Goggles

Today the kids went to the pool with Halie. Our pool has a variety of toys/equipment to use, some donated and some just part of the general lost and found. Today there were some goggles and a snorkel mask. Joshua loved this mask. He is somewhat sensitive to water getting in his eyes, but he loves jumping so this was really the perfect solution for him. I will have to try to find some goggles for him. Hannah also really liked these pink goggles, though they were way too big and didn't really keep any water out at all.

Deanna Rose and Costco

Today we went to Deanna Rose. The kids wanted to go to the park and I needed to go to Costco, so we decided to go mainly for the parks and a location that is on the way to Costco. They had a good time playing at the playground at first.

Since we were there, we did decide to feed some animals. Joshua and Clara wanted to do goats. Hannah seemingly said, "Why would I want to get into a pen with goats who seem to be trying to kill me?" So I held her. And the older two actually wanted to hug and pet the goats more than feed them, but goats only care about food. So the goats tolerated the hugs as long as they didn't impede the acquisition of food. After that, we went to go feed the ducks, which is what Hannah wanted to do, but the ducks had zero interest in eating or moving, maybe because it was hot. Hannah was pretty disappointed.

On our way out we spent some time in the butterfly garden because the kids like the stepping stones. While there, they saw a man who they were convinced was my dad. Not because he looks anything like him, but my dad frequently wears Hawaiian shirts and I am not sure anyone else they know does, and they saw this guy and they were like, "LOOK! Grandpa Williams!" So it was another disappointment when I explained that the man wasn't actually him.

After that, we were out of time. So we left and went to Costco, which my kids actually love because of the free samples. I rarely take samples because I am a stickler for my list and I feel guilty taking things when I am 100% not going to buy them, especially because I try not to buy a ton of processed/freezer foods, which is generally what the samples are, so it's also unlikely that I will buy any of that stuff in the future either. But I am slightly more open to impulse buys when the kids are with me and I do let them choose which granola bars or snack items they want, and it prevents them from touching everything in the store so I do let them eat the samples, which makes them really happy. We topped off the trip with snow cones, so it was a fun day.

Superheroes for Jesus

Our church is having a sermon series for which today they encouraged everyone to dress up in superhero costumes if they wanted to do so.  We just so happened to all have costumes, thanks to our choice for a theme last Halloween,  It was fun to break them out again, as it gave us one more chance to use the costumes as a family before the kids outgrow them.  We didn't go all out with the masks and shields and capes, as I think that would have been too much for church, but we all wore the majority of our costumes.  People in the church, particularly the staff, were pretty excited that we participated so much, and we got lots of compliments on our costumes, and they even took our picture to feature on the church's Facebook page.  It made for a fun day.

Gymnastics, Waffle House, Shopping, and Sonic

Today was a date day for me with Hannah.  We are considering putting Hannah in gymnastics in the fall.  Our gymnastics place allows any kids to have a free session as a trial, so this morning I took Hannah to an 8:30 class in her age group.  She liked it quite a bit and did a great job, so we will probably enroll her in the fall.  I took a few pictures of her in her new leotard, but she had her eyes closed in the best one overall.
Since we started the day so early, we went out for breakfast.  As always, Waffle House is my favorite place when I'm with the kids, so I took Hannah there.  She loved her waffles and bacon.

I didn't have any particularly great ideas for what to do for our date day, so I asked her what she wanted to do.  I thought she might say she wanted to go to the zoo or the park or the pool, but she said she wanted to go shopping.  I had some errands I needed to run anyway, so I decided to do those and take her along with me.  She specifically asked if there would be shopping carts, and I told her there would be.  While Joshua and Clara usually prefer to walk in stores, Hannah loves riding in a cart.  So even in the stores where I didn't need a cart, I got one so she could ride in it.  She was so happy to ride around in the carts at all the stores.

It was a pretty warm day, so ice cream sounded like a good idea.  We stopped at Sonic, and I fulfilled her request for "pink ice cream" with a strawberry cream slush.

Ready to Potty

We tried potty training Hannah awhile back. I didn't feel like she was really ready. I mean she could successfully do it sometimes. But I felt like she didn't really totally get it. So we have been letting her try any time she wants, but not really pushing it any way. But lately I have felt like she is ready and has it sort of figured out. So we are going to try to spend some time this week doing more potty training with underwear. Hannah, since she loves clothes, is totally pumped about underwear, which makes her the first of my children to feel that way. We tried underwear today and she did super great all day until after dinner, which is really excellent for a first try. So, based on that, I do feel like she's ready and I think we'll be trying to get her potty-trained at home in the next month or so depending on how it goes.

Fun at the Zoo, and Farewell to Nikita

Today Halie took the kids to the zoo. It was pretty warm out today, but they seemed to have a good time anyway and definitely spent some time inside the air-conditioned penguin exhibit.  One animal they enjoyed for probably the last time is Nikita, the male polar bear at the zoo.  He's being transferred to another zoo, and our zoo will instead get some koalas bears.  Koalas are fine, I guess, but they'll probably just be hiding in some tree and hard to see.  But the real problem is losing Nikita.  He is awesome.  If you've ever been to the zoo and the underwater polar bear part, you've seen him swim right up against the glass and then push off the glass with his huge paws and then do it again.  It's great.  But he's leaving.  The other polar bear is staying, but she mostly just stands around and is boring.  But she's staying with us, so the good news is that if boring polar bears are your thing, you can go to the zoo anytime, and you won't miss out.

A Tree Climber, Or Two

This week, Joshua has realized tree climbing is a thing. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I am afraid he's going to break his arm. On the other, I think it's important for kids to take these kind of risks to grow self-confidence, independence, and just generally form their sense of adventure. So we have decided to let him climb unless it's wet. He loves this. He isn't super adventurous so I think he won't go too high or anything. However, today Clara got stuck in the tree. She has a really different personality type. She starts off cautious so she never even showed an interest in climbing before today. But once she decides to do something, she does it so she was higher than I would prefer when she called for help in getting down. And Hannah is also interested and I am 100% against having her climb trees at this age. But for Joshua, it's becoming a fun little hobby for him.

Sand Castle Sculptors

Today was an overcast day and a little rainy so we switched up our day and didn't go swimming and instead the kids spent a ton of time playing the backyard. They got to wear their boots and play in the mud which is always a hit, and then also played with the water table and sand box. You can't really tell in this picture, but that mound of sand near Clara's foot is their "sand castle", which they drew a face on and were pretending was a person. They had a lot of fun out there today.

Two Gymnasts

Last summer Clara started gymnastics and did it for a couple months in the summer and into the fall until indoor soccer started.  In the late fall Joshua started gymnastics and did it through the winter until spring outdoor soccer started.  Although at times they have both been in gymnastics at the same time they have never been going on the same day.  But this summer they are both in gymnastics, and the best time given the available classes was to have them go back-to-back on Mondays.  So I take Joshua in my car for his 5:40 class, which lasts 50 minutes.  Then Meghan shows up with Hannah (who's just along for the ride) and Clara.  I then bring Joshua out to the car and take Clara out of the car to come with me, and Meghan drives Joshua and Hannah home.  Clara's class goes from 6:40 to 7:30, and after that I drive us back home.  So it's a little bit tricky, but we pull it off.  I'm sure in a few years when we have three different kids in multiple activities and we're driving around the city like crazy people to all the practices and games and whatnot that we will even more appreciate how simple this setup is, so we're trying to enjoy it while we can.  In the meantime, it's just these two going to gymnastics right now.  They seem to like it a little less than they previously did, so we'll have to see if we do it again in the fall.

Father's Day: Kids, a Bike Ride, and Great Food

Today is Father's Day.  After church, we did cards and gifts.  From the kids, I got some very cool cards.  From Joshua, Meghan made a booklet with photos of the two of us, drawings from Joshua (his drawing of my looks like an adorable spider; presumably it was my hair and my legs that made up the appendages), and some responses to questions.  Among them:
Q: What does Daddy do at work?
A: "Important work.  He gets money to buy food for us."  Yes. Yes, I do.

Q: How old is Daddy?
A: "4?  I'm not sure."  Sometimes I'm not sure either.

Q: What is Daddy's Name?
A: "Daddy.  Just Daddy."  Works for me.

Q: Why does Mama love Daddy?
A: "She thinks he's cool."  I'll take it.

But my favorite one was this one:
Q: What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy?
A: "Run with him.  Have him pick me up when I'm scared.  He loves me even when I make bad choices."  I was really glad to read this, because this is something that we talk about a lot.  Meghan and I love him unconditionally, and it's important for him to know that.  So when he makes bad choices, there are sometimes punishments, but I will usually tell him that even though he made a bad choice, I still love him.  So I was really glad to see him mention that in his response to this question.

Here are the cards from the kids.  Clara's had similar questions and answers which were also cute and amusing.  One of her best ones was, when asked how tall I am, she said I am as tall as the refrigerator, which is really pretty darn accurate. Meghan said she tried the same thing with Hannah, but all of her answers were "I don't know", so she just got a regular card from her.

Last year on Father's Day, my bike was still pretty new, and I decided to use my free time during the kids' nap time to go on a bike ride.  I did the Gary L. Haller trail along Mill Creek Streamway.  Last year I turned around at a certain point, though I don't remember the total mileage for my ride.  This year I was determined to go farther, and I did, as I passed my turnaround point last year and kept going awhile longer before turning around.  I ended up biking a total of 22 miles today, which I think is pretty good.  I went up to the 3.5-mile marker.  My goal is to at some point make it all the way to the end (0-mile marker) and then come back, but I don't have too many chances to go ride by myself for a couple hours, so I'm not sure when that will be.  But it was a really great ride.  It was fun and relaxing.  For dinner, Meghan made us seared sea scallops with smoky sweet corn puree.  It was amazing.  It's one of the best meals she makes, and that's saying something.  So I had a wonderful day, with great food, special time with my children, and some fun free time for myself.

The Fading Shine of the Shiner

When Clara saw her new room for the first time, she was really excited.  But she got a little too excited.  She ran to jump on her new beanbag but misjudged it and bounced her face off the window sill.  She cried and cried, and we immediately put the cold monkey (essentially a reusable ice pack for kids) on the wound, which looked like it was very close to breaking the skin, but it didn't.  It left a small scab though, as the skin was still damaged, and she also had a black eye.  Like bruises tend to do, every day it looked a little different.  Some days it looked like she was wearing pretty purple eye shadow, and other days it looked like someone had sucker punched her in the eye.  But it's finally getting close to being healed.  Here you can see the light pink spot by the corner of her eye where the scab was, and the bruising that's still present but fading.  It should be gone soon, but the new rule of not jumping on the beanbag when it's by the window is here to stay.  

Summer Finally Comes to Kansas

It has been a very cool and a very wet spring. The rain has actually been historic. So we really haven't had a chance to go swimming this year except in Florida. Finally, today, we were able to go to the pool for the first time this year. We went early in the day and the kids had a great time. Though it was pretty cold water and we only stayed about an hour before they were all shivering. It is supposed to be pretty warm this weekend so hopefully that makes the water a little more comfortable since I anticipate we will go swimming many more times.

Picnic at Black Hoof

Today, before frog camp, Halie took the kids for a picnic in the park at Black Hoof park. They ate their lunch near the lake.

Then, after lunch, they went on a walk on the trail in the park.

The kids always find exciting (to them) things on any walk and this walk was no exception.

After the walk, they went into the wading creek that is definitely the best part of this park during the summer. It was a fun afternoon and they all had a great time.

Frog Camp

This week, Joshua and Clara have been going to a frog day camp at NaturePlay Preschool in Lenexa. This is a preschool that really focuses on outdoor play and is run by JoCo Parks and Rec. I have really thought about enrolling Joshua there during the school year because I think he would really thrive there, but I also don't want to uproot him from the preschool we already like, so I haven't. But I thought the daycamp would be fun and they have both really enjoyed it, but especially Joshua. He has come home really dirty every day, and a dirty Joshua is a happy Joshua. Today was park day so instead of meeting at the preschool, they went to a park to see real frogs and try to catch some. Joshua said the frogs were too fast and they saw a real snake in the water that made a huge impression on him. (Not sure if it was good or bad. He just seemed amazed that there would be a living snake in the water). I'm glad I enrolled them and we might do it again next year.

Team Mowing Effort

I needed to mow the yard today after work, but I didn't have time to mow the back yard, so I was just planning to do the front yard (and side yards).  While mowing the side yard, something caught my eye in the back yard: Joshua had noticed I was mowing in the front, so he grabbed his toy mower and was mowing the back yard.  So I mowed the front and Joshua mowed the back.  It turned out that my efforts were a little more effective than his, so I'll be mowing the back yard tomorrow.

Family Time During My Week at Home

 During my time at home while Meghan and the kids were in Florida, I had a really full schedule in terms of the projects I wanted to complete in the time I had, but I also wanted to squeeze in some time with family.  Julie and Andrew invited me over to their house for dinner.  Julie made a great meal, and we all had time to talk, and Andrew and I played bocce ball late into the night (thanks to a very helpful transportable floodlight as well as Julie's assistance), and that was a whole lot of fun.  At the time I was hoping to find time to do it again before I left for Florida, but I ended up being too busy with projects.  While there, I got to spend some time with little Benjamin.  He amazed me by being able to identify all the letters in my name by sight after Julie wrote them in chalk on the concrete. What a smart little guy!

On Friday I met Mom out for lunch.  We went to Mi Ranchito, which was on her list of restaurants she wanted to try.  We figured we'd better get there so she could try it before it burned to the ground like Fronteras did before she had a chance to eat there.  The meal was really good, and it was nice to have a chance to talk while enjoying some good food.

Giving Mama a Break

Meghan has had the kids for nearly two weeks straight, so I decided to give her a break today so she could have a chance to spend some time alone.  I took the kids to church, and then we went to Waffle House for lunch.  They all loved it, as you can't go wrong with waffles.

We were a little late to church, because when I went to get Joshua out of his car seat, I saw this.  Apparently he had found a piece of chewed bubble gum in our yard (I have no idea why it was there) when we went from the house to the car and then proceeded to use the drive to church to roll and smear it all over his legs.  I spent about 15 minutes in the church parking lot trying to clean it all up, which I eventually did.  That left me in the not the best mood ever, but going to church followed by Waffle House certainly fixed that.

Clara's New Room

Recently we decided to redo Clara's room to make it a little more big girl-y. We've been using Craigslist to acquire pieces, including a chest of drawers, a beanbag, and a cute dollhouse bookshelf. But the centerpiece of the room is the princess bed that resembles Cinderella's carriage.  I picked up the bookshelf and then assembled the room while everyone else was in Florida last week, so it was ready for Clara when we got home today.  She was really, really excited about it. "Wow!  It's so awesome!"  We still have some work to do (Meghan is going to create a tulle cover for the bed, and we need to buy some decorations), but the core furniture parts are completed.  The only downside is Hannah now believes her bed is woefully inadequate, and she has already suggested that maybe we can go to the store and buy her a princess bed too.  We'll see.