Kerry Funeral and Talent Show Tryouts and Sports

Callie is living the good life these days. She had a short period where she would poop in her crate at night and it was not fun, but we made her space in her crate smaller and now take her food away after 6PM and that seems to have solved it. If she keeps up the good behavior we're planning on letting her sleep with Patrick in the spare room in the basement once we move him down there in July, talk about having the finer things in life.

Bradley and I got to go and meet a local game designer for board games one afternoon. It's rare for us to have big chunks of quality time together and it was so fun. Our schedule has been chaos lately, it was so nice to have the time to do this.

Bradley used his allowance money to buy dungeon and dragon mini figures and brought them home and painted them immediately. It's a big deal to paint minis, they have classes devoted to the craft. Bradley did a quality job in a rather short amount of time, now we just need to get him his own D&D group!

Kerry passed away on the last day of March and so we had a rather sad trip to Fairfield Sunday through Monday on the first weekend of April. We thought Colleen would be very busy with funeral preparations but she was still able to spend a lot of time with our family.

The kids got good time with Colleen and her dogs at a local playground. 

And we went out to dinner together.

We were rather packed into the hotel room but everyone was cozy and Patrick was a huge sweetheart and read to Juliet for bedtime. 

Juliet woke up at 6AM and I grabbed her and brought her down to the lobby area for some early morning gaming so she wouldn't wake everyone else up.

We had breakfast and games before the funeral.

Juliet helped Grandma take care of her dogs before the funeral was held.

And then we got all dressed up and the kids helped prepare flower petals for the ceremony.

The boys got a bit rambunctious following the ceremony but overall they behaved really really well during the funeral. Juliet's early morning caught up with her and she fell asleep on me but that was probably for the best, she would have had trouble staying still. Bradley and Nathan were much more involved than we had expected, Nathan was up in front more than anyone else including Colleen. Bradley poured ghee over the body (which was covered with a sheet and a bunch of flower petals by that point). He did really well, it's a bit to ask an 11 year old to do anything like that and we certainly didn't know it was going to happen before the funeral. 

Juliet was refreshed from her nap by this point.

The reception took place at a local Indian restaurant where I got the kids pie.

A group goodbye photo.

And a photo of the very handsome men before we had to drive back to Kansas.

They enjoy being fancy.

The next day I got to spend with my friend Mary while she had chemo for breast cancer. Apparently it's very treatable and she's doing well but it's still a grueling process and I'm both very impressed and annoyed by her relentless positivity about the entire situation. Mary is the best person I know and I'm so glad she's my friend.

Meanwhile, I'm healthy and have no excuse for the general state of chaos of my home.

Callie discovered that there's a broken sprinkler that has created a muddy area of the backyard.

Callie likes to play in water it seems. She's afraid of the hose and it is an ordeal to carry her upstairs for baths (which she also doesn't particularly like). Oh Callie. I've been letting her dry off on the deck and toweling her off before letting her inside and calling it good. 

It makes for one super tuckered out dog. 

Eleanor finally leveled up to the swim team at Goldfish! We were getting a bit frustrated because it had been a month of her feeling like she was ready to level up and being in the final swim class with kids much younger than her and clearly not as advanced as her. The teachers kept saying she had tiny things to work on with her Butterfly and then we discovered they only worked on Butterfly for a few minutes every other week. I politely let them know that we loved their program but were giving our month notice and quitting so Eleanor could join an actual swim team ... and then they watched her swim again and she was suddenly ready to join the swim team! Hurray! I'm glad I said something because she's already in the middle of the pack for swim team, so it's not like she got moved up too quickly, she's much happier, and she's able to work on her strokes while being a part of the main team. It's good for all involved. 

Nathan took the kids to the church Easter egg hunt event on a Saturday morning while I went out to brunch with a friend. Childhood is a crazy thing these days, Patrick went on three Easter egg hunts this year. THREE. And actually, Juliet had three as well because her cute preschool did one too. No such thing as too much of a good thing I guess?

The kids discovered candy at their spots on Easter morning! 

However, they all were exhausted wrecks by lunch so we've decided that candy breakfast may not be the way to go for this crew and we're going to let the Easter bunny know that lunch baskets may be the way to go in the future. 

Eleanor barely made it up for candy breakfast, even on Easter this girly prefers to sleep in. We're working on an earlier bedtime routine for her, it's not nice to be tired on every day except the weekend, especially when you're still in elementary school. 

We went over to my parents' house for Easter dinner in the early afternoon and discovered that the Easter bunny had visited! This was hunt #3 for two of our children. 

Things went pretty well all things considered. It's good we left Callie at home for this one, although she probably could have helped Bradley find the final two eggs that were hidden for him and that no one could find.

We took a couple group photos because everyone looked so fancy. 

The colors on this! This could have been a family picture!

And my phone is fancy and I was able to make the background super nice for these pictures.

I posted them to Facebook and included this moon photo as a token to the fake backgrounds and somehow only two people noticed and or commented. The moon photo is my favorite of the bunch! And just look at Juliet! C'mon people!

We went home and ran into Juliet's friend Charli who had just been given a toy Juliet had so Juliet ran and got it for a picture.

Another picture of Callie's rough life. 

She is so cute on car rides now. Side perk - no more kid fights over who gets to sit in the front seat!

Juliet was desperate to make cookies with Grandma so she talked Grandma into making Patrick's cookie cake for his birthday a couple days early. They wrote Patrick in smarties across the top of the cake because Juliet knew that Patrick doesn't like frosting. 

That evening, because no one can resist fresh cookie cake, we sang "Happy Early Birthday" to Patrick and celebrated with a couple friends that were over at the house.

Layla has been loving the increased freedom that comes with having a fenced in backyard. She goes back here whenever she wants a bit of yummy grass and Callie generally likes to follow her while giving her a wide berth. 

The actual birthday night celebration. By this point we had eaten the top and bottom portions of the cookie cake and had saved the middle row that said Patrick. Patrick is a huge goofball whenever he is the center of attention. 

Presents from family. Juliet has been insisting on getting in on giving presents to siblings, which I rather love.

Nathan made a special trip after work for the best present of all.

There was much jumping around for joy and hugging amongst the boys after looking in the trunk of my car. Nathan and I had to do a mid-day vehicle switch in order for Nathan to have the minivan to go pick this up after work. 

NBA Jam arcade game! All four of the kids like playing it and Patrick in particular has been really wonderful about letting Juliet play with him even though she has absolutely no idea what is going on 90% of the time.

The game is replacing the spot where the pop a shot was. Patrick had gotten bored with the pop a shot and was inventing new ways to make it interesting, like slam dunking on the side even though that was breaking the side of the pop a shot and shooting from the bottom of the stairs, even though that usually mean a basketball was crashing around the playroom, often breaking legos in the process. Nathan found the NBA Jam game and it made getting rid of the pop a shot happy and exciting instead of a punishment. Good job, Nathan. 

Also, Callie loves Sookie and Sookie does what she wants and just hisses at Callie whenever she gets too close. I'm glad the animals are finally settling in a little better with each other. 

We're calling this better.

I took Juliet to Deanna Rose for the first time this season. We met friends there!

There were cute baby cows and we even got to see a baby goat that had been born about an hour before Deanna Rose opened that day. The mommy goat still had the umbilical cord hanging out from her backside because I think she hadn't pushed out the placenta yet. It was an educational trip to the farmstead!

It's always good we bring the wagon along!

And then we went home and popped Callie on the swing to see if she likes it. She was a remarkably good sport about the whole thing, she's such a nice dog. I only put her up there for a few seconds and then took a picture, no one is into traumatizing animals around here. 

Uncle Thomas came out to visit for a few days! Oh my do we love Uncle Thomas!

He helped Bradley learn how to code.

And he tried to convince the kids to take up jiu-jitsu by showing them some moves on Callie.

Callie LOVES jiu-jitsu. Uncle Thomas got so many puppy smooches.

Uncle Thomas was generally covered in children and/or cats and puppies while he was at our house.

Juliet and I tried out a new game called Magic Mountain. It's cute and kind of like Plinko.

Then we had Patrick's official friend birthday party at a basketball court we rented out at Tomahawk Ridge Rec center. He wanted to invite the entire 2nd grade class plus his sports teams. I think we had almost 30 kids there, which was plenty. 

It was an hour of medium controlled chaos and Patrick had a blast. We handed kids cookies as they walked out the door and gave them specialty dice as party favors. 

Medium chaos while singing happy birthday. Turn the volume down if you watch it.

Then we went to I-Hop for dinner afterwards. This was probably my favorite part of the party. Juliet was very happy that Grandma chose to sit by her. Emmett, Finn, and Riley had just flown in that day for a weeklong visit with Grandma and Grandpa during their spring break and for the second year in a row Patrick has had cousins at his birthday party. Bradley is jealous but he's also just really happy and excited for cousin time whenever they visit. 

I went and picked up Eleanor from another birthday party a little early so she could make the delicious part of Patrick's party. Crepes!

The party crew at dinner! We had a few families join us after the gym. Patrick had Mabel, Timmy, and his friend Ethan there from his baseball team and he was so hyped up and happy.

Juliet has turned into quite the good eater lately and has had an impressive growth spurt in the past year. She's finally taller than a reasonable number of the kids in her class!

But she can't grow if Uncle Thomas steals her delicious food!!

Because he was having such a large party, I tried to tell the parents that their kids' presence was present enough for Patrick for his party and if they wanted they could just give him a few bucks in cash towards a group gift. But the darn people didn't listen and many of them gave him presents anyway and quite a few gave him $20 in cash. He was ecstatic.

Checking out some dazzling Pokemon cards.

We really like the NBA Jam game. It's so much quieter than pop a shot and it's so fun for kids over here on play dates.

Poor Eleanor had a nasty fall on her scooter on the way home from a neighborhood birthday party at Juliet's friend's house and we had to ice her knee and arm when she got home. 

Callie was eager to nurse Eleanor back to health. This sweet dog. I'm so glad we have her.

The kids helped me try out a new game for a Tryazon board game event. It was cute, perfect for kids.

Bradley and Callie cuddles. This good little dog. She started going to Woof for a half day each week for a play and train session and I think it's been really nice for her. It has freed me up to be able to go to kid field trips and to be out of the house for large chunks of the day without having to kennel her for upwards of five hours and it's been great for Callie getting used to handling herself around other dogs and learning some commands from a trainer. She gets really excited whenever we pull up to the Woof building and tries to jump up and smooch on her trainer (he still has some work to do) so we know she likes going there!

I took Patrick out of school one day so he could go rock climbing with cousin Finn. We actually did a kid swap with my folks and they took Juliet to the zoo with the other two cousins while I took the two boys rock climbing. 

Finn and Patrick are a good duo and had a lot of fun.

And I would like to present the single best picture I have ever taken of Patrick. Apparently he built up some static electricity sliding down the mat behind the bouldering wall!

Finn tried to do the same but he does not have the incredibly fine hair my children have.

Finn was an impressive climber, he's on a rock climbing rec team and climbs every week back home. Patrick kept telling him how good he was and if he didn't love Patrick before their rock climbing outing he certainly did afterwards. 

It was a really pretty day and the boys couldn't stop being wild so I booted them outside when we got home and waited for my folks to come back from the zoo and pick up Finn and give us back Juliet.

However, it seems the zoo was really fun so they stayed for a very long time. Finn got a LOT of Patrick time that day.

And Thomas and my dad came to Patrick's baseball game that night. Juliet was delighted to have someone there who would play dolls with her. 

Cute picture after the game! Thomas is coming back to visit this summer and there is great anticipation.

I got to chaperone Patrick's field trip to the zoo the next day and had an absolute blast. 

Although I was exhausted afterwards, according to my fancy watch I got 9,000 steps in over the course of the morning.

His cute group. I saw the other two boys at the school recently and they both gave me hugs.

Patrick being a cool dude.

That night there was a literacy night at the school. There was a drawing to win some big stuffed animals at the main entrance - and Juliet won the narwhal one! I had already taken her home so Patrick picked up her prize for her. 

There was much joy when Juliet was given her prize. Please note the hugging boys in the background.

Juliet got a bunch of new clothes from a friend and we discovered that Callie fits into 5t clothes. Here she is trying to blend in with the cats with her cool new shirt.

Juliet has started standing on the swing. I told her it was probably a really naughty thing to do, thus ensuring that she would do it at every opportunity.

Learning a new game with the help of Bradley. Nathan and I have discovered that Bradley will happily pore over every word in a rule book and we are using that to our advantage because I hate reading through rule books. The game was Planted, it's good!

More Callie cuddles for Bradley. She likes being on laps, it's good she isn't going to grow all that much bigger than she already is. 

I got out the game Flashback Zombie Kidz and quickly figured out that it was an escape room type game and two people playing at once was the ideal amount. I love Bradley and Eleanor working together on anything these days, and it's scary how joyfully naughty Juliet looks in this picture. 

Patrick at lacrosse. He's doing really well!

The kids had a Monday teacher-in-service day so they didn't have school and got to have a cuddly morning watching shows while I filmed board game videos. Callie hung in there like a champ.

It is sometimes rather difficult for Grandpa to leave the house after filming because he is so loved. Callie and Juliet battle it out for the title of biggest pest.

It was a gorgeous day so we spent a good deal of it outside. I love spring.

Callie and Patrick are such buddies. It's now Patrick's job to let Callie out from her crate in the morning and go out into the backyard with her. Only once did he ditch her out there during a thunderstorm ... but then a few days later I walked downstairs and looked out the window and he was laying on his back playing with a little rubik's cube and then I say Callie walk over with a giant stick and plop down beside him and started to chew on it directly next to his head. She loves her kids.

Juliet had a very short-lived career in taekwondo. We had a free month of classes so we decided to try it out for her.

The best part of this video is the end when you see her cheer squad.

A bit of the end of the first class where she was supposed to break a board. It took at least 10 attempts and after she finally broke it (with the help of the teacher we think) she was very proud of herself but also said she never wanted to do that again.

At least she looked beyond adorable in her uniform.

Tired Callie girl. I've largely given up on taking her on walks, she's medium okay on a leash but she's so much happier just running around in the backyard with kids. When we do a walk it's for me or for the purpose of getting her better about going on the walks and not having to be dragged away from interesting smells for the entirety of the outing. 

Patrick at baseball. Sports!

There are no videos or pictures of soccer because I hate soccer and Hope Patrick quits. It's the only one of Patrick's sports that he never practices at home so I have high hopes!

Patrick dragged the giant and heavy backboard into the backyard all by himself so he could throw the ball to himself on repeat. He never stops.

Nathan got to have all four of the kids in his office for the last time for take your child to work day. Bradley won't go anymore after this, the program is only for elementary age kids.

We took the kids out to lunch and I had to tell Patrick to watch out because there was a swear word on the drink cups he and Juliet were getting. He was VERY excited about this and told Juliet to watch out for the swear word (Pictured below. Torchy's is Damn Good)

Juliet took Patrick's warning to heart and searched everywhere on the cup until she found the "square" word. 

More standing on the swing by a proud little girl.

Callie is way too okay with all the things we do to her. Another short stay on the swing. Anything with the kids is a good thing as far as she's concerned.

Talent show tryouts! Eleanor and her friend Evie played a duet of the song Sharks by Imagine Dragons.

Pictures with proud grandparents and little sister!

And with her adoring parent fan club.

Next up: Patrick and Timmy. Patrick played Bones by Imagine Dragons and sang along while Timmy did his taekwondo routine.

They even got matching pajamas to wear for the performance. It was so cute.

We didn't get the grandparents in these pics because the boys were rather done with pictures after posing with both sets of parents.

Both kids made it into the official school level talent show that takes place the week before school gets out for the year. We are so excited!

We had dinner at my folks' house that night and an overjoyed Callie played in her favorite backyard and got to play peekaboo with the neighbor dogs through the fence. The only time she has jumped out of the open window of the car was a time I was running a quick errand to my parents' house and Callie saw where she was and couldn't wait to go and play. She's actually really good over there, the only problem is that the backyard is often a bit muddy and where there's mud there's Callie. She's also really fantastic about cleaning any food bits off their floors although then she's a toot machine the next day, which cracks up the boys. 

I don't know what the kids are going to have to say about their childhoods when they grow up, but the time they spend playing in the backyard warms my heart. The boys have a game they play with the backstop where they take turns catching the ball and see how many times in a row they can make it. The current record is 106!

Eleanor left on a weekend Girl Scout camping and horseback riding trip that we thought was going to be easy and fun because it was in the 60's when she left. 

And it was fun - until the wind hit. Her tent was flattened and couldn't be fixed, it just wasn't strong enough to stand up to the wind. So she got moved to a different tent with out girls and apparently half froze to death overnight. At least she got some sort of s'mores treat at the campfire?

At least riding the horses was fun the next day but she informed me that she might skip the camping bit the next time tents were involved. Poor thing. These are quite the life experiences she is having through scouts!

Nathan had a conference to attend in Denver and golfed at a rather stunning scenic spot!

Meanwhile, I had the gang. Juliet has caught baseball fever and goes out into the backyard with her own special mitt and lightweight ball and insists that people play catch with her. Patrick is such a good big brother and always says yes.

And finally, here is an old picture of Juliet riding a tractor ... on the moon! I really like the ability to edit backgrounds.

And also a wonderful video of Eleanor giving her speech to run for mayor for a class project! She didn't win but we blame sexism because there were six girls who ran and only one boy. The boy won. Boo. It's okay though, Eleanor was proud of her hard work and ended up getting another fun job for her class economic simulation.