Caroling on the Plaza

The worship leader at out church, Bryan, organized a small group to go Christmas caroling on the Plaza.  I love singing Christmas carols, so I volunteered to go.  But there's someone else in our family who likes singing more than most, and who especially likes Christmas carols: Hannah.  Knowing she would not be any problem to take along, and figuring she would like it, I brought her with me. We didn't move around the Plaza like traditional caroling, but instead found a nice spot on one of the wide sidewalk areas near a store.  There was a group of about eight of us, and Bryan played his guitar and we all sang along to the carols for almost an hour.  It wasn't too cold, but just the right amount of chill for a nice Christmas feel.  I really enjoyed it, and Hannah did too.  If they do this again next year, we'll definitely go again.

Kids and a Kitty at the Zoo

I took the kids to the zoo today.  Last time I did, I apparently was unaware that they had a strong desire to do the carousel, and they didn't ask until the very end when we were out of time.  So this time I made it a priority, and we did it first thing.

They offered us a map on our way in, so Clara decided she was going to navigate us by using it.  She studied it for a bit, was confused, and then decided to take a close look, as you can see.  It didn't help.

I decided to take over the navigation, and after that things went better.  We stopped by the elephant area, but then I wanted to go to the Africa area, which I hadn't been to before.  I was hoping to do this via the Africa Sky Safari, which is basically a ski lift that takes you over the entire Africa section, so you can look down and see the animals.  You can fit one adult and two kids on the chair.  I of course had three kids with me, but I was hoping I could have Hannah sit on my lap, and the lady at the Sky Safari ticket booth (although our season tickets make it free for us) said she wasn't sure and that it would be up to the ride operator.  When we got to the front, he said we couldn't do it, so we were out of luck on the Sky Safari, which made the kids, especially Clara, pretty upset, despite the fact that I had warned them that it might not be possible.  So we just walked there, which is kind of a long walk, but much of the way has exhibits, including the one you see here that appears to be a domesticated kitty in a zoo.  I don't remember what they called it, but it wasn't a house cat and was apparently some sort of actual wild animal, which is surprising given how adorable it is.  Then you can also see how we saw more traditional African wildlife, like this cheetah.

I don't remember what Clara was talking about here, but she clearly had a strong opinion about something related to this exhibit.

There are a few random stone statues throughout the zoo, and this was one of them.  I'm guessing I wasn't the first parent to insist that their kids pose for a picture on it.

The zoo was closing at that point, so we had to make our way back to the entrance, but I stopped to try to take a picture of the four of us, and got a series of crazy and fun pictures.  We had a really fun time today, and it was great that the weather was so great to be able to do this even in November.

Hansons' Pumpkin Party

Every year our friends the Hansons have a pumpkin carving party.  Last year I brought Joshua and Clara, and this year I brought all the kids.  There's lots of food, and we started with that.

Aside from their most important addition in the past year, they also added to their household in a much less important way: chickens!  Jason built a chicken coop on his own without instructions (I'm very jealous of his skills), so now they have chickens in their back yard.  It's not the first time Joshua has held a chicken, but he was still very excited about it nonetheless.  Clara wasn't as sure about it but wanted to do what her big brother was doing.

Like last year, Joshua was totally pumped about carving his pumpkin.  The girls were less interested, and plus it takes a little strength with a serrated knife, so it's not really an easy thing to do, so I mostly did theirs for them,

Joshua told me he wanted a scary face, Clara told me she wanted a happy face, and Hannah told me she wanted a frowny face (I had recently been talking with her about what a frown is, so I think that was on her mind).  Those were all pretty easy to do, so after some additional guidance, such as on eye and nose shapes, I was able to make them the pumpkins they wanted.
Getting pictures of the kids with the pumpkins was harder, as they were almost all blurry because of the lighting.  The best one is this one on the left, but the one on the right is notable because Joshua is doing a scary face that, even when blurry, makes me laugh.

Jason Hanson cooked some pumpkin seeds as a snack for anyone who wanted it, and of course Joshua, who is often into snacks other little kids might not like as much, really liked them.  He and Jason sat by the fire for a bit and bonded while munching on some seeds.

We had a fun time, and I think it's pretty likely that next year I would take all the kids again.

Early October

 After Hannah's party, I let her choose what we did for dinner. She said she wanted to eat dinner at a restaurant, but not a Mexican restaurant, just a regular restaurant. And then she wanted to go to sonic and eat tots and get a treat. So we decided Red Robin would work well for her and we finished the evening at Sonic, even though I do not normally prefer to top off my dinner with tots.

 She also enjoyed playing with her birthday presents. She liked all her gifts, but was especially excited about her ability to give her babies shots with a "pink shot" (You will note she is wearing her Doc McStuffins outfit at her birthday dinner. She takes her doctoral duties very seriously.) and also Chicken's mermaid costume, since she wants both herself and Chicken to dress up as mermaids for Halloween this year.

 The following weekend, we went to the zoo as a family for Hayden's birthday party. I hadn't been to the zoo for a birthday party before. But it was pretty fun and the kids get little stuffed animals as a favor (you can see Clara's in the photo), which made them super happy.

 Naturally we couldn't leave without a carousel ride.

Hannah had made progress in being willing to ride an actual animal on the carousel previously, but this time she was back to "Why would I risk my life like that?" so we rode together on the bench.

The first part of the party (with cupcakes and gifts) was in a room inside the main building.  The tablecloth was a large sheet of paper, so the kids (and many of us adults) drew pictures on the paper with the supplied crayons.

After the girls were done on the carousel, they came over and joined the rest of us.  There was a DJ there playing fun kids songs.  Hannah couldn't help but break it down, as you can see here.  It was a fun party, and everyone had a good time.

 The following weekend, Hannah was invited to a birthday party for a friend from school. It was at Rainbow Play Systems, which is a swing set showroom. It was a super fun venue for a birthday party. Hannah had a lot of fun.

September

Hannah got invited to a birthday party at Deanna Rose. I try to take her to birthday parties when she is invited because it's good for her socially to be with other kids without her siblings. She has grown in this area since starting school in a separate class with Clara, but she still struggles a bit. We had a fun time at the party and then spent some time at the farmstead on our own. This is us on Hannah's favorite attraction, which is the wagon ride.

Jason has started volunteering on Sundays at the church on the A/V team. They are the people who run the slides and lights and all that stuff. It's a good fit for him since he's kind of a techie. Here he is in the booth.

Jason's family growing up apparently were "taking teeth out by slamming the door people". My family wasn't as fancy because we were more "just rip it out when it gets loose enough" people, so I don't fully understand the point of the door other than theatrics. However, Joshua loves theatrics so he pretty much thought it was super cool so that's a good enough reason for me. Now he has lost four baby teeth. He really likes to lose them so we are discouraging him from wiggling the ones that aren't loose so he doesn't end up toothless for awhile. The dentist only mentioned the first 4 as ready to come out at our last visit.

I had a birthday. I didn't really get anything exciting because I literally wanted nothing, but we had nice family time with delicious cake (Nothing Bundt Cakes is my favorite).

 Then Jason and I went out to dinner to Zocalo, which was fun and delicious.

Meghan's Birthday

Today we celebrated Meghan's birthday at home with our family.  Meghan and I always try to go out to eat with each other for our birthday dinner, so we did that tonight by having Halie come over and watch the kids.  We went to Zocalo, which is one of our favorites, and we even got a pretty decent pic for one taken with a cell phone in low light.  It was a nice night out.

Bros at the K

What's a good way to celebrate being 39?  Going to a Royals game!  Actually, that's a good way to celebrate being any age.  Kirk, Andrew, and I wanted to go to a Royals game together, and today was the day that worked best for all of us.  We go to early service at church now, which works out on multiple levels, one of which is more flexibility on our Sundays.  I leveraged that today by leaving right after church to meet up with the guys at Andrew's house.  We then all drove over together to the K.  A group of Andrew's coworkers were there, so we tailgated with them before they went into the game.  We decided that we'd play some games in the parking lot before we went in, so we set up a game of washers and threw around a football for awhile.  Eventually we went in, and our seats were nearly dead-center with a great view.  Danny Duffy was starting, and he was pitching well.  Mid-way through the game we took a walk around the stadium including a stop in the Royals Hall of Fame.  I'd never been in there before, and it was much better than I expected, with lots of interesting exhibits, including the 2015 World Series trophy.  The Royals won 10-3, but it's basically going to take a miracle for them to make it to the playoffs this year, as they've had injuries to Moose and Wade and others, and they they've also been Soria-ed a few too many times.  But the Royals have done plenty of miraculous things the past couple years, so I'm not counting them out until that math changes from improbable to impossible.