Life Can Slow Down a Little Now

Goodness, we've been busy lately! Three weeks ago John was in Minneapolis for work so the kids and I went to Wichita to see John's sister & her family, and then to Hutch. We had a great time in both places and the kids got to go to Mom & Dad's annual pool party. A few days after we got back Will came down with Hand Foot & Mouth Disease, and Maggie followed a few days later. We had friends come to town that weekend to go to a Royals game with us. We had to change plans around a little so our kids wouldn't infect their kids, but we still got to spend time with them and have a great time (all thanks to John's mom who did some babysitting for us!).

Last week we went to Hutch for Uncle Joe's funeral. It's still hard to believe he's gone, but his memorial service was lovely and we really enjoyed spending time with the family. We came home on Saturday, and then on Sunday John had to fly out to Portland for work. It's my first week alone with the kids since we've had Maggie. It's going pretty well, but man am I exhausted!

Of course the most exciting thing to happen lately is that today was Ainsley's first day of preschool! She woke up at 5 this morning and was too excited to go back to sleep. She did great and had a good time, though she was disappointed that they didn't do a craft project. I did great too, and only shed a few tears. :) Getting them all ready and out of the house on time was a challenge. I look forward to next week when John will be doing the drop-off! Here are some pictures - her backpack is almost as big as she is!

Prayers

Seems like there is so much sad news coming in lately. My Uncle Joe collapsed yesterday morning from a heart attack and was gone a couple hours later. He was a really, really good man and I still can't believe he's gone. I can't stop thinking about his wife, Mary. I also worry about my grandmother. I'm glad I'll get to see her soon, but I sure wish it was under different circumstances.

My Uncle Jay is also in the hospital, facing possible paralysis. We're praying hard for a full recovery for him.

Hopefully this is the end of the bad news for this family. You all take care of yourselves!

Goal!

We went to our first Major League Soccer game the other night. The Kansas City Wizards are playing a couple miles down the road from us. They'll be there for a couple years while their new stadium over on the Missouri side of KC is being built. We were bored the other night and looking for something to do, and John thought of this. It was a lot of fun for us and the kids.

Catch-up

July has been a busy month for us so far! Over the 4th of July weekend we went to Norton, John's hometown, for his 10 year high school reunion. It's a pretty considerable drive when you've got 3 small kids, but they did really well over all. They got to eat some ice cream cones in the van to help the trip go faster (which kind of back-fired on us when they were still awake at 11 that night....).

The most fabulous part of the weekend was that John's mom and dad took care of the kids for us while we got to run around and act like we had no responsibilities. John got to play golf with his buddies, I got to get coffee with a girlfriend, we got to see old friends and for two nights in a row we stayed out past 1 a.m.! Of course our kids still woke us up early the next morning, but it was worth it. The reunion itself was nothing fancy, but it was fun to spend the weekend with friends.

The kids had blast with John's parents. They went to the park, helped Papa Jack with his garden and set off firecrackers. Saturday afternoon we took them swimming. Will wouldn't get in until 5 minutes before we had to leave. Ainsley enjoyed herself as long as she wasn't being splashed. All in all it was a great weekend. I'm so lucky to have the in-laws that I do!

Here's Will watering Papa Jack's flowers:




And Ainsley enjoying corn from the garden:


On a stop on the way home, Ainsley put her sunglasses on Maggie and declared her a "superstar":

Jumping on the bandwagon...

Alright, I'm going to give this blogging thing a shot. I figure if nothing else, the grandmas will enjoy it. :)

It's late and I need to get to bed, but hopefully I can get some pictures uploaded and figure this thing out in the morning!