The Tjebkes Family Website: Celebrating and Camping

This was a big week with celebrations. Today we celebrated Valentine's Day. The kids' had parties at school on Friday. Making valentines for three kids is well, a lot of valentine's. We attended Cousin Zane's 18th Birthday Party last weekend. Zane was born when I was a freshman in college so that makes me......OLD. On Tuesday, 2/9, Jeff turned 39 years young. The kids sent Daddy treats from one of our favorite places- The Sweet Hut at the Kalaharai Resort. We sent them to Jeff's work and Kaelen was very worried that Daddy would eat all the goodies and she would not get anything. Luckily, Daddy shared. Friday night, I surprised Jeff with a nice dinner out (just the two of us so not Culver's) at Cafe Dodici in Washington, IA. It was excellent- good Italian food. Jeff was very surprised so thanks to my accomplices- Shane for scheduling a "fake" work meeting with Jeff so I could get Jeff out of work early and to Grandma and Grandpa Tjebkes for keeping the kids overnight. I think the best part for Jeff was getting to sleep in to 7:45 AM on Saturday morning!
Congrats to Cousin Nathan for making it to State Swimming as a freshman in the 500 free! Muscatine placed fourth in the State at the meet on Saturday. Awesome job!!!
Saturday we stopped at Coral Ridge Mall so I could get some new jeans. Shopping is definitely very quick and to the point with the three kids along. I took Kason with me and he totally got doted on while I tried on jeans at Express. We all enjoyed a carousel ride too. Also, found that the mall food court is an excellent place to eat as it is really loud so it does not matter if the kids fuss and someone came and swept up after we were done eating.
I promised Kaelen I would "camp" out in the living room in her tent sometime when I did not have to get up early and run on a weekend. I ran 20 miles Saturday morning so took Sunday morning off so we "camped" complete with lantern, flashlights, and sleeping bags. It was a late night for Kaelen but lots of fun! This morning she told me that she did not need to sleep in her bed anymore and would just sleep in the tent from now on. Ha!
Kamryn and Kason are getting so big- 17 months now. Kamryn is still her spunky self which is a good thing and climbs on everything every chance she gets. This morning she helped brush Kaelen's hair. She just adores her big sister. Kason is very close to getting his first tooth. He also started saying his first sentence this week "Hi Zip" every time he sees our cat Zip.