First Day of School and Parental Perceptions

I'm catching up on blogging-so forgive the lateness of the upcoming topics, please:) Journey started preschool four afternoons a week this year. She is thoroughly enjoying having an assigned "job" to do every day. She even likes being 'super cleaner' or the person who picks up after everyone else has to get any missed items. Apparently this is a very fun job if you get to wear a Batman mask! Preschool teachers are so awesome! The afternoon class only has around 10 students in it, which I love. I wasn't for sure if I should ask for her to be in the morning or afternoon class, but I am VERY GLAD she is in afternoon. We're putting off the reality of having her at school by 8:00am every day one last year!!! (Thanks to all you smart friends for that advice:) Journey comes home singing new songs many days and brings pictures that she has drawn or painted-I know I can't keep them all, but they are so cute! They had a fire drill early in the school year, and Journey was slightly concerned and very inquisitive about a possible fire for the next few weeks, but has since become less worried about it.

I have noticed my perception as a mother is pretty patterned as of yet. I have high expectations for Journey and sometimes I wonder if I have expected too much of her (since she is my guinea pig in this whole parenting gig). I don't even realize I'm that way until I look back at a picture and think "Oh my goodness, she was so little!" and I'll second guess myself on maybe I was too hard on her! SIGH!! I find myself being somewhat the opposite with Wright-I'm always thinking of him as such a "little guy". As I held him tonight before bed, I honestly thought "there is no way this little baby boy will ever be a big, tall guy like his dad or his uncle Joe or uncle Phillip-no way! He is going to be this little guy forever right!!??? I'm very thankful to have the opportunity to be mom to both of these exceptionally cute and wonderful kids!

T-REX CAFE

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We went on a short family get away to Kansas City during Fourth of July weekend. Journey has really been into dinosaurs the past 6 months or so. She loves the Land Before Time movies. Part of our trip was to visit the T-Rex Cafe. We had been here once before a couple years ago and Journey liked it then too. Both kids just looked around in amazement at the whole place. I have no pictures that show the inside, but it is awesome. The restaurant is split into themed sections like an Ice age section and a Ocean section. Every section is made up to look entirely like the real deal including plants, creatures, and huge animatronic dinosaurs that will move and roar. Our waiter said some kids become frightened and cry and I can definitely understand, but Journey and Wright had no problems with it. We actually sat in the ocean section by the 5,000 gallon salt water aquarium. Stretched above the entire section was an ENORMOUS octopus. The jelly fish lights were pretty cool too! I found out that this T-Rex cafe is one of only two in the U.S. The other is at Disney World in Florida. So if you have a reason to be in K.C. and you have a dinosaur lover in the family-I highly recommend dropping in here!!

I Carly

Jeff's Uncle and Aunt brought this little puppy, Carly, along during some of their visits this summer. Now I'm not a dog person, but this has got to be the cutest dog ever. She was a sweetie and Journey and Wright enjoyed playing with her. I love this sweet picture of Journey and Carly-had to post it!

Great Pershing Balloon Derby

We went to the Great Pershing Balloon Derby in Brookfield, MO on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend. Brookfield is just under an hour's drive from Moberly. It was fun, beautiful, and pretty darn cool. We got to watch about 20 balloons set up and take off. We watched about 20 more fly in and try to land in the designated area, much harder to do than it sounds. Then at dusk, we got to walk through 20 balloons during a "night light" event. All the balloons were touching and as you walked through the middle of them and looked up, you saw every color of the rainbow illuminated above you-it was like some fairytale stained glass world.

Anyway, it was well worth the trip even though the kids enjoyed climbing on the three rows of big hay bales at the end of the field as much or more than the balloons.

It was well worth the trip even though Wright gagged on a Skittle on the way over and then proceeded to vomit profusely until every last drop of anything he had even thought about eating was covering him and his car seat.

The trip was also worth it even though I lost my camera at the Balloon Launch Site (which is a fancy label for big, open pasture with lots of people milling about). I had it in my pocket and had gotten some good pictures I thought, but as we drove home at 10pm that night, I realized it had fallen out. Knowing I was not going to drive back the next day for "a lost cause", I had resigned myself to the loss. As most everyone agrees, it's not necessarily the camera you care about, it's the LOST PICTURES.

The happy and somewhat unreal ending was I took a chance and e-mailed the Chamber of Commerce the Tuesday after Labor Day just to give them my name in case anyone found it and turned it in. They e-mailed back that day saying someone had given it to an announcer, who gave it to them, and it was sitting in a desk drawer. They mailed it to me and so here are some of the pics. Of course, my camera (and me) are not professionals and the pictures could never do the real experience any justice, but they are nice mementos for us.

I really wanted to go to the Forest Park Balloon Festival in St. Louis the following weekend, but it didn't work-maybe next year. They had around 70 balloons there!! And I'm definitely going on a hot air balloon ride sometime-we'll see if Jeff will go too.

He's Got the Look!

Wright seems to have lots of admirers! Whenever we go out, people are drawn to him. The old farmers around here love his energy and interest in TRACTORS! Girls of all ages love to talk to him and inevitably come to the same conclusion-he is CUTE (totally agree)! Must be the combination of crazy blonde hair, blue eyes, and happy/energetic demeanor. Whatever it is-it's workin' for him!



Outside=Happy!


Right pointer finger-never leaves home without it!



Yep-He's Cute!

(I may be in over my head with this one.)

Just a Swingin'

Like most kids, ours love to swing. Journey has to try swinging lots of different ways-the normal sitting, the standing, the laying on your belly, laying on your back, and all kinds of other ways. She is very good at getting started, pumping, and climbing high! Wright watches EVERYTHING Journey does and tries to imitate to the best of his ability. He likes swinging in baby swings, but he also enjoys belly swinging on big kid swings! Of course, they are both big fans of the "Under Doggie Push" too! We've done lots of swinging this summer. Hope your summers have been filled with fun too.




Hanging out on our swings.



Journey flying high at Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Larry's!
She loves this "Cebulski" inspired rope swing :)


Makes her hard to catch in a picture though!!!!!!!!!



Wright's getting it figured out too!

SUMMER!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summers. It has flown by as usual-BOO! I am happy to say we've enjoyed lots of swimming and time with family and a short trip to K.C. Jeff and I just had our 12th anniversary-yet to be celebrated as our family was stricken with a demonic stomach virus that lasted a couple weeks before it was all done. I start back to work next week and Journey starts 1/2 day preschool next Wednesday (four days a week). Kind of interesting to think she may meet some friends that she'll know the rest of her school career!! Sorry we didn't make any big trips this summer-never has felt like a possibility this summer. Maybe sometime over the school year?? or next summer?? We have many friends and family across the country we'd love to see again. Miss you all!!

OH, JOURNEY!

Journey has gotten into the habit of falling asleep in our bed and then we move her to her own bed, after which there is a 50/50 chance that she will return to our bed in the early morning hours. A while back, Journey started bringing a stuffed animal or two to bed with her. Then Journey was bringing a whole herd of animals to bed with her placing each one in the "perfect" spot on OUR bed! I drew the line after she brought 27 friends to bed with us. I know, world's worst mom. . .read on!

Journey is cracking me up lately! She asked me the other evening as she played outside at dusk if I wanted to "use up the sunlight" with her. How could I refuse?!! This morning we had a storm roll through early with lots of thunder so when she got up, I asked her if she had heard the storm. I said it was a lot of "rumble, rumble." To which she said, "maybe it was my belly." Guess she was hungry!!!!!!!!!!!! Jeff and I have pretty definite parenting ways and it hasn't gone unnoticed by Journey. We jokingly say that Jeff is the "yes, yes man" and I am the "no, no girl". So the other morning I asked Journey if she had any dreams and whether they were good or bad. She quickly said she had a dream and it was GOOD. She said, "Daddy got me a TV for my room!. . .and he said the 'no,no girl' was never coming back!" Yikes! So I said, "I wasn't even in your dream?" She said "no" got a little concerned look on her face and said, "I REALLY WANT A TV IN MY ROOM!" As you can guess I said "no".

Airborne

Jeff has always been interested in flying. He has been really into radio controlled airplanes basically since we moved back in 2007. If you know Jeff, then you know he is quite skilled at building things and I believe he has definitely found a place in radio controlled airplane building. (If we could only make some money at it-but then it wouldn't be as fun right??) Jeff has built-basically from scratch around 5 or 6 planes now. He could go much more in depth in telling you how it is done, but the short version is (forgive me Jeff for the inaccuracies): he picks a real airplane he wants to build a model of. Somehow he gets dimensions and drawings from the internet I believe. He cuts and shapes the body and wings, etc. from foam. Adds the mechanical and engine parts. Does a super nice paint job on it. MONTHS LATER. . .Flies it. Sometimes crashes it. Fixes it. Flies it alot more. Starts thinking about the next one to build.


Jeff strapped our camera to the belly of one of the first planes that he built and took an aerial video of our property-I found that video before he had told me that he did it. Jeff has also strapped roman candles and sparklers to his planes around the fourth of July, lit them, and flew the plane at dusk. That was enjoyed by all! Seems like the best time to fly is in the evenings (as the wind calms down). I'm constantly amazed at Jeff's varied abilities and creativeness. It definitely fits with my "frugality" that he can build all these himself instead of buying them! And as he says, the construction phase is as much or more fun for him as the actual flying! So my husband is a dork, but we love him to pieces!!! Here are some photos of Jeff and his most recent plane.

Enjoying our Pond/Lake!

We are enjoying our pond/lake immensely this summer! I'm not sure if it is quite big enough to constitute as a lake. . . .but anyway we love it. We go on little paddle boat rides when it is not too hot-very enjoyable. It is so nice on a hot day to walk across the back yard to the sand, play there, wade in the water, or even swim a little. The sand has made it out in a small area of the water so that it is not muddy. Jeff wants to haul more sand in to beef up the sand pile again and push more out into the water to have a bigger "non-muddy" swimming area. The first picture above is just the kids playing. The sand pile is used often for general digging, building, burying, and driving of small vehicles. Second is Journey checking out a baby toad. We watched the toads around our pond grow from egg stage-to tadpole-to "froglets" for lack of a better word-to these tiny toads-Journey was quite the tadpole catcher and now no toad or frog is safe!! The last picture is my nephew, Lane, and a bass he caught out of the pond. We can cast a line in and catch a small bass VERY regularly, but every once in a while someone catches a nice one like this too! We always throw them back so come for a visit and fish with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!