Sophie's 3rd Birthday!

We recently celebrated Sophie's 3rd birthday at a horse stable! This was every kids dream come true, espcially my little rodeo ropers! I don't think I've ever seen Benjamin light up like he did on that horse! It was priceless as he waved to everyone as he rode off! The party was adorable of course with kettle corn, mixed nuts, cotton candy, rock candy, strawberry and chocolate milk, marshmallow pops, BBQ sandwiches, and more! The kids had a great time running around in the dirt and the hay checking out all the horses and goats. Happy Birthday Sophie, we love you!

Crazy kids!

This was a hilarious moment captured by Amie! Bella with all her boys!

Our Omaha trip

This past weekend we took a little family trip up to Omaha to visit the zoo. We traveled up there with our good friends the Armstrongs, Williams, and Whitworths. We got up there pretty late Friday night so we went right to bed once we got to our hotel. We were the first ones in line to get our tickets as the zoo opened and off we went! This was everyone's fist time to the Omaha zoo so we were excited to explore! Amie made fun scavenger hunts with attached crayons for the kids to check off the animals we saw. What a cute idea! We forgot our stroller so Bella and Ben hitch hiked rides with the other kids! We survived though! We covered the whole zoo, ate lunch, took a train ride and finished about 1:30pm. The animals were really showing off for us today. The monkeys were swinging and making noises that I've never heard! The gorillas were running and chasing each other. All of a sudden the largest gorilla looked at us out of the corner of his eye, got a running start, and jumped up and slammed a "high-five" on the window where Brandon was leaning his hand! Wow, it was pretty intense having a ginormous animal maybe only an inch or so from you! The aquarium was beautiful of course! Bella loved all the fish and the sharks! We can't wait to go again!



















That afternoon while Benjamin napped we went to the Children's Museum. Bella would have stayed their all night! There was a really neat traveling dinosaur exhibit that she and Luke enjoyed. She got to hammer open a rock and take a look at it through a magnifying glass. We made it to the bubble show where she got to be inside a huge bubble! She loved the arts and crafts area, there was also a ball area, a pretend village with a grocery store, farm, fire truck, etc.




That night we all met back up at Spaghetti Works. It's a great family place to go with a loud atmosphere, great food, and a balloon lady! Then we found this cute little local ice cream place for dessert. I enjoyed a peanut butter chocolate shake of course! Benjmain acted like he liked his vanilla with gummy bears, but when he got a taste of mine, there was no going back! Bella loved staying in the hotel and kept saying that this was our new home! The breakfast was amazing and different each morning. I ate enough not to really have to eat lunch. We had so much fun and had some great and needed family time!

Loose Park

About a week ago we visited Loose Park with Gigi, Sophie, Porter, and Aunt Val to play on the great playground, feed the ducks, and play in the spray park. The kids had a blast doing all three and we had one last rush of great summer weather! The kids were playing restaurant with Gigi on the playground. The kids gave all of us heart attacks as they had no fear getting so close to the water! We had lunch and cooled off in the sprayers! It was a great end of the summer play date!

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.