2016 :: week 26

June 19

Happy Father's Day. Anthony is a great dad to our little crew. He's pretty busy but does his best to spend the time he does have with all three kids. He plays catch, card games and builds with Legos more than he'd probably choose, but the kids know they are important to him.

June 20

I remember that Monday was a rough day. but I have (thankfully) forgotten a lot of the details. I was tired and tried to cram too much into the day. Lows include Elliott spitting up in my purse and a big argument with Lauren over the necessity of wearing shoes. Both Will and Lauren declined to eat the dinner I made, but Elliott ate the entire portion I had served to Lauren. I was so pleased to have one of my kids happily eating I had to document it. Elliott has been a great eater lately. I took him in for a weight check later in the week and he gained 1 lb. 7 oz. in six weeks! More than double what he gained between months 6 - 9! He is eating most of the foods that we eat at meals, either smashed or cut into really small pieces.

June 21

While Will was at his art camp Lauren, Elliott and I went to Old Navy to buy Lauren some waterproof shoes like Will has. She decided she "hates" flip-flops because she often trips when wearing them. Her's were on the small side, but they are also often on the wrong feet, so there's that too. She was so excited to have them that when we arrived at the pool she walked right into the water without taking them off and swam in them for quite awhile. I was pleased she picked a pair that was gender neutral and can pass them on for Elliott to wear in a few years too.

June 22

The Andrews (our neighbors across the street) adopted a puppy on Wednesday. The kids were excited to meet Rocky while he was out on his first walk around the neighborhood.

June 23

Will attended an art class at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art this week. The class was 2.5 hours long for three days (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). He had a fun time and enjoyed trying some new things. One of the things they did was look at various pieces of artwork in the gallery and draw what the picture looked like to them. Will said that this piece--Prince Patutszky Pleasures by Jules Olitski--made him think of chocolate chip cookies.

June 24

On Friday evening we invited friends to meet us at Shawnee Mission Park to celebrate Juhannus, also known as midsummer or the summer solstice. When Anthony was a missionary in Finland he got to participate in their traditional celebration. This summer there is a couple in our ward who both served their missions in Finland and we decided to celebrate the midsummer with a BBQ. It looked like it might rain, and a few drops came down about an hour before we were scheduled to start, but all that seemed to do was detour others from coming to the park. The temperature dropped about ten degrees and it was an absolutely gorgeous summer evening.

June 25

We checked out the new-ish KC Streetcar Saturday afternoon. We rode the route and got off to explore a bit. The kids rode past the library while riding the bus on "take your child to work day" and were intrigued by the steps that look like a stack of books. We got to the KC Library just as it closed and had to settle for some pictures with the book mural. The kids are in an intense Harry Potter phase and really hoped that one of the books on the wall was a Harry Potter.

2016 :: week 25

June 12

Lauren and I spent over and hour Sunday evening looking at my old photos. I've been trying to get my files organized and have one container of photos in my room. I originally pulled them out to find a throwback picture of my sister Jill for her birthday. Lauren LOVED the pictures. Her favorites were pictures from our wedding. I got out our wedding album the next day for the next day and she has pored over it.

June 13

The Chick-fil-A by our house offers a different item on the breakfast menu for free each week on Mondays. I thought it would be fun for the kids and I to walk their for breakfast Monday morning. I wasn't expecting it to be extremely hot and humid! It was over 80 degrees when we left our house at 8:15am. I don't think I had ever dined inside Chick-fil-A at breakfast time before. The kids loved having the play area all to themselves. Elliott loved crawling around with the big kids.

June 14

Lauren likes to hold Elliott in her lap. She has been doing it quite a bit this week and when I asked her about it she told me she was "putting him in time out for making messes," but that it wasn't a bad timeout because, "he likes me to hold him." The look on his face my beg to differ.

June 15

It was really hot this week. I don't think it set records or anything, but it was humid with temperatures in the high 90s every almost every day. We decided to change up our pool routine and go to Tomahawk on Wednesday. It was a lot more work than I'm used to getting everything in the car. We are so spoiled having a pool just down the street from us.

June 16

I took the kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Trip. It was one of the discounted kid's movies playing this week. This is one of the very few movies we have actually seen in the theater as a family (back in December). I was nervous about how Elliott would handle it. He did great! We got seats on the front row in the upper section, so Elliott could see what was going on from his stroller. He spent about half the time in the stroller and half in my lap. He didn't seem very interested in the movie, but I brought him a bottle and fed him lunch while we watched. When the people in the theater laughed he would clap his hand together in joy.

June 17

 We met the Sanner's at the Loose Park Spray Ground Friday morning. It was so crowded! The kids had fun running around. Lauren kept coming up to me yelling, "I'm soaked!" Will was busy manning one of the water guns or filling a water bottle up with water to dump on other kids.

June 18

Will had another great t-ball game. He got 3 great hits, 3 put-outs (or they would have been if they called anyone out) and did some awesome celebrating in the field. After the game we finally watched the first Harry Potter movie. Anthony finished reading the book to them on Thursday and they were ready to watch the before the book was closed. They enjoyed the movie and from comments they made while watching it, did a pretty good job of paying attention while Anthony read. Will told me the funniest part was when Hagrid gave Dudley a pigs tail and the grossest part was when Harry stuck his wand in the trolls nose. Now on to book two!

2016 :: week 24

June 5

My cousin Brenda, her husband Troy and three youngest kids (Robert, Thomas and Joe) drove from Idaho to visit church history with sites in the Midwest, arriving Sunday afternoon. My parents hosted all of us for dinner, then the Nielsen's stayed at their place overnight. Elliott was our most outgoing kid and the most eager to make new friends. Will and Tony played some songs on the piano, and Lauren kept busy playing with Memaw's toy animals. It was fun to visit with the Nielsens.

June 6

Elliott is now pulling himself up and getting into, well, everything. It is especially distressing to Lauren when he gets into her toys. He is so pleased with himself it is hard to get to frustrated with him though.

June 7

I was sitting at the pool talking with a friend Tuesday afternoon when she said, "I think Will is in line for the diving board." My immediate thought was "Not my Will," and I looked over to the side of the pool where he practices jumping in and swimming with his friends. He wasn't there. I looked over at the diving board and there he was. Before I could there he was jumping into the water! I was shocked! Will has always been fairly timid in the water and I figured it would be a year or two before he would want to jump off.  When I talked to Will about it after he said he had been practicing jumping in on the side (in the 4 feet) and treading water so he felt he was ready. I wish he had told me he was going to jump before (I missed his first jump) but am really proud of him for working hard and learning new skills.

June 8

We had an epic water balloon fight with our neighbors Wednesday afternoon. Will and Lauren love going across the street to play.

June 9

It was a hot week and we spent a lot of time at the pool. This is Lauren's favorite spot at the pool. It's the first place she jumps in most days. Then she jumps in over and over.

June 10

This week the kids went to a Vacation Bible School. I went to a few VBS' when I was a kid and enjoyed them, so when I saw that several of Will's kindergarten friends and siblings were going (via the OP-C Mom's facebook page) I decided to sign Will and Lauren up too. They seemed to enjoy it. They had bible-based lessons, learned a few new songs and played "P.E. Style" games. This photo is from the program the church hosted at the end of the week. Both kids really liked the songs and have been singing them ever since.

June 11

Elliott is 10 months old! He's such a delightful baby. When I was looking at these pictures I couldn't believe how blonde his hair has gotten or how much he looks like Anthony. We have been spending a fair amount of time outside lately, but both Will and Lauren's hair lightened up around this age too, so I guess that's not too surprising.

2016 :: week 23

May 29

Anthony started reading Harry Potter with the kids. It's been a long time for me and the early Harry Potter books and I have really enjoyed entering the magical world again. I have to watch myself not to give spoilers when Will and Lauren ask me questions.

May 30

We had a very full Memorial Day. Ward picnic, pool, then a Royals game with our friends the Cooks. We got there a little early so the kids could take some batting practice at the Little K before the game. They each got a few hits in, then we watched the game. It was a gorgeous evening and a fun night at the ballgame.

May 31

We walked to the library for story time. It is exactly one mile each way. I debated walking because it was supposed to get hot, but I wanted to get some exercise and decided to go for it. It was much hotter than I anticipated and the kids were much less enthusiastic about the walk than I had hoped. It was the first story time of the summer and the room was packed to the brim with parents and kids by the time we got there. I should also mention that the library had not turned their air conditioning on yet so I was embarrassingly sweaty. The kids enjoyed the story time and we had a more enjoyable walk home, though I'm not sure how much we will walk to the library in the summer heat.

June 1

My dad came over and helped us plant a small garden. Will has expressed a lot of interest in having a garden this year. It wasn't long before Lauren was excited about it too. I would like to have a garden as well, but wasn't sure where to start, so I asked my dad if he could help us. We planted a little later than we planned, but the kids and I have been very dutiful about watering and weeding so hopefully they will still be productive.

June 2

We arrived at the pool during the 10 minute adult swim that happens on the hour, so the kids were forced to wait on the side of the pool for a bit before they could swim. Elliott seems to like the water less than Will and Lauren did when they were his age, but it is still quite cold. Will and Lauren aren't quite as confident in their swimming as they were at the end of last year, but it has only been four days since the pool opened...I later regretted this pool trip as Will had T-ball practice that evening and I hosted book club that night. Not a lot of down time and all three kids were overtired by the time they got to bed.

June 3

We met the Terrys for an afternoon at the zoo, only to find out once we got there that Jazzoo (the zoo's largest fundraiser of the year) was going on that night and half the zoo was closed and what was opened closed early. My fault, for not checking the website before making plans. We were able to walk around the "Africa" section, ride the Sky Safari and see a few animals we hadn't seen in awhile, so it was still a good trip. And bonus, I was able to get a picture of me with the kids at the zoo,

June 4

We visited Shawnee Mission Park for their annual "free weekend" and rode a peddle boat and swam at the beach. Elliott was not pleased to be wearing the life jacket and whined the entire time we were on the lake. We did encroach on his naptime. Lauren loved swimming in the lake and Will had a blast building in the sand.