Kid Quote :: 7

Jayden has struggled with figuring out how to put socks on, but this morning he decided he was putting on his own dinosaur socks. He’s sitting on the couch and I hear him say he got one on and then a few minutes later I hear this :

"Mom! You have to help me! I can’t get this sock on, it keeps messing around…”

That darn sock!

Fun with Friends

This weekend, we drove up to Leavenworth to hang out with our friends the Sessoms who sadly are moving to North Carolina in a little over a month. Guess when we get our trailer (because I killed Royal in our March Madness bracket!!!!) we have a place to go visit!!

The Sessoms have a blow up jumper in their back yard. It’s pretty awesome and the kids had a blast jumping on it, even Willow got in on the action with the bigger kids!



Here’s some pics of the kids, (mostly in the car) that I think are pretty hilarious.

Jayden is having a real hard time giving me a normal smile, so this is what you get. :)





Willow likes to put on her own sunglasses, and when she does, she always puckers up her lip and stares are you like, “What?”







When went into Kansas City today to have some fun with the kids, and it was Royal’s first trip ever into Missouri, he was pretty excited about that. :)

We started at the train station because they have a bridge that goes over the top of the train tracks and you can watch the trains coming and going into the station. Jayden loved it and pretty much didn’t want to go anywhere else. Dinosaurs and trains, it just doesn’t take much to make that kid happy



Here’s the kids waiting for a train to show up!



Finally! 2 trains at once!!! Could we get any luckier??? :)





And we pretty much just can’t go anywhere where we don’t spot a dinosaur somewhere! I guess there is a dinosaur exhibit coming to Kansas City in a couple weeks. Guess we’ll be making another trip! :)



We ate lunch at Fritz’s where you sit in a booth, order your food over a telephone, and then your food gets delivered by a train that runs on some tracks over your head. It was pretty sweet.



We also stopped by the Crayola store, and let me tell you, I could of done some damage in there! But Royal was always near by making sure I wasn’t getting one of everything!

I did manage to pick up some sidewalk paint! Jayden loves painting, but man is it a mess to set up and take down all the time, so I figured since he might enjoy having an entire driveway to paint instead of just a piece of paper. I was right. :)



Willow was going to get in on the action too, but she had to take a little time out in her car…



…because the first thing she did after dipping her brush in some paint was try to eat it….



Oh! and my favorite quote of Jayden’s from the ride to and from KC this weekend (just so I don’t forget it later), out of the blue he says, ‘Gosh mom, I really hate all those wrinkles in my toes

Hangin' with Dinos

The Walking With Dinosaurs show is coming to Wichita in a couple of weeks and in order to promote the show, a 6-month old baby T-Rex made it’s appearance today a the mall. We got there a little early and managed to find some friends who had a spot right up front, so we crowded in and sat with them. It was pretty awesome! Jayden loved it, as long as the baby t-rex was a few feet away. If it got a little close, he’d start scooting around behind me. He knew it wasn’t real (we’ve been talking about it all day), but he said, ‘He’s got huge teeth!’ Willow just chilled in our friend’s stroller and really didn’t think too much of it.
(all my pictures are from the ground level, as I was sitting on the floor with the kiddos. :) )

Weather Clouds

Supposedly there is a big thunder storm rolling into Wichita this evening. I love how in Kansas you can see the storm coming, there is a total edge to it.

Looking straight out back of my house the sky looks like this…

Good-bye blue sky and sunshine…



Turn your head 90 degrees and you’ll get this view from my back porch…

Hello Storm…



Turns out, the storm pretty much missed us here at the house, (unless there is another one coming). We heard thunder in the distant, but that’s about it. Here is the view from the porch now, about an hour later…

Good-bye Storm…

Where's My Sweetie Pie?

I love that Jayden loves to do things for and with Willow. He reads to her all the time, and this is one of her favorite books. He’s such a good big brother! And Willow is the typical little sister, pulling on his ear and everything. :)

Easter Fun

This was our 2nd Easter here in Kansas, all alone, with no family around. I actually don’t really mind being all alone on this holiday. Back in Washington, Easter was like all other holidays and semi-holidays and sometimes weekends, lots of people, lots of food, lots of noise, lots of fun. But for the past few years, I don’t mind not doing that. Easter 2007 was the last time I saw my brother alive, so Easter’s now are a little depressing and sad for me (despite the reality behind Easter - The Resurrection! - not depressing and sad at all!), so a low key Easter is all right with me.

We dyed eggs on Friday.



It was Willow’s first time getting to participate! Please ignore the drool, the girl is always drooling…



Then it was time to put some stickers on our newly colored eggs!



Willow thought it was more fun to put stickers on her leg…



She also thought the eggs were balls, so she wanted to play with them. I said, ‘well, just give her one, they’re hard boiled, so it’s not like she could crush it and make a big mess’

Guess I was wrong. Egg. Down. Never underestimate the thumb strength of a 16 month old. ;)



Today after church, we came home and did our egg hunt. I swear it was over in like 2 minutes. It didn’t take Willow long to figure out what was going on and she loved finding all the little eggs in the yard, especially when she discovered that some of them had candy in them!

(be sure to notice Willow’s shoes…luckily there’s no hippos around here)













After the egg hunt, Jayden really wanted to try and eat an egg like Marcie on “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown”. I told him he could try it, but we were going to take the shell off, something that Marcie forgot to do…





While Jayden was trying out his salted hard boiled egg, Willow was digging through their Easter boxes looking for more candy



I decided this year to get these canvas boxes to put their Easter presents in, since they could still use the baskets that I got them last year, and we could use the canvas boxes for collecting toys throughout the rest of the year. Jayden’s is blue and is an elephant, Willow’s, you’re not gonna believe this but…Willow’s is a pink hippo. And I got these a couple days before the whole shoe/hippo incident. Guess my life really does have some foreshadowing in it. Maybe if I was paying a little more attention, I would of noticed that God was trying to tell me that hippos were going to play a small, but very funny part in my near future. :)

Just Keep Swimming

Jayden finished up his 1st session at the Wichita Swim Club and he graduated from Level 1 - Exploration and Comfort! Woo Hoo! That means on Monday he starts in a new class for Level 2, with a new teacher (he’s a little anxious about this, he does NOT like change), and new things to learn.

Jayden earned the highest marks in all of his skill proficiency evaluation for level 1 : Streamline, Kicking, Fully submerge face and blow bubbles, Supported front and back float, Roll over from front to back and back to front, Introduction to alternating arm action, Introduction to breaststroke kick, and Introduction to butterfly kick and body movement.
His teacher even made comments about how he can float all by himself and how he is a natural in the water. Basically when you translate that into mommy-talk, it means she sees a future Olympian. :) he he he

Good Job Jaydo!!!!