Thursday, May 30, 2013

Robots and Robins



The kids and I hung a bird feeder. Although the wind seems to knock out all the bird seed by the end of the day, we have enjoyed watching cardinals, sparrows, robins, pigeons, squirrels, many many rabbits and even a few chipmunks enjoy the feed.


Our craft today. I envisioned a robot, but Gus and Hazel keep calling our creations alien monsters. A lot of fun though!




Can you guess who made which one?

Back in KC



Three little monkeys jumping in the bathtub. Just a few bubbles....

Yesterday enjoying nice weather in the baby pool.


Gus at his game last night.

Should this scare me? Am I a bad mom when my first instinct when I see this is to grab the camera rather than get Wally down safely?

Hazel teaching Walter to color this morning.

Daycare or summer vacation? Colors, paper, stickers and building blocks scattered everywhere. Fun for them, not for mommy :)

Memorial Day Weekend 2013


Well, I did it! My first 5K completed. I placed 10 of about 30 in my age group and sex, which feels great to me. Until about three months ago I couldn't have imagined running one mile, let alone over three! I surpassed my time goal in a very uphill race, with varied terrain, in 50 degrees, & in a pounding rain and windy thunderstorm.

I ran with 2 good friends from high school, although they ran the 10K. My friend in the middle, has lost an amazing amount of weight over the last few years by quitting smoking, eating healthy, and adding excercise to her day. The other friend Jen has also transformed her life health wise and is now a WW coach, personal trainer, and instructs boot camp and Zumba classes. These ladies are truly inspirational.

While back in Iowa we had a little early 8 years old birthday party for Kennedy.


Hazel and Rian were connected at the hip this past weekend.

Josilin and Gus braving the elements in a shelter house on Memorial Day.

Brea and Hazel

Cade loved his double s'more! 


Wally was asleep before we were out of Clear Lake. A very fun weekend.

Friday, May 24, 2013

KC Zoo Memorial Day Weekend

This morning we visited the KC Zoo before we headed back to Iowa for the holiday weekend. The kids had fun. We purchased the Friends of the Zoo package (with a family of 5 it costs the same as two visits) so we can visit unlimited times through March of next year. 

The animals were cool, but of course the playground and the gift shop were the favorites.




Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Summer Fun Has Begun!




Gus had his first Tball game of the summer on Tuesday night. He did okay at it. He played catcher for awhile and had some difficulty wearing the mask over his glasses which put him in a terrible mood. After that, not so good of an evening, but un until that point, he seemd to enjoy playing 3rd base and hitting the ball.
 
We met daddy for lunch on Tuesday. There is a little lake/park near where Josh works so I took the kids there and Josh met us for a picnic. We didn't well the kids he was coming, so it was a fun surprise for them.










On Sunday night we took the kids to Freddie's for some old fashioned hamburgers.

Last week was so hot that I decided to get the baby pool out. We are excited for the subdivision  neighborhood pool to open up next week.

Monday afternoon we went for a little walk to the subdivision park. We stopped to check out a little bridge along the way.

Deanna Rose Farmstead Visit

We have been busy already this summer! I have signed Hazel up for gymnastics this summer, signed Gus up for Tball, and I am figuring out semi private swim lessons for July. Gus had his 5 year check up this week. I can't remember the exact stats, I'll insert them later, but he was in the 75th percentile for both height and weight.

Also, about 3 months ago, Gus had a spell of some kind at school, he was conscious but unresponsive to voices and eye contact for about 10-15 minutes.He is completely fine, but we want to error on the side of caution. It look forever since his wasn't an emergency, but we finally got him into see a neurologist last week. He had an EKG and since we never heard back, the cardio results were fine. On the 31st he has an EEG to monitor his brain waves to see if there are any patterns that are of worry, but I'm confident all will be okay. It was really scary when it happened, but he hasn't had one since so the neurologist said that is great news. We aren't really sure what it was, but we are just doing some tests to be safe. I'll keep you updated.

Gus and Hazel had a little Indian (I tried to get them to say Native American for the life of me all day long yesterday with no luck) themed day yesterday, inspired by Hazel's new Brave bow and arrows and the arrowhead necklace that Gus picked out as his souvenir at the farm. I cut up an old T shirts, sewed it together to make vests and tied on some beads.


I took the kids to Deanna Rose Farmstead on Wednesday.
 
















Even Wally tried to feed the baby goats.






I rented poles, and Gus caught to blue gills, while Hazel caught one.