2019 :: week 33

August 11

Sunday was Elliott's fourth birthday. He has been looking forward to "August 11th" for a very long time and was so excited when it finally arrived. Waiting until after church to open his presents was torture! For dinner we got together with the Wilsons at Memaw and Pepaw's house and ate yummy ham sandwiches. Elliott is wonderful. He is a ray of sunshine and jokester who makes us laugh every single day. He has strong convictions and loves his buddies--especially Nicholas, Tyler, Blaise and Bennett. He has an amazing imagination and keeps us entertained—whether it be dancing like the Greatest Showman, playing baseball like Whit-Whit Merrifield and Mookie Betts or telling us tales of his imaginary grandpa Tomás and his son John Blakely.

August 12

For the first time since we've had kids at OPC, school started on a Monday! Will is in Mrs. Votava's 4th grade class and has good friends Knox and Landon in his class. Lauren is in Mrs. Martin's 2nd grade class and has good friends Cat, Caroline and Hailey in her class. Everyone was up and ready to leave by 7:45am. We walked up to school and Will drifted into the crowd, so we just walked Lauren to her classroom and left. My babies are growing up. We got to meet Elliott's teacher Ms. Amanda at a "getting to know you" conference Monday afternoon. He is anxious to start to school Wednesday.

August 13

We moved Elliott to the top bunk in Lauren's room Tuesday night. He fell asleep and slept fine, but had an accident for the first time in about six months!? We are ready to move Miles out of our room and want to move him into the room Elliott has been sleeping in and move Elliott into Lauren's room with her, but now I am not so sure. Managing bedtime needs, routines and preferences is much harder than I ever imagined it would be.

August 14

Elliott looked both so big and so little when we walked him into school Wednesday afternoon. His school goes from 12:15-3pm each day. Anthony came home for lunch and drove with us to the school. It was very crowded and we had to park at the back of the parking lot. Elliott did a great job when we dropped him off and was all smiles when we came to pick him up. As we were walking into school we realized that our neighbor Bennett is also attending this preschool. After I talked to his nanny about carpooling we found out that Elliott has a lot of anxiety about riding in other people's cars and both Thursday and the following Monday were rough days with him and school.

August 15

Nana and Papa arrived Wednesday afternoon while I was picking up the kids from school. They are driving from Boston to Utah and after stopping for a few days in VA with the Gessells stopped to see us for a few days. Thursday while the kids were in school and Anthony was at work they visited the World War 1 museum. Friday they took Elliott to Crown Center to play at the Clifford exhibit and get lunch at Fritz's. Each night Papa ready a few Bob Books with Lauren.

August 16

Will has taken up riding his bike again. I love watching him grin as he races around the block and coasts down steep diveways. Oh to be young and experience the freedom of a bike!

August 17

Saturday morning we went with our neighbors to a church in KCK to serve a free hot breakfast. Many of the recipients were homeless or really struggling to make ends meet. Will and Lauren did such a good job of helping where needed and having a positive attitude, despite the heat. We brought Doug and Tina along as well and they were a big help! Doug washed dishes in the hot, humid kitchen for the entire 3 hours we were there.