Sunday, May 31, 2015

Killing Time by Making Towers

Meghan has a volunteer position at the church of helping with the check-in process for the kids.  On the days she does that, we get there a little early, and Joshua's and Clara's class hasn't started yet.  So I will usually go with the kids in their class and hang out with them until Ms. Diane shows up.  Today we decided to use the brick blocks to build a "super, super, SUPER BIG TOWER!" (Joshua's words).  Here the kids work together to put the finishing touches on it before then, of course, knocking it over, and then rebuilding it again.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Rocking in the Mud

Today I went to my favorite concert event of the year, Rockfest. It wasn't my favorite lineup, as I don't really like Rob Zombie, who was the headliner, and Volbeat, the second-to-last band, is just okay. But I did like some of the earlier acts, including Papa Roach, Halestorm, and Tech N9ne. It didn't rain during the concert, but because we've only had 4 days this month without rain, the ground was soggy, and with 53,000 people walking around, it quickly became muddy, leading to mud fights and mud wrestling.  But the standing area around the main stage wasn't too bad, and there's where I was most of the time, so I didn't get too muddy, and I still had a great time.

Friday, May 29, 2015

A Date with Miss Spontaneity


 
Meghan is not a very spontaneous girl.  But it seems that she's gotten a little more so.  For our date nights, we used to have the restaurant planned a couple days in advance, or at least the day of.  But then we got to the point where we would just decide when I got home from work.  And then even where we would decide after we dropped the kids off at Mom and Ron's.  Tonight for our date night, Meghan didn't seem to care if we had a destination before we started driving, so I just headed toward Overland Park and we just figured we'd decide somewhere along the way.  We ended up near the new Prairefire development at 135th and Roe,but then I remembered a place we liked that we hadn't been to in awhile, Bonefish Grill, which was right across the street.  Meghan agreed, so we went there.  So we didn't choose our restaurant until we were pretty much right next to it.  That's something I've always been okay with, but not Meghan!  I'm proud of her for loosening up in that department.  So we ate there for the first time in apparently 2.5 years.  I had no idea it had been that long until I looked back at the last blog post.  Anyway, one of the drinks they offered said it was in a frozen ice glass.  I wasn't sure what that meant until it came to our table, and it was literally a glass made out of ice,  It did have a little rubber base that you could put it in though.  So here I am drinking a cocktail out of a glass made out of ice.  That's a first for me.  Maybe next I'll step it up and go to an ice bar or even an ice hotel.  But we had really delicious meals (Chilean Sea Bass Imperial Style, and of course the Bang Bang Shrimp) and then got Twister's for dessert, as we almost always do.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

All Dressed Up With Somewhere to Go

Hannah is definitely the fashionista in our family so far. Clara is insistent only about her deep love of flip flops and Joshua mostly just wants to wear whatever makes us let him go play in the dirt, though he does prefer athletic shorts over jeans. Hannah, though, has very strong preferences about what she will wear. She likes wearing pink dresses the most and not her casual "play" dresses, but her super frilly church dresses. Today I talked her down to a play dress and she chose this one. She looked so cute in her outfit with her rain boots (which she did insist on though it wasn't really raining much) and she thought so too.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

A Little Monkey Bizness

 Today the kids went on a fun outing to Little Monkey Bizness with Halie. Unfortunately, Joshua was not a good listener in the time leading up to the trip so he was not allowed to play. Halie brought writing workbooks for him to practice with. Hannah came over briefly to practice with him, but then went back to the fun stuff.

 Clara really wanted Hayden to come (who is the daughter of a friend of Halie) so she met them out. Clara is super social and loves hanging out with friends.

They had a lot of fun playing.

After that, they went to Halie's house for lunch and to play with Sheba the cat and Rockwell the dog. They had a fun little trip.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Corn and Celery at Chili's

On Sunday we decided to go to Chili's for dinner.  I really like Chili's corn-on-the-cob, and at some point in the past the kids had it too and liked it.  The kids meals at Chili's come with a side variety of options for sides.  One of them is celery, for some reason.  What kind of kid would ignore the oranges, corn, french fries, etc., and choose celery?  Well, Joshua would.  There are some things he likes that are a little uncommon for kids (olives are a good example), and this is one of those.  The past few times we've gone there, he's chosen celery as his side item, and it happily crunches away at it until it's all gone.  Clara, on the other hand, has recently decided she likes corn-on-the-cob a lot.  We've had it at home, and she likes it there, and today she got it for her side (I ordered it for my side too, because it's really, really good there).  She doesn't exactly have an efficient style of eating it, but she really likes it.  Here she is, digging in to her tasty side item.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Date Day at the Pool

Today I had date day with Clara. I wasn't really sure what we should do because she loves doing things outside and it has been very rainy. We did have some sunny times today, but there was also a high chance of rain at times too. I wanted her input on what we should do, and she suggested we ride unicorns. I told her that wasn't realistic so she suggested ponies instead, but the main place I know of to do that is Deanna Rose and I really wasn't sure about the rain. Another thing she has been asking a lot of is swimming. Our subdivision pool did open this past week, but it hasn't been very warm so I thought it would be too cold. So I decided to take her to the Olathe Community Center to swim. This is kind of pricey if I bring my whole family, so I haven't been yet, but it was totally reasonable for just two of us. It was a very nice facility, even though it was kind of crowded due to the holiday. They have really spacious family changing rooms, which is nice and would be even nicer if I had all my kids with me. She had a really fun time swimming and said, "Next time, maybe we can come swimming here". There are lots of areas and features at this pool so it really does have something for everyone. Clara likes jumping off the edge the best so she did a lot of that. Even though the water was very warm since it was indoors, she was super cold and turning blue by the end so I was glad we didn't go outside.

After swimming, we let our hair dry in the breeze while playing at the park outside the community center.

After that we had burgers at Red Robin, followed by ice cream for dessert. I wasn't sure where to go for ice cream because she was really insistent she wanted pink ice cream you can eat with a spoon (so no drinks).  A lot of places I prefer are more about the toppings, but then I thought of a Sonic Blast. She got a banana split Blast, which was pink due to the strawberries. She was pretty happy with it. We had a fun date day, even if no unicorns were ridden.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

3 ½!


Today Clara turned 3 ½. She has grown so much in the past six months. She has really changed in her level of play and definitely has a much richer imagination than she used to. She has always had big feelings so she hasn't had the huge changes at three that Joshua did, but she definitely has had some changes and tests us more than she used to. We always joke that she will be President some day because she has very good people skills and uses them to get what she wants. For example, she doesn't normally tell us no, she just negotiates it. She won't refuse to turn off the game as Joshua might, she says, "How about three more minutes?" and then just keeps saying that repeatedly until you forget about it or really force her to turn it off. Or when you tell her to pick up toys, she says, "Okay!" and then just walks around the play room as if she might pick up toys, but does not actually pick anything up.  If you're not closely paying attention, you won't realize she's cleverly shirking her duties.  It's really quite the impressive skill. She loves pink and girly things and her favorite show is Sheriff Callie's Wild West, though Doc McStuffins is still a close second. She loves climbing and jumping and playing in the mud with Joshua. She is 36.5 inches tall and weighs about 25.5 lbs. She's our sweet and spicy little girl and we love her so much!

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Turnin' Wrenches

When I bought my bike last year, I got a used one for $60.  That's not bad for a working hybrid bike.  It's a Nishiki Manitoba, so not a terrible brand, though far from great.  It wasn't in great condition, but it was good enough, and it's been very useful to me, as I've ridden my bike a fair amount of times in the past year.  One part that wasn't in great shape was the pedals.  Both pedals were broken, though they were still usable.  I finally got around to ordering new pedals, and they recently arrived. I also ordered a water bottle and water bottle cage, since they bike didn't come with that.  I installed the water bottle cage, but when it was time to do the pedals, I invited Joshua out to help me.  I taught him about wrenches and what they do and how they work, and I let him make a few turns with it as we removed the old pedal.  As always, he was very excited to help me out with a project and to get to use the wrench by himself.  

Friday, May 22, 2015

Picnic in the Park

Today the kids rode bikes with Halie to the park. (Well Joshua and Clara rode. Hannah chose the stroller.). They had a nice picnic at the park.

They had fun climbing and playing on all the different things. Since this was the first sunny day in awhile, I think they would have been happy to do almost anything outside.

Hannah has been growing more independent and this is the first time she really climbed up all by herself. She was super proud.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Junior Meteorologist

Joshua has been really interested in the weather lately, particularly the clouds and the rain.  We've had what seems like an inordinate amount or rain and storms this spring, so he's had plenty to talk about.  He likes to see a rain cloud in the sky and say, "That's a rain cloud, and that means it's gonna rain!"  or "Hey Dad, all the rain clouds have blown away, so that means it's not going to rain."  I try to tell him both of those statements are necessarily true, but he's pretty confident in his forecasting ability.  One of the positive side effects of all the storms and rain is the increased likelihood of rainbows.  Last week when Joshua and I went to Olive Garden to get food for dinner, we saw one (you can see it in the top left of the picture).  Joshua wasn't quite as excited as he was the last time I was with him when he saw one, but he was still excited to see it and talk about it.  I think this kid is going to be disappointed when summer rolls around and the rain clouds are mostly gone, but then again the kids have been asking about the swimming pool for about 8 months, so I think he'll be able to easily switch to a new interest.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Another Zero Cavity Club Member

Today I took Joshua to the second of his two cavity-fixing sessions. Hannah was due for her first ever dentist appointment, so we scheduled it for right after Joshua's. While they fixed Joshua's four other cavities, Hannah waited patiently and quietly, as she tends to do, with Baby Stephen.

When it was her turn, she received her sunglasses, and the hygienist went to work.

Dr. Matt came for the final check-up and declared that her teeth looked good and that she had no cavities, so she became an official member of the Zero Cavity Club, much like her two siblings before her.  Joshua, sadly, has since been evicted from that club, unfortunately.  The hygienist was really impressed with how Hannah did.  She was surprised it was Hannah's first time and told me that nearly all kids are resistant to the process during their first visit.  As her reward, she got to have a sugar-free pink sucker, which really excited her.  And instead of choosing to get a prize from the machine, she chose a tiny rubber duckie (plastic, in this case) as her toy, which she really likes.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Flower Fishing

Today, when Clara got up from nap, she said her nose hurt. I didn't really think that was weird because she complains all the time about various ailments and gets over them in a few seconds. But then she told me she put a flower in her nose and it hurt. I didn't really know what she was talking about, but she seemed upset and in pain and she wouldn't normally lie about that. I didn't really see anything so I told her to blow her nose really hard five times. After that, I could barely see it at the right angle. It was a tiny plastic flower that came with her playmobil set. It was not close to the outside of her nose at all so I wasn't sure what to do. Repeated blowing on her part through the correct nostril didn't seem to be helping any more. I haven't had a nose suction bulb in my home for a couple years. I tried the medicine dropper from an expired bottle of baby tylenol, but it didn't have enough suction. I decided to try tweezers even though I knew there was a chance that, if I messed up, they could push it deeper and we would definitely have to go to the doctor. But luckily it went really smoothly and came right out with the tweezers. So that was a relief because Jason, Halie, and Peg and Ron are all out of town so it would have been a challenge to take all three kids to urgent care since the pediatrician is closed. We talked about you never ever put anything in your nose. Ever. Joshua put a pom pom in his nose once. I am hoping to not continue this fun tradition with Hannah.

Monday, May 18, 2015

My Tough Triker Girl

When the kids ride bikes to the park, we usually go to the Maple Brook park.  That's only 1/3 of a mile or so from our house and is reasonably quick even at the snail's pace we go. However, it's a private park and really only meant for Maple Brook residents (which we are not). I don't think it's a problem to use it when no one is there. My kids are small so aren't really causing a lot of wear and tear. But I don't think it's really ethical to use it if others are there because then we are making them wait longer to use playground equipment that they are paying for and we are not. There is hardly ever anyone there. But today there was. But the kids really wanted to go to the park. So we went to the closest public park, which is about 3/4 a mile from our house. Which sounds really close. And is. Except if you are 3 and 4 and riding your bike or scooter there. That was a pretty long journey for them and Clara was such a trooper. She rode the whole way there and the whole way back. I was really proud of her. Joshua did fine and met my expectations, but he rode in the stroller while I carried his scooter most of the way back (with Hannah on his lap).


Between the longer-than-normal trip and the fun we had at the park, the kids took a really good nap today.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Rained Out

Well, as I feared, the make-up soccer games scheduled for today were in fact rained out again. And they won't play any games after today, so unfortunately that means the season is over, and we only got to play four of the six scheduled games. It's a bummer, because I felt Joshua was really starting to blossom and to really enjoy soccer. He's trusting Coach Travis and seems to like his teammates. I really would've liked to have seen that continue to grow since the experiences are positive ones at this point. The games were rained out, but Coach Travis requested that the kids get together at Cosmic Jump in Olathe to play together and so they could have the end-of-season medal ceremony. We'd never been to Cosmic Jump before, but it's one of the places that focuses on trampolines. There are long tumbling trampolines, trampolines with basketball hoops, and trampolines just for general bouncing, and more. Only four kids showed up, counting Kaden (Travis' son) and Joshua, but they had a lot of fun. Joshua really liked bouncing and wrestling and when Coach Travis chased them around the mats. The kids were all pretty sweaty by the end. Before we left, Travis got the team together and told them how proud he was of them and how well they played, etc. He then gave a medal to each kid and talked to them individually (he still looks so much like Peyton Manning to me in some pictures, especially here where he's talking to Joshua). He again reminded Joshua how amazing his goal was, and how it was the highlight of the season. Last week the assistant coach told me it was the overall highlight of both seasons for him, so it made quite an impression on everyone. We plan to do soccer again in the fall, adding Clara to the mix, though she'll be on a different team. If Travis coaches again, we'll definitely try to get Joshua on his team to continue to build on the progress we made this season.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

A Big Soccer Weekend for Not The Mighty Tigers

Joshua got off to a rough start to soccer this year, but since then it has gone well.  Unfortunately there has not been much soccer this year due to the rain.  His season only has six games, and two of those were rained out.  All games are normally on Saturdays, with one game per week, but since we're out of time for this season, we have today's regularly scheduled game, which was to be the last one, and then two games tomorrow to make up for the rained-out ones.  So three games in a weekend, which is a lot for little kids.  Today's game was somewhat of a slopfest, though, with a soggy field and a few mud puddles on the field.  But it went fine, and although Joshua's team didn't win, Joshua played well with enthusiasm and energy.  But there is a lot of rain predicted for tonight, which puts tomorrow's games at risk, but I am hoping we can play them, because I think they won't play any games beyond tomorrow and will just cancel them.  Here is Joshua with five of his seven teammates: Kaden, Ryder, Cohen, Even, and Levi.  Last year the team was called The Mighty Tigers, but apparently they don't have a name this year and are just Team Emerson (the coach's name).

Friday, May 15, 2015

A Hair Tragedy

Well, this is not good.  This morning Joshua and Clara snuck downstairs, and Joshua cut Clara's hair.  A lot.  Like seven inches of hair.  Meghan and I were pretty crushed.  Hair grows so slowly, and she had such pretty long hair that looked great on her.  It's probably going to take a year to grow back to where it was.  But there's nothing we can do about it now, other than to get it cut really short so it's even.  At least we don't have family pictures, school pictures, Christmas, Easter, her birthday, or any other major photo even coming up.  We were also worried about her.   She knew Joshua cut her hair, but I think because she could still feel it on her shoulders, she didn't realize the full impact of what happened.  She also especially liked her long hair, so we were worried that when she got her haircut she would be crushed.

She wasn't.  Meghan contacted Christa, who was able to get Clara in this afternoon.  Christa did a great job.  She's a professional hairdresser and said Joshua's hatchet job was the worst she's ever had to try to fix, because so much was cut off high up on the side, probably because most often such small child haircuts are self-inflicted, so it's harder to do that much damage.  But she did a great job of making an actual hair style out of it.  It's much shorter than Meghan or I would prefer, but for a short haircut, it's pretty cute.  Fortunately, Clara has a super cute little face, so she can make pretty much any haircut look good.  So it'll be awhile before it grows out, and by that time, Joshua just might be done being grounded.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Last Day of School

 Today is the last day of school for the kids. Olathe schools go a little bit longer, but preschool always starts later and ends earlier.

This year was really good for them both. Joshua has grown leaps and bounds in terms of being able to sit and also on his fine-motor skills like writing. Clara has really thrived in school in every way and has learned to write her name and made a lot of friends.

The end of school always seems sad (to me. Not to the kids). Time goes by so fast. Next year will be Joshua's last year of preschool and I don't want to think about him in elementary school. Next year will also be Hannah's first year of school.

After school, we got some ice cream to celebrate the last day of school. Well, I wanted everyone to have ice cream, but Clara was extremely insistent that she didn't want anything except a piece of gum. I kept asking her if she was sure because obviously gum is way less good. She was super firm on it. Until we got home. Then she was really upset she didn't have ice cream. Which, if she had to depend on Hannah's generosity, she would be pretty disappointed. Hannah really likes chocolate and really isn't big on sharing and there was no way she was going to share. Luckily Joshua is an excellent sharer and was willing to give Clara a fair amount of his ice cream cone, so all the kids were happy.