Field trips and Ordinary Days in October

Brian was able to be a chaperone for Maggie's fall field trip to Paradise Park in Lees Summit.

He had a lot of fun, but was really busy and tired when he got home. 

Don't know how you teachers do it all day long with these crazy kids!!!

Random picture, but Eli has been climbing all over Brian lately at dinner.

We obviously don't encourage this, but it was pretty funny seeing him use Brian as a climbing structure!

On the bus!

Maggie with cousin Johnny

Learning about rocks

Mining for gold...

We had parent teacher conferences a couple weeks ago and the kids are both doing great.

3rd grade is a big step up in terms of responsibilities and expectations, so we are glad to have a kiddo that is willing to work hard!

The kids had a few days off school for conferences so I stayed home with them one day and we hung out with our neighbor Sophie as well.  We made a quick trip to Hyvee and they were doing a special "KC Chiefs" promotion there with their mascot...

and retired football players...

and a couple of their cheerleaders...

It was a nice surprise at the grocery store!!

Impromptu bonfire night with friends & neighbors

Brian promised the kids a bonfire in our driveway one random Saturday after church.

In our neighborhood, that means all of your neighbors will slowly come out and join you for some fun and fellowship! :)

Silly kids!

Colin and Daddy did all the hot dog cookin...

And we somehow ended up with about 12 kids all running around our house, watching a movie, and being silly.

Gotta love a neighborhood where we all can just let the kids play and be kids.

Annual Roomie Reunion girls trip in Chicago

As per tradition, all of my college roomies got together for a girls weekend in Chicago.

It was, as per tradition, a total blast!

We actually all came in a little bit early to go see Hamilton the musical on Friday night.

I can't stop thinking about it! It was amazing! And I would see it again 10 more times and I'm sure I'd still think it was amazing!

All of us girls smushed in an elevator on the way to the theatre

In front of the theatre waiting to get in.

It was cold, but not *freezing* by any means, so we didn't mind the wait outside

Waiting for the musical to start...

Another selfie with my girls - that evening was so much fun!

Then we drove to Harbert, MI where my roomie has a lake house.

We walked to the beach and I love how it looks like the lake just goes on forever....

We drank some wine & beer, did some shopping, and relaxed a TON!

Even came away with a pedicure, too!

So glad we are all able to make our crazy schedules align for some much needed girl time.

See you next year!!

School Fun Run and Painting Pumpkins

The kids had their 2nd Fun Run fundraiser for school, and yet again, the weather did not cooperate.

The first year it was known in advance that there would be an entire day of rain, so they planned for the Fun Run indoors.

This year, it was just a *chance* for rain so they proceeded getting everything set up outside (which allowed for a lot more room).

It rained - a lot (like a crazy downpour) while the kids were out running.

So they postponed the run, moved everything indoors and tried again inside.  With a bunch of wet, soggy kids.

Here they are dry, pre-downpour

And soaking wet!

They had a lot of fun and our school met their fundraising goal yet again.

The next weekend I took Colin and Maggie to paint some wooden pumpkins.

This was the same place that we made our 'Teson established' sign a year ago.

They had the pumpkins already painted and then you got to pick which face you wanted to put on, and in what colors...

Colin's finished products

Maggie's masterpieces

And a group photo!

It only took about 20 minutes and was a lot of fun!

Eli's 3rd Birthday!

Our little guy turned 3 a few weeks ago.

He really is so fun right now, but definitely has his moments of acting like a 'three-nager'.

He's content with playing by himself using playdoh or doing puzzles, building with legos or watching the ipad, but he looooooves playing with Colin and Maggie, too!

Practicing holding up 3 fingers instead of 2!

We love the giant number balloons!

We just had family come to the party, which was a few days before his actual birthday, and it was so fun watching him open up all the presents.  He was so excited to get each one - giving everyone a hug afterwards and a big "thank you for giving me the ..."

Singing happy birthday to him

He requested "gummy worms" for his birthday cake, so we made the gummy worm dirt cups instead of a cake.  Super fun to make and easy for cleanup!

Maggie took this pic on the way to one of Colin's soccer games...

We celebrated his birthday again, on his actual birthday, with donuts and singing in the morning before daycare/school.

  The kids are always super excited to eat donuts on their birthday morning

We waited to have him open up our presents until his actual birthday - he got some new playdoh, a few new puzzles, and a special toilet seat that fits perfectly for little bums.  He was so pumped!

We went out to dinner at Nick and Jakes, per usual tradition, and he got a piece of cake the size of his head as dessert.

This picture is deceiving - it was soooo big!

Celebrating the birthday boy!

Such a fun day celebrating Eli!

We finished it off watching the KC Chiefs win on their Monday night football game.

Happy Birthday Eli!

Sporting KC soccer clinics

We signed Colin up for a free soccer clinic hosted by a few of the Sporting KC soccer players.

He's had the opportunity to do a couple of these events and always has a lot of fun!

He got to play some soccer and go behind the scenes in the locker rooms and get some autographs, too!

The shoe room!  Colin's dream...

Had a few minutes walking around downtown Parkville one day and took a walk down the alley with all the neat graffiti on the walls - I do LOVE Parkville!