Deccember 5th-16th

Yes, I have just been that busy that I am combining 2 weeks into one post. I will only hit the highlight though. I have been working at the kids' preschool and I no longer have hardly any free time. Winter break will be here shortly and hopefully I can get caught up with some things that have taken a back burner.

My Uncle Larry passed away. His funeral was on the 5th of December in Columbus. It was so nice to see all of my aunts, cousins and grandma. It was a very sad time and my lovely children found it a great place to run around like wild animals.

Jacek's birthday was on the December 11th. I held back my tears all week; I can't believe it has been 5 years. He had a wonderful birthday party at Lazer Kraze. Aunt Sam made an amazing cake and we had a great turnout. That boy is loved deeply by a lot of very special people. Jacek told me later, "Mom, this was the best birthday ever. All of my other ones were just lame!" I think we set the bar kind of high because he was on to the moon and back with excitement. He's actually pretty good at laser tag, too.

Jacek has been practicing for his school play. He opted to be an angel with the girls instead of being a shepherd with the rest of the boys. I love how he decides what he wants to do and does not care about societal norms. He marched to the beat of his own drum.

We also hit up festival of light this year. We missed it last year. It was a little chaotic and I was out of my comfort zone, for sure. The kids were weaving in and out of adults and I could not keep up with them. There were times when I could not even see them. I panic fairly easy but it's almost unbearable when I cannot keep up with the kids as they disappear into a crowd. I decided that they both need leashes!

These are just a few things that have been keeping us busy but it has been go, go, go. I'm looking forward to some down time eventually.

Oh, I almost forgot, we got a beautiful little 8 month old puppy. Her name is Penny. She is a long haired chiuaua mix. She is absolutely adorable and she is perfect for our family. We all just adore her and she adores us. She was the perfect St. Nick present for Jacek and Luna.

Pics will be up shortly, when I get some time!

November 27th-December 2nd

                                    
The kids were boiling over with excitement on Sunday. Santa was coming to Edgewood. We go see him every year. He arrives on the fire truck and and the kids get to sit on Santa's and Mrs. Claus' laps. Luna loves Mrs. Claus. She always has since their first meeting when Luna was only 8 months old. Jacek loves Santa. They were excited to Santa. Jacek told Santa he wanted the light strike ultra combo pack and Luna said that she wanted a baby alive. Santa said he could make that happen. We sampled some chili because it's also the yearly chili cook off. Luna was chowing down some spicy chili. She is crazy. Kelita, Nikita, Carl and Caleb joined us this year. This was Caleb's first time with Santa. He was such a little cutie and he is just way too laid back. I think the Kruskamp gene skipped that kid. He is Carl all the way!


Unfortunately, Sunday night I received a terrible phone call that a good friend was in the ICU and was likely not to make it. I was deeply saddened by this and went to the hospital to say my goodbyes. I cried a lot and the kids were pretty confused. Luna not so much but Jacek asked a thousand questions about death. That is a hard topic to explain to an almost 5 year old. And, Jacek is such a sensitive kid. If I'm upset then he is upset. I had to try really hard to keep it together as best as I could. I worked at the school on Tuesday which was a saving grace. I was planning on going home and crying the entire day. Pathetic, I know. I was fortunate enough to work in Luna's class. This was a first. I've never seen her in school before. It was neat to watch her interact with other kids, follow direction, and the kicker was she kept calling me Ms. Erika. I love working with these kids and they are such a highlight to my life. They are all so sweet and I cannot sing enough praises to all the teachers and aides at Sonshine Preschool. They are the most down to earth, loving, accepting people I have ever met. They lead by example and there is always so much positive energy in that school. I feel really blessed to be a part of something so great.

Wednesday, Jacek had piano lessons and we went to hang with papaw. I had to run to Kohl’s to pick up a few things. I asked papaw to come with us so he could help watch the kids while I picked up a few items. Jacek got a new pair of boots which sent him over the moon. The littlest things that wouldn't matter to most kids mean so much to sweet little Jacek. I went off to look at some other things and my poor dad was left to occupy to crazy kids. I have to commend him; he did such a great job with them. We had a low key night and went to bed early.


Thursday, I dropped the kids off at school and I was getting ready for the funeral. I received a phone call regarding a dog that needed to be adopted. By all accounts the dog seemed like it would be such a perfect fit to our family but I still wanted to meet the dog to verify her temperament. It was absolute love at first sight. We will get her Tuesday and the kids will be very surprised. They have not been told anything yet. I think St. Nick is going to stop by the house while the kids are at school. I can't wait to see their faces when they come home. Luna, especially, is going to lose her mind. She loves animals more than I have ever seen a little girl love anything. If anyone deserves a dog, it's Luna. The dog seemed to just kind of fall into our lap and it seemed like fate more than anything. I can't help but to think that my friend who had passed had something to do with this chance meeting. Next week's blog entry will be all about Penny!

Friday, nothing like a lazy Friday morning. The kids were extra cuddly and instead of getting ready for work at my usual time I decided to snuggle with my babies. They are so funny. One on each side, they can't be on the same side. That's an instant fight every time. Jacek and I played some video games on his N64 and then I finally had to hurry and get ready for work. I looked like total crap but I didn't care. It was worth it!

November 20th-25th

A very busy week it has been. I know, I say that every week but there is just never a dull moment!My kids keep me busy and I try to keep them busy. We both usually succeed. I was out of commission on Sunday because I had pulled a muscle in my lower back but by Monday I was doing much better. Good thing because we had baby G for the day. He is such a sweetie. I know, I say that all the time, too. It's true though! His smile will melt my heart and the kids absolutely adore him!

Tuesday: The kids had school and I worked in one of the classrooms. It was fun but challenging. Thanks goodness for coffee. Seriously, I think I drank a whole pot. Jacek had his Thanksgiving feast at school. He volunteered to bring baby carrots and ranch dip. I thought this was funny because he really does not like carrots too much, But, I was proud of him for picking a healthy snack! After school we took a quick break and then it was off to Alex's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Luna decided she wanted to wear her business suit which was cracking me up. That girl is serious about her fashion and so am I! We made it home just in time to hit the sheets and we all slept soundly.

                                                            

Wednesday: Whew, seemed that everyone was in a bad mood! I felt like I was dodging bullets all day. Yikes! Meemaw watched the kids for a couple of hours while Matt and I went to play trivia. A much needed break from cranky kids. My sister and I went grocery shopping at 11pm to pick some things up for Thanksgiving. The store was so packed but we were finally ready for our Thanksgiving feast.

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving! We woke up and had donuts for breakfast and watched the Thanksgiving day parade. It was such a tender moment to see how excited the kids were. Then, we headed over to Granny's house for Thanksgiving lunch. The food was amazing as always. Jacek played the piano for everyone and we got some great pictures. It was really neat to see Bishe cooking in the kitchen and Jacek and Luna were picking the turkey and stuffing by hand. They would shove it in their mouths and follow it with a "mmmmmm". By the time we sat down to eat neither one of them were hungry. After lunch we headed over to my sister's house where Kelton was out back deep frying the turkey. This is a first for the Kruskamps. We have always baked our turkeys. We were excited to try something new. Kelton did an amazing job and the fried turkey was delicious. Props to Kelton and it was his birthday! We did the usual Kruskamp thing. Eat whatever we want, wherever we want until we are about to bust! There was so much food there it was just insane. I love hanging with family. It fills my heart with joy and creates memories that will be cherished throughout my entire life. We also had a Kruskamp picture which turned out great! Whew, what a day. We made it home and waddle our butts to bed and slept like champs!




Friday: And then it was Friday! Matt usually works on Fridays but he had this Friday off. It was so nice to have him home for the extra days. Matt let me get some rest and he took the kids to Skyline. I mainly shopped because there was some serious good deals that could not be overlooked. I bought Jacek a Power Wheels Jeep for Christmas. He is going to lose his mind. I can't wait to see the look on his face. I also booked Jacek's birthday party at Lazer Kraze. He is going to be 5! Yes, it makes me want to cry. He has come such a long way since last year. I am so very proud of him; he is becoming a fine young man.

November 13-18

Middle of November!!! Really? The count down has started. Thanksgiving, Jacek's birthday and then Christmas! I usually get stressed out and overwhelmed this time of year. I think a lot of people do, though. I've got an early start on shopping and birthday planning which I usually wait until the last minute for both. I think that's why I usually get so stressed out. It gets easier each year but more expensive!

This week was a very typical week for us. We have settled into our routine quite nicely.
Sunday: Bengals party at Dristy's. They played the Steelers and we lost but the family got to hang out together and that is what I truly love most.

Mondays: Baby G comes to visit. I love that little boy so much! He is such a GOOD baby! The hardest part is keeping the kids away from him. They want to be in his little face at all times.



Tuesday: The kids had school and I worked with 16 three year olds. It was a crazy day and I was so exhausted. I have so much respect for all caregivers to our children and to our elderly. I think they are under paid, for sure. The kids love when I work at their school. Even though, I'm not in their classrooms they think it's so cool that their mom is at their school. And, if by chance I pass one of them in the hallway, they scream at me like I'm some sort of celebrity. They make me feel so loved.

Wednesdays: Piano lessons and hang with Papaw, Kelita, Baby G and Michael C. Papaw usually buys some nice comfort food for lunch. This week it was Whoppers from Burger King. It's been a long time since we have had BK. We scarfed down our food and it was YUMMY! Papaw slept on the couch while we ate. He knows he can get a good nap in if we are eating.

Thursdays: The kids had school and I worked with 13 three year olds. It was a different class than I had on Tues and there were 3 less kids. It makes a big difference. I absolutely love being involved at the school. The kids are wonderful and everyone who works there is so nice and sweet. I've never met more down to earth people in my life.
                                                                
Friday: Sad face... I have to work. The kids and I enjoy relaxing in the morning and then it's off to see meemaw and Bishe. The kids love spending time with them. Jacek was looking forward to meemaw's famous bacon sandwiches.

Next week is Thanksgiving and that will give us a break in our routine. I'm looking forward to some delicious food from Dristy and Granny.

October 31st- November 11th

Happy Halloween! The kids had a great time trick-or-treating this year. Meemaw and Bishe came over and walked around the neighborhood with the kids. I think they liked it as much as the kids.


I am combining 2 weeks into this blog. Mainly because we all have been sick and have been out of commission for a week or so. Once we started to feel a little better we played in the leaves and hung out with cutie pie, baby G.




Jacek also had his first piano performance. I think I was more nervous than he was. Well, until he walked up to the piano and realized everyone was staring at him. He played Ode to Joy by Beethoven and he did so well! Ms. Anna sat with him on the bench and fine tuned everything. It sounded so nice. Jacek was the youngest kid there and that was the first time he had played in front of strangers. This was a very big deal! I thought he was going to back out at the last minute and I was OK with that. But, he pushed through his stage fright and nerves and played his best. I'm so proud of him. What a fine young little man he is turning out to be!


Overall, these past 2 weeks have been GREAT! Take it away, Jacek...
                                          

October 23-28

YAY! I got a new camera for my birthday. Thanks a billion to Tod and Bernadette for the wonderful and gracious gift. I love to take pictures of anything but mostly my babies. I was using my cell phone camera but that was starting to get old. The picture quality was not what they needed to be. This camera is amazing and I love everything about it!

This week was the same fun grind but with a new camera. For this week I am just going to post pictures and let them speak for themselves.

October 16th-21st

Another week has seemed to come and go. And another year for that matter. (Today is my birthday... woo hoo!) I took the kids camping on Sunday for the first time. I was a little concerned on how they would hold up. They had never slept in a tent before and it was a cold night. They were amazing. They did not cry once and they had the best time. We camped at Big Bone with my Kristina, Michael, Dan (during the day). Kelton and Sam. We went hiking to see the bison and then took the long way back to the car to wear the kids down even more. When we got back to camp we started the fire and made burgers and hot dogs. Jacek and Luna pulled pork BBQ sandwiches and then we all had to have s'mores. YUM! We had so much fun and I cannot wait to go camping again.



The rest of the week was the usual routine for us. School on Tuesday. Piano on Wednesday. School on Thursday. I was lucky enough to sub in Ms. Laura's room on Thursday. I got to hang with a bunch of really cool 3 year old kids. It was a lot of fun and Jacek and Luna get so excited when I work at their school.

We also played in the leaves in the front yard. Another amazing week spent with my amazing family. I truly love my life!

October 9th-14th

This week was filled with fall fun!

Sunday we went to pumpkin patch! One of our favorite things to do. Jacek and Luna rode the horse, enjoyed a hay ride, picked a pumpkin, played in the corn maze and danced to some music. I love Kinman farms pumpkin patch. They have so much stuff to do for the kids and adults, too. Also, it was baby G's first time going to the farm. He was so good! I took a bunch of pics but I will only post a few.




Monday- We took it easy and I cleaned up the house from the weekend. We played outside for a couple of hours. Jacek practiced soccer twice and was became super excited about his game on Wednesday. We had to recover from all that fun at the pumpkin patch.


Tuesday- The kids had school and as soon as Jacek came home from school he ran inside and got his soccer ball. I've never seen him so excited about something. We practiced soccer and he really impressed me. He has great ball control. He was determined that he was going to score a goal at his game. I was starting to get nervous for him.

Wednesday-We love Wednesdays! Piano lessons in the morning are always followed by a trip to visit papaw. Luna loves cuddlin' up with her papaw. Seriously, how cute are they?

We headed to Halloween store and bought the very anticipated costumes. Jacek is going to be Bumblebee from Transformers:

And Luna is going to be a piglet. A very very cute piglet!

They absolutely love their costumes and they are so excited about Halloween this year.
**The most anticipated soccer game of the year for Jacek was finally here! He was excited because Dan and his daughter were coming. Jacek adores Dan and has a crush on his daughter. He wanted to score a goal so bad just for her. He played a great game! And he scored a goal for his girl. He almost had two more goals but the ball bounced off the side of the goal. I was so proud of him and his little crush gave him a hug after the game. He was on top of the world.

October 3rd-7th

First week of October! The weather has been amazing. Monday was a lazy day for us. I cleaned most of the day while the kids happily made multiple messes. That's how it goes! We went outside to ride bikes and Rodney and Janet were outside. They were cleaning the garage and the kids immediately had to put a stop to that. Jacek was telling Rodney that he wants to play paintball. Rodney surprised Jacek and pulled out his paintball gun. I thought Jacek's eyes were going to pop out of his head. Rodney helped Jacek put his mask and helped him shoot some yellow paint balls at his wooden wagon on the side of his house. Jacek was too the moon and back with excitement.

The Walgreens story: I scheduled the kids flu shots and they were a little uneasy about it. I decided to take them to Walgreens so they could see me get my flu shot. They were running around the store like a bunch of crazy kids. People were mean mugging, for sure. They finally take us back to a tiny room and tell us to wait. As we are sitting there, Luna is trying to reach on the counter for the red bio-hazard container, where they deposit used needles. She looks at me and asks, "Lollipop?" Jacek starts laughing so hard that I couldn't help but to bust out laughing. I explain to her that those are NOT lollipops which made Jacek laugh even harder. Then she looks at me so serious and says, "Mommy, get you butt out!" I guess she thought they were going to give me my flu shot in the butt. This made Jacek laugh so hard hard that he could hardly talk. "Mom, I just peed my pants a little." All 3 of us were laughing so hard. I'm sure the entire store could hear us. Finally, the lady came in and gave me my flu shot in the arm not my butt. The kids seemed to be in board with flu shots now. That was a fun time!

Tuesday: School day! After school we played on the play ground for a little bit but Luna kept saying she was tired. She was getting aggravated that Jacek would not leave. I knew she was about to blow and we were able to get out just in time. Haha! Nikita had a volleyball tournament that Jacek and I attended. Luna stayed home because she can't sit still for too long. Nikita's team won and we are so proud of her!

                              We love some Baby G!

Wednesday: Piano lessons! Jacek is getting better and better each week. He's learning chords and he picked out the song he wants to play for his Christmas concert. At first it was Mary had a little lamb but he wants to try and work on another song. I'm so proud of him. After piano, we went and picked up my dad and we did our yearly tradition of going to the Halloween store. We all LOVE that store. Luna's always flirting with the scary gross monsters and Jacek and my dad love to try on every hat and accessory.

Jacek had a soccer game Wednesday night. I noticed last week that he was more focused but this week, holy cow, he was like a different kid out there. He took the ball away from the other team right outside of their goal and took all the way down the field and scored his first goal. I jumped up and screamed like such an idiot. I had tears in my eyes and goose bumps. It just took my by surprise. He also scored another goal before the end of the game. He had 2 goals in one game! I was blown away. He told Matt that he wanted score a goal him a goal for his birthday. I am so proud of him. He really has come such a long way. Go Jacek!

Thursday: This week is flying by way too fast! School day. I went to drop the kids off at school and the director asked me if I had plans. Yikes! They needed me to help out in the 2 year old room (not Luna's). I was ready to take it on! I had a lot of fun seeing what the kids do all day and getting to know all the children. They were all so cute and it was an honor to have even been asked to help out. Jacek thought it was really neat that I worked at his school.

Nikita had her last tournament Thursday night. Jacek and I came out to watch a great game of volleyball. Nikita's team did not win but they played an amazing game. They came in second place for the tournament. I'm so proud of Nikita!

                                          Besties!

And Friday: I tried to clean the house a little before I had to work. We were so busy all week that I slacked off. I'm mostly caught up. We are headed to the pumpkin patch on Sunday and we are all so excited. I love this time of year!