Fun at Crown Center

Today Halie took the kids to Crown Center. There was an exhibit there called "Super Kids Save the World" that is sponsored by Magic House in St. Louis, which is an awesome children's museum that we went to last fall. It had a few exhibits that they could play with. While at Crown Center, they also did Kaleidoscope, which is sponsored by Crayola and Hallmark and lets kids do art projects with supplies provided by them. They had a good time and came home tired out.

Soccer Ball Shoes

I have been working at getting the kids' fall wardrobes put together. When I had one kid and when I had little kids who grew a lot (ha, well in theory. I think really only Joshua grew a lot, and only in the first year, but it was always a possibility that it could happen) I just bought clothes whenever they were needed. But now I like to plan everything out of what I need when. When possible, I try to buy clearance at the end of the previous season, though that's still very hard for the girls because their growth is unpredictable. I also buy used or from resellers and do hand-me-downs for the girls when possible. This all leads to me pretty much always being on the lookout for clothes for one season or another. But one thing I wait until reasonably close to the time I need it to buy is shoes because it is so hard to estimate what size shoes kids will wear. Not only can growth be unpredictable, but there is a lot of variation on foot-size among kids who are otherwise very similar in build so it's just not something you can guess on.

It is getting pretty close to the start of school so I have been getting shoes. For fall I typically buy one pair of athletic shoes and one pair of nicer casual shoes for each kid, plus the girls get dress shoes. Today we tried on the athletic shoes and they fit so that was good. I wasn't prepared for how excited they would be about them. They pretty much refused to take them off and were totally pumped to wear their "soccer ball shoes" (this was what Joshua said and since the girls believe he is the smartest boy in the world, now they all call them that). They were more than happy to line up and let their special shoes be photographed. You can tell bright shoes are the cool thing at the moment. They love them.

Go Busters!

Today was Joshua's last day of tee ball.  It was supposed to be last week, but they canceled it because of the heat, which was good for me because I was out of town last week but here today.  Joshua has made progress since the beginning of the season.  He now will sometimes on his own get in the "ready position" he's supposed to be in when playing defense, though he still needs reminders a lot of the time. It's cute, because even when he's in it, it's not exactly right, and it results in a cute awkward stance.  He was rewarded twice today by being ready and then able to get balls that were hit his way, even if he had to win a battle with another kid to get it.  He was very excited about this, as he has expressed disappointment in past weeks when he didn't get to field any.  Like pretty much all of the kids, he still gets coached each time about how to hold the bat.  He's done really well with hitting, and has gotten many solid hits throughout the season.  We still need to work on baserunning, as he's usually tempted to run straight to second base as soon as he hits the ball.  That's something that never came up while playing with the tee in the back yard, so it was a new concept to him.

He always looks forward to the treats after the "game", and he'll usually ask me at least once during the practice or game when he'll get to eat treats.  Today it was "When we get to eat cookie-like treats?"  But after the game (which was an intra-squad game due to being relegated to a field so far away I don't think another team could have made it out that far after their practice time) he got his Capri-Sun and Goldfish.  We walked several miles (or so it seemed) back to the main area for the awards session, where the team sat and continued to munch on snacks while they waited for the ceremony to begin.

Every kid got a trophy and a medal.  Though I am not in favor of the every-kid-is-a-winner reward system later in kids sports, it's definitely appropriate at this age.  Each kid was given a verbal name for their award, and Joshua got the "Good Work Award".

The team posed for one final picture for the season along with their coaches (Coach John was the head coach, and I'm not sure I ever heard the assistant's name).  I think Joshua had the bill of his hat too low, making it difficult for him to see.  Then they did one final cheer.  For some reason, their team name is the Busters, though I'm not sure what it is they bust.  When I played soccer in the '80s, one of my team names was the Goalbusters, which kinda makes sense as a take-off of the Ghostbusters movies that were popular at the time, but I always thought it was a questionable metaphor that we were busting goals, because what exactly does that mean?  But Joshua's team name makes almost no sense, even though it sounds cool.  So, "Go Busters!" was their team cheer.

Here Joshua poses with his hardware before finding a nice rock to sit on to enjoy the remnants of his Goldfish.  It was a good season, and he learned a lot.  We have some things to work on in the off-season, meaning before we do tee ball again, whenever that is.  Overall, he didn't love it as much as we thought he would, given how much he seems to like baseball and hitting pretend balls with pretend bats and whatnot.  But I think it's something he'll grow to enjoy more, so we'll almost certainly give it another shot, probably next summer.

Finding Friends at Deanna Rose

Today was the first Monday in forever that it was nice out so I took the kids to Deanna Rose. It was also the first day in quite some time that it wasn't super hot so about 50% of Kansas City had the same idea. When we got there, Clara said, "There are a lot of kids". And there were. But we still had fun, except maybe Hannah. For whatever reason she told me she wanted to stay in the stroller with her baby while being strapped in (that was key. She was not cool with the straps being off). Okay, whatever, Hannah. Our first stop, as always, were the playgrounds since my kids generally like those more than the animals.

While we were at the main playground, we ran into the Keelers, who were among the 50% of the metro area in attendance. It had been quite some time since I had seen Hudson and I cannot believe how big he is and how adorable. I love those chubby knees! Hadley also has gotten big and Clara thought she was about the most impressive girl she had ever seen.

After that we took a quick snack break and then went on to see some animals.

We had a lot of fun seeing many animals and even Hannah perked up a little by the end. Then it was time to go home and get some lunch. We had a fun time out enjoying the weather and I was glad we could finally go somewhere on a Monday.

Sunday Brunch at Waffle House

I took Joshua and Clara out for lunch after church today to Waffle House. It's a place that all three of us love. The food is delicious, and I find the old school diner feel to be quite charming. We loaded up on waffles, eggs, and bacon. The kids were beacons of cuteness, as patrons and employees fawned over them. Although at one point Joshua burped really loudly, causing several people to say things like, "Wow, was that the little boy?  That was impressive!" Yeah, we're still working on the intentional loud burping thing.

Big Girl in Aunt Josie's Bed

Clara has always slept in a Pack 'n Play at Peg and Ron's house. She has been able to climb out of one for quite some time, but she apparently sticks with the rules when she isn't at home. We haven't been able to have her in one here because she climbs out like it's nothing, but there she has been content to stay in bed. However, since it was only a matter of time before she no longer felt like staying put and because she also exceeds the height limit of a Pack 'n Play, it was really time to move her. Ron secured Aunt Josie's former room last week and now Clara is sleeping in there. She was super excited to sleep in the special room with pretty bedding and lamps and brought all her sleeping friends with her to enjoy the experience. It went really well and she was very proud to be sleeping in the same bed that Aunt Josie sleeps in when she is in town.

For Once, Just the Grown-Ups

For most of our scheduled date nights where Mom and Ron watch the kids overnight, Meghan and I go out somewhere as just the two of us. After all, that's really the point of it all: a chance for the two of us to get away and have some time to ourselves without the kids. But aside from time to ourselves being something we don't get a lot of at this point of our lives, time with other couples and without any children is also a rarity. We go to the Hanson's house occasionally. When we first started going, we had no children, and they only had Vincent, so we would always have plenty of time to talk, as Vincent would always go to bed long before the night concluded. Since then, we've added three kids, and they've added two biological kids and four off-and-on foster kids, meaning our evenings at their house tend to be a little chaotic and also shorter than they used to be. Callie's mom was in town tonight, so they had provided childcare, so Meghan and I decided to use our date night for a double date with the Hansons. We met them at Houlihan's at Town Center. We had a nice meal, and we ended up staying in the restaurant for 4.5 hours, before closing it down. It was really nice to be able to have quiet, adult conversations without trying to make sure our kids aren't fighting or whatever else. We will likely go to their house again with all our kids next time, but it was really nice to have a break from the norm and to have a quiet evening with our good friends.

A Baby for Our Baby

Hannah recently started liking babies and she really likes her baby now. It's funny because this is a baby she got as a gift for her first birthday, but Clara quickly made it her own. And so it's been Clara's baby for probably eight months, but a couple weeks ago, it became Hannah's favorite thing in the world. She brings it most places so this baby has now been to Costco, Price Chopper, Target, Grandma's house, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond and I am sure I am missing some. This week when I switched out the toys, the baby bottles came back out and Hannah found them and has been super excited to feed her baby. It's so cute.

Portland is Weird

I don't normally get to travel outside of my regular sales territory, but this week there was a convention in Portland that my company wanted us to sponsor, but my colleagues on the west coast weren't available, so they asked me to cover it.  I've never been to Portland. (Well, at least not as an adult. My grandpa's brother lived in Oregon, and we visited them when I was a kid, so maybe I was in Portland, or maybe I wasn't.)  So I was excited to go.  I flew here Monday morning, and I'm flying home tonight leaving here at 10:40pm (taking the red-eye back to KC through Atlanta, since I might as well take the longest route possible since I'll be sleeping anyway).  The convention was the Open Source Convention (OSCON), which is a convention for open source software.  The amount of nerds in the place was astounding.  And also the amount of weirdos was similarly surprisingly high.  But I'm not sure how much of that was because it was a conference of people who have a high probability of being socially inept, and how much of it was just that it was in Portland.  I didn't know this ahead of time, but Portland is weird.  Very weird.  It's hard to describe, but there are just a lot of things about it that are just a little bit off or different.  But the weirdest thing was when I was at dinner with my coworker, and we spotted a guy riding by on a unicycle. (Um, I guess some people do that, but it's a little strange).  While playing the bagpipes. (Well, some people know how to play them, but wait, while riding the unicycle?)   While wearing a kilt and a Darth Vader mask.  (Wait, what are we talking about again?)  A quick Google search indicated that he's somewhat famous and is known as the Unipiper.  So good for him, I guess.  Also, one of my friends told me about the "Dream of the '90s" Youtube video from the show Portlandia.  It's frighteningly accurate.  What a strange place.  But it's been fun, mostly because the guy working the conference with me is one of my good friends at my company whom I don't get to see very often.  But it's also been tiring, as these things tend to be, which should make me easily able to sleep on my flight tonight.

Video Fans

I would like my children to only like to read books, not watch tv. If they do watch tv, I would like them to prefer educational and quality programs. Unfortunately, my kids don't really care what I want them to like. One of Joshua's favorite things to watch are shows on the "angry bird" channel on the tablet which offer a variety of not-very-quality shows. His favorite is some sort of show really similar to Tom and Jerry but instead of a cat and mouse I think it's a bug and cat maybe. It is really his favorite thing to do so we definitely limit it or he would watch it all day. Recently Clara has taken a liking to it as well and I am totally disappointed. But I also remember what shows I liked as a kid and there were a lot of shows with no redeeming value whatsoever that I totally loved, so I think it is probably normal.

All New Toys

 One of the best things I do for toy management is switch out toys. I used to have more of a set schedule, but now I just do it whenever I feel things have gotten disorganized and messy. I usually try to do it when the kids aren't around, but today I did it when Joshua and Hannah were home. It did take way longer because they wanted to play with every single toy I was trying to put away as you can see here. But we finally got it done. Joshua was excited to see a football and some "football hats" he hadn't seen in awhile. He helped Hannah put on a hat because that is just a requirement to play football in our family.

Once Clara got home, she was excited to see our "new" table and they all pretended to eat cakes since we also switched out some play food. They definitely are more excited on Christmas and birthdays, but not as much as you would think. Switching out toys is really very close to being as good as totally new toys to them.

QuikTrip is the Best

I had to go run some errands this afternoon, and the girls were napping, so I took Joshua with me.  It's a pretty hot day today, and he said he was thirsty, so I decided to find us a place to get a drink.  QuikTrip is pretty much the greatest convenience store ever to exist, and the one nearest to our house is new and even better than the other ones, which are already great.  They have a lot of drink options there, so I decided to go there.  They have a place in the back to order specialty drinks, including some ice cream ones and some lemonade ones and others.  I ordered us a strawberry lemonade.  While waiting, I noticed a cluster of cotton candy donut holes in the bakery case.  We were both a little hungry, so I decided we should have those as a special treat/snack.  The new QuikTrip setup includes tables outside, so we found a table and enjoyed our strawberry lemonade, which was quite refreshing, and our cotton candy donut holes, which were way tastier than I even thought possible.  We made sure to bring three home so Meghan, Clara, and Hannah could try them too.  It was a fun little outing that was delicious and refreshing.

Zoo Day

Today we went to the Kansas City Zoo for the first time ever. Our realtor, Brad Papa, had a customer appreciation event there that offered free admission and lunch. We were excited to go and see how it was. We started with the Polar Bears, which were really great. They swam very close to the glass so you could see how big they are and get a good view.

Then we decided to go check out the elephants because who doesn't love elephants.

Clara and Joshua took a brief climbing break, but then we were there. This was another great exhibit because the elephants happened to be standing (well maybe not happened. I think it's where the food was) in a really great spot for viewing so we were really close. So close we hoped that the fencing was really strong. It was amazing to see them and hear their little elephant noises (not trumpeting, more like little communicating noises).

Next we walked over to the "Africa" area. This was a pretty long walk and really not too worth it. The cheetahs were in an area of their exhibit where they couldn't be viewed as were the gorillas. We did see some small monkeys that the kids were pretty excited about as well as some other grazing animals, but this is the part of our trip where you see why people aren't that enamored with our local zoo (they usually say the exhibits are super far apart and you can't see many animals, which was exactly our experience). One fun thing we did get to do was walk across this suspension bridge where you can feel it sway. Because I am becoming old, I felt a little dizzy, but Joshua was totally excited to walk on it.

After that, we walked back towards the polar bears to enjoy the provided lunch. And I do mean enjoy. I was pleased because I am kind of a picky eater and normally do not enjoy these types of meals, but this was really pretty good. Since we had referred the Fouts family to Brad when they were buying their house, they also were at the event and we all ate lunch together with an excellent view of the polar bears.

After lunch, we knew we wouldn't have a ton of time before the kids were too worn out, but we wanted to see a few more things. We went to the new penguin exhibit first. That had a lot to see, plus it was nice and air conditioned. It was super crowded in the penguin area and I would like to go again not on a summer weekend and be able to spend more time and have more space.

Next we went to the children's area. That was decent. We fed some deer and played on various slides and climbed on some play equipment and saw some animals. We could have definitely spent some more time there, but the kids were getting tired so we really needed to go.

On our way out, Joshua really wanted to ride the carousel so everyone got on. I rode on the bench with Hannah and Jason stood with Joshua and Clara to make sure they didn't fall off. Joshua got to ride on a K-State horse, which I think Jason was pretty happy about. They all seemed to like the carousel and we definitely ended our zoo trip on a positive note. We had a great time and were so appreciative to Brad that we got to experience it for free.