The Kolariks: Winter 2018

There's no denying it, winter months always make for sparse pictures... so here's the best that we have for the past couple of months... Despite what it may seem like, I promise we really did have a lot of adventures!

Charlie did quite a bit of traveling for work, making a couple of trips to Kansas City, Texas, and Wyoming. When he wasn't busy with office work, he tried to make some headway with projects in the wood shop.

his mom's stamp cabinet is coming along nicely!

The kids and I have been keeping busy with school, school and more school - and it's been great! We learned about Antarctica and South America these past two months.

Charlie found a good deal on a pneumatic saw in Dallas, so we all made the trek one weekend and had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe while we were down there. The restaurant's animals were definitely from the African rainforest, not the South American rain forest - but we've all got good imaginations and it was a nice way to close out the unit!

there were so many highlights from school the past couple of months - but my favorite change is that we all seem to be working together now, which has been so nice!

Bruce continues to tinker with everything - always working on some sort of project. There are some things he's started doing that make me feel like he's edging on new "growing up" territory. For one, he stopped sleeping with a pajama shirt on - because he wants to "sleep like Daddy." Also, most mornings now he's fully dressed before we even know he's awake! And he often wants to dress "fancy" - meaning a collared shirt with a khaki jacket over it. I don't know where he gets that from! He wants to wear shoes with laces. He wants to go play at a new friend's house by himself. He wants to know if we think something he's considering buying is an "impulse buy" or not. He laughs at the Chick-fil-a cows' billboard signs because he can read them now, and knows they misspell words, and thinks it's funny. Even when I look at him - he just seems older. And it's fun.

latest Lego club meeting creation

meet Globby - Bruce's newest pet. He made him by using his hot glue gun to melt crayons into this blob of colored wax. He's pretty cute if you ask me!

Abby is a different character every day. Literally. She loves to pretend to be characters from movies and shows, and you never know what you're going to get when she wakes up. She seems to be a totally different kid day to day also - and you never know what you're going to get when she wakes up. Some days she's really independent and isolates herself in her room for most of the day - reading or coloring. Some days she's incredibly clingy and is constantly begging for someone to come play with her. Some days she's a galloping, spinning, jumping ball of energy that "whistles" at the top of her lungs all day, inches away from your ear. Some days she's in a spanking mood and will just spank everybody she comes across - even strangers. Some days she's super unreasonable and grumpy. Some days she's the most generous and thoughtful person on the planet. It's always a surprise, but we're trying to just roll with it. One thing we can bet on to be fairly consistent though - she's never interested in wearing clothes. They're all "uncomfortable." It started in January with the pants - there were only a couple pairs of pants that she was willing to wear. Then it was the pajama pants. Then it was any and all pants were terrible. Skirts only for this girl. Then it was pajama shirts - she would only wear "day" shirts to bed. Then it was any and all shirts were terrible. So by the end of February, she refuses to wear anything but underwear to sleep in, and only dresses (and only if we're leaving the house) in the day time... Good thing Spring is coming...

Abby and I had weekly dates these months while Bruce has gone to an art class - it's been so good for us!

Abby has started joining the gang at Lego club!

I also had a pretty big solo adventure the first part of February - I took my first "night away from the kids" trip and met up with my friend Leslie in Branson. There was nothing special we had planned in Branson - it was just sort of a halfway point between the two of us. We both arrived late Friday night, and the plan was to spend the day together and then leave after an early dinner on Saturday. The weather had different plans for us though, and a huge ice storm blew in just as we were heading to dinner! By the time we reached the restaurant in Springfield, the parking lot was iced over and I had already fish-tailed once. After looking at weather projections, we made some phone calls and made arrangements to stay with Charlie's aunt and uncle who happen to live in Springfield - two miles away from the restaurant we were eating at. The short drive to the house was terrifying! There was a thick coat of ice on all of the side roads, and the neighborhood roads leading up to the house were impossible to drive on. As soon as I turned into the addition, I lost control of my van and was at the mercy of gravity to take me where it willed. After bumping around on various curbs, I was fortunate to end up rather straight alongside a curb off of the main entrance road. After hearing my report about the neighborhood, my friend ended up parking her car just past the restaurant and opted to walk the rest of the way. Because walking two miles in an ice storm was actually better than having to drive on those roads! Charlie's family was so hospitable though, and really knew how to turn an unfortunate event into a pleasant evening. Not how we had hoped to end the weekend - but a memorable adventure for sure! So my first night away from the kids actually turned into two nights away - and everything turned out OK.

Don't worry, while I was gone Charlie and the kids had a pretty great adventure of their own... It all started with me realizing that we were going to be learning about South America during Carnival. And when I started thinking about how to incorporate Carnival/Mardi Gras into our lessons, I got a wild hair and decided that we needed to make a parade float. Norman just happens to have a Mardi Gras parade - so I thought - what the heck! Let's roll in it! And then I realized that the parade was going to happen the same weekend I was planning to go to Missouri. I figured that if I made sure the float was finished before I left, Charlie could handle pulling it in the parade. And the I realized that the weather was supposed to be 9 degrees... I told Charlie he could back out if he wanted to, but let me tell you - Charlie and the kids were champs! It was miserably cold, but I think they had a great time!

we turned our Radio Flyer wagon into a dragon!

coincidentally, Bruce received a hand-me-down snowsuit the week before the parade which helped a lot!

Abby is always our wild card - and she was going to make or break this experience. Thankfully she didn't protest her big coat, and she had an amazing attitude the whole time!

Bruce walked alongside the wagon for awhile to hand out beads, but eventually hopped on the dragon for the rest of the parade

and our float even won an award! Which was icing on the cake! We're already thinking about float ideas for next year...

With Charlie's family being from Southern Louisiana, we try to make Mardi Gras a big thing here in Oklahoma too!

The OKC Museum of Art was having a free family art day to decorate Mardi Gras plaster masks. We came a little early and hung out in the galleries. They have these fun discovery bags that you can take along with you that provide activities to help you interact with various pieces throughout the museum.

Bruce decided to glue a hundred googly eyes to his mask

Abby went with an assortment of bits from the decoration tubs...

and I tried a more traditional approach

On Mardi Gras itself we picked up Charlie from work and took him to a New Orleans inspired restaurant in OKC for a crawfish boil lunch.

Bruce, who loves his pet crayfish "Cray-Cray" dearly, had a really hard time with Charlie and I eating them... He opted for buttered noodles... We kept eating the crawfish...

our Lego robot club was scheduled to meet that afternoon, so we decorated small king cakes with the kids afterward - yum! (never mind this one's form... it came un-crimped! I'm still learning!)

I also had a birthday this month! Now that I'm 36, I'm officially closer to 40 than to 30, and I don't care a bit. It is crazy to think about though... Our home school group had a roller skating party for me (okay, technically it was a Valentine's Day party...) and Charlie's mom came down and took us all out for dinner to celebrate!

The weather, as always, has bounced back and forth dramatically between ice storms and 80 degree weather - but I'm happy we're starting to trend more towards Spring! We've managed to avoid the flu this year so far, and I'm hoping all this additional time in the sun will help keep us healthy!