The Sword Chronicles

As mentioned, Will and his new "big boy sword" are inseparable. It's the best $2 you ever spent, huh, Cas?


And Ellie Kate plots her revenge...

Labor Day

Labor Day weekend featured two exciting events for our family. On Saturday we had the first KU football game of the season. The kids did great! Will is getting more interested in the actual game. It helped that Jason (his imaginary friend) was on the field playing for the Jayhawks. Ellie Kate waved to the Jayhawk (across the field) and blew him kisses. Otherwise, she was keeping busy with snacks. Unfortunately, the game did not turn out so well for the 'Hawks. After the game Will said, "Mommy, I am sad the Jayhawks did not win." It's a good lesson to learn at an early age, right? We don't always win.

I couldn't get a great pic of EK in her game day attire.


Daddy is teaching her to wave the wheat in preparation for the game.


Will and Aunt Casie - what a pair!


On Sunday we went to visit my grandma in small town KS for their Labor Day picnic. We went almost every year as kids and I have such fond memories. This was my kids' first trip. They had a blast playing at the city park across the street from grandma's house and at the picnic itself. At the park, Will learned of the joys of "underdoggies" on the swings - thanks, GoGo! Subsequently, we all got a chance to try -- and we are not a short family, so he got going pretty high! At the picnic, we played games, won candy and prizes, and certainly most exciting for Will he got a "big boy sword" from Aunt Casie. This was an item Will had already put on his birthday list, but Aunt C "won" it at the picnic and shared with Will. Will & his sword are now virtually inseparable.

Camping

I'm way behind on my posts as this actually happened a few weeks ago. We celebrated Kit's birthday with a family trip to the lake. J's FFL draft was that weekend, so I and the kids (and Aunt Casie, thank goodness) drove down on Friday after work. Will talked pretty much the whole 90 minute drive. He was pretty excited about camping and seeing his cousins.

I use the term camping loosely. People who really camp would not call this camping. But for me - it was camping. We had two lodges (AC, electricity, shower, kitchens, etc.) GoGo, Grampy, Casie, EK, Will and I in one; Jeff, Sarah, Amy & 6 kids in the other. I think we won, don't you? Will was perhaps most excited about this trip because he got to share a bed with Mama. What a treat! Well, for him it was. Double bed with me, Will, 2 guys, 3 pillows, a blankie, and lots of kicking = not a lot of sleep.

Regardless, we all had a fun time. Will loved the campfire, though I don't think he even ate a hot dog and he preferred his marshmallows untoasted. He loves his older cousins and they are so good to him. He attached himself to Liz this trip. Pretty cute. Will was the last one to bed Friday night (thanks in large part to the half bag of marshmallows he ate) and the first one up Saturday morning. Grampy made chocolate chip pancakes - yum! Then we went for a quick ride on the boat. Will was not sure about the whole boat ride. He kept asking me when it would be over. I think the speed (though we weren't really going very fast) scared my cautious little boy. Elle, on the other hand, found it very peaceful and fell asleep in Aunt Casie's arms. She became quite disgruntled and restless when the boat stopped. Next summer, she might be ready to swim in the lake. Neither of the kids particularly enjoyed the swimming beach. Will much preferred the playground. Go figure. Maybe they'll be lake kids later in life, but for now, not so much. It was a fun trip, but I was sure glad to get home, shower, and sleep in my own bed!

And God said...

Justin overheard Will reading the Bible today.
"The next day, God told Mommy to take a nap. And she did."

So, I have pictures and stories from the last couple of weekends, but I'm tired now and I'm going to spend the last bit of this 3 day weekend with my lovely husband. Hopefully I'll get a chance to post this week.

Good job, Mom!

I did such a great job of counting to 11 very fast last night that Will rewarded me with "silly rubber bands (AKA Silly Bands), a lucky coin, a cup full of letters, and a sticker". If only everything were that easy!

Weekend updates

This post may be very long...we'll see how much I can get done. This starts with the first full weekend in August, I think. Will has not been doing a great job of napping or going to bed so we've had sticker charts. He finished his first one a couple weekends ago and his reward was a trip to T-Rex for lunch. He had so much fun digging in the sand and playing!



Ellie Kate was so worn out that she fell asleep while rubbing her eyes on the way home.


We spent the next day celebrating my grandma's 80th birthday party. She had a great time. The kids did a good job - kept Justin & I (and lots of other people) busy!

Last weekend we took the kids to Deanna Rose Farmstead ("the farm") for the morning. It got a little warm toward the end, but we did ok. Elle was in the stroller most of the time, but she LOVED the swings. Will did great - he's getting much braver. He did not enjoy the chickens or the goats, but everything else was ok. He told us later that "goats eat people". No wonder he didn't like them!




The next day Will insisted on playing in the sprinklers in our backyard. Unfortunately, this was not one of the hotter days this summer. The water was freezing! We ran around for awhile anyway and he had fun.



This past Friday night Justin had 2 tickets to the Royals game so he was going to take Will. We were in between severe t-storms, but they decided to try it out anyway. The game got called after 1 inning. While under the awning amidst the storm J told Will "This was not one of Daddy's better decision-making moments." To which Will replied, "Yea, Daddy, this was a terrible decision!" They got home and were still totally soaked - what a mess! Since they had planned to ride the carousel, we made a trip to the mall yesterday to ride the carousel. Both kids loved it, and did a great job while we were out. Though I told J we'd been out there for an hour and a half and I didn't feel like I'd done any shopping.

The following are just some random pictures that I thought were cute.
This is how Eleanor tells me she doesn't want to listen.


Will showing off his dance moves - clearly takes after his dad!


Happy girl. I also tried to get a couple pictures of her walking since I have so many of her sitting. It's much harder to get a good picture when she's on the move!

There she goes

Eleanor has just totally taken off walking in the last week or so. It now seems to be her preferred mode of transportation and she's getting pretty good at it. While I'm certainly happy and proud that she's hit this developmental milestone, it's also a little sad. It won't be long before she's walking into kindergarten, then across the stage at a graduation and out the door headed to college. I'm really not trying to be overly dramatic, it just all seems to go by so fast. As I heard someone say about newborns - the days are so long, but the months and years so fast. It's true. And my little people are growing up.

Thankfully, Will snapped me right back into reality when Justin asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.
"For Halloween, you mean?"

Ahh -- still a child.