Grand Opening of the Park

This year we attended the grand opening of the Riverside Park. The park here is quite old, but they do an annual event where they open the carousel, miniature train, and min-golf course for the season. (We love those things!) They had a lot of booths to entertain the kids and lots of bounce houses. Any excuse to play in a bounce house, my girls are happy!

Donuts with Daddy

At the end of the school year, Gracey's elementary school has an annual "Muffins with Mommies" and "Donuts with Daddies" breakfast. I didn't think to take pictures when I went to breakfast. The occassion is so rare though to have Corky home with us in the mornings that I had to snap a picture of him and his ladies. Emily was able to tag along for the event and everyone had a great time.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

Dyeing or Dying? How do you spell it?

No matter how you spell it, we had fun!

Good student and great helper!

Emily was quite proud of her artwork from preschool today. She asked me about 20 times on our drive home if I liked it. It still hangs on our wall, right next to Corky's college diploma!



Every Wednesday, one of Emily's chores is to bring the emptied garbage can up from the street. She is always so willing, very rarely needed to be reminded to do it. Now if only we could have some of that enthusiasm with keeping her shoes straight in her closet!



p.s. That house across the street is still for sale! We want great neighbors... anybody interested in living in Independence?

Corky's New Toy

Corky is obsessed with golf. You didn't know that??? Have you met the guy? We live in a golf course community and less than a half of a mile away from the clubhouse. Corky and I decided that as his schooling was coming to an end we would join the country club. Just when I thought I had talked Corky out of wanting to buy his own cart, he finds a great deal on this 1988 gem. Now he can pull out of the garage, head straight to the golf course, and golf to his heart's content!

Even though it wasn't a surprise to Corky that it would be delivered today I wanted to dress it up with a little note and bow! The guy who delivered it sure got a kick out of it!






Honestly though, this thing is a lot of fun. We have taken it on evening strolls to the golf course and played as a family, and the girls see it as good daddy/daughter time as well. It's been worth it.

Emily, the Superhero!

Emily loves capes. She turns jackets into capes, sweatshirts, and blankets. This little puppy paw blanket is her favorite to wear. It is thin enough that she thinks it flies really well in the air.

Today she insisted that she put it on and get her picture taken so she could see how high it flew! It was so muggy outside that I started sweating just with the thought of her wearing flannel, but she insisted.



I have got to make this girl her own cape. She has already picked out the colors for it, it is just a matter of me doing it! I think it would be time well spent because I know she'd love it! What do you think?

Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

We live in a great neighborhood. Moving to a brand new town, a town that you had never even heard of before, you pretty much are taking a gamble with the neighborhood. You always hope you have nice neighbors and that there are other kids for your kids to play with. Well, we hit the jackpot! We have quite a few elderly people that live in our neighborhood, but so far, all the ones that I have met have loved the children. Luckily, we have LOTS of kids in our neighborhood as well. A tradition that has been going on for a while now, and now participate in, is the neighborhood easter egg hunt. The location is always different, but somebody holds it on their property. Everybody brings food and enough eggs to cover all the kids. Everybody puts each child's name on an egg so that each kids goes home with the same amount! It is great. It was a great way to meet more neighbors and to begin friendships.



My girls loved searching for their eggs and had a really good time meeting even more kids. It was so windy that day and I wished so much that their hair was pulled back, but that was my only complaint!

Kiddie Land

April 16th, 2001, we took the girls to a little "Kiddie Land Birthday Party!" I think it was the 50th year or something. Gracey and Emily love being able to just run around and just because this little park is geared towards tiny kids, my kids absolutely love it too! They had a great time drinking from the lion's mouth, climbing the hippo, and running around the miniature castle. Corky and I gaurded (and ate) most of the popcorn while they played.



Since Kiddie Land is at the end of the loop of our small town's zoo, we decided to walk back to see if the bears were awake. Of course they weren't really mobile, they are the laziest bears ever, they were out enjoying the warmer weather. It was the closest that we had been able to look at them. They are usually sleeping in the uppermost corner of their cove, way out of sight.

Welcome To Kansas!

I hate ticks! Particularly the kind that climb on animals! Needless to say, Frontline Plus is Buster's (and mine) new best friend!

Birds

Our town is apparently on a migration route of what seems a million types of birds. We will be outside and hear a flock of geese, loud as a train, fly by. I don't usually mind birds. In fact, we have a couple of cardinals that hang around here that I have tried to snap pictures of. However, for a few weeks, especially as the weather was warming up, we were getting flocks of birds of all types. Like I said, I usually don't mind birds.....until they land in my yard in these type of numbers!






They remind me a whole lot of this movie. It kind of creeps me out.