Family Bowling

Today was my date day with Joshua. I wasn't sure what we should do because January is a pretty quiet month in terms of things to do around town and it was cold and rainy so outside was not an option. I settled on bowling, which he was super excited about. But he wanted to bring Hannah and Clara. I feel like he should be able to decide who comes on date day so we brought Hannah since Clara was at soccer. Joshua really enjoyed himself and, though he can't really "bowl" yet, he did a great job pitching the ball down the lane and was super excited when he knocked down pins, which was most of time since we used bumpers.

Hannah wasn't as sure. She is pretty young to bowl. We got her the smallest pair of bowling shoes they had, but they are definitely a size larger than what she normally wears. She made them work though.

She isn't a very aggressive girl, so she really struggled with rolling the ball hard enough to get it down there. But she still had fun and couldn't care less if she knocked down pins. Which is good because it actually is totally possible to roll a gutter ball with the bumpers and it normally happens if the ball is super duper slow, so she did have a few.

Later, Clara and Jason joined us and we all bowled a game as a family. Clara did okay at first and her excitement wore off as the game went on. It was a fun day, though an atypical date day.

Family Dinner with the Halls

Normally when Uncle Brent is in town, it's for a short time, but this time he's in town all week.  So we arranged to invite him and Grandpa and Grandma over for dinner tonight.  We had appetizers, a taco bar, and Meghan's homemade red velvet ice cream sandwiches.  It was really nice to be able to have an opportunity to talk with everyone (even if it meant I had to learn about the demise of my fifth grade school, Price Lab!).  We were also able to get some pretty good pictures of them with the kids.

Hat Day, Minus One Hat

 Today was Hat Day at Joshua and Clara's school.  Clara wore her pink cowgirl hat, which we all love, and Joshua was going to wear his K-State baseball cap.  But he wasn't feeling well this morning, so he didn't end up going to school, and thus he unfortunately missed out on Hat Day.  As with Crazy Hair Day, Hannah got in on the act by wearing one of Clara's hats that matched her outfit really well.

I worked from home in the morning so I could stay with Joshua while Halie dropped off and picked up Clara.  Joshua was pretty sluggish and just wanted to watch TV, which I let him do.  Hannah and Natalie joined us for part of the time.  By early afternoon Joshua seemed to have snapped out of it and recovered, and he was back to his normal self by naptime, thankfully.

A Perfect January Day

The weather this week has been nice, with temperatures in the 50s.  But today was the culmination of the warming trend.  It was a sunny day with a high of about 71 and a nice warm breeze.  It was amazing.  I wore a t-shirt and enjoyed driving around with my windows and sunroof open.  I should have tried to work outside somewhere instead of in my office building (with no openable windows).  But it's already getting colder this evening, and by tomorrow temperatures are supposed to drop back down to the 40s, which still isn't even bad for January.

Crazy Hair Day!

Today was Crazy Hair Day at Joshua and Clara's school.  There's not much you can do with boy hair to make it crazy if it's short, but one thing you can do is to spray it, which is exactly what I did.  Given a rainbow of color options at Walgreen's (it's not easy to find non-permanent spray hair color), I went with the obvious choice: purple.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it ended up looking really good.  I paired it with his K-State outfit for maximum Wildcat effect.  Meghan and Halie did Clara's hair and outfit and went with a Cindy Lou Who theme, matching the hair and then putting her in her Christmas outfit.  Hannah doesn't go to school this year, but we put a little bit of hairspray in her hair so she could join in the fun during the morning.  Halie reported back to us that most kids didn't participate and that Joshua had the craziest hair, and Clara was right up there too.  I'd say that's a win for our family.

Three Kids in the Tub Again

One time, last August, I mentioned that Hannah didn't like getting in the bath tub anymore and I hoped it was a short phase. Well, it wasn't. She has been very hesitant to get in the tub since then. I am not sure why as we didn't really have any traumatic incidents. But she has gotten in only long enough for me to quickly wash her hair since then and that is done very grudgingly. She has remained fine with showers, but since the other kids like baths so much, I almost always use the tub for them so it isn't very convenient to have her shower separately because then they all want to get in and my shower goes from 10 minutes to 30 and that's in addition to the bath that I already gave them. Hopefully we are turning a corner because today she was willing to get in the tub for a little while to play. I hope this is part of a new attitude that involves her bathing without coercion and not a fluke.

Open Gym and Grandpa's 85th Birthday Party

Today we went to an open gym at Pinnacle, the gym where Joshua and Clara go for gymnastics.  Their school offered it today as a free perk for students and their families, and it just happened to be the one where we go for lessons.  Joshua was excited to show off his different skills that he's learned, including here where he's on the parallel bars and rings.

The gym is used for gymnasts of all ages, so they have all kinds of equipment.  Joshua was also very excited to do some of the things he doesn't get to do in his class, such as to jump off the vault into the foam pit.

Of all the available equipment, though, Joshua loved playing in the foam pit the most.  Clara enjoyed it too, but not for as long as Joshua did.

The giant trampoline was also a big hit.  And I was proud of Hannah, because even though she's not in gymnastics she wasn't afraid to try different things like the balance beam and the mini parallel bars.

Parents were allowed to use all the equipment as well, so I took advantage of it by getting in some time on the trampoline track and in climbing the rope all the way to the top, the first time I'd been on one of those climbing ropes since I was in elementary school, maybe?
In the evening we went over to Mom and Ron's to celebrate Grandpa's 85th birthday.  We had some great food and a really good marble birthday cake.  This was a great example of something we were able to do as a family because they live here in Olathe that wouldn't have been possible if they were still in Iowa, so we were thankful to be able to celebrate it together.

Our Dinner Plans Come Crashing Down

The weather was nice today, so I tried to do some spring cleaning.  I had never cleaned the outside of our big windows on the back of the house since we've lived here, so I figured today was a good day for that.  While doing so, I also cleaned the screen on our kitchen window and did a few other cleaning tasks.

For dinner, we decided to go to Chili's.  We debated getting takeout, but ultimately decided to go to the restaurant.  The kids are old enough where they are somewhat self-sufficient and are reasonably well behaved, that it's not the somewhat stressful experience it once was.  We ordered our food and then waited and waited and waited.  Finally, they were bringing our food out, but the server dropped our tray, and our plates of food shattered all over the floor.  I'd heard the big crash across the restaurant but didn't think much of it until they came and told us that the crash was our food.  They of course immediately began to re-make our order.  They brought the kids some food in the interim, and I kept eating more and more chips and salsa, and Meghan's plate had been separate and thus was the only thing to survive, so we were able to get by until our food finally came out later.  The food was good, and the manager apologized profusely and comped us part of our meal, so everything ended up being fine.

Keystone Construction Workers

Tonight Joshua and Hannah decided they were going to be construction workers and wear their construction helmets. They were the most adorably bumbling construction workers ever.  First, they decided their construction project would be the Cozy Coupe.  Focusing their efforts on a perfectly good car that needed no enhancements was the first sign of their lack of construction acumen.  Then Joshua decided that pulling the car on top of him was an appropriate technique.  It wasn't.  Then he declared, "We gon' fix the car!  Hey, two guys are fixing the car!"  To accomplish this goal, he used a plastic hammer to hammer a plastic screw into a random location on the car.  I hope I didn't somehow pay to send him to a vocational school to learn this.  If so, I want my money back.  The foreman continued to lead his apprentice in various activities that did little to accomplish their goal, but did result in them having a lot of fun.  After seeing them in action, I've concluded that if I ever need construction work done on my house, I will hire an outside professional instead of utilizing our in-house resources.

Reading Time with Grandma

Mom and Ron always do a great job of reading a lot to the kids on Wednesdays, and today was no exception.  Here Mom takes on the duty of reading to all three kids at once.

Coffee for Baby

 Hannah has seen me make coffee in the Keurig and Meghan get hot water for hot chocolate, so she knows generally what's supposed to happen.  This morning she decided she wanted to pretend to get coffee, so she dragged the step stool over to the Keurig and pressed down on the handle (that actually can't do anything, as you pull it up to move it) to pretend to fill the teacup she had.  This was important, because she had an impatient customer who was apparently demanding to get some coffee.

It was this girl:

Yes, Baby is a coffee drinker, apparently, and a heavy one at that.  Hannah said she needed to get coffee for Baby, so she'd fill up the teacup with pretend coffee and bring it over to Baby to let her drink it.

But each time, she would announce that Baby wanted more coffee, so she'd go fill up the cup again and bring it back, and Baby would chug another serving.  So if you've ever wondered why that doll doesn't ever blink, it's not because she was manufactured without eyelids, it's because she's constantly wired from her out-of-control coffee addiction.

A Wild Idea for a Date Night Activity

Sometimes things happen in life that just stun you because they're so unexpected.  For example, one day in 2012 Meghan told me she was pregnant.  Last year the Royals somehow went to the World Series.  And this weekend Meghan told me she wanted to go see a movie.  I like seeing movies in theaters, but Meghan is not a fan.  I think this makes her mildly un-American, but I love her anyway despite this severe character flaw.  We have gone to movies in the past.  When we were dating, and especially in our first summer together when we were just friends, I asked her to go to the movies sometimes, and she agreed because, as she later told me, she didn't know me well enough to feel good about declining.  But since we've been married, we have gone a few sporadic times, but it just hasn't happened often.  I'm okay with this, as I do go see movies with my friends a couple times a year, so if there's something I really want to see, I have a way to do so.  One time a survey company called our house and wanted to know how many movies I'd seen in the theater in the past year.  I told him one, because that was it.  He seemed taken aback, and then stumbled to say, "Uh, well is there another adult in your house who has been more often?"  I almost laughed thinking about how Meghan was the other adult and how she sees even fewer than I do.  I told him no, and he said, "Really?!  Uh, well, okay.  Thanks for your time."  It was like he didn't even know what to do with my answers.  But we do go occasionally, mostly because I suggest it every now and then, and every now and then among the times I suggest it, Meghan will agree.  So in the past five years we've seen, unless I'm missing one, four movies together: True Grit, Horrible Bosses, Safe House, and Hope Springs, apparently on two Valentine's Days and two anniversary celebrations (I've now noted this pattern of the times when she's more susceptible and may exploit it in the future!).  But this weekend she suggested for our date night that we go see a movie before dinner.  I was floored, but excited.  Knowing what she likes in movies, I went through the descriptions of movies that are now out to try to guess, and when I saw it, I knew for sure it was the one she wanted to see.  So we saw Wild tonight, which has Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern and is based on the book and true story of a woman who hiked a thousand-mile trail by herself.  That sounds lame, but the movie was better than it sounds.  We both liked it, though I would have seen any movie she suggested if it meant we got to go together.  The popcorn was terrible for some reason though, but we went out to eat afterward at Jose Pepper's, which was really good, so that made up for it.  And then we went to Twister's for the best frozen custard in the world.  So we had a great evening, even if it was an unconventional one for us.

Meeting Michael at the KCDC

Meghan had the kids essentially the entire time I was in LA, so I wanted to give her some time to herself today, so I took the kids to the Kansas Children's Discovery Center in Topeka.  I'd previously only been there with Joshua and Hannah, and we didn't have time to see all the different things.  This time, for example, we did several things that I didn't even notice last time (maybe they weren't there, but I probably just didn't see them) such as the coin funnel thing and the "Flo-Graphix" room, as well as the car.  All three were hits, though only Joshua cared about the car, but he was really excited to do all the maintenance on it.  Hopefully that holds, and once he has his own car as a teenager, he takes great care of it, but probably not, because, well, he'll be a teenager.  We did spend a lot of time at the vertical wind tunnel again, as Hannah really really wanted to catch one of the scarves (you put them in at the bottom, and then they spin around and upward eventually come out the open top and then slowly fall to the ground), but she wasn't willing to move around, so she could only catch one if it fell right into her outstretched arms (and if Joshua didn't snatch it first).

We then went outside to ride the bikes.  My friend Michael had planned to join us along with his daughter, but she couldn't make it at the last minute, so he came anyway since he hadn't met my kids.

The girls mostly stayed on the bikes, but Joshua was excited to see the different things, such as the Music Garden and a climbable rock formation.

During his exploration, I heard him yell over to me "Dad, I found a bird!".  I had assumed it was some toy or decoration or something, but then I look over to see him holding this guy in both hands and showing it to my like it was a trophy.  This guy who is neither a toy nor a decoration, but instead is an actual previously-alive but now very dead bird.  I disposed of him and then went with Joshua so we could immediately wash our hands.

After we were done at the KCDC, we met up with Michael's wife Becca and his daughter Bristolynn for lunch at Blue Moose before our crew headed back to Olathe after a fun day.