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.