The Living is Easy

 Today we had a pleasant and lazy summer day. First we did bubbles (yes in the house. It was insanely hot and humid out. Not that the kids care. In fact when I said it was kind of hot to go out, Joshua told me he liked it hot outside and he would like to stay outside for two weeks. But I care.).

Later, we had popsicles. These are yummy summer treats that we frequently have had this summer. I originally made them with soy yogurt, but recently the kids tried the ones I make for me which are soy-free and now they don't enjoy the soy yogurt ones as much. Not that I blame them. I find vanilla soy milk drinkable, but not super enjoyable, but I have found the non-dairy yogurts to be quite gross. To be fair, I am not big on any type of yogurt, though I don't dislike it, so I may not be the target audience. Clara generally enjoys soy yogurt on its own, so maybe it just doesn't freeze well. More recently I have been making the popsicles with juice and lactaid milk. They seem to like them much more now. I could make them with just juice, but the fat in the milk or yogurt makes them a little less hard which makes them more enjoyable to eat.

In the evening, Jason took the kids out while I made dinner and practiced catch with Joshua for baseball tomorrow. The girls played tee ball and generally ran around. The humidity is not ideal, but I really enjoy these long and warm days.

"Baby" Dedication - Better Late Than Never

We had always wanted to dedicate or baptize the kids when they were babies, but we never really got around to it.  We changed churches, had three babies, I was sick so long when I was pregnant, all those kind of things that it never happened even though it really should have. So even though most people do it when their babies are about three months, we got all three kids dedicated today (including Hannah, though I don't have a good picture of her since she chose to be held).

 The church we attend does both infant baptisms and dedications, which is unusual. We got to choose which one we wanted to do and we chose dedication. We hope that our kids will choose to be baptized as believers when they are old enough to make that choice.

 I am not sure the kids really understood much about what went on, though Joshua was able to answer the question of who is his Lord and Savior. We were relieved he got it right. We had practiced. We knew he knew it, but sometimes he goes for comedy and says things like "Jesus Frog" or whatever. Luckily he decided to play it straight for the actual service.

We were glad that GG and Papa, Grandma and Grandpa, Matt and Abby, and the Fouts (Benjamin's naptime is around noon so they couldn't stay for pictures afterwards) were able to make it to share the special day with us.

Lunch with the Freadhoffs

Today Jason's boss Dylan came through Kansas City on his way to a wedding with his fiancee Kim and her two kids. We all ate lunch together at SPIN! Pizza. It was nice for me to meet Kim since Joshua's birth thwarted the last time we were supposed to meet, and we had a fun meal before they had to get back on the road.

Movie of the Month: Rio

Kids are definitely fickle, especially with favorite shows. For awhile Joshua really liked Daniel Tiger, but that is now not even something they voluntarily watch. Same with Barney (Hannah will watch Barney, but rarely gets the chance because the others no longer enjoy it). Joshua is pretty much over Veggie Tales, but is still willing to watch it and Clara loves it still. And with movies, it's the same, but they don't really outgrow them, they just are not quite as excited about them. For awhile they were really into Frozen. They still like it, but it's not their "go-to" favorite any more. Same with Shrek (for Joshua. Clara was never into it) and the first two Toy Story movies (they don't like the third) and Despicable Me (a little. They liked it, but never loved it). Rio is currently their super favorite. And they love the music. This is Joshua and Clara dancing to it, with Hannah hanging out with them. Hannah is not that into TV yet, so she mostly plays and occasionally enjoys a song. Rio is not my favorite animated film. It's fine, but nothing great and it has a bit more mean words or potty jokes (neither of which my kids notice so that's a plus) than I find ideal, but it does make me want to go to Brazil and the music is reasonably enjoyable. I am not sure what we will be watching next. I think we'll try A Bug's Life, but you never know if they will like it. We first tried Rio last year and Joshua told me to turn it off almost immediately, so it could be like that.

A Little Monkey Bizness

Today Halie took the kids to Little Monkey Bizness. This is a fun place for them to go and great for little kids because it is not as massive as some of the other similar places. Joshua and Clara both loved the inflatable slide. They climbed up.

And then slid back down. Over and over again.

Hannah only likes things she can do herself. She absolutely doesn't want help doing anything. Ever. So she had fun with the mirrors and the toddler climbing area that was more her size.  I recently realized that Joshua calls his school "Mrs. Pogue's House". He assumes that she lives there because as far as he knows that's where she is all the time. Well when he came back from Little Monkey Bizness, he told me they went to Halie's house today. Which is funny. I told him she didn't live there, but he seemed skeptical.

Post-Bath Relaxing

The kids took baths tonight, and afterward I dried off Hannah and put her in her bath towel while I then dried off the other two kids. Normally they are all kinda crazy after bath time, but for some reason tonight Hannah was just happy and quiet and sat there patiently waiting for tooth brushing time, which always comes next. Here she is looking up at me, wondering if it's time to brush teeth yet or not.

A Big Day

Today was a really busy day. First, Clara got to have a special day with Grandma and Grandpa by herself. Halie was here with the other two and they had fun as well since they got to go swimming, but Clara got to do lots of special things.

First she got a doll with a backpack carrier and food accessories to play with at Grandma's house and she was super excited since she absolutely loves babies.

Next she went with Grandma to the nail salon and got her fingers and toes painted. She thought this was very pretty and really liked it.

Finally, she got to go swimming with Grandpa as well as Uncle Andrew and Cousin Benjamin. She had a really fun day spending time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Later in the evening, Joshua and I also had some fun. First he had baseball, but then I took him out for a date. We went to Theatre in the Park's movie night to go see Cars. We started with a picnic. He refused to smile and instead made this silly face.

I have been to Theatre in the Park several times with Jason, but not with a child and if I had to do it again, I would bring toys. I didn't anticipate how much he would want to play before the movie started and he really wanted to go up to random kids and ask them to use their bubbles, glow sticks, and balls. This seems not exactly polite to me, but it's probably not really rude either since that's how kids are. I just prefer to bring our own. I successfully kept him from accosting too many people, but he did play bubbles with a kid who was sitting near us.

Joshua has never been to the movies. I think he is probably about ready now, but he is not inclined to sit still or be quiet so it's definitely only been recently that I would take him if the right movie were playing. This was a good trial run because it's okay to be a little louder and you don't have to stay in your seat and it was only $1 for me and free for him, so not a lot of money wasted if we had to leave early. However, he did enjoy Cars (he had seen it once before, but I doubt he remembered as it was over a year ago) and wanted to stay the whole time. It was almost 11 by the time it was over, so he got a little tired towards the end, but he didn't fall asleep until the drive home. We had a fun time. I hope some day I can take him to actual performances there, but this was a nice start.

Three Stages of Play Dough

Today we did play dough. It is really interesting because they all like doing play dough, but use it in totally different ways. Joshua is basically the perfect age for play dough. He is old enough not to put it in his mouth and to enjoy making things and imagining what they are. He pretends he is making treats and monkeys and balls and all sorts of things. My only problem with him is when he imagines an entire play dough baseball game, complete with hitting play dough balls with play dough bats. Those balls end up on the floor at times, which does not make me happy. Clara is old enough not to put it in her mouth, but is limited to making balls and snakes and things like that and doesn't really do a lot of imaginative play yet. She likes me to help her make things. Hannah is basically a play dough disaster and is really not the right age for it. However, she has a firm belief that she should do whatever the big kids do so she throws a raging fit if she doesn't get to play with it. Playing with it for her entails putting it directly in her mouth and waving around a straw. So I have homemade play dough I give to her so at least I know it isn't toxic, though it has a lot of salt in it. The other two vastly prefer store-bought play dough, much to my disappointment so I let them play with that and keep the home-made stuff for Hannah.

It's World Cup Time!

There are few sporting events more important to me than the US Men's National Team games in the World Cup.  I love playing soccer more than almost any other activity, and I love watching our games in the World Cup more than about anything.  This is probably hard to fathom for some, but I'd give up watching a K-State (non-national championship) bowl game over a USMNT World Cup game.  It's probably roughly equivalent to seeing K-State play in a conference championship game, which is a big deal.  The World Cup just happens so rarely (every four years), and there are so few games for the US (every team plays at least three, but only a handful play more than five), that it's just a rare and special event.  Last World Cup we won our group in dramatic fashion before being eliminated in the Round of 16 by Ghana.  This year we avenged the Ghana loss by beating them in the first game.  Today was a critical game against Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the top two players in the world, and Portugal.  I asked Meghan to take a picture of me watching the World Cup so I could post about it, but right as she was taking the picture, Portugal very nearly scored, which nearly caused me to die of panic and stress.  Normally I try to avoid unflattering pictures on this blog, and this isn't exactly my best, but it did capture a genuine reaction at the time, which is pretty cool, so I'll let it slide.  We ended up tying Portugal after giving up a last-minute (literally, there were about 20 seconds left) goal.  But we still have a lot of ways for us to advance after our game against Germany on Thursday.  I'm hoping for the best.

Date Day in the Park

 Today I had a date day with Clara. I was supposed to have one last month, but that was when I was sick so we rescheduled. I didn't really have anything specific in mind so I asked Clara what she wanted to do. She said, "Sliding". So we went to Antioch Park since it has mature trees so isn't as hot as some of the closer parks.

 She is so determined. She climbed many things made for much larger kids. She was so cute. She would get on there and say, "I'm almost there" even when on the first rung, and she made it every time.

She had lots of fun at the park.

After the park we got a snack.

Then we went to Fat Brain Toys to find a birthday present for cousin Benjamin who turns 1 next month. Some of Clara's gift ideas were not exactly gender or age-appropriate. I let her choose one thing for herself. After we were done there, we ate lunch and ran a few more errands before going home. We had a good afternoon.

Returning the Favor

I took the kids outside today while Meghan was making dinner, and as they often do, they gravitated toward the swings. Our swing set only has two swings, so Joshua and Hannah were the first ones to swing, with Hannah in her baby/safety swing. While I was pushing Joshua, Hannah requested to be pushed again ("Swing! Swing!"). I was finishing up with Joshua, and I think Clara noticed, so she volunteered to do her best to push Hannah. She wasn't able to do much, but it was sweet she tried, and soon I was able to take over. Later Hannah said she was done, so Clara took a turn in her swing, since it was the only one available, and at one point while I was pushing Joshua, Hannah toddled over and did her best to return the favor by pushing Clara.  She was even less effective than Clara had been when pushing her, but I was proud of her for coming up with the idea to try to help out her sister.

ByeBye Butterflies

Today Halie took the kids outside to release our butterflies. This is actually the second batch of butterflies we did because the first set only came with three caterpillars and I complained since it's supposed to be five. I was really hoping for a refund, but they sent a second batch instead. It ended up working well becuase I was a little traumatized when one of the first butterflies was born with some sort of defect that kept his wings crumpled and he was never able to fly and it was kind of depressing.

 But these five were all fine thankfully. Joshua really enjoyed the whole process, but especially letting them go since he got to touch them a little and he has been waiting for that.

Clara also liked getting in on the release, though she chose not to touch them.

Bye butterflies.

This is them being silly after the release.

And then they were over it, onto other things. Though Joshua asked me today when we were getting more cocoons (which he calls "cackoons").

New Hats

Last week Joshua told me we needed some more hats. We have a few and he really enjoys them. Clara kind of likes them, I think mostly because Joshua does. And Hannah so far is not a hat person and says get that thing off her head. He said he wanted a red hat. I decided to get him a fire hat and then I also thought a cowboy hat would be nice. But then I saw this pink cowgirl hat and decided it was perfect. We unveiled them yesterday and the kids have really enjoyed playing with them since. They aren't really into costumes or dress-up clothes yet, but they like hats a lot and Joshua has used his new red hat to pretend he is a construction worker, a cowboy, and a fireman so far. Clara just seems to like the appearance of hers and hasn't really used it for imaginary play.

Tee Ball

Joshua has innately loved baseball since he was old enough to know it was a thing. And he has innately loved throwing since always. So I definitely planned to enroll him in tee ball as soon as he was old enough and this year is the year. Most teams start at 4, but we found one that starts at 3. Jason was out of town today, so Ron was nice enough to take him and Joshua was so excited. When I gave him his new glove, that was pretty much the highlight of his day at that point and he probably would have been happy just playing catch the rest of the day. Actually, I was hoping baseball wouldn't be a disappointment after that, since you have to wait your turn and stuff like that. But he came home just as pumped about it and spent the rest of the night throwing his ball and trying to catch with his glove. My only real goals for sports at this age are to give him experience following instructions and listening and for him to have fun so I think we are well on our way.

Soapy Water and Regular Water

Today I told Joshua he could pick what we do. And I said we could go to the park, we could play in the back yard, we could go to the farm (Deanna Rose. But the front looks like a barn so he calls it the farm), or we could to the store. I really thought we would go somewhere because normally he is really excited about that, but he said he wanted to do bubbles in the back yard. So we did. And Clara has now gotten old enough that she can hold her own bubbles and blow them, so that exciting. They had a lot of fun with that.

Hannah also did bubbles for awhile, but she was more interested in the water. So much so that she refused to even look at me for a picture because she was busy. The other kids also enjoyed the water after they were done with the bubbles and we had a fun afternoon staying home.