Reading Progress

Caroline has moved on to level 2 sight word readers and is doing such a great job!

Pudgie in the Kitchen!

Ben asked if he could cook dinner sometime, and since I don't plan Sunday dinners more than a few days in advance like I do most of the rest of the month's meals, I told him he could pick a recipe and try his hand at dinner tonight. He needed some help with cutting the chicken and onions and a few reminders to read the recipe ;) but otherwise did a great job and turned out a pretty darn good chicken curry! Great job Ben! You can have next Sunday too if you want :)

Kid of the Week!

Happy Purim!

2nd Grade Wax Museum

Great job Becca and all the second graders on their wax museum presentations! Poor Becca had to recite her Amelia Earhart speech about 25 times for various parents and guests, since the students were set up around the perimeter of the class room and parents were invited to walk up to each student and press the button on their poster at which point the student had to recite their speech. This would have been pure torture for me as a second grader (or really any grader) but Becca handled it cheerfully even though I could tell she was nervous! And great work on the poster and presentation which was done entirely at school except for some supplies brought from home and some memorizing at home ;)

Camp T Shirts!

Summer camp is just a few short months away!

Flag Football Season Opener

Ben was cranky for the whole first half of the game because his new coach let another kid play QB. And this kid, while huge and with a powerful arm, did not actually have an accurate arm. I don't think he completed a single pass. At one point he nailed someone on the sidelines.

Ben finally got to play QB during the second half but they were down like 24-0. Here he is throwing his team's only touchdown pass of the game:

Fast Food Shabbat

Caroline brought the Shabbat bag home from school today, which means we had to celebrate Shabbat sandwiched in between gymnastics and a quick fast food dinner ;)

Spring is in the Air

And for some reason this year it smells like rotting fish, or something equally unpleasant that I can't quite put my finger on :(

We Voted!

And took more than our fair share of stickers! Did you?

View From Behind

Taking a picture of the back of Caroline's head has become pretty much standard procedure in the mornings. She needs to see how it looks from the back to make sure she approves ;) I didn't really think much of it till I noticed how many pictures of Caroline's pony tail I have on my camera roll!

This one was for crazy hair day :)

Weekend Wrapup

The weekend was warm and sunny and we spent a lot of time outside enjoying the spring weather! Ben had his first flag football practice, where he earned the position of QB even though he didn't particularly want it this year, because no one else on the team can throw apparently. He is in the under 15 league this year, which means 12,13 and 14 year olds and apparently everyone on the team is 13 and 14 except for his friend James who is 12 and Ben himself who won't even be 12 until June but I played him up to the under 15 league because otherwise he would not have been able to play with James. Hopefully, it being flag and all, he won't get crushed :)

Caroline has made awesome progress learning to ride a bike, at her ripe old age of she-will-be-four-and-a-quarter-tomorrow :) We are teaching her on a 12 inch bike which is way to small for her, but for learning it is good because she can put her feet flat on the ground if she gets scared or can't remember how to stop. We have a ways to go concerning stopping and steering, but by last night she had gotten to the point where she could ride in circles around the cul de sac a few times and ride down the street. Riding up the street is harder because it's up hill and those little wheels are so small, but she can make it most of the way up the street as well now.

Otherwise, we took the kids to see Zootopia Saturday afternoon, Joel finally upgraded from my old iPhone 5 to a 6s, and we fired up the grill yesterday for the unofficial start of spring :)

Daddy Got Nail Painting Duty Today!

Learning to Ride a Bike!

The youngest Kaplan on two wheels! Go Caroline!!

Spring Has Sprung!

Winter Ball

Ben attended the final junior cottillion class of the year tonight, which was the Winter Ball at Providence Country Club (never mind that it was 75 degrees today; not much "winter" left in these parts so I think they should consider renaming it the Spring Ball). Anyway Ben's assessment was "boring but with better food". Here he is with Jared before the festivities:

And during the festivities:

Quiet Weekend

We had a quiet weekend -- I tried out the new waffle maker, took my cell phone to get it fixed (one side of the screen had become separated from the back of the phone), started reading the novel Room, went to PF Chang's for dinner with Joel and the girls while Ben went to see Race and had dinner with Papa and Mary, and did about a thousand loads of laundry. On tap for this week: Ben has his cotillion final ball tomorrow night at Providence Country Club, Joel heads to St. Louis for a conference, and I might attempt our taxes. Spring looks like it may be here to stay! The ten day forecast is showing high temperatures in the 70s every day!

Saturday Morning Breakfast

Homemade waffles with powdered sugar, strawberries, and syrup! Yum!

Cat & Mouse