11th Anniversary and our life lately...

Brian and I were able to sneak away for a bit to celebrate our 11th anniversary!

We drove down to the River Market, caught the new street car and rode it down to Main street.

We walked to 3 breweries and fun restaurants to relax!

Waiting for the street car

Enjoying a beverage

Found some new KC graffiti on the walls downtown

Went to a nice Arcade place (that Colin would LOVE!!)

Riding the street car back to River Market

In other news....

Eli and Maggie giggled for hours after putting gummy bears on their upper lips

Meemaw came to visit and Eli LOVED doing puzzles with her

Colin played a soccer game under the lights one night (his first night game - it was fun!)

And Maggie had a friend over for a play date - they got to decorate cookies!

Maggie's PHS dance clinic

I signed Maggie up for a really cute 2 day Dance Clinic put on by a high school nearby.

The girls came on a Thursday afternoon and learned a dance that was to be performed the next night at a home football game.  The girls did their dance during the pre-game show.

Maggie with one of our neighbor girl friend

Maggie went to Pre-K with Leona, but they live in our neighborhood and love getting together

Eli was having a blast walking up and down the bleachers

Maggie knew quite a few girls that went to the clinic - she had so much fun!

Colin found a friend from our neighborhood, too - they both had younger sisters performing in the dance clinic

These 3 all go to St. Therese together

Maggie busted out some freestyle dance moves before the dance

Gotta love our family selfies!

Then Maggie took my phone and got these next few pictures...

So cute!

She's already asking to do it again next year!

weddings and soccer

We've been pretty busy lately with soccer, weddings, and more. 

School continues to go well and we are enjoying our time outside with the lovely weather!

Colin is such a great big brother to Eli

Maggie is really loving soccer - she gets better every week!

Brian's cousin Johnny got married a few weeks ago.

Brian was a reader in the wedding so we got to enjoy the rehearsal dinner and wedding festivities.

It was a lot of fun to get dressed up and enjoy some time with Brian.

We got a sitter for both Friday and Saturday night, which meant we were able to have conversations without interruption!  Priceless!!

The wedding was in downtown KC at the Church of the Resurrection.

Beautiful!

We got all fancied up for the wedding - I got a new dress and Brian wore his ol' trusty suit!

He did a fantastic job with his 2 readings at the wedding!

So much fun with the Teson fam

Grammie and Granddad had a lot of fun, too!

We missed Suzanne, but had Joseph in his place...

The Teson siblings

and Grammie and Granddad

Such a super fun night out dancing and seeing tons of family

Brian loves all of my picture taking requests... :)

Congrats Sarah and Johnny!!!

Total Solar Eclipse 8/21/2017

A few weeks ago, there was a solar eclipse in Kansas City.

In Parkville, we actually were in line with the TOTAL solar eclipse.

It is literally a once in a lifetime opportunity, and our family was so excited!!!

Brian and I took the day off and we took the kids out of school early so they could observe the entire few hours of the eclipse with us.

Eli was supposed to go to daycare, but our provider ended up getting sick so he was home with us, too!  Luckily, his nap time was during the majority of the eclipse, so we were able to see it all without distractions.

Our good friends, the Hunns, came to our house to see it as well.  

Eli, trying on the special eclipse glasses

We set up outside in our front yard and had perfect seats!

The kids were really great about wearing the eyeglass protection during the eclipse

It was really neat seeing it turn darker and darker outside in the middle of the day.  Even the insects and birds thought it was nighttime.

Getting darker...

So much fun!

It ended up getting cloudy during the actual TOTAL eclipse, but the clouds parted for just a few seconds for us to see it.  It was awesome.

It started raining as soon as the eclipse happened, so we headed back inside for the rest.

We had some wicked storms and rain that evening, like 10-12 inches of rain!!

It was such a fun day!

First day of School 2017

First grade and second grade...

Can hardly believe it!

It started raining right when I wanted to take these pictures outside, so I still made them run out there real quick to grab a few.

Of course Eli wanted in on the picture-taking action.

He always wants to do what the big ones are doing.

This picture is just hilarious to me.  Eli crumpled his sign up once it got wet outside.  

It's just very fitting for his to say "freedom" on it - pretty sure that's what every day is like as a one year old!

Our attempt at a family selfie (even Moose got in there!)

Here's Mags outside of Mrs. McConnell's room

And Colin outside of Mrs. Keefe's room

Colin's picture is right below the red hashtag on the bulletin board outside the classroom

Maggie found her friends right away in the hall

And Colin was so pumped to sit with Evan

Such a good group of kids

And Mags with all of her girl friends...

Here's to a great 2017-2018 school year!!!