Well, Quinn was the star of the week this week!

It's fun to see how different teachers handle star students.

 Quinn was excited to share pictures.

 Share her doll with her wheelchair.

 Share her elephant with a trach.

 and one of our favorite books.

It's been fun!

It was a busy week last week.  Grandma Vicki came down and helped take care of the kids, as I had parent teacher conferences at my school, and I'm not home much on those weeks.  

It seems that when we have lots of changes in our schedules, my kids start acting silly and forget about rules and in turn Friday, all three of them made some choices that got them grounded.  Yes, I said all three of them.

Denali decided to try and be sneaky and do a bit of lying.  Isaiah did not listen to my directions and in turn made some bad choices, and even Quinn was not happy with having a certain care giver, when she was hoping for someone else, so she tried staying home by lying and saying she was sick, when she was not.  

I totally stole this idea, but if you want to see the letters better, click on them to read them.  The kids actually are working really hard to get things done.  I hope they do, as we had to reschedule the pumpkin patch from this weekend to next weekend.  Here is hoping they are ready and can handle it.

Actually I was not going to ground Quinn, but after talking to her Friday afternoon with Chrissy, Quinn decided she wanted to be grounded, I think it was a bit due to the fact that she wanted to be grounded like her siblings, but by Saturday night, she was a bit bummed she chose to be grounded.  Oh life is hard.

I'm still working on Quinn's grounding letter, as she said she wanted one of those too, so that is what I'm doing after I get off of here.

 Denali is the star student in her classroom this week!  So we added her picture and info to the star of the week book.  I think she might have the best picture in there!

 Next she had to come up with a top ten list to share with her classmates, she wanted to name some of her friends, but I said that could hurt kids feelings, past that she came up with her list all on her own.  It is:

I have lots of friends.

I have been to lots of places.

I love to eat desert.

I like my teachers.

I was adopted.

I got baptized.

I play with Barbies.

I am a dancer.

I take Gymnastic.

and I have a great family.

and just to add, she also had I love shopping that she had to glue on the back, as there was not room on the front.

 Then the next big job, is she had to go through the hundreds of pictures we have and pick just 6 to share with the class.  Wow, this was time consuming and here is what we came up with.

A picture of the cousins in Memphis, and a picture in the garden with Isaiah and Quinn.

 A picture of her birthday party and a picture of the family in our Husker attire.  I miss out on being in most of the pictures and I'm ok with that for the most part.

Finally one with Denali, RL, and me,(I did make it in one.)  Ending was a dance picture.  I did not help her narrow them down or anything, just lots of prodding.  We started off with about 80 pictures, and getting it down to 6 was hard, but she made some great choices!

What an amazing kid!  We love you Denali!  Be ready, as the other two have their star weeks, we will get them on here as well!

It was a fun afternoon where we got to hang out with University of Nebraska athletes.

 We did some hula hooping, and wow Isaiah has skills.

 The girls loved the cheerleaders, and Isaiah hid behind me each time we talked to them.

 Isaiah was ok with hanging with little red.

 Quinn was all giggles each time the cheerleaders hung out with her!

 The ball toss, and the ball roll.

 Obstacle courses were fun.

 Isaiah is so fun, until he sees the camera.

 Baseball time.

 Being in Memorial Stadium is pretty amazing.

 Quinn was posing for the camera.

We met lots of folks, football players, swimmers, track and field, volleyball, basketball players, it was great.

 Finally tracing the steps of the tunnel walk.  The athletes were amazing and so good playing and talking with our kids!  Thanks to all involved!  All three kids are ready to sign up again for next year!

We had a fun girls day out today.

We had a spa birthday party for Alex, took pictures out in the country and had dinner with an old friend Amy.

So much fun!

 Oh I love these girls, they both cracked up when we were taking pictures.  Look at their beautiful smiles and that beautiful Nebraska landscape behind them!  The pictures are about the same, but I had to add them both.

and one more...

Here is Alex, the birthday girl.

 Ice cream cake, and that worked out great, because Quinn kept saying she wanted ice cream all the way to the party.

 Quinn's fingers and toes.

 Denali's fingers and toes.

 Quinn has been working so hard at therapy!

 While Quinn is working so hard, so are my other two!

I've been working on being thankful, so here are a few of the thankful things I have been talking about.

I'm thankful for my kids, starting with my baby. I am thankful for Denali. I am thankful for her sense of humor. Her love for our family, her messy room. The way she reads to Quinn at night, and how well she has overcome so much in her past, she told me the other day, I have had a lot more life experience then most kids my age . Yes, Denali, you have. Love you!

I'm thankful for my wonderful Quinn. She teaches me patience. She keeps me humble. She helps me see so much good in others. So many folks help us with doors and have to come over in the store and chat with us. She is the hardest worker I know. She can also do a great job of not showing off as well. I am so proud of her and could not be more grateful to be her mom. It is not always easy, but I am ok with that! Her laugh is contagious and I love her so much !

I'm thankful for my oldest , Isaiah. He was Frankenstein at the carnival, and Frankenstein does not smile. I am thankful for his smile. At one time he told adults he could not be a kid, he had to watch out for his sister. Now he gets to be a kid and he knows it. He still looks out for his sisters. Last night the kids got to try to win prizes and he used some of his tickets to win a doll for the girls . He is our thinker. He is our rule follower. He is our mathematician. He has the biggest heart and I am so lucky to have him as my son.

The Zeman Carnival!

The girls and Annette and Ben started it out!  

Isaiah had dance and was bummed to be late.

I was bummed because my phone ran out of battery life so I did not get many pictures of him.

What a fun night.  My student teacher, Miss Jordan painted faces all night.

Oh it's fun to see my kids at school and my kids from home have so much fun.  It's weird to have my worlds combine, but it was a great night.