Sleeping in the car

Don't you love the sleeping in the car shots? B told me to take this and we can show it to all the boys who come knocking on our door trying to date her in ten years.

The impossibility of throwing a box away

My kids don't let me throw anything away. Especially Princess Sparkley. Especially boxes. Usually the box is big enough that they think they can fit in it and they make the world's smallest fort ever. This box was not big. Instead they decided to wear it. I filmed it too... but they kept tipping over and hitting furniture, so it's more painful than funny.

Cat and Mouse again: IT WAS CUTE

More Cat and Mouse dancing

Cat and Mouse

This was a cute dance where some girls pick to be cats, napping and other girls (in this case, Princess Sparkley and her friend from church, M) choose to be mice. There is cute music playing (sorry my tiny digital camera doesn't record sound) and basically, while the cats nap, the mice play. Very cute.

Fancy Dance Moves

Dance Recital Film

My apologies to those of you who have no desire to watch a 3-5 year old dance class, silent film style. This is mostly for the grandparents.

This first film is Princess Sparkley doing her: Echappés sautés(literally a ripping jump) these are jumps where the legs jump up together, but split apart mid-air and land in second position. Followed by her curtsy.

Princess Sparkley's Dance Class Recital

Princess Sparkley has been in a dance class called "Creative Movement." Today was her last class, the one where the parents get to watch and take pictures.

Caught Up

I have now posted each and every picture that I have wanted to post, loaded them on my computer, and erased them from my camera. I'm done. For now. Tomorrow is Princess Sparkley's last day of dance class, which is sort of like a recital since it's the only day that anyone is allowed to be in the classroom during dance class. I'm going to try to film a bit and post it and see how that goes. You shall see.

Farewell to Friends

A lot of the people we've made friends with since we've lived here have been students in either grad school or law school. A lot of them are moving this month. This is our friend A and his little brother G who are moving to Texas.

Fancy

Princess Sparkley is a girlie girl. She was 14 months old for her second Halloween and when I put her in her fancy, ballet-like Peacock costume and showed her herself in the mirror, her face lit up and I knew we were in trouble as far as girlie girls go. She's always wanted fancy fancy church dresses, which isn't really my thing. Around Easter we were shopping and she saw some fancy Easter dresses. I told her we'd shop the after Easter sales and see what we came up with. Then I forgot. We were at Dillards the other day and I thought to look in the kid's section. We found this fancy, poofy, sparkley princessey dress for $12.50. Her hair was also curly before church, and she had a sparkley butterfly clip that she lost at church. So this did look much fancier and not so bedraggled.

Trucks for Kids

Our Parks and Rec had a Trucks for Kids display Saturday at one of the parks. There was a fire truck, a police car, a Parks and Rec garbage truck, a lot of different tractors, a cherry picker truck, a dump truck, etc.Princess Sparkley in front of a big tractor tire.


There were normal horns, and then there were deafening horns. Boy was not a fan of either, was pretty scared about climbing on anything most of the time we were there.


Princess Sparkley on a fire truck.

Firemen Princess Sparkley and Fireman Boy.

Pretending to drive some sort of John Deere tractor.

Boy's first train track

This is the first complete train track Boy has built on his own. Usually I have to finish them, or he just has a really long, straight/curvy track that has no chance of connecting to the rest of the track. But he did this all on his own. After the picture, he asked me to fix it because it was just two loops, and you couldn't get from one loop to the other.

Again with the clouds

We were waiting for B to get done with school and saw these beautiful clouds by KU's Campanile bell tower (it's hiding behind the large pine tree in the last picture).

Wizard of Oz friends

These are Princess Sparkley and Boy's good friends. We went to Topeka the other day, to Gage Park and next to the carousel were these cut outs. Very fun since Princess Sparkley has been obsessed with Dorothy since we moved to Kansas, has read The Wizard of Oz (with Daddy) and seen the movie, and requested and received a Dorothy costume from Grandma M for Christmas.

L as Dorothy.

Princess Sparkley as Dorothy.

A as the Tin Man.

I as the Cowardly Lion.

Boy as the Scarecrow.

Atlas

Atlas
B carved this statue for a contest he created at work for the best GIS analyst. A guy named Jack won it. Pretty good statue for someone who has never done anything like this before.

For Grandpa's bday

My dad is a huge Boston Red Sox fan. For his birthday, Cinco de Mayo, I took the kid's pictures in their Red Sox apparel and framed it and mailed it to Grandpa. Here are some of the fun pictures.

Baby Plants

I have a super cute picture from this time last year at a different plant nursery that I'll have to post with this. Boy is holding a baby cucumber plant. Princess Sparkley has impatients.

Princess Sparkley's Preschool Graduation

This is Princess Sparkley's preschool graduation party at the park.
L -> R are: A, L, E, J, Princess Sparkley and M.

Here is their silly pose. Notice the little brothers and sister in the background.



J's little sister, E. Boy. And L's little brother, I.


Princess Sparkley accepting her diploma.

Riding Lawn Mower

Here's the whole family trying out Grandma and Grandpa's new ride on lawn mower in St. Louis. Still Boys' bday weekend.

Cake: Part Two

We had the leftover cake with dinner. More candles, of course. And not so many people so he wasn't as shy and actually enjoyed getting to blow the candles out.

The Presents

Birthday Present Loot.

Opening presents.

Thomas Bridge from G and G in California.

The Mack truck he's wanted since Christmas.

All his new train stuff.

St. Louis Zoo

We sort of decided that the zoo would be a fun place to go for Boy's birthday. The closer we got to the day, the more we realized it might just be us who wanted to go to the zoo. But he enjoyed it, and was excited when we got there.

The family, resting. Much to B's brother's amusement, you'll notice that aside from me, we're all wearing baseball caps from different teams. Princess Sparkley is a Dodgers fan since she was born in the LA area. B is a Pittsburgh fan, being born in Pittsburge. Boy is a Red Sox fan. Officially, according to Princess Sparkley, he's supposed to be an Angels fan since he was born in the LA area too. And our next kid is supposed to be a Kansas City Royals fan. Boy was a Red Sox player for Halloween, and the hat is part of his costume. I'm a Red Sox fan, born to a Red Sox loving Dad.

Princess Sparkley is big into silly pictures lately. We can't get her to keep her fingers out of her mouth for normal ones without promising a silly picture next. And even then... who knows.

Boy, Princess Sparkley, and Uncle Br.