Lunch with the Lancasters

Yesterday, Katie Anne and I traveled down to Madison for lunch with the Lancaster family! We had a great time, and luckily we didn't run into any traffic coming or going. We got to see their new house, enjoy lunch at a local Madison hang-out, and let the kids play together. Here are some pictures of the kids in the "insane room" aka Tripp and Makinley's play room. (I'm quoting Stacey here!)




Katie Anne reads aloud from a novel. She loved "helping" Stacey go through her books.



















Makinley crawls over the train track... note the "battle scar" under her right eye from her first brawl (of many, probably) with Katie Anne, aka The Bruiser! I was so embarrassed!














Tripp builds a tower of blocks. He called KA "Katie Nan"- so cute! Tripp left a battle scar under my right eye... he wields a strong swing with that tiny bat!















"Here Makinley, let me style your hair!"














The kids had such a good time playing together. Katie Anne loved playing with all the cool toys Tripp and Makinley have, but of course her favorite things were a medicine dropper and a bottle of lotion. Simple joys! Makinley is such an easygoing baby, and I think she and Katie Anne played really well together (except for the initial face slapping incident). They did a great job of sharing trains, looking at books together, and playing "hair salon" with the hairbrush they found!

Tripp and Katie Anne are so much alike... two first-borns with big attitudes! Tripp was a trip, literally... he has learned so many new words since the last time I saw him, and he has no problem telling you what he's thinking! He showed us all his favorite things, like his trains, and his new skills, like hitting the baseball off the tee. It was so funny when he tried to get "Katie Nan" to run with him in the new house, and Katie Anne told him to "Stop!" (or in her words, "Dop!"). Tripp understood her perfectly and answered, "Katie Nan not tell me to stop!" I think it will be WrestleMania between those two crazy people next summer at our annual get-together! Tripp was very sweet to share his pacifiers with Katie Anne, who shared them with Makinley, who put them in her mouth upside down!

Stacey and I also swapped a bunch of stuff for the upcoming school year. It is such a stroke of luck that she's moving from first to fourth grade and I'm moving from fourth to first grade. It is so nice to discuss what to expect, strategies, and get a ton of her old stuff. I think what she gave me might be more valuable than I gave to her... she gave me tons of books and file folders. I hope the materials that I took her will help her get started! I've got tons of stuff to go through and think about. I'm really excited about teaching first grade, but seeing all these sight word folders, holiday activities, reading primers, and things you just don't do in fourth grade makes me a bit nervous. I'm feeling like a first year teacher again!