Enrolling in school

We got Gabby all enrolled in Kindergarten today. She got to see a little of her new school and is getting excited. Next Friday we find out who her teacher is and get a chance to meet her and tour the building. Now we're talking lunch money and menus and supply lists, oh my!

Everyone's home

All kids are back home and accounted for. Now we just have to undo the spoiling heaped upon them. I have some pics from St Louis I will put up soon. Gabby's going to gymnastics this week. VBS is next week. School starts the week after. Starting to feel like summer is over and it's just now hot!

If you want to see a smile to brighten your day, look at the pictures of Sam we just had done.
http://www.susangrahamphoto.com/blog2/

Visiting with Cousins

My sister's family and my mom came to visit around the 4th of July. We had a great time playing with the cousins and showing them around Kansas City.

We went to fireworks on the 4th at Fort Leavenworth. Sam loved his first fireworks! It was a good show and we were very close to it.

On the 5th we went to downtown Kansas City. We started out at Kalaidescope at Crown Center and then had lunch at Fritz's, where your food is delivered by train. After that we went to Union Station and explored Science City. We finished the day having dinner at T-Rex, Gabby's favorite spot.

On the 6th we went to a park and had some pictures made (we rarely all get together like this). We had a picnic at the park and then went back home. The kids went swimming, where Gabby went off the high-dive for the first time and Jonathan went off the low dive for the first time. After supper, we looked at some of the historical stuff around post.

The 7th was our last day and we went to St Joseph, Missouri. The Pony Express jumped off from there and we had fun at the museum. We went to another museum, the Patee Museum, which has lots of fun historical stuff. The kids loved the merry-go-round.

We were sad to see them leave on the 8th. We were also all very tired!

Sleeping In

I don't get to sleep in much anymore. Robert is good about getting up with Sam and letting me sleep a little but you can still hear the kids when they are downstairs - at least in my small house. But this morning Robert had a breakfast meeting with a chaplain about our neighborhood Bible study so he left before 6:30. That left me in a quiet house and no alarm to get up to! What a treat to sleep to 8 o'clock in a quiet house!
And an extra fun thing was to wake up and find our pumpkin plant blooming. Now I am not a gardener. I have a black thumb. But Gabby, on the other hand, can bring home plants from preschool in a paper cup, throw them in the ground and they will bloom all summer and be beautiful. She wanted to plant some things so we did. We didn't spend much time on it, planting time got mixed in with sick Sam time, so mostly things were thrown into the ground. We were doing well on our blueberry bushes until the deer jumped our fence and ate them. We have a huge pumpkin plant now and it it blooming! That is a success to me! We also have some zinnias about to bloom. Hopefully they will still be blooming when Gabby gets back home.

Vacation is over...

Robert's classes started back up today and his break is over. We took the kids to Nashville this weekend to see my family and exchange them with Robert's parents for a week. So what am I doing this week with no children?? Sleeping first and foremost. After that, trying to do the things that are so hard with the kiddos around. Things that aren't fun but necessary.

Chicago

Robert came home from work before his break and said, "Let's go to Chicago." So we left on Saturday. Sunday we visited with a friend of mine from high school (I refuse to say "old friend") in the morning. We went to the top of the Hancock Building in the afternoon and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory - we love that place!

Monday we went to the Shedd Aquarium. The kids and I watched a special on PBS about it one day and they were ready to see it. We had a good time and stayed till mid-afternoon. We took a water taxi over to Navy Pier and walked around for a little while and then took another water taxi up the river a little ways. We had deep dish pizza for dinner and all went to bed happy!

Tuesday we went to the Children's Museum on Navy Pier. We spent all day going between that and the pirate show out in the shopping area. Gabby loved it! They played games with the kids and she did a great job volunteering. We rode the Ferris Wheel and the Merry-Go-Round before leaving a tired crew.

We came on home Wednesday because company was coming Friday. Gabby's favorite thing was the pirate show. Sam's favorite thing was to stand in the window at our hotel and watch the traffic go by. We were on the 16th floor and across from the hospital. He learned the ambulance sound very quickly.

A big "Thank You" to all the attractions in Chicago - Robert was free on everything we did except the rides at Navy Pier and the bus. We ALL got in free to the Children's Museum. They know how to thank a military family and it made a huge difference!

Happy Fourth!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Independence Day! We took a quick trip to Chicago earlier this week and we're about to head to the airport to pick up my mom, sister and her family. They will be here a few days. Enjoy your day and I will put up Chicago pics soon.