I no longer can go on field trips with Patrick if they are boring. He will spend the entire time following me around and kissing me. It turns out the Mahaffie Stage Coach Museum is really boring. I had to try to convince him to pay attention and stop smooching on me for four hours. Too long.
Patrick finally received his second place trophy for the half marathon! It had been sent to our old address. He only asked me about it approximately 100 times (not an exaggeration). I was happier than Patrick when we finally figured out where it had been sent.
I missed Patrick's choir concert but I heard about it from members of his fan club. The choir is huge but somehow everyone noticed Patrick.
He's lucky he's cute and is such a sweetie with Juliet. She loves his new pull-up bar. Every boy who comes over to our house goes nuts on this thing.
Patrick and Juliet had their final Friday off from school while the middle schoolers remained in school. It's for teacher planning days, Eleanor says it is of supreme injustice that this schedule change happened the year she went to middle school. We spent the morning at ROKC.
We were meeting friends there but they were late. No big deal, we just climbed a bunch until they got there.
Annabelle and Jackson had never been to ROKC before and they had a blast.
I ended up leaving Juliet with the buddies, I had to run Patrick to another activity. Juliet was thrilled when the friend's mom bought her a donut after I had expressly forbidden her from having one. Nothing tastes as sweet as a forbidden donut.
I know Juliet loves these buddies because she's touchy feely around them and she usually hates touching people.
Eleanor and I got talked into going to a UMKC symphony performance because her bassoon teacher plays in the group. We did reasonably okay at the performance despite being uncultured swine. I was relieved that Eleanor insisted we sit in the very back row.
While we were gone Patrick and Nathan finally finished working on his off-brand Lego Arrowhead Stadium. It turns out Patrick won't do Legos without a buddy. This is the last Lego set he's ever going to get.
Bradley had another track meet, I love middle school sports! I got other people to hang out with Patrick and Juliet so I could be there for the entire thing.
Bradley was thrilled that I caved and got him a sno-cone. This was literally the first time I had bought him one of these. He only ever got one when they had free Kona Ice at school events. Much joy!
I messaged Eleanor on the house phone and told her she could have a sno-cone if she biked over. She did! She crashed on the way over but apparently it was still worth it.
Bradley also got to go out for a victory dinner at Panera. Panera mac n cheese is his favorite food of all time.
Uncle Thomas came for a visit! Callie was very excited.
Patrick insisted on being on Thomas's team for Dixit and sat in his lap.
Dixit has been a blast, it's nice to have a game the entire family likes to play together.
Juliet got very comfortable around Uncle Thomas.
It's more difficult to play Dixit when people won't let you see the cards.
We're not sure how Juliet decided this was a good idea but she was very happy about it.
She hung out there awhile.
And maybe Uncle Thomas deserved it because he swung Juliet around for doggy kisses afterwards.
Winner loser picture! Poor Juliet. Grandpa made an amazing comeback to win this game. And Juliet won the next time. She's actually a very good sport for games.
Eleanor's choir concert
Throw popcorn at Juliet so it can miss and then the dog can eat it. Juliet is a very good sport about a lot of things.
Nathan had a Friday off and I talked him into checking out the WWI museum. It was very interesting - I had been once before but it was with children so I barely got to read anything.
Then we had lunch at Billie's Grocery - a fancy pants place known for its gluten free options. Nathan was very happy there.
The next day was Patrick's final lacrosse game of the season. It was a tournament and they narrowly lost their first game. He played really well, I enjoy watching lacrosse (which is saying something because I'm fairly whiny about most sports. Baseball is so boring. Football is dumb. Lacrosse is okay.)
Team photo!
We didn't bring the other children. They had a very cozy morning at Grandma and Grandpa's.
Then we had loads of free time! Patrick's friend Luke came over and Bradley became a big fan of Luke when he found out he liked Pokemon Go. Patrick is a huge sweetie and was just fine with Bradley joining them for an outing. He wasn't just fine with it, he was so happy.
Meanwhile Juliet ended up hanging out with Annabelle again.
Nathan took a well-deserved nap. Sookie is the best nap time helper there is.
And then Nathan was the one who took the younger two to their elementary school's glow party. I had no idea what that entailed exactly. It was awesome! Juliet got a very fancy arm painting.
Patrick played nonstop sports
And then Juliet ran off with a friend and colored a bunch. She was so proud of herself. Sighhhhhh.
Mother's Day was the next day. I had a marvelous time! Nathan took the younger two to brave a line out the door at McLains. Worth it for pastries and a delicious latte!
Then we played family pickleball! And I was so pleased that Eleanor chose a Mother Knows Best shirt, although it was a picture of Mother Earth on it so I covered that up for the photo.
We discovered the pickleball courts were under construction so we just hit around
