Hollywood Ending

Once upon a time, we got burned by the mean girls and their mommas. I won't go into detail. 

Fine. 

The details: In Anna's fifth grade year, we found out after the fact that almost the entire grade got together and went to "Day at the K" together, even though the school had stopped organizing it as an official fieldtrip. It was put together by the queen bees and their offspring.  All but a few kids were made aware. So Anna went to school that day only to find out that she not only wasn't invited, she had to sit through a useless day of classes. 

It was a jerk move. 

I may have made my feelings of frustration known on the school facebook page. I was mad and hurt for Anna. 

Fast forward to Everly's fifth grade year! We were tipped off by one of the nice moms that the same thing was taking place. Did we want to get in on it and buy tickets with the group? I had mixed feelings. I suggested that everyone in the grade be invited. A novel idea! I asked Everly if she'd like to go and Mark offered up an alternative plan. 

Would we like company seats in the Diamond Club?

Why yes, that would be PERFECT. And even better? We had four seats. So Anna got a redo and Laney got to take a day off of school. 

Diamond Club seats are FANCY.

They include an all you can eat buffet as well as candy bar, ice cream bar and free ballpark food brought to your seat by a darling waitress that asks you every 10 minutes what else you would like?

It's a kid's dream come true. 

It isn't often that those childhood wrongs are made right. 

And it didn't even require therapy!

Peace out, Day at the K! 

The Sunny Side of the Street

I got to pop in on Anna's final choir tour today. They were singing all over town, and I met up with them at the district education center. The acoustics are amazing.

And there was this moment when I looked at Anna's face while she was singing and I could tell she was feeling that music and watching her teacher and not worried about other kids or worries or homework or anything at all. She was just soaking up that song and happy.  We both needed that. 

 Mr. Braun will always be on my hero list. Long live Sunnyside Singers!

Animal Talks, one last goodbye

The Animal Talks!

We walk from Sunnyside to Olathe South and let the 4th graders check out all the creature in the Student Naturalist class. I still can't believe that we have never run into any of our high school kids when we're there for one of these field trips. 

It's possible they are hiding. 

Everly was pretty excited to have the day off to check out the lizards, birds, spiders, bunnies, weasels and a chinchilla. 

2 finger touch!

Peak a boo!

But the best one of all....our favorite crested gecko, Flynn!

He definitely remembers me...so all the love in his eyes?

I don't know if we will meet again, so we said our goodbyes. If he can survive 7 more years of teenager care, maybe Everly will get to say hello when she's a Junior!

Florida Bound

Megan is off to Florida with the Falcon Regiment. 

This is the stuff you look forward to, the stuff that makes the other stuff worth it. 

And someday, if you're very very lucky....I might tell you the very very questionable, possibly morally wrong thing I did to make sure she was able to go on this trip. It will never be written and I will deny it fervently in a court of law...but I'd do it again and it's pretty freaking awesome.

Fieldtrippin

I knew this day would come.

I'm "without commitments" and the kids know it.  The fieldtrips come fast and furious at the end of the school year and they all know I can chaperone if I want to. And, of course, I want to!

School buses. Packed lunches. Counting heads.

I totally want to.


Day at the K with Laney:

Coterie Theater and Antioch Park with Everly:

And Kaleidoscope with Anna....we left early because she had a stomach ache. Also a perk of having a mom there to take you home when life deals your intestines a raw deal.

Thats okay. We had a nice day at home and got caught up on our laundry and a few movies.

Florida...unchaperoned

The marching band is heading to Florida. They are going to run all around and have the time of their lives.  I feel a little nervous. But, I mean, how much trouble can this group get into??

Don't actually answer that question.

Everly's 5th birthday - Friend Party to Wonderscope!

It's Everly's birthday and that means....Rainbow cake!!

The key to it is making two white cake mixes and dividing them each in half and making them each a different color. Red, yellow, green and blue seem to get that rainbow idea across the best. If she still wants a rainbow cake when she gets married, I'll add in orange, purple and violet. How cool would a rainbow wedding cake be?

Since we are doing a family party later and this thing is crazy tall, I decided we could freeze half of each color and just do half at each party.

I think it turned out cute!

Everly was playing at Jovee's house and so she actually was third to arrive at her own party! I had everyone keep their shoes and coats on, because we were on a mission to sing, eat cake, open presents and high tail it out of there...

Aaron Guenther, Adalyn Ranzenberger, Everly, Eden Giles, Jovee Terry and Shelton Braithwaite.

Feeling a little bashful as her friends sing to her.

All in one breath!

They each gave her a gift and couldn't wait for her to see what they had chosen. And she was so sweet when she opened each one. She would exclaim, "Oh, I really love this!" or "I've always wanted one of these! Thank you very much!"

The second the last present was opened, we ran for the car and got everyone clipped. What a cute little bunch!

And because I failed to plan properly, I realized that by the time we made it to Wonderscope, we would only have an hour to play. It went way to fast.

My favorite moment was when Everly ordered a sandwich from Aaron and he asked, "Open face?"

ha ha! How does a 5 year old know about open face sandwiches??

We high tailed it out of there and made it home on time, but we easily could have spent another hour or two playing in each room.

Luckily, they were happy with their birthday adventures and were all smiles as we sang to our Pandora Disney station on the way home. The last "friend party" is complete! Every other birthday in 2018 will be a nice family dinner. Ahhh.....

I love you Everly! Happy 5th Birthday!

Day at the K

Fieldtrips aren't really my thing. It's hard for me to wrap my brain around going with my kids when they are with a class full of their friends...and several responsible adults that have chosen to make a career out of shaping young minds. 

Why would they want me there?

Don't they want to relax with their homies?

Nope. All the parents go, in fact... many times the mom AND dad will both go? Don't these people have jobs?

So I try to pick one a year that is super important and I ship the littles off to a loving friend (Julia) and we make a day of it. 

This year it was "Day at the K" with Megan. 

We sat in the scorching sun for about two minutes and then moved to the chilly shade.  There was a science and weather demonstration and then we found our seats right in the fountain section.

Megan charmed me into springing for chicken fingers and a big foam claw. I bought a KC hat because my head was on fire. And hey, the Royals are pretty good, their no Cubbies, but not to shabby.

Eventually she found her friends and they set up camp by the fountains where their was  a nice misty breezed to cool them off. 

Soon it was a large group and I was secretly wishing I could join in without being the lamest mom ever!

My KC hat would have to do.

We took off right after the seventh inning. Royals were losing and we had kids to pick up. Not a bad fieldtrip!

Animal Talks....Laney's fieldtrip

I think I've mentioned that I really can only manage to chaperone one field trip per child per year?

So Laney got me for the "Animal Talks" this year. 

We started at Sunnyside and walked one mile to Olathe South High School to listen to teenagers give a 3 minute talk about their assigned lizard/bird/rodent/snake what-have-you. 

We had so much fun. 

The cuteness factor of the baby hedgehog was through the roof. 

My own little critter is pretty cute, I think:

Then she got mad at me on the walk back to the school because I wasn't planning on taking her out of school (3 hours early). She gave me the silent treatment and then her poor little walking partner got caught in her ice-out. I gave her a very stern talking-to and if it made any difference, she wasn't about to tell me. Silent treatment, remember?

WWII Memorial....Kansas City

One morning I woke up and it someone whispered in my ear, "Take the boys to the WWI memorial". It was one of those times when I knew that someone up there was helping me out. 

I needed a way to connect with my boys. 

They are incredibly sweet and willing to go to the Farmstead with the little girls all the time....but it isn't something that interests them anymore. 

So I brought it up with Ethan and he was super excited. 

Mat was on board.

Ethan has been studying WWI this semester in his Modern World History class. He is always excited about what he's learning and it's sparked a real passion for the military and combat.

Mathew is into photography and enjoyed shooting the museum from different perspectives.

We rode the ancient elevator up to the top of the tower and snapped a quick photo...then I was ready to GET DOWN. I don't like being in places that leave me no options for escape.

Smile!

Now let's go.

We stopped for lunch at Jason's Deli because Ethan insisted that I "had to try" the club sandwich. 

Somebody should have warned him about the method most restaurants use to keep those sandwiches together.

Ouch!