Patrick Pool Party Birthday

Deanna Rose opened and we were there! Juliet was thrilled to go with Katie and Ethan.

And there was even free face painting which we did on our way out. She wanted it so desperately and I caved. 

It was a very exciting morning and yet again she fell asleep on the way to Costco. It's an 8 minute drive!

I got the last two tickets to see Mandy Patinkin in concert at the Lied Center over in Lawrence. I didn't know much about him except for his Princess Bride role as Inigo Montoya and I had missed his brilliant career on Broadway. It was a lot of fun listening to his music as prep for the concert and I was really glad my friend Mary was able to go with me. We were 20-30 years younger than most of the people in attendance but I think that just makes us extra cultured.

And we tried out a new kids' game that week that has become a bit of a favorite. That's Pretty Clever Kids! I played a game with Patrick and we were having so much fun that Eleanor came over and joined us for the next game, which was extra exciting because she's my most reluctant gamer. She like it too!

Patrick was rather proud of his victory.

Meg came downstairs and planted herself on my lap when I was working on my computer. She must be cuddled! She will tolerate dumb dog for needed cuddles.

And she will find nice spots in the sunshine and hope the dog is not too much of a pest.

But sometimes Callie's mere existence is annoying enough.

Sookie nabbed Meg's favorite cozy spot upstairs so Meg just plopped herself down on top of Sookie. I love her so much.

Juliet's school is adorable and she has had an amazing year. They played letter Bingo and marked spots with Fruit Loops and Juliet was delighted to get the first Bingo.

Then she came home and played That's Pretty Clever Kids and is way too good at it. She beat both me and Patrick.

Eleanor moved up to the next level in her rock climbing club team and while she was ready for a challenge, we don't love that it's more of a focus on fitness and bouldering and not just fun climbing time. So she tried out a few classes over the course of the month but then she's quitting and just going back to climbing with me from time to time, which sounds like a wonderful plan to me!

We went to see the Harlem Globetrotters when they were in town! We bought the tickets a while in advance and then Juliet's best friend scheduled her birthday party for the same afternoon. Juliet wept at the thought of missing the party and I didn't think she particularly cared about the Globetrotters anyway so I arranged for her to spend the afternoon with a friend who was also going to the party and we took Patrick's buddy Chance instead.

Eleanor was pretty okay with Juliet being gone, it meant she didn't have to share Mom time.

The dudes. It's really great Chance lives just across the street. The boys have spats over sports from time to time but they're always outside playing together.

Meanwhile, Juliet had a glorious afternoon with her friend Olivia before going to the party. I was able to pick her up exactly as the party was ending, it couldn't have worked out any better.

Bradley's opinion of the Globetrotters went up considerably when my mom bought a couple big containers of popcorn from the concessions stand.

Meanwhile, Patrick was losing his mind over the fun basketball show that was being put on.

A more chill Bradley.

Grandparents!

We had really nice seats. They were technically row 2 although there were a number of premium seats in front of us.

That said, we were close enough to get in on the action! One of the Globetrotters ran over and shared Eleanor's seat with her as part of the show. Eleanor turned bright pink and it took Patrick way too long to figure out he was just a few seats away from one of the players.

It was a really fun show. If even the non sports fans had fun you know it was a good time.

Sookie cuddles!

We didn't realize how much the kids would be desperate to get in the pool as soon as the pool was opened for the season. Lucky for us, it was unseasonably warm and they don't mind dealing with chilly water if need be.

Dipping a toe.

Putting on swim gear because it was just too fun to resist.

Juliet picked this beautiful bouquet of flowers for me after school one day.

And we didn't have the time for quite as involved of an outing for Patrick for his birthday gift from his parents, but I did take him to Dairy Queen after his lacrosse practice a day or two before birthday. He was very pleased. 

Juliet's neighbor friend Stella came over for a playdate and I tried to keep her out of the pool but she did end up getting naked from the waist down so she could sit in the water. At that point I gave up and found her a swimsuit to borrow and let her parents know that I was keeping a close eye on her in the water. At which point she and Juliet used the reusable water balloons to create fake bosoms for themselves. They thought this was beyond hilarious.

Uncle Thomas came to visit and the girls taught him a new game while Callie hunted him down for play time.

Then he and Patrick had an epic ping pong match.

Meanwhile, Nathan had taken Bradley and his friend Abe to a middle school event at Skate City.

Apparently they were the worst skaters there but they improved dramatically over the course of the evening and had a good time so what more could you ask for?

For Patrick's birthday morning we started him off with a money trail leading from his room to his presents by the fire place. The girls had an amazing time setting it up for him the night before and I enjoyed getting to tell him to go into his room and not to come out! For no reason at all! But he was forbidden from coming out until the morning. There was a high level of anticipation and he was greatly pleased with the $2 in change. Juliet has been talking about having her own money trail for her birthday ever since this although she has let me know she's okay if I put in some paper money too.

Did Callie know she was right in the middle of pictures for present time after breakfast? 

Then we sent Patrick over to make his cookie cake with Grandma.

They even made a backup one in case it didn't turn out quite right. Both cookie cakes were deemed more than acceptable.

He had a lacrosse game that afternoon and his team sang Happy Birthday to him when they found out it was his birthday.

He got an assist on a goal too!

Then it was pool party time! It was in the mid 80's on April 13th, we couldn't believe it. I sent the invite out only six days before the party because that's when I finally believed the forecast. We had said we would have a pool party for him probably in May when it would be warm but this turned out so much better. And yes, for the third year in a row he had cousins at his birthday party.

I've been on a fancy ice cream cone kick and it was fun to have the kids get to pick out one they liked for after swim time.

We had pizza, cookie cake, and ice cream and pool. It was everything you could want and more.

Present time

Time for cuddles and an evening movie

Thomas came over for games again but Callie knew that he really was supposed to be playing with her and she wouldn't leave him alone.

The boys took turns getting to go over and play on tablets with cousins in the evenings.

Juliet rather adores her Uncle Thomas.

And I took Bradley out of about two hours of school so he could go play pickleball with Emmett at Chicken N Pickle. We were surprised he agreed to this, usually he's very against missing any school. But I guess cousin time and pickleball rates higher!

Ice cream by the pool has become our go-to thing to do already.

Eleanor had a practice for talent show that lasted maybe five minutes before they decided they had practiced enough and it was time for a swim party. They were very cute and Eleanor is thrilled with all the friend and pool opportunities she will have over the course of the summer.

She looks so good rock climbing. She still has a few more club practices to finish up before we go back to climbing for fun.

Patrick had gone to Silver Dollar City with grandparents and cousins but came back home early because he was running a fever and felt sick. We think he had some sort of stomach bug. He was a good sport about hanging out at home while the rest of the kids went to Urban Air with cousins.

It helped that he had a very attentive puppy that cuddled him while he watched Ponyo.

More of Juliet at softball. She's so cute.

Popsicles outside. Patrick had recovered by now. It's miraculous how the illness lingers until I mention they are on a brat diet and get absolutely no treats until they are all better.

A friend had her 40th birthday party with a theme of dressing like you did in high school. I figured a tennis skirt and sweatshirt was close enough.

But then this cute guy lent me his letterman jacket.

We meant to stay for just an hour but had such a good time we stayed for two hours. The kids were at home (five minutes away) watching Is It Cake and they were thrilled with their late bedtime because of our fun.

And the next morning the boys who usually fight bonded over their shared annoyance with the girls so I took a picture.

I took Juliet to Deanna Rose with my friend Dani and her kids the next day.

Juliet decided she liked running the loop in the fairy garden and did it three times, while her friends tried to keep up with her. The loop is at least a quarter of a mile so that was a fair bit of running. This picture at the end cracked me up. Juliet is looking rather pleased with herself and the friends have collapsed.

I ended up carrying little Atlas for a while, which was shockingly easy to do because he is a snuggler, unlike Juliet who is generally actively leaning away from you when you carry her. She and Aria were rather matchy for the day!

I really like giving the kids a quarter and letting them get their own feed for the goats. They're so proud. Some of the feed always drops but they pick it up and the goats don't seem to mind.

She was supposed to get a fruit snack on the car ride home but she traded up for ice cream - I've been a bit of a sucker lately. 

Tired Callie on the couch.

Juliet went with me to Eleanor's latest rock climbing class and played Sleeping Queens with me in the cafe. She won!

Then when we got home Eleanor lost another tooth. We have quite the bag full of teeth to bring to Diana's this summer. The fish tank tradition for lost teeth is a fun one but we're hoping we don't have to explain ourselves to TSA.

Patrick was given a snuggly Sookie to hold and enjoyed the bonus of a Callie shadow wherever he went for the next minute or two.

I took a walk around the wetlands and was excited to spy a large brood of baby ducklings out for a swim with their mother. I think I count 11 ducklings in the picture.

And then I saw some baby goslings as well! All the babies right now!

The kids have recently watched all the Kung Fu Panda movies so Juliet has been on a kung fu kick. There was quite the look of joy on Patrick's face when his little sister kicked open his door and informed him that she wanted to do battle with him.

They had quite the battle. Poor Patrick at the end. He told me the final kick made him giggle.

Talent show tryouts! Eleanor formed a quartet from her strings group and they played a couple of the songs they had practiced in class. They did very well and made it on to the official talent show!

There was a break between Eleanor's tryouts and Patrick's so Nathan and I took Juliet to McLain's for a quick lunch. Apparently a cinnamon roll can be your lunch if you're living right.

Then we came back and sat through over an hour of the very active 3rd grade class tryouts until we got to listen to Patrick play Peaches on the piano and sing along. His friends Harper and Marcus put on a sort of puppet show with stuffed toys while he sang. It was very cute and he did a great job, although he was rather upset to later find out he didn't make the talent show. Poor kid. I tried to say some comforting things but he had a little cry and then made his peace with it. He did so well though!

And if I ever want to write a story I can't think of a better prompt then this bit of writing I discovered among Patrick's cast off papers from his backpack. I particularly like how it's labeled a fictional story at the bottom so one doesn't get confused. So cute.

We're doing family pictures soon so I had Nathan take the boys for real official haircuts at Sports Clips. 

They turned out great! Although it cost almost $50 so if we were doing this every six weeks we would be poor. The boys are going to have to hang with hair cuts at home for the foreseeable future.

Juliet decided to rock her shades for her more recent softball practice. So cool.

And she's been working on learning on how to ride her bike but she mostly yells at her dad if he lets go of her so we think she might need to wait another few months before really going for it.

Patrick's birthday presents from Grandpa Dan arrived and I found we were correct to be really hesitant about getting these in the first place, although it was certainly some happy chaos in the pool.

Eleanor was desperate to play with them and also incredibly angry if Patrick shot her with a squirt gun. Maybe we just need to make them play at a certain distance apart. It also doesn't help that the tank water gun is about one hundred times better than the other one.

Happy boys! We've gotten some good swim time in and it's only April. I can't imagine what the summer is going to be like.

We got in a nice volunteer activity packing lunches at church. It's so nice when the kids can be a part of these things!

Eleanor missed out on this because she was at her friend Ava's birthday party at Pinstripes. Juliet and I got to join for the last bit of the party.

Good buddies!

Eleanor had a very busy Sunday because we also got to go and see her friend Maya perform with her hand bells church group. It was funny, I really didn't know what to expect and so we went to go watch her and I told Eleanor it would probably be a half hour max. It was an hour and fifteen minutes and we watched five different groups perform a wide variety of very impressive pieces. We also sat in literally the front row and were maybe about five feet away from Maya while she performed.

It was fun and Eleanor was very pleased with the cookie reception at the end.

I've decided to take a break from active filming of my board games so I actually went ahead and organized them all. It looks really good and it means people can actually find the games they're looking for these days! It's been for the best, I don't feel like I have to keep pushing forward to figure out new games and the kids can just play the games they already know and like. 

And I have time for cute picnic lunches with Juliet.

Another picture from her preschool. She's had such a wonderful year!

And here is photo from a Girl Scout leader appreciation event I put together at the end of the month. It was a lot smaller than the event the previous year but that was actually pretty nice. I just brought a big bag of easy and fun games and kids grabbed whichever one sounded fun to them and tried it out. I'm definitely bringing That's Not a Hat to summer camp in June!