Kansas City

For Labor Day weekend, we chose Kansas City.  We'd passed through a few years ago, but now it was time to explore the city for real, and of course, see a ball game.  We were thrilled that our friends, the Andersons, were up for the adventure as well.  We started at the Country Club plaza.  It's the first shopping center in North America designed to accommodate automobiles.  Now it's just a really nice, Spanish-styled, shopping area.  It was a really nice area with lots of fountains and statues.  We rubbed the boar's snout for good luck, and visited the JC Nichols Memorial fountain.  We didn't know it was cancer awareness month, so we were surprised to walk up to bright yellow water.

Pouty Jane.

Jane we so excited to sit next to Paige for a picture.  Just look at the stars in her eyes.

Jane was not interested in hanging over the water, but Peter was totally up for it.

 Alice has gotten pretty good at standing, but I was impressed that Peter was willing to give it a try.

 We played around there for a while, throwing kids up in the air and holding races around the tree, and then headed to Potbelly's for lunch.

Just a couple blocks from there is the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.  We some a few exhibits inside, but spent most of our time walking around the sculpture gardens.  Here you will find the world's largest shuttlecock and a triangular glass labyrinth.

The Glass Labyrinth was a lot of fun.  Jane insisted on leading the way and walked straight into a wall.  Peter had already walked into the museum's glass doors, so he was much more cautious, but even that was funny when he would think there was a wall there and there wasn't.  It was a little torture chamber for them, but very entertaining for the rest of us.  I think it would be really fun to have timed races through it.  

Does anyone else's vehicle look like a disaster after just one day of traveling?  Sheesh.
We ate dinner at the Joe's Kansas City BBQ (also knowns as Oklahoma Joe's).   It was great.  I guess Kansas City is supposed to be the BBQ capitol of America, so we had to try one of these great places.
We hurried over the the Royal's game after dinner (we still didn't have tickets).  As we drove passed the stadium, I was impressed and a little discouraged to see it filled to the top with dedicated fans.  We managed to get some "Standing Room Only" tickets and stood for a little while behind the seats on the main level.  We had our eye on an empty row, and when it appeared clear that no one was going to take them, we sat down and were able to fit both families together there.  There were MUCH better seats than we would have ever paid for.  We got so lucky.

Random photos from August

These little puppies love to do tricks.  They fetch, play dead, bark, sit, roll over, and read a book (Jane added that one).   Of course, when your puppy treats are marshmallows, they'll do just about anything.  I often build forts or houses out of big boxes we get, but they LOVED their dog houses.  We ended up keeping these up for almost a month.

Cute little naked picnic.  Why don't they like to wear clothes?

Is she a lefty or a righty?  I guess that remains to be seen, but she favors the left most consistently.

 One of Peter's not so cute Peterisms, is the way he sucks his fingers "clean".  A normal person would lick the individual fingers, but Peter uses the less effecting and disgusting sounding method of shoving ALL his fingers in his mouth and making a gross sucking noise.  Oh boy.

 This was the first time I asked Jane to hold Alice and she was thrilled once she realized I meant hold her while STANDING.  Now she asked me if she can hold her all the time, but only lasts a few seconds before she's done.

At the Pool

We had a great summer of going to the pool and splash pad at the YMCA.  It was mostly me meeting up with friends, so we stuck to the toddler pool and splash pad areas, but a few times Chris came and we could go play in the big pool.  Jane loved her floaties this summer.  The moment she put them on and started paddling around by herself, she had the most adorable excited grin all over her face.  She loved her new freedom to explore the pool.  Peter had no interest in wearing them or getting into the pool.  He was content to stay mostly out of the water and play in it with cups and buckets.  (But more than that, he preferred to eat snacks on the sidelines.)  I didn't push him either.  I couldn't manage the three kids in the deep pool, so he didn't get much practice.  This was our last summer trip to the pool, and since Daddy was with us, we told Peter he was going to learn to swim with his floaties on.  We were delighted when he didn't hesitate.  He put them on and headed in, and he loved it.  He had the goofiest grin on his face the whole time and we kept getting the giggles just looking at him; Mouth closed (to keep the water out), smiling, and squinting into the sun.  I love that little boy.

Super Heros and Princesses

Super Spider Batman is the ultimate super hero.  He races around the house at break-neck speeds and only pauses for a few "hiiiiiiiii-ya" kicks.  Peter has never seen a Spiderman, Superman, or Batman show, but he's improvising pretty well.  Also, we do sing the Spiderman and Ninja Turtle theme songs before bed every night and he knows almost all the words.

Princess Jane is sweet and girly.  She wears two tu-tus under her Princess dress to get maximum fluffliness, her tiara is an accessory to many outfits, and her graceful dance moves are ready for the grandest ball.  But watch out, she might use her magic wand to turn you into a sticky skunk.