2022 :: week 34

August 21

The kids have come up with a new game they call "hurricane." Basically it is chance to twirl around and bump into each other. It is one of those games where everything is fine until it isn't and more often than not ends in minor injury. And yet the kids keep playing...

August 22

Miles and I spent Monday afternoon with Memaw. Miles likes to "help" Memaw use her walker. She is a good sport, because she could move around faster without his "help." That evening I went to back to school night and met Lauren's teacher. 

August 23

Our neighbors pay Will handsomely to take out their garbage and recycling each week. I snapped this picture as I headed up to school to meet Elliott's teacher. Our kids are in good hands this year.

August 24

The Wilson boys came over after dinner so Emily could go to her back to school night. Will, Elliott and Tyler played football in the front yard. Mikey played Super Smash Bros with Tony, Lauren and Miles. We ended the night with ice cream. 

August 25

Miles has been noticing and pointing out numbers and letters more after starting school. He is very ego-centric and refers to both 3s and Ms as "me." When we were grocery shopping Miles pointed to this three and happily declared it was him. 

August 26

I know we are only a few weeks in to the school year, but our mornings have been going very smoothly. Will helped Lauren with her spelling words before school Friday morning. That evening he watched Elliott and Miles while Anthony and I went to dinner to celebrate our 16th anniversary. Lauren would have helped, but she was at a birthday party. Happy anniversary to Anthony and me! 

August 27

Despite the heat the Pink Thunder are now 2-0 on the season. It isn't often that all of us are able to go to a game, but today we were. The highlight for our family was when Lauren scored at the end of the first half. Lauren's brothers were very proud and greeted her with congratulatory cheers after the game. It makes me feel so good when our kids support each other and are happy for their siblings' successes. 

2022 :: week 33

August 14

Papa and Nana in town always means a few things--games, barbeque and...stake conference. Oddly enough, more often than not when Anthony's parents visit we have Stake Conference. We all agreed it was a great meeting, and the fact that it ended 10 minutes early made it even better. The main message I got from conference were about seeking for and acting on personal revelation. The kids spent much of the afternoon playing games with their grandparents. This visit the games of choice were mancala, Sleeping Queens and Bananagrams. 

August 15

Monday was Miles' first day of preschool. He did not want to take a picture by himself, so Will agreed to pose with him. Miles is a peer model in Miss Emily's class at the district early learning center. Anthony and I both took him to school and walked him to his classroom, but in general Anthony will be dropping him off on his way to work. Miles was pretty nervous, and I felt fairly anxious the entire time he was gone. At pickup he was happy and it was clear he had a fun time. He insisted in wearing the "first day of school" hat he colored in class the rest of the day, but in true Miles fashion scowled at anyone who asked him about it.

August 16

Papa, Nana and I took Miles to the Curious George play place at Crown Center Tuesday after school Tuesday. Curious George is one of Miles' "shows," and he was pretty excited to "play" with George. Crown Center hosts rotating exhibits, many of which are part of the Minnesota Children's Museum collection. Tuesday evening Papa and Nana treated us to Joe's KC barbeque and the adults watched the finale of Only Murders in the Building. Anthony and I feel pretty certain we know who the murdered Bunny.

August 17

Nana wasn't feeling great so we had a quieter day Wednesday. The older kids really enjoyed playing Bananagrams with Nana. Elliott even won a game--with a little help from mom!

August 18

Back to school for kids means back to school nights for parents. Thursday night I got to go through Will's daily schedule in about an hour. Will's teachers seem great, the distance between classes felt manageable, and he has a nice variety of subjects. Middle school feels a lot friendlier as a parent than it did when I was a student. 

August 19

Miles is a mood. When I was making pizza for dinner Friday night he climbed up to the counter and took a bite out of the block of cheese. He was very forthcoming and honest about it when I caught him, I just wish he was such an upstanding citizen before he started eating chunks out of the cheese.

August 20

The kids started watching Gravity Falls this summer and this weekend we watched the final episode. Lauren has been drawing pictures of the characters, Mabel is a family favorite. Saturday afternoon I met my friend Soni for lunch at McLain's while Anthony and the kids went to the pool. 

2022 :: week 32

August 7

Sunday marked the first time we had a Sunday family dinner at my parent's house since Memaw had her stroke. It felt really good to gather together again. Even Dana was there. Pepaw made a delicious roast and after dinner we sang to the August birthdays--Emily (8/6), Arthur (8/8) and Elliott (8/11). Jill made a yummy cake. Life is finally starting to feel "normal" again.

August 8

Monday we spent the day at Clinton Lake with the Allreds to celebrate Arthur's birthday. I can't believe I've lived in Kansas as long as I have and never been to Clinton Lake before. It was a bit of a drive--almost an hour--but the drive was pleasant . It was overcast the entire time we were there, but it never rained and it kept the crowds away. We had the place almost to ourselves, but in a funny coincidence there was a group of boys Will's age from our stake there too. Will said hi to them, but I didn't recognize the parent that brought them. That evening we headed up to OPC to drop off school supplies and meet Lauren and Elliott's teachers.

August 9

Elliott and Will have been playing a lot of driveway baseball this summer. These two have become such good buddies and it makes my momma heart swell with happiness when I see them having so much fun together. Lauren spent several hours at her friend Katie's house so it was me and the boys at home most of the day. We had a few last minutes things we needed to get done before school starts. I took Elliott and Lauren shopping and thankfully we were able to find both of them shoes that would work well. 

August 10

We spent a few hours with Memaw on Wednesday so Pepaw could go to work. Lauren gifted Memaw the bracelet she made at Katie's house the day before. Memaw's right eye is starting to open. She does not have very good vision in that eye, but it is exciting to see her body recover more abilities. That evening I took Lauren and Will shopping for Elliott's birthday. I was so impressed with their thoughtfulness and the generosity they showed when buying him gifts. 

August 11

Thursday was a big day in the John house. Besides being the first day of the 2022-2023 school year it was Elliott's 7th birthday! This year Lauren has Mrs. Phares and Elliott has Miss Upbin--both are 2022 college graduate and first year teachers at OPC. When we met them Monday they both seemed very nice. I was proud of us, we were all up and ready to go pretty early. After taking the traditional back to school photos we walked Lauren and Elliott to school, then walked Will to his bus stop. Will's bus stop is across the street from his friend Soren's house. Elementary kids had a half day, but 7th graders had a full day. The 8th graders didn't start until Friday so the 7th graders had a day to get familiar with moving to their classes in less crowded hallways. While the big kids were at school Miles and I went to preschool to meet his teacher, Miss Emily. That night Elliott requested homemade pizza for dinner. After dinner we took a cookie cake to my parent's house so Memaw participate in his birthday celebrations. Grandkid birthdays are Memaw's favorite days of the year. 

August 12

Friday night was the first Pink Thunder game of the season. Lauren played great, despite the intense heat. Papa and Nana arrived just before half time! They are taking an epic road trip, visiting friends and family across the country for about two months. We are the second stop of their adventure. 

August 13

Saturday we went to the Royals/Dodger game. For everyone but Will it was our first time at the K this season. It was a crowded game, I guess when you have one of the best records in baseball you bring the all the fans to the yard. Even though the Dodgers scored five runs in the first inning and the Royals were never really in it, we still had a great time. A highlight for Will was when the Royals brought in position player Nicky Lopez to pitch in the 9th inning. He gave up home runs to Joey Gallo and Cody Bellinger, but at this point the Royals we so out of the game it was just fun to see the big hits.

 

2022 :: week 31

July 31

Sunday morning we got up and headed to the St. Louis Airport Marriott which was hosting the 2022 MAMA Festival. The kids were slated to perform at 9:24am and 9:59am so we checked in and waited for their turns. "Friday Night Cafe" and "Struttin' Up Town" were Will's entries into the festival while Lauren played "America the Beautiful" and "All Things Bright and Beautiful." Thanks to the magic of the internet we were able listen to our ward's Sacrament Meeting while we drove to a nearby church (Maryland Heights Ward) where we could take the Sacrament. After Sacrament meeting I checked the MAMA website and found out that both kids received superior ratings and earned trophies in their respective cateogries, Pop/Jazz/Blues for Will and Hymns/Patriotic for Lauren. We went back to the hotel so the kids could get their hardware.

August 1

When we visited St. Louis during Spring Break this year the city was packed with people also on Spring Break. When I went to book tickets to go up the arch in March it was totally booked. This time of year it was easy to secure tickets, and late Monday morning we went to the top of the arch. When rereading an old blog post I found that on a previous visit to STL in 2014 Will said he didn't want to go up into the arch until he was at least nine, so it was good to know we honored that wish. It was fun to see the view from the top, but you are pretty limited in the amount of time you can stay at the top. We spent some time walking through the new museum under the arch. When I say new, I mean new to us. It was renovated and reopened since the last time we visited. After a pit stop at Chick-fil-A for lunch (that Miles totally and completely slept through) we went to the Magic House. The Magic House is a neat children's museum that offer's discounted admission at the end of the day. We spent 3-5pm there and that was about the perfect amount of time for our family.

August 2

It was incredibly hot during our visit. We're talking heat advisories every day, temps in the high 90s with oppressive humidity hot. We got up early to visit the zoo in an attempt to beat the heat. The St. Louis Zoo is pretty great. Exhibits aren't relatively close together, but are large enough you can reasonably hope the animals still have a lot of room to roam. We forgot to pack our stroller but assumed it wouldn't be a big deal because Miles rarely wants to use it anymore, especially when he is with other kids. Unfortunately he refused to walk and Anthony had to carry him almost every step of the way at the zoo. Zoo highlights were the brown bear, penguins, hippo, elephants and tortoises. That afternoon we picked up St. Louis staple Ted Drews and were not disappointed. Then we headed to a Cardinals game. Busch Stadium is the third baseball park we have visited in 2022 and first visit ever for all four kids. The Cardinals have one of the best teams in the National League and played a great game against a weak Chicago Cubs team. We had a great time at the game, despite sitting in the sweltering sun the first few innings. After the game we drove home, arriving around 2am. TJ and I concluded that we would never do that again. Regardless of the exhausting drive home we had a great trip.

August 3

We took Wednesday nice and slow. We were tired from all the traveling we had done over the previous two weeks. Anthony had to go to work, but the rest of us slept in a bit and got a slow start to the day. In the evening Lauren had her first soccer practice of the 2022 fall season. The Pink Thunder got new kits this season--including an alternative white jersey to wear at practice.

August 4

Thursday was fee day at Indian Woods. Kids were able to pick up their official schedules and locker assignment. We walked to each of Will's classes and helped him figure out how to open his locker--it was a little tricky. It is s a little surreal to me that my own child is going to the same middle I school I did so many years ago. Will is excited for his classes, he got his first choice electives--personal fitness and career explorations & money management. I'm excited for him and the growing he will do over the next two years. 

August 5

For the past two years I have been engaged in a battle with local bunnies (and squirrels and chipmunks) over my plants. Dana helped me plant these black-eyed Susans a few years ago, but this is the first time they have actually blossomed. Dana suggested I put cayenne pepper around them to repel the rabbits and it worked! 

August 6

We spent Saturday hanging out with the Hinton family. We scrapped plans to go to the Royals game after we learned that Liz had broken her leg while in Mississippi. Instead we had fun at our house visiting with Darren and Liz while the kids played. The Allreds joined us for smashburgers and then I took the girls to the pool at the end of the day. It was a nice low-key visit, perfect for the end of the summer.  Mikey and Miles are the same age and both pretty mischievous. I look forward to their friendship blooming over future visits.