First Day of School

Last Wednesday was our first day of school. I think we all were excited about school starting. Jesse is in the fifth grade. He has a seasoned teacher who loves to educate children. Isabelle is in the third grade. Her teacher is teaching for the first time this year. She is Korean. She came to the USA as a foreign exchange student about five years ago. She loved it so much she decided to stay. I am sure Isabelle will learn a lot from Ms. Han this year. Courtney started kindergarten. It is only a half-day program, 8:15-11:15. Her teacher actually has a combined class. She is teaching kindergarten and first grade together. I think this will help Courtney, having the older kids in her class. I have posted pictures of their first and second days of school in our photo albums. I had to take pictures the second day because it was chapel day and the girls always wear their cute plaid jumpers.

Toy and Miniature Museum

In Kansas City there is a Toy and Miniature Museum. I had never been there before, but I have always heard it was worth a visit. This summer the museum has been advertising an American Girl Doll display. Several of my friends and I took our daughters out to lunch and then to the museum one Sunday afternoon after church. We ate at a local favorite, Winsteads. It is a soda fountain type diner. We treated the girls to Skyscraper shakes for dessert! They were just amazed when the shakes were set in front of them! (see photo) After lunch we headed to the museum. The American Girl display really wasn't much but the girls loved the museum anyway. They had tons of huge dollhouses. All of the girls ran from house to house exclaiming " This is my dream house". It was really cute. We had so much fun I can't wait for our next Mom and Daughter outing.

Adventure Oasis

The kids have been begging all summer for me to take them to a big water park. Oceans of Fun is one option, but it is so big that I really did not want to tackle it all by myself. I found a smaller, but just as fun, water park called Adventure Oasis in Independence. We went there on a day where the temperature was 100 degrees! We only stayed two hours because of the heat but we had a lot of fun. There were big water slides that Jesse and Isabelle enjoyed. There was also a lazy river that they floated around in. The three little ones and I stayed in the kiddy area. It had slides, water fountains, a pool, and a big bucket that would dump about 200 gallons of water every 7-10 minutes. We all loved that! There are more pictures in our photo albums!

Overland Park Arboretum

Not very far from our house is a beautiful place to visit. It is called the Overland Park Arboretum. It is a 100 acre park that is set aside just to show the natural beauty of our area. It is actually in Kansas so a lot of the plants and displays have Kansas themes. I have taken the kids to the arboretum before but it has probably been at least three years since we have visited. The day we decided to go was very hot, 98 degrees. We did not stay but a couple of hours but we had a lot of fun, looking at the insects, flowers, water features, and such. We even took a picnic that was much appreciated by the local bees! There are more photos in our photo albums.

What's going on!

This summer we have stayed busy doing the usual stuff ( playing in the pool, going to the park, having sleepovers with our friends, and VBS). I haven't kept up with our blog very well because I am so tired at the end of the day. This week I added some pictures in everyone's blog and some in our photo albums. We went to the T-Rex cafe when Aunt Ann was here and had a lot of fun. Courtney's birthday was on the 18th. She is five now! School starts in two weeks , so we are trying to get everything ready to send three kids this year! I don't know what I am going to do with only two at home during the day.