Jiggle Jam!!

Yesterday the family celebrated Memorial Day weekend by spending the morning planting flowers and spending the afternoon at the first annual Jiggle Jam. Jiggle Jam is a 2-day music festival for kids - and while we spent some time enjoying the music, we also spent a lot of time enjoying the vendors, the food, and the fountain.

One of the "activity tents" had boats that kids could decorate and then float in little "lakes". Lincoln did a great job of decorating his boat, don't you think?

Of course, no summer event is complete without ice cream. I ordered a double cone of Sheridans thinking that we could all share. Lincoln is a true Hauner, though, and promptly confiscated the cone for himself.

Luckily Lincoln is learning to share, and as long as you ask him nicely he will let you take a bite of "his" cone.

We spent some time listening to the "Justin Roberts & the Not Ready for Naptime Players" (I highly recommend them if you are sick of kid's music), and then stopped by the Crown Center fountain for some water fun (no illegal fun here - the "fountain" is meant to be played in). We actually went by the fountain several times, but Lincoln was a little too wary of the water to actually get close. This photo shows the closest that he was willing to get to one of the water spouts. Soon after this photo was taken he was splashed by another kid and he decided he was done with the fountain.

A Word from the Wise

Lincoln has taken a renewed interest in books this week.  He is no longer content to sit quietly and listen to stories, but adamantly declares when it is "his turn" to read.  His favorite book to read to us is "Bear Hunt", which has an exciting ending involving....a bear.  Scott was able to catch one of his readings on film the other night.  Unfortunately, as you will see in the clip, his ability to turn pages has not quite caught up to his enthusiasm for reading.

Photographic Evidence

While I don't quite feel like a "doctor" yet, it's starting to sink in.  Yesterday was my graduation and "hooding".  There were five of us getting our Ph.Ds yesterday, and we were each accompanied by our advisor during the ceremony.  I carried my hood over my arm until I arrived on stage when my advisor, Mat Forstater (standing behind me) put it on me.  The other gentleman in the photo is the head of the School of Graduate Studies.  My dissertation title was "Poverty and the World Bank:  An examination of Economic Development Theory and Practice".

After the "hooding" I shook my Mat's hand and managed not to cry.  Here you can really see the hood.  There's a dark blue velvet lining that represents the doctor of philosophy (the "D" in Ph.D), and the yellow and blue chevrons are UMKC's colors.  Both the robe and hood were rentals so I didn't get to keep them :( .  If I decide to go into academia then I'll probably end up buying a set.
My parents, sister, and (of course!) Scott came to the ceremony.  I couldn't have done this without Scott's wonderful support all these years.  
Lincoln didn't attend the ceremony but he got to enjoy some cake that night.

A running post...

I ran the Lincoln Marathon today (I actually only did the 1/2 marathon), and we spent the weekend with Linda's parents.  It was a good race, a good weekend, and Lincoln got his second straight I-get-to-be-spoiled-by-Grandpa-and-Grandma weekend.  Everyone was happy.

I've run the 1/2 marathon in Lincoln for three years, and my times have not varied by more than 45 seconds in total.  After 13.1 miles of running, I can't believe I'm so consistent.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.  As you can see, we also squeezed in some time at the park, and Lincoln went down the slide all by himself (with Mom watching of course).

Linda's been so defensive lately...

So, in case you didn't know, Linda has been working on her PhD in Economics for about 8 years.

That journey ends today because...

Linda successfully defended her dissertation!!

She's now officially a "doctor".  She has to file some paperwork and it's all over.  What a relief.

We're very happy for her and proud of her.