simple magic

the wyandotte county fair moved this year-to K-7 and Polfer. so every time we drove past that intersection on the way to the pool we saw the signs.
we have never taken the kids to the fair. it always seemed in my mind to be a crowded, dirty, chaotic and hot activity.
but, this year it some how called to us-the proximity the 4-H component and i've been seeing cool pictures with ferris wheels.
the kids were beyond excited. but it was 104 degrees and i was rethinking our decision. we decided it would be better to make it a late night than to try and deal with the heat.
they were in the backseat jumping up and down talking about ferris wheels and balloons. anneliese was shouting about everything-even the flags used to designate the parking.
i've been pondering traveling these days-especially since i love blue lily. they give their kids this amazing world traveling experience and have such a real and positive outlook.
but going to the fair was simply magic for the kids-and although i still feel like giving them a world outlook and taking them to australia and italy, i also have to remember that a ferris wheel and lights and a petting zoo bring them high amounts of joy-
watching them enjoy it was a huge thrill.

puddles, parades and pools

a good rain is an amazing thing in july in kansas and needs to be celebrated by drenching yourself in puddles, because you know tomorrow they will be replaced by dust.

we stayed in kansas this year for the fourth of july-so we were able to join grandma for the lenexa parade.  it is a classic scene of community to watch babies sitting on laps clapping for the fire trucks as the older kids clamor for candy and hi fives from clowns.

  one of the best moments was when the kids were handed small flags-but not enough for all of them. grant started to get upset because he didn't have a flag. aunt beth, being the perfect aunt that she is, had one in her bag. so all seemed to be ok. then he began to be sad that his wasn't the same. emily chimed in that his was the 'most special flag' ' grant, you are like a king, because your flag has a special little ball on the top'. oh emily...the middle child is developing some wonderful peace making strategies already :)

 and the pool...
we discovered the aquatic park in bonner springs and have declared it 'our pool' for this summer. i love the pool because it is really gives a chance for some undivided attention for play. no laundry or dishes at the pool. becky and dale came up for grandma's birthday and we had fun sharing our pool with them. anneliese easily transferred her crazy jumping onto becky (even when she wasn't ready :)) the boys had a great time going off the diving board and becky helped emily go across the lily pads for the first time.

the zoo-redeemed

most of my memories of the kansas city zoo end with me saying i will never go back-i remember the trip with the my mom, becky and all 5 kids where we walked all the way to africa and maybe saw one 'african hunting dog'. the kids were hot and unimpressed and we still had to walk ALL the way back. the kids were fighting over the ice pack we had in the cooler-holding to there faces. it was bad.

however, last fall on a day bobby was going to working on the house all day, i took the kids and we had a blast. i bought a membership-since it was going to be equal in price to us going to the zoo 2-3 times. and the platinum membership included unlimited rides on the sky safari that would open the summer of 2011. i thought we would go back again soon. well-it took us awhile-but we did go back. last week when the forecast said 80 degrees and sunny for 3 days straight-i knew we needed to get it in gear. once a month the zoo is open in the evening (only africa). they have meal specials, african drumming and the sky safari would be open this time. it was meant to be. however, on the way back from lawrence with all 3 kids bobby had a flat tire in the prius. he called and i thought the zoo trip would be scrapped. but he is bobby-and he fixed that flat and we met up and drove to the zoo on the donut. it was worth it. beautiful weather, the quiet and ingenious sky safari, the bat eared fox was awake as was the bush baby. it was all the kids could do to contain their enthusiasm.

summer-

it felt like summer would never get here-but it was worth the wait. 

emily's shoes finally arrived-they were worth the wait too!

grant is on 2 ball teams-the t-bones have been playing together for 3 seasons-they are all kids who go to sunflower. but since grant is transferring to piper this fall-we decided a ball team would be a great place to meet some of the new kids. it is busy...but he seems to enjoy it. bobby is a coach on each of the teams.

the girls are really loving having grant home to play-

for father's day bobby decided he wanted to go to lunch at T-Rex ("because the kids are a pretty big part of me being a dad"he said)

this is the famous-turtle face

the garden is growing like crazy-we have about 50 tomato plants-but i'm still not sure if we will have enough to can. the way the kids eat them off the vine-i'm not even sure we will have enough to bring inside :) the other pictures are of the new club. "snobigumbe" it is in the dog pen. they go out there and work. grant's job is to dig holes and the girls make nests. they created it all on their own-sign and all.

we finally added some swings to the sycamore tree-

we took a trip down to muskogee to see amanda and her 3 kids. it was so good to spend time with old friends and see how much the twins have grown.

i love this picture-classic summer...

rebecca invited us over to swim-and now whenever we get together we love talking photography. she has started to take pictures professionally as well-and we could spend hours talking about all things related to photography business. thanks becca for taking pictures that have me in them-i love getting to prove that i actually do play-not just take pictures :)

 and then there is becky-i rave about her all the time-but she deserves it-
everyone needs an aunt becky!

i love this-
happy father's day to greg-3 kids under 3-now that is a big job-and he and amanda are doing a Beautiful job :)

 this one cracks me up-

 ryan told roy that if learned how to play 'waltz across texas' and sing it-that he would buy him a cow. i made roy a country cd for his birthday that included willie's version of the song-and then bobby set out to teach him how to play it.

 everyone needs a dad that can throw them so high in the air that their head gets cut off in the picture :)

 this was part of bobby's father day gift-

 this was at a neighbor's house on memorial day-they have a full size court in their driveway-
loved getting to watch them play-soon grant will be able to join the big boys game :)

cuteness

emily had her last day at IDC on wednesday. it concluded with a parent's day celebration-
one of my favorite things is watching my kids proud faces as they perform. they all have the same kind of expression and it is just priceless. this has been a long standing IDC song-i remember teaching it to roy on a car ride in north carolina. he sang it to his plants-another wonderful moment. i don't have that one on video-but i did get emily's performance of it here

night to remember

tonight was a night we will talk about for awhile-in the same way grant and i talk about the time i had to take all the toys out of his room. not a good kind of memory but one that hopefully sticks with them long enough to help make better decisions.
it started because i found some cute shoes at a little boutique in prairie village. they were 40% off and See Kai Run has been a favorite of mine for awhile. unfortunately, the only go up to a size 9. great for anneliese, but no luck for emily and grant. i bought them anyway and let her wear them yesterday. grant and emily didn't react to much (we try and emphasize that we get shoes when we need them-and that's not always at the same time). however, grant's torn up tennis shoes did need updating and he was itching to go find some today. i REALLY didn't want to take all 3 kids to the shoe store-but after lots of tears from the girls about how they would be REALLY good and they wouldn't ask for anything, wouldn't grab boxes off the shelves and beg me for new shoes i caved. this was the beginning of the end.
i will try to be brief-
they were really doing great-and then those big piles of toys at kohl's caught emily's eye. she started asking if she could have a toy. "can i please get a toy" "i want a toy" "i really want a toy" "i really do want a toy" i told her if she asked again about a toy i would take her back home and return to the store with grant to get shoes. she did it-it was like she couldn't stop herself and then it was gushing and i had already given the ultimatum-ugh! so i drove all the kids back home and had bobby help emily out of the car.
anneliese, grant and i proceed back to the store wear he tries on every pair of tennis shoes in his size. anneliese did very well although she kept saying "you know that kiddy toy at that store where grant tried on shoes but they didn't have his size? can i get that for my birfday? when is my birfday again?"
we return home and i'm feeling kind of bad-and then bobby tells me that emily told him she had to come home because she had a 'hurt finger" OH NO! she lied. she lied repeatedly. bobby has always told the kids that if they don't tell the truth they will be sent to bed for the rest of the night. luckily by then it was already 600. so we did it-we stuck it out-i brought her dinner to her bed and she had to read books by herself. i did cry a little-and it hurt to watch grant and emily outside playing without her-but honesty is important to us. parenting is hard. really hard.

she is so big now-and i just love her so much-my little sweet pea.