No, the best toys are what you would least likely expect them to be.  They are items that you already have on hand or items that cost little.  Some of Mikayla’s favorite toys have been things like pots and spoons or magazines or containers of Puff’s.  This weekend we spent time with some dear friends in Tallahassee (see this post for more information) and Mikayla found a new toy…a laundry basket.  Who knew laundry baskets could be so much fun!  She liked to put things in it and then promptly take them out.  She enjoyed being dragged around their apartment while sitting in the laundry basket. 

Then she got the bright idea to stand up behind the laundry basket and try her hand at walking up and down the hallway pushing it.  She was really moving.  Check her out:

How cute is she?  Let’s take a poll…will she be walking by her first birthday (April 28)?

I think it is awesome when we can get together with those we love, who might I add we don’t get to see that often, and the moment we get together we are able to pick up right where we left off as if months hadn’t gone by since our last visit.  It is amazing.  Dave and Catherine are dear friends to us and their friendship is one like I described above.  Again, amazing!  They are the type of friends that no matter what the scenario, whatever the combination of the four of us are around (or six if you count Mikayla and Molly) we can have fun and there be no awkward pauses in conversation.  It might be me, Ben and Cat or Dave, Cat and me or maybe just Ben and Cat and there is no awkwardness.  Does this make sense?   Ben may have said it more eloquently than I, but I treasure the friendship we have with the Altmaiers.   In Ben’s word, a "Pretty mundane and typical" weekend, spent with great friends was just what this girl needed!

Dave goofing off at Cat’s birthday lunch.

Ben hanging with Molly.

Ben has this thing with picking people’s noses, just ask our friends from high school.

Cat and Mikayla

Birthday girl with her kiddo at a yummy French restaurant.

One of the greatest parts of this weekend was introducing Mikayla to Molly.  Catherine and I were driving around Tallahassee and she made a comment about "the girls".  How cool is it that we can refer to our kiddos as "the girls"?  Catherine has been a friend of mine since elementary school.  We were in girls scouts together, attended the same youth group in middle and high school, were college roommates, she was a bridesmaid in my wedding…the list could go on and on.  To say the least we have been friends for a really long time.  She is one of the few people in life that I can be 100% real with.  I would argue that she knows me as well as Ben.  I can call her for a laugh, cry, rant and more.  Good friends are hard to come by and so that is why I think it is so cool we can refer to our daughters as "the girls".  I just hope that "the girls" have a friendship like their moms and that Mikayla finds her Catherine one day!

 "The girls"

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We also had our first go at spaghetti this week.  I must say, she stayed cleaner than some of my kiddos at school when she ate it.

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Sunday marked Mikayla’s 10 month birthday.  Hard to believe 10 months have already passed.  Check out this, this and this post for past giraffe growth pictures.  Here she is at 10 months (note it is getting harder and harder to get her to lay still long enough to snap the photos).

She is now standing for long periods and scooting along furniture.  She has even gone from sitting to standing a couple of times.  We fear walking is in our near future!  "Talking" up a storm too.  And even dancing a little, if you could call it that!  Here are a couple more videos of my Little Munchkin!

Sorry, this post got longer than I had intended.  Hope you enjoyed!

Unfortunately, I was unable to blow out 27 candles in one fail swoop.  Pathetic.  Judge for yourself!

First, we made an Olympic ring snack.  We took butter cookies, icing and sprinkles and turned them into the Olympic rings.  Here is what the end result looked like (not the best lighting, but you get the idea):

Then at recess we had the kids train and warm up for the big events.  We began the day with Opening Ceremonies.  The kids had each made a flag that represented their country and we played the Olympic theme song while they paraded around the gym.  They were so proud and excited.  Then we moved on to the main events!  We had eight events set up around the school.

1.  Speed skating – We had the kids skate around the gym in their sock feet.  They were so cute, and they all pretended to be Apollo Anton Ohno.

2.  Ski jumping – They ran and jumped from a piece of tape to see who could go the farthest.

3.  Hockey – They took turns shooting a hockey puck between cones. 

4.  Snowball toss – Not a real event, but we were running out of ideas.  They tossed marshmallows into Olympic rings.

5.  Bobsled – The coaches pulled kids around a course on a plastic sled.

6.  Luge – By far the favorite event.  We used an old plastic square scooter  and let the kids race down the main hallway in our school.  It is a ramp, so they had a lot of fun.  Here is a picture of one of the coaches racing along.  There were more wrecks with the adults than there were with the kids.

7.  Wii Figure skating

8.  Wii Snowboarding – Complete with a photo-op on a real snow board.

We completed the day with a medal ceremony where each child earned a bronze medal, silver medal and gold medal.  It was a great day. 

Here are some videos of the teachers having a little fun! 

I think the teachers enjoyed themselves more than the kiddos!  There were a few more videos of adults, but I did not post because I didn’t want to embarrass anyone!  It was a great day with lots of laughs and giggles, and I think the kids learned a little too!

Speaking of my cuties, sometimes they just like to sit and play together.  Here they are having a staring contest (please note the red shirt on Ben and not black).

Goofy grins.

Cute smiles.

Acting silly with daddy, doesn’t get much cuter than this!

"Look Mom, I can scrunch Daddy’s face!"

Mikayla exploring the fact that they both have mouths.

"What’s in there daddy?"

Sweet kisses from daddy.

I am pretty sure she is held in the air and upside down more than any other baby in the world!

Here is a quick shot of me and Mikayla after her play time with daddy.

Like I do with most recipes, I changed this one a bit.  I added some sautéed peppers and onions with garlic to the filling.  I also added in a few jalapeno slices to kick it up a notch!  I also used some homemade salsa in the filling.  I served with guacamole and white cheese sauce.  I ended up making the filling the night before and then creating the Chimichangas the next.  This worked really well with a 9.5 month old crawling around.  These were yummy fresh and straight from the freezer.  It made like fifteen, so there were plenty for future meals.  I am becoming a huge fan of freezer cooking!

We had them for dinner tonight with Mexican rice, black beans with corn, and white cheese dip.  Delicious!  Top it off with a little Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia and you have a near perfect meal!  Since I made this in stages I forgot to take pictures, but when you go check out the recipe you will see some.

I could say that Mikayla woke up, was fussy and needed her mom.  I don’t think Ben would go for that one though.

Maybe I could blame it on the Olympics.  I mean they only come on once every four years (ok 2 if you count summer and winter, but who’s counting?).  Don’t think he will buy that one either.

I could say that I traded doing this dishes with Shiloh for letting her sleep in the bed tonight.  Ben would be really unhappy with this one seeing as how Shiloh likes to sleep on his side of the bed!

I could blame it on Etsy, I do get sucked in there quite often.

Alas, no excuse is good enough.  I must venture to the kitchen to do the dishes.  Just so you know, I am not happy about it!

Dishes…blah!

…will compete in a competition tomorrow night for Funniest Kid Around.  I have always known he was funny, but now the whole world (or at least the people at the show) will know just how funny he really is!  This kiddo (don’t let him know I called him a kiddo though, he might deny it) holds a special place in our hearts (all of us Kickert’s, even Shiloh).  He has been in our lives since my first year of teaching.  We have seen him grow, mature (at least a little), learn, laugh, play ball, learn to read and write, and much more.  He is an all star in my eyes!  He is so special to us we had him complete an art project for MLK’s nursery.  I think it turned out great!

He will probably never read this, but….GOOD LUCK!  WE WILL BE THERE ROOTING FOR YOU!

(Photo courtesy of Dallas Gilliam)

…with this Baby girl…

…and with everything involved with this symbol…

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, I am in love with the Olympics, both winter and summer.  I love everything about it.  The competition.  The history.  The stories.  The excitement.  The events.  The opening ceremonies.  The athletes.  The crowds.  I love it all.  I have been asked before which are my favorite, Winter or Summer Olympics.  It is a hard choice for me.  I love events from both equally.  The Summer Olympic events are familiar, but the Winter Olympic events are dangerous, fast paced and excitingly unknown (to me at least)!  It is just too hard to choose.  Which is your favorite?

I love the Olympics so much that I am going to be spending the next two weeks teaching my students about the Olympics.  We will learn about the different sports, the history, chart medal winnings, watch short clips of events, and culminate with an Olympic day next Friday complete with our very own Kindergarten Olympics.  It is going to be crazy fun!

So, if you go looking for me in the next two weeks and you can’t find me, you might try looking in my living room on the couch.  You will more than likely find me glued to the TV screen at night watching the athletes in what some would say as their ultimate lifelong goal…striving to achieve an Olympic gold.  Yay for Olympics!