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.

Family Heritage

About 15-17 years ago, when I was just a teenager, I used to love to dig through thrift and antique stores with my friends. I came across a plain white/cream colored, slip type of dress. I just fell in love with the dress. I didn't know its history or even if it was an antique. I just loved the simplicity of the dress. I thought one day God would give me a little girl. I could dress her up and take her picture in the dress. The dress is handmade and very simple but I knew that one day my daughter's beauty would make the dress beautiful. Well, I have been blessed with three beautiful daughters. I decided to take them at age one, to one of my favorite places in Kansas City, Loose Park, to take their pictures. I started with Isabelle when she was just one year old.

I also took Courtney when she was one. Her birthday is in July so the roses in the garden were in full bloom!

Now, I have taken Sarah. She is two and half and the dress still fits! It is a lot shorter on her but still just as beautiful!

I love looking at these pictures and seeing the girls similarities and differences. I also love looking at them in amazement, an realize how blessed I really am!

*I tried to put these pictures in order but for some reason this program

kept moving them. See if you can tell who's who?*

Redneckin' in the backyard

We spend a lot of time in the backyard. Now, that we have a pool again we spend even more time there. The kids swim at least once a day, sometimes more. Almost every evening after supper they want to swim, until they just wear out. One night while Aunt Ann was here we decided to roast marshmallows for s'mores in our flower bed, turned weed patch. In no time at all we had a small fire going and then, yummy s'mores. Everyone loved them! Sarah, who is not a sweets eater, even joined us for some chocolate. I know this is not the classiest story about our lives, but it is real. I do hope one day the kids will glean out of their memories some sort of standard but hey, we do live in a town named, Peculiar!

Deanna Rose Farm/ Courtney's Birthday

Nanny and Aunt Ann wanted to celebrate Courtney's birthday while they were here so we planned a fun day at the Deanna Rose Farm. We packed a picnic lunch, grabbed the presents and were off. We had so much fun just being together. The weather was hot but not unbearable. We did take advantage of the air conditioned areas at the farm. The kids loved seeing everything. You can see all of the pictures from our day if you click on the the link to Our Photo Albums!

Family Reading

We have read some good books together this summer as a family. We are currently reading "Indian Captive, the story of Mary Jemison" by Lois Lenski. It is based on the diaries of a girl who was taken captive during the French and Indian war. We have also read "Strawberry Girl" by Lois Lenski. It is one of my favorite books. It is about a girl living in Florida in the early 1900's. We have also read" The Apple and the Arrow" by Mry and Conrad Buff. It is the legend of William Tell and his son. This was an exciting book. We also read "Mr. Popper's Penguins". This was a funny book about penguins who live in someone's basement. I don't know what we will read next, maybe "By the Great Horn Spoon". I can tell you this we love reading together and we look forward to every chapter each night!

Fourth of July

Oh, my what a week! We all had the stomach flu/virus the week of the Fourth. Nanny and Aunt Ann came for a visit, also. So far they have not caught the bug from us. It makes for a long illness when you have so many people in one house. No one ever gets sick at the same time. It just gets passed around one at a time. Anyway, I think we are on the mend. Because of the holiday we still had a lot of fun. On the Fourth we went to all the thrift stores (my choice) because everything was half-price! We also grilled in the backyard and the kids swam. Later in the evening we went down to Grandma and Grandpa Nash's to shoot off our fireworks. It was raining off and on. Jesse and Tim were the troopers, and stood in the rain to shoot them off. After that we went to Harrisonville to watch the city's fireworks. They were really pretty. If you want to see all the pictures from the Fourth click on the link to Our Photo Albums.