Snow Day!!!!

As you might have heard, our recent run of great weather came to an crashing halt. First with a ice storm, then two days of snow. We received about a foot of snow, causing the schools to close for two days. Melissa bundled the kids up and headed over to the local hill for some sledding. Click on any of the pictures below for some video highlights.


Video 1 - Ellie Sledding (click here or on picture)


Video 2 - Tyler Sledding (click here or on picture)


Video 3 - Ty pulling Ellie (click here or on picture)

KC Christmas Tree Lighting

The day after Thanksgiving, we went down to the Crown Center, downtown KC for the lighting of the Christmas Tree. In addition to singing, music, ice skating, and the lighting of the Christmas tree, they had fireworks.

Since it was so nice out (for November), we had a picnic dinner on benches while watching the events. The kids loved the fireworks. Ever wonder what happens to the tree after the Holidays? In this case, they use the wood from each previous year's tree to make ornaments. All proceeds from ornament sales go to the Mayor's Christmas Tree Fund, which assists thousands of Kansas City's less fortunate each year.

However the best part was the fountain. Kansas City is second only to Rome, Italy, in the number of fountains it has. The Crown Center has one of the largest, with over 49 water jets that shoot water up to 60 feet in the air. Water is supplied from 7,500-gallon underground reservoir & is recycled into the fountain at a rate of 2,200 gallons per minute.

For Christmas, they created a water shows that featured the fountain dancing to "Carol of the Bells" and "The Nutcracker Overture." Click on the pictures below to see for yourself


Click
here to view first video or click on the picture




Click here to view second video or click on the picture

Tyler's 6 Birthday

We decided not to gamble with Kansas's oh so predictable (not!!) weather and celebrated Tyler's birthday inside this year. We held his party at our gym and enjoyed pizza and games. Tyler wanted a Lego birthday. We had a Lego relay, and topped his cake with Lego building blocks, and a Lego Bionicle creature. Compared to Ellie's cake, Tyler's cake was much easier on Mom and Dad - we put Tyler to work building the cake toppers.

During the party, the kids had a great time playing around running through an obstacle course and playing scooter hockey. The highlight of the party was a scooter train.

Tyler's friends were very generous - he received lots of great gifts. He even wrote his own thank you cards this year. Wow - how did he get to be 6 already??!?

Halloweeen Pictures

Just realized I haven't posted any pictures from Halloween. With both kid's birthdays and Halloween so close together, it is hard to find time to keep the blog updated.

Tyler has rely been into Superheroes, especially the Justice Leauge . Last year, he was Batman. This year, he wanted to be the Flash, the fastest human alive. We got him to slow down just enough to be photographed before he took off to collect as much candy as possible. Actually, it was Tyler's idea to pose like this.

Ellie, on the other hand, wanted to be princess (big surprise !!). Melissa found a beautiful Cinderella costume for her. Complete with tiara, blue dress and glass slippers, Ellie looked every bit the princess that she is.

Melisa got roped into dressing up as well, since she was 'room mom' for Tyler's kindergarten class on Halloween. She won't let me post any pictures, but she looked good in a cat outfit.

Even I got into the act. We have a costume contest at work. Since everyone knows how much I like the Steelers, I decided to go as Troy Polamalo. If any of you have ever watched a Steelers game in the last two years, he is the guy on defense with the long flowing back hair hanging out his helmet. I even had a small Larry Johnson hanging off the back - a little jab at the local Chiefs fans.

Trip to Arboretum

Not too much to say, just some pretty pictures from trip to Overland Park Arboretum last weekend

Ellie's 3rd Birthday - Part 2

Did I mention that Ellie likes princesses? Take a look at the cake we made for her. Melissa found the design on-line. Basically, it is two sheet cakes on top of each other. The towers are two ice cream cones stacked on ends, with a 3rd sugar cone for the turret. Strawberry wafers and licorice string combined for the drawbridge, with Hersey kisses around the top. We were pretty proud of our creation. Best of all the kids thought it tasted great.

We had several activities for the kids, including: decorating crowns and coloring pictures of princesses such as Belle, Ariel, Cinderella and Snow White. We also played 'pin the crown on the castle'. I have to confess to spending a little too much time drawing the castle. But hey, nothing's too good from my little girl, right? Oh, I guess I should explain the kids' expressions. We took this picture after the party, and kids were having a little fun. I don't know where they get their silliness from. Personally, I blame grandpa and pop-pop.

Had to get one shot of Ellie posing in front of her Princess decoration. She was pretty excited to see it hung up. We had to leave it hanging in our kitchen windows for several days before she let us take it down.

Ellie's 3rd Birthday - Part 1

Can you believe Eliana has already turned 3? In some ways, she is definitely a little girl. Take princesses and dress up for example. She loves to play dress up. You can see her modeling a pretty sequene dress and feather boa - a birthday gift courtesy of grandma. She even has the right look and pose for a run-way model. I don't think my mother has had this much fun shopping for Ellie since she picked out her first, new-born outfit.
Ellie also loves anything to do with Disney Princesses, so imagine how excited she was to get the Snow White dress up outfit from my Uncle and Aunt. She has been running around in one or the other outfit for days now.
Last picture is from Ellie's birthday party (more pictures in the next post). She received a special call from Cinderella, wishing her a happy birthday. For once, she was speechless. However her smile tells you how excited she was.

Trip to Pumpkin Patch

October 1st was unusually nice day, so we packed-up the family truckster and headed south to the KC Pumpkin Patch. Lots of fun things, including a corn maze, pumpkin toss, zip line, and hay rides. Tyler was really impressed with the pumkin cannon - pumpkins were launched more than 300 yards using a propane tank.



Thought I would start off with a rare family shot. Notice how we are all smiling before entering the maze. It was pretty tricky - turning us around several times. If it weren't for Tyler, we might still be lost in the there

Of course, no trip to the pumpkin patch is complete without a picking out a few pumpkins to take home. Ellie and Dave are eying a few nice pumpkins to take a rest on. We also found some that were good for carving.

Look Mom, No Hands!

David decided it was time for Tyler to ride without his training wheels. We figured it would take lots of work, patience, and band-aids. We were wrong - Tyler is a natural. He only needed a little help getting started, and he was off. Dave had a hard time keeping up with Tyler. Not only did he ride across the cul-de-sac, he learned how to turn and stop. Ty then started riding over bumps, the sidewalk and even on the grass. Look-out Dave, I think Ty is ready to start mountain biking!

Pretty soon, Ty was too fast for Dave. Hmmm, this might be a good way for Dave to get his running in! I think the best thing Dave taught Tyler was how to fall. If any of you have every seen Dave after a ride, you know that falling the one thing he has had a lot of practice with!

You know Ellie had to get into the act. Once again, she is showing no fear, riding over what ever gets in her way.

Hey lady, come back here with that bike! I didn't realize the circus was in town. Okay, Melissa didn't really steal the bike. The kids started to get a little tired, so she road the bike back up the cul-de-sac to our house.

Baseball

Ty decided he wanted to try Tee-ball next.

 

Ty's 1st Day of Kindergarten

It is official - Tyler is now in Kindergarten. Not quite sure when it happened, but it somehow snuck up on us. If you know Ty, you can imagine how excited he was about his first day. New back-pack, shiny new sneakers, he even got up early to make sure we got there on time. We all went with him for the first day, being a big event and all. The school even had coffee and donuts to make it easier on the parents.
Ty's teacher, Mr. Stidham, is great. He is very out-going, taking as much time with the parents as with the kids. You can guess which ones are harder to handle ;) Surprising, Mom & Dad held up pretty well.


Tyler has already told Melissa she can't give him hugs when she drops him off. I figured we had a few more years before that started! Must be he is worried about his image. Take a look at the cuties he is hanging with. That's my boy!

Vacation back East

Melissa and the kids recently returned from an end-of-the summer vacation back East visiting friends and family. They spent the majority of their time in Chartlottesville visiting both sets of grandparents. It sure was nice of them to move to Charlottesville to make things easier for us. I am not sure who was more excited, the grandparents or the kids. Everyone had a good time, with visits to the library, pool and a tour of some university located in Charlottesville we had never heard of. ;)
Melissa's brother, sister-in-law and niece came down to Charlottesville the second weekend. Ty and Ellie were very happy to see Uncle Jon, Aunt Nikki and cousin Kaylee. Ellie and Kaylee could even pass for sisters, especially in their matching outfits.
Melissa and the kids spent their last few days visiting friends in Northern Virginia (aka NOVA). Since moving to Kansas, Melissa has been feeling a little land-locked. Melissa wanted to take the kids to the beach, since Ellie had never seen the ocean and Ty was too young to remember his first visit. They spent two days in a house near Bethany Beach with the Robinson clan. We were lucky enough to overlap our visit with the Robinson's who were visiting from Belgium. It took Ellie a few minutes to get used to the "noise" of the ocean. However, she quickly grew to love the big sand box and shed tears when it was time to pack up. Ty, Ellie Maddy, Emily, and Will played in the surf, buried Will in the sand, and collected tons of sea shells.
Besides catching up with Robinsons, Melissa and the kids spent some time with "Aunie Ceil and Uncle Anthony". Their kids, Chloe and Jordan were great hosts to Ty & Ellie. We also squeezed in a visit with the Biancheris. Ty loved playing with Adam's trucks, and Emma and Ellie played with dolls and rocked out on a keyboard and electric guitar. Ellie also insisted on doing lunch with her first friend, Abbey. We had a great time and hope to be back to visit soon.

Ty has been asking to go fishing for quite a while. We finally made it over the local farm / park the other day and had a great time. While Dave had to the do the dirty work (read "hook the worms") the kids had a blast. Ellie didn't want to wait; she put her pole in right away while Dave was trying to bait Ty's hook.

These fish were pretty crafty. I guess they are used to finding hooks in their food, because they knew just how to nibble without getting caught. However, it didn't take too long for Tyler to land his first fish. It was a little small, but hey - it was his first fish! In no time at all, he landed his second fish. What a natural!

Not to be out-done, Ellie also caught her first fish. Even though she only caught one, it was the biggest fish of the day! I don't think she was as excited about it as Tyler was, at least not until I put it back in the water.

Have to apologize - it has been a little while since the last update. Now that school is out for the kids, we have been busy doing all the typical summer-time activities. Melissa and the kids spend lots of time at the neighborhood pool. Tyler has been practicing his swimming every chance he gets. He is learning to swim pretty far on his own as well as starting to swim under water a short way. Eliana also loves the water, especially when she wears her water wings. She loves the freedom she has, swimming / floating both on her belly and back.

Tyler has started tee-ball. It took a little while for him to get used to the tee vs. pitching, but he is having lots of fun. Last week he cleanly fielded a rocket off of once bounce, turned to first and through the ball on target. Dad was very proud.

We also take time to slow down and enjoy small stuff, like popsicles, miniature golf and bicycling. Tyler loves to go for rides. We went five miles the other day on a new by trail - Ellie rode in the trailer, pulled by Mom. Ty only had one crash the whole way. Again, Dave was very proud - especially the way he crashed

Melissa took time last weekend to paint Ellie's toenails. She waited very patiently to get her favorite color - pink! She insisted on wearing sandals for the rest of the week to show off her feet.