Celebrating Jak's Birthday....Again!

Ms. Myers was thrilled to let Joseph bring in cupcakes for the class to celebrate his belated birthday and to celebrate the end of the first week of kindergarten.  Joseph proudly wore the class birthday hat while we sang to him.  It was a great first week of school.  Joseph is so much more confident and engaged with his classmates than he was last year.  He has come home everyday this week with a story about one of his new friends, calling them all by their name.  He already has a best friend, Giuseppe and Joseph discovered they have the same name, Giuseppe means Joseph in Italian.  So, Giuseppe asked Joseph if he wanted to be his best friend and Joseph said yes.  And so it is, our little guy has his first "best" friend - replacing mommy and Lillian without a thought about us!

1st Day of School

Ahhh the first day of school, always full of emotion, for moms and kids!  Ultimately, they handled it better than me.  I looked at the clock all day counting the minutes until I could pick them up.  Joseph is one of 13 kids in Ms. Myers' kindergarten class and Lillian is one of 15 kids in Mrs. Heckman's class.  

Date Night in the Kerschen House

Mike and Lillian attended a Daddy Daughter princess tea Saturday night, so naturally I invited Joseph to "go out" with me.  As Lillian and Mike got all dressed up, Joseph ran up to his room and changed into his "date" attire.  

 At the end of our date, he says to me "Mom, I was trying to be funny and cute, was I funny AND cute?".  Yeah buddy, you nailed it!

Lillian was significantly older than most of the daughter's in attendance, so they ducked out early and stopped at Jax bar and grill in Five Parks for a Shirley Temple on the way home.  Lillian loved the attention she got from the waitstaff and other customer's at Jax, and of course she loved having her daddy all to herself.

Volleyball

We signed Lillian up for a 6 week Volleyball class at the Apex.  It's for ages 7-13 so she's on the younger side but learning so much!  She's hoping to play Volleyball for St. Anne's when she's in 3rd grade so this is a good intro for her.

Taekwondo

I signed the kids up for 2 free Taekwondo sessions.  We loved the instructors, the discipline and the proximity to our house (we rode our bikes to and from class it was so close!).  But ultimately, they want the kids to commit to 2 sessions per week and a whole lotta $$$.  Maybe we'll revisit when they get older but for now it was just too much of a time commitment.  

Winter Park Vacation

All 7 "Hanou" cousins under one roof for 5 days!  What fun!  We did some crafting, some game playing, some exploring, some playground time, some hot tubbing and a whole lot of eating and drinking.  Aunt Casey stepped in bear poop - which Natalie found hilarious!  And we ended the very busy weekend with a family photo shoot at the park.  Great memories...

Birthday Boy!

Joseph is 6 today and on the verge of so many great changes!  In a few short weeks, he'll be a St. Anne's rocket joining the kindergarten class.  But in the meantime, he's a 6 year old boy with all sorts of new games, costumes and toys to play with! We kicked off the weekend with a Rockies baseball game, pancakes smothered in whipped cream, playing all his new games....his favorite of which is chess.  Mike and I bought him an app for the iPad so he can learn the rules - without being able to cheat!  He plans on joining the chess team at St. Anne's this fall.  We finished the weekend with a birthday party at the pool with his preschool buddies and cousins.  

Zoo with Brenna and the Music Man

 What a good looking group of kids huh?  You'd think they were in the cast looking at this picture, but nope!  These kids came out to watch their friend Loralee and her family perform in the "Music Man" with Colorado Acts Theater.