Spring Program 2012

This year Steven got to steal his way into the spring show at CTK because he started summer care there the morning of the show. He actually did pretty good with the songs because he already knows "You are my sunshine" but he kind of just hummed along with "Make New Friends." Note the hand in his pocket ... it stayed there for the entire performance.

Lyla got to sing "His Banner Over me is Love" and "Two Litle Apples." She was especially animated for all the actions. I thought we might have a bit of a flash happening when she rubbed her tummy but thankfully her dress was just long enough!

Her two good friends: Jane and Rachel





Blueberry Picking

Steven's last day of being a P4 at Borderstar was Tuesday at noon. He did really great over the year and changed so much. He desires responsibility, is learning new things and generally doing a great job listening and following directions. We still have a long way to go with letters and numbers but it is quite impressive to hear a four year old tell you about the continents.

I wanted to celebrate the end of the year a little bit with him, so I decided to take a day off between regular school and summer care to do something fun with both him and Lyla. I was really lucky that we had such a mild winter and warm spring because The Berry Patch opened 3 weeks earlier than they normally do. So we headed down, down south to pick some blueberries.

We arrived around 10am and headed to the far away blueberry patches. These were the first ones to ripen and there were lots to pick off the bushes. They give you a bucket with a bag inside and a piece of twine to tie it around your waist - both hands free for picking!

Steven was very industrious. He would look at the bush, pick a branch and one-by-one pull off a berry to put in his bucket. Eventually he figured out that you could pick more than one at a time and he ended up filling about a third of his bucket.

Lyla on the other hand was more interested in filling her belly than her bucket. She decided early on that she didn't need to put them in her bucket, they tasted too good for that. I also think she enjoyed spying on the other berry pickers to see if their bushes had better blueberries to eat. I was very honest at the checkout and told them she ate about twice as much as was in her bag - they just smiled and told me, we know.

What a fun outing, I am tempted to take a day in August to pick blackberries with them!

Jumbotron

We went to the Royals game with Shannon, Dave and Lyla's friend Rachel. We were in the upper deck right behind a camera man. It was really annoying because it was obstructing our view until...Lyla became the star of the game!

Later on both Steven and Lyla got on the jumbotron but no picture of that and I didn't think to grab Rachel to get her on screen in time. Maybe next game!

Bitty Soccer 2012

This year Lyla turned 3 just in time for the spring session of YMCA Bitty Soccer. I thought it might be nice for the kids to be on the same team this year so we signed up and they got on the Orange Crush team. Steven was much more interested in playing the game this year. He was actually one of the better players on his team and almost scored two goals in one of their games.



Lyla on the other hand had a much different vision of soccer this year. At least she spent her time on the sidelines and not in the middle of the field - danger zone - like Steven did last year.

She did appear on field one time during a game but quickly ran out of the mass of children to her safe and secure spot next to me on the sideline.



Mother's Day 2012

We had a great day - picnic, music and puppets in Theis Park, then a walk around Kauffman Gardens. It was perfect!

Watching Mr. Stinky Feet

Puppets are about to begin

Polar Bear sighting

Some weird statement about Mother Earth, Father Time and protecting the Earth, we think.

Highlights

End of the year after school program

Steven attends LINC after school care until I pick him up every night. His teacher Miss Lisa was great, she quit a month ago or so to get a better full time job. We were happy for her and Steven still misses her. She started the kids preparing for their end of the year program by helping them memorize their speeches. The kids recited their name, age and what they wanted to be when they grew up.

Steven wants to be a trash man. My hope is that he somehow knows that his mom is a civil engineer and he wants to do sanitation because it is a big part of my profession but I really know he just thinks its cool to ride on the back of a trash truck. Ironically, there was a man in the front row wearing a Sanitation Department shirt. I wonder what he thought.

My video didn't start when I wanted it to but here is a snipet.

It's a...

We debated long and hard about finding out the sex of our baby. It was so hard for us to decide since we didn't find out with Steven or Lyla and we thought it wouldn't necessarily be fair for this baby. In the end though, we decided to have the sono tech write it down in a card and then we could decide if we'd open it or not. That was Thursday morning, we didn't last long. By Friday morning we had decided that we'd meet at the pretzel store (75th Street Brewery) that night and celebrate with the kids by opening the card. 

Then Lyla fell ill and we had to postpone. I think it was driving Tommy crazy that he had to stare at the envelope sitting on the shelf all day Saturday. Ironically, the suspense never bothered me because I knew the sex of the baby already (and I was right with the other two so my confidence was pretty high). 

So we ate dinner and then gave the card to Steven to open. All day he was practicing B O Y and G I R L in phonetics with Tommy. He was going to read the card to us all, until...

The sono tech decided to write us a long note and Steven had to have a little help from his dad. Don't you just love their faces?

Calls were made to Grandma Pam and Papa Gene to tell them the news. Grandma and Papa were no where to be found so they got the news delayed a few hours. 

What a fun night and now we are preparing for our BOY! And yes, I was right all along!