive comeback to beat the 7th graders in a nail biter, down to the last point.  There was controversy at the game because the 7th graders rotated everyone evenly, and the 6th graders did not.  They let their best servers keep serving and some of their players never came into the game.  The referee claimed that it's not in the "rule book" so that it was ok.  The 7th graders were NOT happy!!!  The 6th graders were tho!  :)

 Where's Waldo (I mean Maddie)....I'll give you a hint, she's on the top row with a puffy, curly blue wig, smiling ear to ear!

7th graders warming up for the big game!

Jack and his friends finally rolling into the gym.

Peyton's #1 fan!

Dr. Freitag, shaking his finger at the 7th graders, telling them to be good sports right before they go shake the 6th graders hands after the game.