Behavior Treasures

I have really been needing to find a behavior/ award system mainly for Bella. Benjamin will want to play along too. I've seen all different kinds and tried a couple, but this is my latest. Matthew 6:21 says " For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." The kids are obsessed with pretend pirate play and the pirate park that is nearby our house so I though this would be perfect! I got some coins and put them in a pirate's loot bag and hung it next to the Treasure Chart. When they earn a coin they put it in their little treasure chest bank that sits in front of the other treasure chest full of goodies. Bella can earn a coin for making her bed, obeying the first time, picking up toys, practicing her memory verse for Awana's, etc. Or she can lose coins from bad decisions. Then, if she wants gum, TV time, to invite a friend over, or to pick something out of the treasure chest she has to give her coins that she's earned back to me. There are a few different levels with the treasures getting bigger at each one. She has 2 or 3 choices for each level too. We are all set up and ready to go! We'll see how it works this week! Arrrrrrrg!

A Surprise Visit from Uncle Barry and Aunt Christie

We had a great surprise last weekend! Uncle Bear and Aunt Christie flew up last minute to watch her brother play in a golf tournament in Overland Park. Our visit was short but very very sweet! Saturday morning we had Christie and her sister-in-law Claire and her daughter Liz over to play. We went to First Watch for breakfast Sunday morning and visited Deanna Rose. I think the biggest hit was feeding the goats as usual! And we got lucky, it turned out that we happened to go on one of the two free weekends of the year!

Spray Park at Loose Park

This week we met some friends out at Loose park to play. The plan was to go to the spray park and eat lunch afterwards but our sweet friend Issac had a fall and needed to be checked out at Children's Mercy. Adria got to come with us to eat and play at the spray park, and the kids had a blast. This was our first time to come here and we're going to have to make an effort to come at least once or twice a summer from now on.

Bella's first day of preschool!

Bella has been excited for weeks now about going back to school. I think she got a little nervous the morning of though when she didn't want to get out of bed. That is not like her at all! I finally got her up and she dressed herself and ate breakfast. Benjamin and I went to drop her off and she was a little clingy. I made it through without any tears, a little teary eyed, but no breakdown! :) When Benjamin and I got home he was looking around for her. It was so sad and so sweet. He played with his truck for a little while by himself, then laid down on the floor like he was bored! He didn't have his playmate, his best friend, his Lella. When it was time to go pick her up I asked him, "are you ready to go get Bella?" He said Yes right away and practically ran towards the garage! He was ready to bring her home! So sweet!

Pizza 51

This weekend we had our pizza club at Pizza 51. It was so good! I had hawaiian and loved how big the slices were! We went to Glace artisan ice cream afterwards where I had their peanut butter and jelly ice cream. I know it sounds weird, but it was sooo good! Brandon and I also scoped out the new Trader Joe's on our way home! Great night out!


Mo and I enjoyed the beautiful weather and amazing ice cream!

The Zoo with Sammy and Andy

We were so excited to the Armstrongs this week! With the weather being a bit cooler we met at the zoo and a highlight was definitely the monkey house. There were in full swing and Benjamin was loving it! The two monkeys were chasing each other, swinging, and make their extremely loud noises!

We rode the train out to Australia!

We were lucky enough to be feet from a kangaroo! I had to hold Benjamin back, I'm sure he would have loved to run up and try to hug it!

We also love feeding the birds! Benjamin has gotten so brave!

And just look at this face! Where is my little girl go? I look at this and think she looks so grown up! Time must slow down!

Prayer Pot Stew

Let me begin by saying I love things like this! Creativity is my outlet and I love doing fun projects like this one! Let me also say that I'm great at "borrowing" ideas from other more creative people than myself. This one I got from my friend Wendy.

Prayer pot stew is our new family tradition at night that we just started. Each of the kids got a bowl filled with different kids of sponges and things that each stand for a vegetable. Like the green luffa is a head of lettuce. And the prayer for the lettuce is "Lettuce love one another". We have turnips, peas, squash, and thyme. The kids just loved playing with it the first night as I read through the prayer. I know Bella will pick up on it quickly the more we do it, and Benjamin loves doing what big sis is doing.

Thanks Wendy for the great idea!!!

A visit from Grandpa Bob

There was a lot of playing done this weekend with Grandpa! They love getting traced with chalk!


We made a trip to Crown Center and visited the Candy Store. They each got to pick out a sucker! This was one of my favorite things to do when I was a little girl too!

We went to the Rainforest exhibit and Benjamin loved putting the puzzle bridge together. Fingers and feelings got hurt a couple of times. An older girl came over and was "helping him" when he didn't want any help (or need it, he was doing great!) She just took over and his sad little eyes looked up at as and the tears came pouring out. It was so sad and sweet at the same time.

Bella loved looking through the microscopes and magnifying glass to explore different animals.

And of course, we made it to Fritz's. Benjamin loves trains at this age of course, so that was the main attraction!

Bella loves Kaleidoscope! She knew just where she wanted to start, which was the painting room where you send your painting through the dryer at the end!




Chuck E. Cheese is always on the to-do list when Grandpa comes. Another favorite of Bella's! Does she remind you of anyone? haha!

Papa comes to the zoo!

While Gigi is in Peru with Uncle Kev, Papa came along with us to the zoo! As soon as he pulled up and got out of his truck the kids starting going wild! He's our local celebrity! It was still very hot at 90 degrees even though it was the coolest it had been in weeks. We headed out to the Africa side today and got a great view of the gorilla, and lions! I think my dad had a great stroll through memory lane getting to see all the fence he installed for the zoo many years ago! We had our lunch in the air conditioned viewing room for the lions! What a treat! We love you Papa!