What we've been up to this summer

Our Ethan boy has started taking piano lessons.  It is very sporadic, as our schedule or his teacher's causes a cancelled lesson frequently. And his teacher will move soon, but for now, he's getting a little taste.  He picks it up pretty well, but doesn't like to practice (already!).  Typical.

Jovee had fun crawling in and out of this box.

 Ethan stayed at his grandma's house for a week with his cousin Matthew, so the girl's and I got to do some fun things by ourselves while he was gone.  For example: we biked to the Farmer's Market.  I say 'we', but I mean 'I'. They didn't do much work. :)

 And we got frozen yogurt.

 And Ross hung up a really awesome swing in our backyard.

 Jovee has become a little climber.  She has so much fun!  But it stresses me out. Obviously she's not very careful.

 Ethan has learned how to do the monkey bars.  He kept trying over and over to see if he could get further.  I love that quality about him.

 Sometimes we are classy and use a storage tub as a kiddie pool.

(Blurry) baby feet in flip flops are super adorable.

 Another picture from blueberry picking.

I went to City Market for antiquing and lunch with some friends for my birthday. 

We missed Mitzi.

 

Ross and I went out for some delicious Indian food at Korma Sutra.  Our first time, and it was really really delicious.  And then we had strawberry shortcake with the kids for dessert.  I felt very loved.

The kids participated in the Deanna Rose Farmstead's Chicken Run.  They both did well, although not well enough to earn a trophy, much to Ethan's dismay.  They did earn medals and got t-shirts though.  It was a lot of fun.

 

 I guess Jovee is too cool to get her picture taken anymore.

 Ethan has turned into a really great swimmer, and in Overland Park, that means you get to go down the slides!  He does this over and over now.

Jovee put on Ethan's hat and started dancing all by herself.  She makes me laugh a lot.

 Morning light and bedhead.

 Ross has been gone a lot this month, so we've been keeping very busy. We tried out a new pool in Shawnee, and my friend Elena and family came with and she was so very helpful.  It was kind of a big pool, and it was tricky keeping an eye on everyone.  Plus I was able to go down the slide with the two older kids, which was a lot of fun.

 Jovee is walking and super happy about it!

 We went to Parkplace in Leawood with a friend and listened to some fun kid music.  The kids got their faces painted and even got up to sing along to some of the songs (into the microphone!). Thanks for the picture Carrie!

 This last weekend we took a trip to St. Louis to visit my brother Sam and his family.  We stopped in Arrow Rock along the way.  It's not exactly on the way-- but it's worth the little jaunt away from I-70.  Such a cute little town.  Everyone was super friendly and accommodating.

 The kids enjoyed their 'frozen treats'.

 We ate at a restaurant there around 2:00.  It was completely empty except us, and we basically shared one plate between the 4 of us.  Despite that, the server and owner were so kind and gave the kids these little key chains for eating all of their food and having good behavior.     

 Also it was rather an adventure getting to Sam and Kia's.  I had 10% battery life on my phone, and really no clue how to get there without it. (Curse dependency on technology!) So I took a wrong turn onto the wrong free-way, and then off the free-way.  Thankfully though, I saw a Best Buy and was able to gather the children and go in, buy a car charger for my phone, and be on our way.  I'm thankful that worked out the way it did.

So the next day we all went to the St. Louis zoo.  It was pretty warm, but luckily the zoo is mostly really shaded. The kids liked it a lot, although they did get tired from a lot of walking.  And Leah would NOT stay near us ever.  Everywhere we went she wandered off and around corners and was totally oblivious.  I would say it's because she's kind of spacey, but really she's been very ornery lately and pretty much refuses to do what I ask her. All the time.  Parenting her is really exhausting.  But she's definitely a lot of fun.

 We made cookies yesterday.  Ross is usually the baker, but I was proud of myself that I took initiative while he was gone and made them anyway.  Ha.  They were pretty good too.

That was a pretty long post!