A trip to the KC Zoo...

Last weekend we took both of our big boys to the Kansas City zoo. It turned out to be a *very* hot day, but it was still a lot of fun. Lincoln got to see elephants and lions, and even got to "shush" some noisy birds.

 

Guy had a great time despite the heat. His stylish zoo cap (from our earlier trip to the Lincoln zoo) kept the sun off out of his eyes and protected his bald head. Always the stylish fellow, he chooses to wear his cap at a jaunty angle, and acts appropriately blase about having his photo taken.

Guy is 6 months!

It's hard to believe, but my baby is already 6 months old! Last Wednesday we took both the boys to the doctor (Lincoln had a 3-year checkup), and Guy weighed in at 17 pounds 6 ounces. That puts him in the 50th percentile for weight. For reference, Lincoln weighted 15 pounds at his 9-month appointment, and on Wednesday he weighed 24pounds.

Guy's really starting to do a lot of fun stuff.  He's  pushing up into "crawling" position, but not quite crawling. His daycare feeds him cereal at lunch, and we feed him cereal and baby food at dinner. So far, sweet potatoes and peas have gotten a "thumbs up" and pears get a "thumbs down". He adores Lincoln and laughs at whatever he does (which in turn has encourage Lincoln to be even more of a ham), and I think he'll crawl soon just so he can follow Lincoln around the house.  Lincoln, in turn, enjoys "decorating" guy.

Happy B-day, America!

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July holiday.  We had a very busy weekend that started with the Villagefest in Prairie Village.  After a breakfast of Chris Cakes (gotta love those pancake feeds!), we watched a Chinook helicopter land on the municipal lawn.  It was very impressive to watch, and about half the kids watching it started crying when it got close enough that you could feel the wind blasting from its rotors. 

After touring through the helicopter, both Lincoln and Guy got a balloon while we explored the rest of the festival.  There were lots of activities, including free pony rides.  Lincoln had a lot of fun on his very first "real" pony (although he's had a lot of practice on the mechanical horse at the grocery store).

Later that afternoon (after a loooong nap) we headed to Todd and Angela's (Scott's aunt and uncle) house.  Austyn was visiting from grand island, and she and Lincoln had fun playing and sharing a Rice Krispies treat.  Guy enjoyed hanging out on the lawn.

Todd and Angela had a badminton net set up, but I quickly learned that two 3-year-olds do not make good badminton partners.  All in all, though, it was a great holiday.  Maybe next year we'll actually get around to doing some fireworks!

The Big Boy Class

With Lincoln's birthday comes another big milestone - moving to the 3- and 4- year-old (aka "big boy") classroom at daycare. We've been talking about the big move for a couple of months, ever since the first of his friends left his 2-year-old room. He was very excited the move, but I have to admit that I get a little choked up thinking about my little baby is all "grown up". Scott snapped a picture of him on the first day:

Being in the older classroom also means that he gets to start going on field trips, and Lincoln got to go on one (to Wonderscope, a children't museum) the very first day in the new class. On field trip days all of the kids are required to wear their school t-shirt so that the teachers can easily find them. Scott and I quickly discovered that the youth extra-small (the smallest size available) was going to be too big for Lincoln, so I did a little t-shirt surgery so that he wouldn't be tripping over it. I am competent at using a sewing maching, but I am definitely *not* a professional - so while the t-shirt is passable, it is not going to win any style rewards. I will admit, though, that Lincoln thinks the zig-zag stitching is really cool.

Lincoln is 3! (almost)

Lincoln is turning 3 on Tuesday, so we celebrated today with a dinosaur-themed party.

We invited several kids from Lincoln's class at daycare, as well as our family and friends with kids. We kicked things off with some arts and crafts - we had two kiddie tables and our coffee table filled with fun stuff for kids to create with.

Of course, no party is complete without cake. I got an awesome Dinosaur cake from Judi's Bakery in North KC. They're a local bakery and did a great job (the volcano was pure frosting...yum!)

 

We cleaned up the crafts and used the two small tables for the kids to eat at. Lincoln loved the cake - as you can see it did not take long for his mouth to turn blue from the frosting.

Guy had fun at the party, too - Joni was kind enough to make sure he had some toys to play with and stayed fed while Scott and I were running around the party. If you look closely at this photo you can see a small dinosaur hiding...we hid some dinosaurs around the room for the kids to find and take home.

All in all, it was a great party.  We were a bit worried about how our house would handle 8 kids and 14 adults, but our family room was big enough to handle it - and  could have fit a few more.  I'm looking forward to many more fun birthday parties for the boys!

Guy's first tooth and a B-day weekend

This weekend, Guy's first tooth finally broke through. It was a tough battle complete with lots of drool, hand biting, and a little fussiness, but he hung in there. We will work on getting pictures of the new tooth soon.

The other big news of the weekend was my Mom's birthday and Lincoln's pre-birthday. Lincoln's birthday isn't until June 30th, but we let him join in the fun with a little pre-birthday party. It was great, and we've been enjoying Baskin Robins ice cream cake all week.

Guy's 5 month photos...

It's a running joke among people with multiple children that the second (or third, or fourth...) child gets the short shift when it comes to getting photos taken.  We've certainly been busy with our own activities and all of craziness that comes with having a preschooler and a baby, so it's hard to take the time to commemorate all of the little milestones that Guy has been hitting (rolling over, blowing spit bubbles...).  

Luckily our friend Stacey Schmitz is a wonderful photographer, and last week he spent some time capturing the cute things that Guy's been up to.

You can see Guy in all of his cute glory on Stacey's photo blog.  

BRAN and a visit with the grandparents

Last weekend, Scott did three days of BRAN (Bicycle Ride Across Nebraska) with his Dad. Since Scott was going to be out of town, it was an excellent opportunity for me to take the boys to visit my parents. On Wednesday night we met up with Mike, and Guy and Lincoln got to see Grandpa's tent. As Scott got ready to spend three days traveling nearly 200 miles and sleeping in a tent, the boys and I drove to Lincoln to sleep in a nice warm bed and visit...

...The Lincoln Children's Zoo! My mom and I had fun taking Lincoln and Guy to visit the zoo. Lincoln enjoyed seeing the animals (especially the snakes!), but his favorite part of the trip was riding on the train.  The weather was perfect for a zoo trip - not too cool and not too hot.

Even Guy got to ride on the train!  We couldn't get him to look at the camera because he was too busy watching the train conductor.

Grandma was very generous and let the boys pick out a souvenir from the gift shop.  Lincoln chose a snake (of course!), and Guy chose a very cute baseball cap with a frog on it (although grandma may have influenced his decision).

We came back to KC just in time for Everett's 2nd birthday party (although we forgot to take our camera!)   I'll finish with this photo of Lincoln and Guy playing together.  Lincoln was helping Guy drive his "car", and Guy loved it!

Bicycle Ride Across Nebraska (BRAN)

This week the annual Bicycle Ride Across Nebraska (BRAN) is happening, and my Dad is riding for the second year.  I think this year's BRAN covers 450 miles in 7 days.

Not to be left out of the fun, I'm riding too (but only for 3 of the 7 days).  I'm excited and a little nervous.  I've been doing a lot more running than biking lately, so hopefully I'm in good enough shape to survive the 80+ mile ride on day 2 of my journey.

To help stay in touch while I'm out, I setup a Twitter account where you can follow me if you wish.

The family that runs together stays together

This has been an action packed week for our family with the Corporate Challenge (KCCC) track meet, the Hospital Hill run, and the KCCC duathlon.

On Friday, I ran on two relay teams at the KCCC track meet. We won silver medals in both events. The two medals weighed almost as much as Lincoln, who, along with Linda and Guy, was cheering me on at the track.

On Saturday, Linda and Joni ran the Hospital HIll 5K. Me, Lincoln, Guy, and Tracy were there to cheer them on. It was a fun race that was really well organized. By the way, "hill" in the name refers to a mile long fairly steep hill running through midtown KC.

Before the race

During the race

After the race

The last event of the weekend was the KCCC duathlon (run-bike-run). I finished the duathlon this morning in 1 hour and 23 minutes - 13 minutes faster than last year. That improved time was mostly due to my new road bike, but I did run a bit faster too.

A Friend Comes to Visit

We went to visit a special "friend" this weekend - Thomas the Tank Engine!  Lincoln and I got to ride on an actual Thomas Train (or a least, a train that was pulled by Thomas).  And after the train ride there was lots of fun stuff to do - there was a petting zoo, an inflatable "bouncer" (I have no idea what they're really called), bubbles and, of course, lots of Thomas stuff to play with - and buy.

As for Guy, he is growing bigger every day.  He loves to roll on the floor (and he can go pretty far!) and I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before he's sitting all by himself.  For now, though, he enjoys sitting in his Bumbo seat.  Scott took this really cute picture of him.  He doesn't have any hair (or teeth) yet, but I think he's adorable!

We know what we did this weekend

For Memorial Day weekend, Scott and I decided to have a quiet and relaxing 3-day weekend at home.  As you'll see, you can really pack a lot of activities into a 3-day weekend!

First off, Scott and Lincoln actually got some work done by painting some boards to put into the kitchen.  Here you can see the two different painting "outfits" that Lincoln wore (although the second doesn't really count as an "outfit"...)

On Saturday we went to Jiggle Jam, which is a kid's music festival held at Crown Center.  Lincoln loved taking a ride on the little "train" - he just smiled and waved to us the whole time.  Later, we stopped at the Wonderscope tent for...more painting!  Lincoln got his own ice-cream and then practiced drawing on, and cleaning, a window.

Guy was a champ the whole time and hung out while Lincoln tried out all of the fun activities.

On Sunday we did some grilling with Mary, Randy, and Everett for lunch and then visited Tracy and Joni for dinner and More Grilling (it was Memorial Day weekend, after all)!

It was a fun weekend, but I think we need another weekend to recover from our weekend!

Everyone loves a parade

A couple of weeks ago (I know, we're behind), we went to the Mission Days Parade. This was Lincoln's 2nd parade, and Guy's first. Lincoln enjoyed it, but realized that everything in a parade is very loud - fire trucks run their sirens, cars honk their horns, and bands play loud music. You'll noticed Lincoln's hands over his ears in the first picture.

Guy, on the other hand, didn't mind the parade noise. Probably because he lives in a house with a two-year-old that doesn't know the meaning of quite.

After a busy weekend, we were all ready for a good nap...

Lincoln and the Dragon

First, a little backstory: When we moved into our house, the previous owner had painted a big dragon in what is now Lincoln's room. When we repainted last year we opted to keep the dragon because it looks really cool. We've told Lincoln that "Petey" will bring him good dreams and scare away bears (Lincoln is afraid of bears).

In the last couple of weeks Lincoln has really started to enjoy drawing and painting. He mostly just scribbles, but recently I was showing him how to draw people - with eyes, a nose, a mouth, etc. I drew pictures of him, Guy, Scott, and myself. Scott filmed him as he started to draw a face of his own:

Now this is runing

I realize that you're probably getting tired of running posts, but that's the mode we're in right now, so please stick with us.

I was talking to a coworker about - wait for it - running, and he mentioned that his son is an ultramarathoner (i.e. runs 50+ mile races).  He's preparing for the Badwater Ultramarathon in Death Valley, CA, which is a 135 mile race in 135 degree heat in July.

He's keeping a blog as he prepares.  I think it's amazing that people can do this, so I wanted to share it with you.  Enjoy.

On the Run - Part 2

As Linda mentioned in the previous post, it's running season for our family.  Round two of our annual races is the Lincoln Marathon.  This is my 4th year running the 1/2 marathon, and this year Tracy and our cousin Aaron joined me.  It was a perfect day, and we had the whole family there to cheer us on (excluding Guy who stayed with Linda's parents).

Despite the perfect conditions and a lot of training, I ran 1 minute slower than last year.  I was still happy with my time, and I felt good the whole run (and the next day).

This is me rounding the final turn and waving to my adoring fans. It feels great to see the finish line.

Here are Tracy, Aaron, Lincoln, and I post race. As you can see, Tracy and Lincoln were the only ones not cool enough to wear the free Lincoln Marathon visors. You'll also notice that Lincoln is eating my Power Bar. We're not sure it's good for two-year-olds to eat Power Bars, but he needed the energy.

On The Run - Part 1

It's springtime again in Kansas City, which means it's the start of running and biking season.  Last week we kicked off the season with the Trolley Run, a 4-mile run that follows the route of a (you guessed it!) old trolley track path.  The Trolley Run is a lot of fun because not only does it have a 4-mile run for Scott and me, it also has a kid's run that Lincoln has participated in for the last two years.   I ran a personal best of 40 minutes - although in the interest of disclosure, all of the previous years I've run I've either been pregnant or pushing a stroller.

For Lincoln's run, he got his very own number and got to "race" about ten yards.  

Just like the "big" race, there was also a lot of free food and drinks for the participants.  Lincoln cooled off with a glass of juice and filled up on a chocolate-chip muffin.  They also had face painting and balloon animals.

At the end of the race Lincoln received a blue ribbon, which is now proudly displayed on our fridge.  Next year we're looking forward to Guy running.