Visit to Iowa and Eleanor's 5th Birthday Celebration

Nathan's cousin Jamie, wife Nicole, and their son Micah came Overland Park for a soccer tournament and our crew was excited to show up with donuts and cheer them on.

Bradley discovered that Micah knew about Pokemon and talked his ear off after the game. We see them again in a week or so at Lake of the Ozarks and there is great anticipation.

The kids playing together nonstop every day is generally pretty adorable. I love what they come up with.

Morning mellow play with the "ruby of life."

I've been getting some championship cuddles from small children every morning lately and to say I love it is an understatement. The other day I happened to go downstairs before Bradley got out of bed and he came downstairs quite angry that he hadn't gotten cuddles with me in bed so we raced back upstairs together for our snuggles. I love summer, slow mornings generally aren't an option when school is in session.

Cuddles plus the Patrick. Lucky big kids.

This particular blog post once again contains a lot of pictures of Eleanor asleep for unexpected naps. Our first few weeks of the summer were perhaps a bit too exciting with VBS and swim lessons followed by pool play dates with friends and a little girl was generally pretty tired around quiet time.

Nathan got out the sprinklers in our backyard a few weekends ago and the kids had a blast.

The only thing better than running through the sprinklers is riding the swing through the sprinklers.

And we went to a friend's house down the path for 'smores later.

Eleanor and Naomi are so cute together, they both always wear dresses and wear tiaras on the regular and apparently they hold hands while eating 'smores.

When we got home we found a big box turtle walking across our driveway and it was SO EXCITING and the little turtle was a good sport about all of the love and affection it received before being returned to the park behind our house.

We got a Deanna Rose trip in to use our membership freebies and there was great excitement about riding the horses.

There was medium excitement about fishing but Nathan and Bradley managed to catch a fish together before Bradley begged that we spare the lives of all the remaining worms and Nathan set them free in a shady area by a tree.

They even had a little water area set up where children can get misted on hot days. Eleanor got herself thoroughly soaked and soon talked Patrick in to joining her.

She and Patrick were also quite the "Jiggly Puff" duo with Nathan the other day. It's a Pokemon character who puts people to sleep with its song, which is just singing its name over and over again.

And then more water play in the backyard!

Nathan even set up a slip n slide and the kids went nuts.

A side effect of all the naps that Eleanor has been taking is that this is often what bedtime looks for her. Perhaps not sleepy enough.

However, on the best days, this is what happens. This took place on the first official day of summer break where I just took the kids on a morning park trip and I think we got groceries in the afternoon and played in the backyard a bit. Nathan has special sleepy children powers and I guess hot days running around are excitement enough.

This is Eleanor. Can you stand it? Here's a fun Eleanor quote: Kitties don't mind getting licked! (demonstrates).

Unlike Eleanor, Patrick generally fights naps and yet he still really needs him. So I've been reading to him in our bed and Meg is a big fan of this new development.

Bonus kitty pic. Sookie is so fat and cute.

Sometimes Patrick manages to nap on his own though. I had a lot of trouble getting in the room to wake him up, he fell asleep about 6 inches away from the door.

Patrick with our wonderful neighbor Addison.

Typical Eleanor summer outfit.

Typical boys ...

Note the comb she has hooked to the front of her dress. I asked and it was there because it was pretty.

Recital dress for a bike ride, the usual.

We renewed our membership to the Museum of Prairiefire, a favorite summer and winter hangout of ours!

An interesting development from this summer has been the decision to let the cats out on the deck. Two out of the three cats love the new development but Layla developed a bit of a Call of the Wild situation and was determined to escape to real nature at every opportunity.

Spikes didn't hold her back.

She found a small gap through the netting and went through that for a while. Patrick liked to help Nathan with all of the work he got to do on the deck during the many sessions of cat proofing and at one point he was out there with a plastic hammer, working alongside Nathan. He hollered, "we're just doing some hard work!" and shut the door on Eleanor when she tried to come out.

Eleanor was very good about making sure the "naughty kitty" couldn't escape while she let the other two cats in and out of the deck.

We seem to have resolved it for now and she isn't escaping anymore and Nathan and I are going full crazy cat people and growing cat grass out there for Layla to enjoy so we're calling it good for the time being.

I don't know why she likes to be outside so much.

Getting Bradley to evening martial arts classes has been tough with how tired he is by the time it's the afternoon but we've been pretty diligent about summer classes. He's used as the example for form quite a bit and we're very proud of him, if only he would stop trying to pick up and kiss his classmates we'd be all set ...

The class playing a game. Bradley is the kid bouncing with the excitement the entire time.

We're outside so much these days, I love it.

I had the two boys in the backyard and had to get them so we could leave for swim lessons. Where could they be?

Poor tired Patrick. He sometimes wakes up quite grumpy after naps.

But not when there is a lucky kitty nearby to love!

He also rarely wants me after he wakes up, which is an issue because generally that's who he gets. The other day he woke up and smiled at me, cuddled close and then frowned and said "Daddy! I want Daddy!" Next was "Where's Bayee? I want to go with Bayee."

Luckily there's a lot of Bradley for Patrick these days.

We had a family discussion at lunch a few days ago about renaming ourselves Pokemon names. No surprise, Bradley started this by deciding his new name was Pikachu.

And then the others joined in.

Do you ever wonder how much fun you could have going to Costco with a Patrick boy? How about when he insists on grabbing onto the cart handles and drags his feet hard (thus making it quite difficult to push the cart) and cackles hysterically because it's all SO funny?

But look at how sweet he is. "Daddy, I love you!"

I got out water balloons the other day and we did our favorite things with them, threw them at dinosaur targets by the garage.

Someone might have had another target in mind as well.

Sometimes we have amazing morning cuddles.

Could these boys be any sweeter together?

It's really nice having Bradley around as backup upon occasion. Patrick sometimes asks nonsensical questions that I don't know how to deal with. Until I realized I have a Bradley.

Patrick: What do we do if a cushion comes to our house?
Me: ... what?
Patrick: What do we do if a CUSHION comes to our house?
Me: ... I think Bradley could best answer that question.
Bradley (surprised, but catches on quickly and with a gleam in his eye says): The cats would eat the cushion!
Me: Patrick, was that an acceptable answer?
Patrick: (nods)
Bradley then did a very long story involving monsters and dragons and the cats getting eaten. Breakfast stories. Hurray!

And hanging out with a cool cardboard sculpture at the library. No pictures of the Medusa one that is a little more risque and provokes a large amount of thoughtful questions from the kids.

We went to the library for a special music class. Patrick is so awesome whenever there is music to dance to.

Patrick has been doing a great job with potty training ... except for poop. I asked him if he needed to poop last week and he replied, "No, it isn't Thursday." He has no idea what day of the week it is typically but it was a Monday when he told me this so I was properly concerned.

We had an amazing time at Nathan's company picnic. They pull out all the stops, face painting, balloon animals, rides, ice cream and snow cones, and it's all FREE. 

They did seriously cool designs for the kids. And they were fast! Each of these took about one minute to do.

And then we checked out the rides.

Did an engineering challenge.

And more rides!

Bradley ditched Eleanor for the particular ride that made me a little nervous but she was a champ all on her own.

I can't do any of these rides because spinning makes me ill. I regret all the times I teased my dad about being a wimp with fair rides, I'm probably worse than him when it comes to anything that spins me around too much.

They even had carnival games and we won many consolation prizes, which were all we seemed to want anyway.

Shopping trip with Eleanor to Target. Could she be any more fabulous? Yesterday at breakfast she said out of the blue, "Why can't I stop thinking in my mind?" I replied, "What are you thinking?" and she said quite cheerily, "I can't tell you! Mind secrets are mind secrets."

We got to go to a birthday party for a church family at a super fancy pool and we were thoroughly impressed by the facilities. Eleanor got to try out the diving board!

Yes, the little voice in the background of this video saying he needs to go potty is Patrick. Lucky me!

And there was a climbing wall in the actual pool that all the kids tried out. So cool.

And lazy river. Look at Nathan with all the children plus Eleanor's friend Maren. I mostly hung out on the side and chatted with a friend, Nathan always wins many points for his pool time with kids.

And the kids started swim lessons the next week at Tomahawk Ridge Aquatic Center. We loved the lessons and the kids all improved quite a bit, especially Eleanor who no longer only swims vertically in a manner which suggests she may drown at any moment.

Here's Bradley with Olivia.

Eleanor didn't have any friends in her class but soon made new friends.

Patrick was really happy to have his buddy Mabel in his class.

Hanging out at my parents' neighborhood pool after lessons one day. They're being mermaid unicorns.

At first I thought this was a dog barking or something and I'm so embarrassed I didn't instantly realize it was a unicorn mermaid.

Bradley making unique Lego creations that always impress me. I never made stuff like this.

I don't have any pictures of him with Pokemon in this post, but it is a huge obsession. We got him a new Pokemon bath towel and wash cloth and his siblings were more than a little jealous at first. Our little entrepreneur tried to sell them the wash cloth for a penny but we told him he got to share with his siblings and that he's not allowed to sell items to them. I guess it was a pretty great price, but even so, we can't establish precedent with matters like this.

Big kids helping wake up Patrick from a nap. Maybe I had told them they got a show when he woke up ...

We love it when Addison plays outside with us.

We got sidewalk paint out the other day and had a blast. It had been living in my closet for about four months because I bought it on a whim and then dreaded actually using it. It wasn't too bad though and the kids were thrilled with their sidewalk paint creations.

Eleanor colored through an entire quiet time a week or so ago and I was quite impressed when I saw how much she had accomplished in the time that she had. She told me, "I am really good at coloring. Sometimes my arms get weared out but I still color!"

Lunch at the pool, a near daily occurrence for a bit.

I think this was the day I asked Eleanor to please not fall asleep during Patrick's nap and told her she was welcome to go play downstairs if she liked. Too tired for that it seems.

Patrick praying before a meal. I love how excited the kids are about prayer time. But do you see this sweet face? Do you know what he does when I kiss him now? (At least when he's paying attention.) He says "Yuck!" and wipes his face off on me and then laughs at me when I act shocked and horrified. He tries to play the same fun game with me but I say "Yum!" when he kisses me and act too happy so it's not nearly as fun.

Bradley and I have been trying to have him read a book to me every day and so Eleanor asked when she would get special study time with me. I happily obliged and we've been practicing letters together. She's pretty good and I would tell her this except she generally too busy congratulating herself for me to really add in my compliment. "Oh wow, I'm totally so good at this! How do I know all this??"

We go to the nearby playground and are horrible examples of proper playground behavior. My least favorite is when first time parents are nearby, my children basically try to turn everything into a danger challenge. Not so bad when it's the six year old but it looks bad when the three year old copies him.

Bradley asked me the other day ...

I signed Bradley up for some museum classes at the Nerman Museum of Art and he's really been enjoying himself. The teacher emailed me some very cute pictures she took of him at his first class, where he made an art garden.

I asked Bradley about this picture and he cackled and said he wasn't supposed to be doing this. Sigh.

With his friend Olivia and her sister Lauren on the way out. We've been spending a lot of time with the Rutherford family this summer, it's been fun for everyone.

Kerry visited on his way to a conference, which was nice because we got to go visit Iowa the next weekend and see him and Grandma Colleen again.

The drive out was longer than I remembered and because we had to wait to leave until after Bradley's art class we got there very late. In this picture Patrick is yelling "I'm so crazy! I'm so crazy!" and after Nathan and I sternly told him to be quiet and stay still he was asleep within five minutes. Eleanor, on the other hand, almost made it until 10 PM when we finally arrived. Not a surprise that she's our night owl.

I love this Patrick face, it's his imp face and we see it often. This was the next morning when I was teasing him about having juice at breakfast.

And then it was off to Grandma's garden for most of the morning! The kids had a great time, not in a small part due to the new kitten Colleen had gotten in the name of keeping her new greenhouse pest free. Eleanor and Patrick were big fans.

Most of the pictures of Eleanor from this trip have a kitten in them. Her name is Bella.

Bradley was our harvester, he did a great job picking anything that Grandma told him was a good thing to pick.

Cherries were the big favorite. 

Bradley in particular picked a ton and ate just about all he gathered.

At one point I asked Eleanor if it was silly that the kitty had legs since she clearly didn't need them and Eleanor instantly smiled really big and said "yes."

My favorite Eleanor and Bella picture of the trip.

Their Price Chopper had a little block party for us to check out, which the kids loved. Bouncy house, balls to throw, prizes to win, what is not to love?

Patrick's hoola hooping skills were really fun to watch. Lots of effort, what he lacks in skill he makes up for in persistence.

Lunch was cozy.

And I think this was Grandma's favorite pool time ever because we stayed for a long time and the boys got tired so they took cuddle breaks with her.

More cuddles during dinner. Can you tell Patrick was being naughty here? He was supposed to be waiting in his seat. He escaped.

Some shows at Grandma and Kerry's house, a very important part of the trip.

One last morning at the garden. Look, I got to hold the kitty too!

Eleanor and the very patient kitten who really and truly doesn't need legs when we're around.

Patrick really liked that the kitty played with him. It was an incredibly mellow cat, we were very impressed.

Last bit of harvesting.

Patrick even helped with some planting.

And we finished up the trip with a meal at a Mexican restaurant. We saw that they had fried ice cream on the menu, which seemed like a fun treat for the kids. I asked the server how big it was and he held up a small circle with his hands, so we ordered one for each kid. Then these giant desserts came out and we were more than a little surprised but the kids were all delighted.

Guess who finished ALL of this?

Patrick ate about three quarters of his.

Eleanor at half of hers. It was just a ridiculously sized dessert.

We worked so hard for this group picture before leaving. I hope everyone is dazzled by this. Please know that great effort went into making it happen.

And then the crew crashed hard for the drive home. Patrick took a three hour nap, poor thing. Visiting Iowa is too exciting!

The next morning I was cleaning upstairs and suddenly realized that the house was deathly quiet. I came down fearing the worst but found three adorable kids reading / playing with a color tablet in a fort.

Final swim classes were last week and we got a bit smoochie about it.

The big kids going down the big slide together - Olivia, Kyle, Andrew, and then Bradley. It was about 70 degrees and drizzly on the final day of class, the kids were all icicles when we got them out of the pool.

More Patrick and Mabel time. We had a play date and it was so beautiful. Patrick is so sweet whenever she's around, it is adorable.

My dad drove out from Washington to drop off one of their cars before making the final official move next week when he and my mom drive out together. We're just a little excited, we have two dates planned within four days of them living here.

The kids helped check the sprinklers in their backyard. There was a bit of sorrow when we had to drive Grandpa to the airport so soon after his arrival but the kids can handle a week of waiting until they get grandparent time lots and lots.

We hope they're ready. This is what boy bath time looks like these days. Lots of supervision is required for children who think pony rides in the bath are a good idea.

More pics of poor tired Eleanor. Some of these are only 10-15 minutes after I've sent her up to her room to play during quiet time. I guess swimming and too much fun really take it out of you.

She and Patrick played nap time together the other day. I don't think they know how this really works, but it's pretty cute.

We have a new game that we got for "me" for my birthday. It's called Buggaloop and the kids are obsessed. Rightfully so, it's pretty hilarious to play.

Their first time playing it. Great excitement. 

Eleanor went on her first Girl Scouts hike a few days ago! I'm pretty sure she loved it because she didn't have to get dirty and there was lots of hugging between her and the other two girls who showed up.

And then, oh my, it was Eleanor's 5th birthday. We were all just a bit excited.

Can you believe these beautiful pink cupcakes with pink piped frosting and princess rings? We were all pretty proud of ourselves. Eleanor ran a tight ship during the decorating process and made sure the boys were "princess perfect" with what they were doing.

Yes there was a birthday crown. Obviously.

She had a pool party and in addition to the crown we found a sash for her to wear that said Birthday Princess. If you're going to have a birthday we're going to do it right around here.

Now for the party itself ... it was at a friend's neighborhood pool and we invited three little girls and their siblings. Perfect! Except ... it was 67 degrees and cloudy on the morning of the party. So. Cold.

Fortunately the kids shivered through swim time and enjoyed cupcakes and spent quite a bit of time at the playground, which helped considerably.

Bradley crashed the picture of Eleanor and her friends. Of course. He's lucky he's so darn cute.

Eleanor shivering in the water.

Family present time that evening. Eleanor had quite the big day!

I'm pretty proud that I found a personalized puzzle stool for Eleanor at a store closing sale, it's fancy and she loves it!

But we went to the American Girl store yesterday for her most prized birthday present.

Her new Wellie Wisher doll, Ashlyn. Yes, they are wearing matching outfits. Eleanor has been begging for this doll for about six months straight.

Immediately it was apparent that it was a worthwhile purchase, she's been carrying it everywhere with her, including on the Merry-Go-Round ride we went on while we were still at the mall.

Bradley and Daddy kissy faces on carousel.

Patrick's kissy face. It makes me so happy.

What happens when you gasp and pretend scold your child for not holding on during the ride.

And then we got home and got to try on the other outfits I had picked out for the little doll.

I guess Eleanor likes her already. I've already "styled" her hair twice and Eleanor is definitely into matching this doll. It's very cute and I'm glad she enjoys her so much.

It was a pretty wonderful birthday for this sweet five year old. We're excited for her family party at my parents' pool that we're going to have in about a week when the Idaho set of grandparents and Aunt Anna are visiting! Eleanor is fully prepared to have as many parties as we deem necessary to properly celebrate her birthday.