2018 :: week 19

April 29

We are experiencing that approximately the elusive two weeks of perfect spring weather right now and are doing our best to take full advantage. The sun is setting later and we are able to comfortably go for family walks after dinner a few times a week. Sunday Elliott and I stayed home from church because he threw up the night before (he was fine at home all day, but did take a longer nap than usual) and I was feeling stir crazy. That evening we walked or rode scooters around the neighborhood and tried to savor the gorgeous night.

April 30

When Lauren told me she was having a hard time sleeping because he tooth hurt, I initially shrugged it off as a delay tactic to avoid going to sleep. Upon further investigation I saw that her tooth was indeed extremely loose and I was able to pull it out for her. It's fun to watch her grow up and see the young lady she is becoming, but I genuinely felt a little sad knowing that her perfectly-straight-baby-teeth-smile days are over.

May 1

This ended up being a rough week for me. The greenery in the area seems to have exploded and my allergies were in full force, complete with sinus pain and pressure. I got up early Tuesday morning and took a walk around the neighborhood with Will, but after that I stayed inside as much as possible, which was harder than I expected.

May 2

My dad is a saint and came over Wednesday evening after soccer practice to help us get our garden plot ready. He dug out an additional 12 square feet, in the hopes that this year things won't be so crowded. Right as he was finishing up it started to rain. Within half an hour the tornado sirens were going off and we were debating whether or not to go to our basement! It was the first major storm of the year. Side note: Lauren wore a scooter (skirt with shorts underneath) to her soccer practice and it got a lot of attention. Lauren is into very feminine things, but is also very active and loves to be doing things. I love that she is comfortable enough in her own skin to do things her way.

May 3

Elliott's favorite time of day is the thirty to sixty minutes we've been playing at the park after the older kids get out of school. He plays with his buddies Nicolas and Ian (younger brothers of Lauren's classmates Daphne and Breanna) and gets as dirty as possible. Thursday the kids had an early dismissal and Will's friend Porter came over to play for a few hours.

May 4

The older kids had the day off from school due to a teacher work day. Lauren spent much of the day creating little cards and flowers for her friends, teachers and neighbors. Lauren loves to create and her teacher has told me she spends any free time in the classroom at the "art cart" making cards for her classmates. She made flowers and taped Starbursts onto them and wrote cheerful notes that she then put into snack-sized ziploc bags. Because the ones we are currently using happen to have Star Wars characters on them (I got them for 50% off at Target) she told the neighbors she delivered to they were "May the Force (4th)" treats.

May 5

Another busy Saturday. Will's baseball game started 30 minutes before Lauren's soccer game, so it was a divide and conquer morning. As I was loading up the van with post-game snacks--it was our week to provide--I noticed that our right back tire was totally flat. Luckily my mom was planning on coming to Lauren's game and she was able to give Lauren, Elliott and me a ride. After the games Stevie helped us pump up the tire enough to get it to the shop and it was patched in under an hour. Will decided he wanted to start riding a bike again. He had a rough time with his bike last year and had decided he was going to stick to the scooter. The more we pushed him to try the more he dug in his heels. He finally decided the time was right--he was ready to ride a bike again--and he spent hours riding up and down the street and around the block.

2018 :: week 18

April 22

Elliott is such a snuggly little guy. One of my favorite feelings in the world is when he climbs behind me and puts his arms around my neck. Anthony and I both appreciate how easy he makes his bedtime routine. He occasionally will cry or whine, but that is the exception, not the rule. As long as he gets his scripture story and a book to read, he's game.

April 23

Will had his first baseball game of the season Monday night. It was a gorgeous evening to play and watch. Will spent most of the game playing third base. He got thrown out at first, but made a lot of contact with the ball and fouled several times. When we got home from the game and I was trying to round everyone up for FHE, Will wanted to stay outside and play a post-game round of catch with Anthony. Will is at his happiest when he is playing baseball.

April 24

Lauren being Lauren makes me happy. She had a Girl Scout meeting Tuesday evening and made sure to put on her "cape" and Daisy shirt before we left. The January meeting was the same day as Kansas Day where the kindergarteners dressed up like cowboys. She turned her handkerchief into a cape that night and has been wearing it ever since as though it is part of the uniform. As she rode her scooter into the gym and waved to her friends I wished for her that she would always feel so confident and secure with who she is.

April 25

Wednesday afternoon I watched the Wilson boys while Emily went to a primary presidency meeting. It has rained earlier in the day, but the older boys insisted they wanted to play outside so I let them. They ran around the yard and I could hear them yelling, though I couldn't tell you what they were saying. When I asked Elliott what they were doing he told me they were playing "tormatoes," and that tormatoes can "kill us!" At first I thought Elliott was saying they played with our tomato cages before I remembered that Tyler is obsessed with extreme weather. Anthony left a bag of mulched leaves in the backyard that fell over and the boys started grabbing handfuls of it and throwing it around like confetti. I put a swift stop to that.

April 26

 Thursday evening Will and I read a few chapters in an Encyclopedia Brown book. I found the book on a "free" table and thought it might be fun to read with Will. He is a fast reader, and doesn't always read for comprehension. These stories have been good to work with Will and his attention to details.

April 27

Friday evening we went to the Oak Park Carpenter Carnival. It is a biggest event/fundraiser of the year and it requires a lot of volunteer hours to make it happen. Anthony and I each took a turn manning a game and also taking the other kids around to the various games and activities. Will and Lauren each found friends to play with, which made it easier on the parent in charge of Elliott. Elliott was a little grumpy that night, which we attributed to the noise and excess sugar.

April 28

We started our morning at Lauren's soccer game. Her team is really starting to gel together and they played their best game yet! They ended up tying 4-4 and Lauren scored her first goal. When her team met together for the first time at the end of March Lauren had never played soccer before. She had expressed interest in learning how to play, but had never actually played beyond what is done at recess. It is so fun seeing her learn a new skill and her confidence grow as she gets better. The rest of Saturday was spent at baseball practice, working on the yard and getting ready for Sunday. We had plans to go out to eat, but about fifteen minutes before we were going to leave Elliott threw up. :( At this point we started to wonder if Elliott's behavior the night before was due to his potentially coming down with an illness. 

2018 :: week 17

April 15

Getting a spring-y picture with the pretty trees at Shawnee Mission Park is on my to-do list every year. Making a stop after church made sense because the kids would be well dressed and the park is close to our building. Unfortunately, it was very cold and there were a few snowflakes in the air while I tried to convince the kids they wanted to get out of the warm van to snap a few vanity pics.

April 16

During baseball season, Will has baseball practice from 6-7:30pm Monday nights. Tony takes him and stays to help with the practice. Lauren, Elliott and I walked up to the school to pass some of the time before heading back home and setting up for FHE. This week our topic was being kind, based on a Friend summary of President Uchtorf's talk, "The Merciful Obtain Mercy."

April 17

I watched Tyler and Mikey while Emily went visiting teaching Tuesday morning. Elliott and Tyler played in the backyard for half an hour. When I asked them if they were having fun playing, Elliott yelled back, "No play, we work!" Anthony left a yard waste bag full of leaves in the backyard and it had fallen over in the wind. I caught the boys throwing handfuls of "confetti" into the wind. These two are getting to be pretty good buddies.

April 18

Wednesday afternoon while Elliott was napping I cleaned out our fridge and freezer. I try to do fridge cleaning the day before our trash is picked up because then any bad food that I throw away doesn't sit in our trashcan rotting for days. Our fridge is the little engine that could. When we bought our house 6.5 years ago the previous owners said we could have it since it was on its last legs. When we got new flooring in our kitchen we had to move the fridge and I found a stick on the back that said it was manufactured in 1996. It is loud, but it just keeps on keeping on. I have a hard time buying things that are functional, so it will probably stay until it stops working.

April 19

Thursday evening we went up to the school Open House. Both Will and Lauren have had a great year. They've learned a lot and created some neat things. Will told us he made a mistake when he was working on his self portrait and we'd probably easily be able to figure his out. He used the orange marker instead of peach when coloring his skin. Anthony said it was fine, he just made himself look like Donald Trump. For some reason that made me laugh so hard. Will is such a sweet kid.

April 20

My entire world in a single frame. :) Friday night we ate pizza and cookies we bought from the YW for their Girl's Camp fundraiser and played outside with neighbors. Will and Anthony play catch for at least a few minutes every night. The kids are loving the spring weather we are finally having and taking full advantage by spending most of their free time outdoors.

April 21

We had a busy Saturday morning. I got up and went to the early water aerobics class. Lauren had a soccer game at 9am, Will had a Cub Scout service project at 9am, then baseball practice at 10:30am. There was a lot of driving here and there, but things calmed down in the afternoon. We relaxed and finally watched The Greatest Showman . I think we may have been some of the last people in America to see the movie.

2018 :: week 16

April 8

To continue with my anti-1pm church narrative, it snowed on Sunday. What does snow on Sunday have to do with 1pm church? Nothing. Except that it was extra hard to feel motivated to get ready to go once I saw the snow falling. If we had early church it would have started snowing while we were at church and we could have come home at noon, bundled up, and spent the rest of the day in our warm house. Thankfully the snow didn't stick around for long.

April 9

My kids love getting mail. Will had a great mail week. On Monday he received a letter from his cousin Sadie and on Saturday he received a letter from his cousin Weston. I love that my kids are building relationships with their cousins by writing letters. 

April 10

I accompanied Lauren's class on their field trip to Wonderscope--I even got to ride over in the bus for the total elementary school experience. We really loved Wonderscope a few years ago (when Will was 3 turning 4 and Lauren 1 turning 2), but I think my older kids have mostly outgrown it now. The kindergarten kids had fun, but were able to have a fulfilling visit in their allotted 90 minutes. I was in charge of Lauren and her classmate Chloe. Lauren's favorite rooms were the nursery/vet room, followed by the market and then the gym. 

April 11

This week was my PTA week. I am on two committees--Staff Appreciation and Family Fun. This week both committees had events. On Wednesday I arranged a popcorn and candy bar for the staff and picked up a drink for each staff member from Sonic. Sonic donated the 75 drinks. Luckily Sonic is close to the school because I was so afraid of spilling the drinks. I don't think I have driven so carefully since I had an infant on board! On Thursday and Friday mornings I went up to the school in the morning and helped facilitate the Dames and Donut activity. For this activity kids could come up to school and have a donut and juice with a female in their life. Between going to the kindergarten field trip Tuesday and helping Will's teacher prep for next weeks open house on Thursday I logged a lot of hours at the school this week. I am so grateful to be part of such a wonderful school community. Both Will and Lauren have great teachers. Many thanks to my sister Emily for helping me watch Elliott during much of the time I was at the school.

April 12

Thursday was beautiful! When I walked up to the school it felt like spring had finally sprung. It was nice and warm and Elliott and I got together with Stephanie and Kendall to play at the park for an hour before lunch. Elliott is very social and loves seeing his buddies. I think it is very cute the way he excitedly whispers the names of his friends to me when he sees them.

April 13

Lauren and TJ attended the Girl Scout Father/Daughter Luau Friday night. Tony was a good sport and wore this red shirt without complaint. They danced, ate snow cones and had a great time. Both TJ and Lauren have some pretty sweet moves. 

April 14

The Pink Thunder had their first game Saturday afternoon. They don't keep an official score, but Will informed us all as we were driving to the game that he would be. Eyeroll. They took team photos before but I didn't want to pay $22 for the cheapest package so I snapped this one. The girls played well against a team that has been playing together for the previous two years (five seasons). Lauren made contact with the ball a few times, but never really had possession. The game was exciting and much more fun to watch than I anticipated. The girls are all pretty good sports and their coach is a really nice, enthusiastic guy.

2018 :: week 15

April 1

It was an unconventional Easter being that it was also General Conference weekend and freezing cold. It snowed in the afternoon! We had a quiet morning and the kids ate their weight in sugar for breakfast. Our Easter Bunny leaves a basket of eggs for Tony to hide and he hid them while the kids were eating cinnamon rolls. It was our fastest hunt  yet. The kids are figuring out the spots and the cold motivated them to work very quickly. We spent the afternoon watching Conference and then had an Easter Dinner with my parents and the Wilsons. We brought homemade rolls and green beans casserole, our usual. On our drive home from my parent's house Lauren managed to hit Will in the mouth and knock out a loose tooth. Conference was great. It is becoming more apparent to me that when I feel the spirit I feel energized.

April 2

The kids had a Monday off school (and with Friday off the week before making it a 4 day weekend). They have had a lot of time off lately, between spring break and the various unexpected inclimate weather days. I usually try to have an activity planned, but we just treated Monday as a free day. We still did laundry and I went to the gym, but I just let the kids do whatever they felt like. They watched The Prince of Egypt, played legos and pokemon and a little indoor baseball. By the end of the afternoon Will was getting a little stir-crazy. I gave him the assignment to plan FHE and he did a great job. He made assignments, asked people to do the assignments, planned a lesson and came up with some discussion questions.

April 3

Sometimes we call Elliott our little unicorn baby because he is so close to perfect. He's always been so cheerful, friendly, compliant, and sweet. But lately he is showing his age (2). He has become a little more opinionated and forceful about those opinions and has no qualms about communicating his displeasure. He's still pretty great, but now I'm not going to take his good times for granted.

April 4

The Pink Thunder had another practice Wednesday afternoon. The warm-ups were extra important because it was about 40 degrees and windy! I snapped this picture and then went and walked laps around the pond and listened to a podcast. It was much too windy to just stand around! It has been so cold this month, about twenty degrees colder than normal.

April 5

Thursday I got to go on a field trip with Will's second grade class to the Natural History Museum at KU in Lawrence. I carpooled over with some other moms and then toured the museum with Will and his friend Porter. All the hours that Will has spent reading books about animals and watching Wild Kratts have clearly paid off because he was able to correctly identify almost every animal and back up his guess with facts. My favorite moment of the trip was when another kid told Will he had incorrectly identified an animal as a tapir and Will just shrugged it off. When we went over and looked at the plaque and saw that it was in fact a tapir Will started listing similarities between tapirs and anteaters and why it would be so easy to confuse them instead of saying, "I told you so!" like I would have done if I was him. I was a proud mom.

April 6

Friday night Anthony put together a shelf while we watched World War 2 in color on Netflix. We lead a pretty exciting life. Anthony worked from home on Thursday while our front room and entryway were painted. We hired painters because the walls are so high and hard to reach in part. It isn't a huge change--we went from a Johnson County beige to greige with blue undertones. I can tell the difference the most when we get lots of bright natural light. I love it! And as with any home project, as soon as we cross one thing off I am itching to do something else. If only time and money restraints weren't around to hold me back.

April 7

Our Saturdays have gotten so busy! Anthony had to do a few things up at the church in the morning, so he and Will left to go to the church as soon as I got home from water aerobics. Lauren and I cleaned out the toy basket and did a few light chores while the boys were gone. When the boys returned (with a box of Lamar's doughnuts!) I left to go to a baby shower for a girl in our ward. As soon as I got home we went to the Planetarium. We've been meaning to go for awhile and have free passes that expire soon. Elliott especially was captivated by the show. Captivated or scared. When we got home I went out and ran some errands (facebook marketplace meet-up to buy cleats for Lauren and filling the tank up with gas). That evening we ate dinner, went for a walk and then I left to go to a Girl's Night in honor of my friend Brittny who is moving next week.

2018 :: week 14

March 25

Nursery has been a lot more of a grind since 2018 started for a variety of reasons. First, I was working by myself with last-minute subs for a few weeks after one of the other nursery workers moved unexpectedly and the other had a baby three weeks early. Next, we lost all the older kids. Elliott is our second oldest at 2.5, and three of the eight started nursery in December or later, so we are working with a very young crew that has very little experience being away from their parents. None of the kids are potty trained and a few never speak to us, which makes it a lot harder to do lessons and activities. I didn't realize how much I looked forward to our walk around the building until it became obvious after two terrible attempts that these kids just aren't ready for that much freedom. Also, nursery starts at 2:10pm, and on any other day of the week ALL the kids would be in their beds napping. Now that two new ladies I really like working with have been called things are starting to look up.

March 26

Will's love language is quality time. Monday night after dinner but before FHE the two of us took a walk together. The best conversations I ever have with Will happen while we are out walking together. I love that he still holds my hand, it won't be long before he won't want to anymore.

March 27

On Tuesday morning I volunteered to help in Miss Ringgenberg's classroom for a few hours. She asked me to put together their "Kindergarten Binders." The binders are a compilation of the best work the kids did throughout the year. She had asked some 'upper classmen" aka 6th graders to hole punch a lot of the papers to speed things up, but they didn't do a stellar job. I ended up having to re-punch a lot of the holes making it take longer than I thought. I still enjoyed seeing the work the kids have done this year. This school year is really flying by!

March 28

Lauren had her first soccer practice Wednesday evening. Her team decided to be known as the "Pink Thunder," and has adopted the Imagine Dragons song "Thunder" as their team song. The girls had fun learning the most basic elements of soccer. There are eight girls on the team--3 from her kindergarten class and 5 from another class at her school. Several are also Girl Scouts, so it's a group that she will interact with a lot.

March 29

The kindergarten music program was Thursday evening. The kids sang a set of eight songs, many of which Will's class sang when he was in kindergarten. Mr. Klemm is the music teacher at OPC and many moons ago he was the music teacher at Dorothy Moody and taught my two youngest sisters.

March 30

In honor of my Grandpa Crane's birthday (March 29, 1905) my extended family tries to "March to the temple" and attend the temple at least once during the month. Anthony and I barely squeaked it in, but we did it!

March 31

Elliott's chore is putting away the cutlery. He takes his job very seriously and has started doing a much more accurate job since we started bringing the stool in so he could see better. We did a lot of work around the house in the morning and also listened to General Conference. That evening Anthony went to the Priesthood session and the kids and I met the Throssels at Chick-fil-A for dinner.

2018 :: week 13

March 18

Will's Sacrament Meeting Art. For the past few weeks he has been drawing pictures that coordinate with the theme of a his favorite songs.

March 19

For our FHE activity we took a walk up to the school to play kickball. Will's first playground sport love is kickball. Due to some poor sportsmanship by some of his classmates he stopped playing for awhile. Now the troublemaker prefers to play soccer, so kickball has become an option again and Will wanted to work on perfecting his kick.

March 20

It was a gray, chilly day, but we didn't let that stop us from getting free cones at Dairy Queen Tuesday afternoon. The Ules, Kanaks and Steiners joined us, which made it extra fun.

March 21

I love my little shadow. Elliott is my buddy and we have fun together while the big kids are at school and dad is at work.

March 22

Thursday was the warmest day of the week and the kids played outside for several hours after school. Will was on the hunt for any bug, grub or worm he could find. Ew. The kids have set up a "fort" on the garage steps located on the side of our house. They have collected pinecones, rocks, leaves, sweet gum balls and other organic materials and have organized them in a pretty impressive fashion. Even Elliott is in on the collecting. I love seeing them collaborate and their imaginations at work.

March 23

My friend Brittny organized a "Pay it Forward" sale. Ward members purged their homes of things they didn't want or need and then anyone was welcome to "shop" and take other things home for free. We donated some clothes. I had planned on going through our toys over spring break but then ended up having so much going on I didn't get to it. The kids found a few treasures when we dropped out stuff off Friday night. Will picked out a few books and a pair of roller skates and Lauren got a unicorn stuffed animal.

March 24

Lauren and I went on a date to the Matt Ross pool Saturday afternoon. We went down the slide, chased each other in the lazy river, soaked in the hot tub, and used kick boards in the lap pool. We had a lot of fun together, but she did tell me she wished Will had come too. Those two are developing a really fun friendship this year.

2018 :: week 11

March 4

With the younger nursery crew we aren't able to leave the room. I find myself really missing the walks we could take last year. Singing time is a great respite and our chorister, Vickie does such a great job with the kids. Here they are singing "I am Like a Star."

March 5

We hosted an end of the season pizza party for Will's basketball team Monday evening. Unfortunately not everyone was able to come.Liam, Ben, Trevor, Yonas, Enzo and their families were able to gather and we had a really fun evening discussing the season and watching the boys jump on the trampoline, wrestle and play hide-n-seek.. Each of the boys had a great attitude and really improved this season. Will LOVED having Tony as his coach. It was a great bonding experience for them.

March 6

It randomly sprinkle-snowed twice Tuesday. In the morning I looked out the window while paying bills and saw snowflakes falling from the sky, but there was no accumulation. Later, while the kids were walking home from school it started doing it again! On the ground it looked wet, but it was little bits of snow that looked like styrofoam balls falling from the sky, not individual flakes. March weather is hard to predict.

March 7

Will took his Pokemon binder to school so he could talk shop with friends after school.

March 8

The kids got all cozy together on the couch and then called me over to take a picture. They know me well. I hope this good cheer and camaraderie is a sign of good things to come. The kids are out of school until March 19th. I had a very busy morning running errands, trying to take care of business before I have to bring all three with me next week. And so we can just focus on having fun together!

March 9

John Family Spring Break Stacation 2018 begins! As soon as Anthony got home from work we headed downtown to go swimming at the hotel we booked a room at for the night. We swam, ate at Pie Five in Westport, went swimming again and then watched the Princess Diaries before going to bed.

March 10

Saturday morning we continued our staycation by heading into KC. We met the Wilsons and then rode the streetcar to River Market Area. We visited River Market Antiques, walked on the bridge and along the river, then walked to City Market to buy snacks. We had lunch at Il Lazzarone then rode the streetcar back to Union Station. At this point we were running out of steam so we scrapped our plans to go to the Brookside St. Patrick's Day Warm Up Parade and spent an hour at Science City. At this point we were exhausted, rode the shuttle back to our hotel to pick up our bags and head home. We had such a fun day, but had no trouble getting the kids to go to bed an hour early in anticipation of losing an hour for daylight savings time.