Dry Ice

I like to do something fun with the boys on their last day of school.  Usually we do a picnic and play at a park.  This year I suggested putt-putt golf or bike riding on the river.  Isaac wanted to buy some dry ice and do science experiments, so that is what we did!  We found out you could purchase it right at Hy-Vee, and the boys talked me into a 7.5lb block.  We played with it ALL afternoon, and still had enough left to blow up a few bottles the next day.

















One of my favorite experiments was making the vapor bubbles.  You put some soap in water and then drop on your block of dry ice.  The bubbles that come out are opaque and disappear into smoke when you pop them.  So cool!



Here the kids are trying to float a bubble on top of the CO2 gas.  CO2 is heavier than air, so the bubbles should float on top.
















Here are the boys with one of our busted water bottles.  Their favorite experiment was filling a bottle with dry ice and water, and then watching the bottle explode when the bottle filled with gas.  It made such a loud bang, and they giggled every time!

Monkey Bars

One of Owen's favorite things to do at recess was the monkey bars.  He and his friends, Jayden and Lydia, worked very hard to learn how to cross the monkey bars over a few weeks in September.  His teacher commented how great it was that they kept working at it and encouraging each other.  Once they learned how to cross them, the kids started working on learning how to cross different ways, like skipping bars, going backwards, and going sideways.  Owen wanted to stop at the school this weekend to show Grandma and Grandpa Korte how he can do the monkey bars.  He can just fly across them.  He is so strong, and he knows how to use his body for momentum.

New Haircuts

Isaac and Ethan both wanted their hair cut this week.  Judy at Judy's Barber Salon and Styling is so wonderful with the boys and fun for me to talk to also.  She gave Isaac this cool pompadour look that he was excited about, and then Ethan said he wanted the same thing.  Flashback from the 20's!  They look very cool and sophisticated.

Storytime for Owen

Owen and his friends at school got all excited about Star Wars around November, and it has not stopped since.  Every day when I ask Owen what he played at recess the answer is Star Wars.  He likes to pretend to be Yoda, and so does his friend Jayden.

Owen has also brought home every Star Wars book that he can find from the school library.  For a couple weeks he started bringing home books about snakes and sharks.  He said that he had read all the Star Wars books they had.  Then this week was their last week to check out books.  He found 1 more Star Wars book!  Here is a picture of Scott reading it to him.

Another cool thing that started this week, is Owen is starting to read!  He was wanting to read parts of his books at night, and starting to recognize some words like "the" and "and".  I have this little set of tiny books, and I got them out for him.  He has been reading a new one every night, and is up to Book 8!  Wow!  Owen has come a long way this year in school!

Easter

This year we had a really fun and busy Easter weekend.  Iowa State played in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament on Friday night, so the Winter kiddos stayed here while Melissa and Corbin went to the game.  It was a fun time to have them here.  Then on Sunday we hosted Easter, so everybody came over to our house for, most importantly, worshiping and giving thanks for Jesus, and also for some great food and family time.





On Saturday morning we colored eggs together.  I bought 4 dozen eggs and 4 coloring sets.  At first I thought that would not be enough, but about 10 minutes in I realized that was PLENTY.  It is always a great workout for my patience when we do these things.  Just kidding.  It was super fun.  The kids got very creative with their decorating, and came up with some really cool designs.  We set them out for people to eat at Easter.





Here is a picture of the kids at breakfast.  We had a fun breakfast of breakfast pizza and Sunny D in bottles.  Kids love that stuff!  They are SO CUTE!!!  I love them all in their little PJs.  They play so nicely and get along really well.  We missed Maddy, but she got to spend Easter with her Grandma.








Here we are all dressed up for church.  Owen should have a tie on instead of a Yoda necklace, but oh well.  It was in his basket.































Here is my little dolly, Norah.  She looks so pretty in her Easter dress.  Traci and Kyle were brave 3-week old parents, and made the trip over for Easter.  In church Grandma Carol was holding Norah the whole time, but then her arm got tired.  I gladly took over!  It was so awesome holding my sweet little niece in church.  She is a good little girl!

Here is Kyle holding her.  He is such a cute Daddy!

The boys got tons of baskets.  In the morning they each got one from the Easter Bunny.  After church, they got a set from the Newmans and Grandma Carol and Grandpa Bob.  Grandma Karen also showed up with some goodies.















We also had to have the traditional Easter Egg Hunt.  It had rained all morning, so we did it inside the house.  The kids made some major coin!





It was a fun, fun time to have some nice family time, and celebrate how Jesus saved us all together!

Ethan's 9th Birthday

Ethan had a GREAT 9th birthday.  We did not just celebrate for a few hours, we celebrated for a whole week!  He got to have lots of fun with his family and friends.



















We started his birthday with a delicious, but not so nutritious breakfast.  The boys were excited to eat donette gems for breakfast before school that day!  Ethan even had a candle to blow out.

Ethan brought Gushers to school to share with his classmates, and then in the evening he had a big present from Mom and Dad.

 He got a new set of golf clubs.  They are just his size, a cool color and they have a hybrid in the set.  He has been asking for a hybrid for a while.

Ethan wanted an angel food cake for his birthday cake, so I made him Candy Bar Angel Cake.  It was a hit!  Ethan's birthday had a busy evening with soccer practice for the boys and cooking group for Mom, so the day after his birthday we went out for supper to Buffalo Wild Wings.  That is his favorite restaurant.

We took Thursday off, and then Friday came with the big friend party.  Ethan invited his buddies to come over for pizza, ice cream and comedy.  We decorated the house be putting birthday jokes all over the wall.  Why did Ethan hit his birthday cake with a hammer?  Because it was a pound cake!  Ha! Ha!  The boys had fun, and they were chugging strawberry lemonade.  We went through 4 gallons of it!















They had fun playing air hockey.

They had a rowdy game of kickball.














Instead of cake, we had birthday cake ice cream, with candles for Ethan of course.

Then we loaded them all up and drove to Comedy Sportz in Rock Island.  They got to go to a show together!  It was hilarious.  The comedians even made a big deal out of the boys because there were so many of them, and they were sitting right in front.  When they entered the show the workers were saying things like, "A whole lot of energy just ran through here!"  They were very good at the show.  Ethan's friends are very polite, respectful and fun!

Ethan got to go up on stage with all the other birthday boys!  They sang the shortest birthday song ever, and then we went on with the show.  Grandma Carol and Grandpa Bob got to come along to the show, too.  They helped with the transportation of kids, and really had a fun time!


















But wait!  The fun did not end there.  On Saturday we had a family birthday party.  All of Ethan's cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents came to celebrate him.  It was such a fun day with lots of food, playing, talking and games.  We are so blessed by our loving, caring family.  Even though we live far apart, everyone makes a big effort to get over here to celebrate birthdays.  I am so thankful for that.

The cousins had so much fun playing together all day.  It is neat to have them all so close in age.  Love those kiddos SO MUCH!

Spring Soccer

Isaac and Ethan got to be on the same soccer team this year.  Isaac is one of the oldest on the team and Ethan is one of the youngest.  They seemed to enjoy playing together, and were good teammates to each other.  While soccer is not either one of their favorite sports, they do really enjoy playing and always have fun.  It does not hurt that their team is pretty good, and they only lost one game all season.  They ran over after the first game and said, "That was so fun!"  I love watching them play, and now that I am learning some of the rules, it is really fun to watch!





















Here they are on the field together.  Ethan's first goal was made with a pass from Isaac!  It was so COOL!  We went out for FroYo after that game.



















Here is Isaac throwing the ball in-bounds.  He was really good at it.























This is Ethan going after the soccer ball.  He is fast on the field!