Shared Pics

Here are some pictures from recent events that other friends took of us/Christopher. Just wanted to share...

We had our neighborhood Halloween Party tonight and then all the kids went Trick-or-Treating. It was really fun and Chris got tons of good candy. Yes it is the night before Halloween and Chris should be out with shaving cream and toilet paper but apparently the grade schools are closed tomorrow and most of the families wanted to trick or treat tonight. Works for us! And we had a very nice evening catching up with some neighborhood friends and heading out for treats. I have no pictures though because frankly, I'm done with Halloween! When I was a kid, we dressed up the night before this holiday for the ragamuffin parade and then went trick-or-treating the next day. Must we have week-long holidays? Anyway, you stay classy, Planet Earth...

Today in Pictures

At Black Hoof Park...

Lunch at Ingredient...

Trick or treating at Mahaffie Farmstead with Luca...

Excuse me?

Wait, what? What do you mean there's snow on the east coast on October 29th? I need to get my eyes checked!

Fall Days

Our lingering summer might be officially over as it has gotten slightly chilly the last day or so. I guess it's about time! Plus our leaves are starting to fall as well. Our formerly wussy trees are now big enough to make us rake when the leaves fall. But for now, we are playing in them. Here is Grammy, Kasey, and Chris yesterday in the leaves...

Today, we discovered a beautiful park, not too far from our house. It's actually a park we've been to before but they've added a new section with three playgrounds, lots of swings, a sand pit, a natural park and much much more, all overlooking Lake Lenexa, which was especially sparkly today. It was fabulous and Chris had a ton of fun going down some really high slides!

Kasey's night time ritual

For the past 3 years, Christopher's bedtime routine has been pretty standard--brush teeth, take a bath, put on PJs, read a story, go to sleep. Kasey's has been pretty standard too--lay on the couch while the adult humans do all the work putting the kid to bed. Well, that has all changed. Ever since we switched Christopher into the big kid bed, Kasey has taken to his soft and cozy Thomas blanket. This video reveals what happens every evening as we are getting Chris ready to sleep...

http://youtu.be/WTciw_vMlQg

Trunk or Treat

My mother's group hosted their annual Trunk or Treat event at Electric Park this evening. I've seen such events advertised before but never attended one with Christopher. Tonight was our first. The idea is everyone parks in a parking lot and decorates their trunks, leaving out candy for the kids to go around an collect. As you can see, we were qualified for the most randomly decorated car, as I refused to spend too much time and effort on our decor. But when there is candy in the trunk, who cares what it looks like? Christopher had a wonderful time and got to see some of his buddies, including Nico, seen here as a rocket ship...

Kindermusik Party

The onslaught of Halloween parties has begun! Well, I suppose it began with the pumpkin carving on Saturday, but it continues nonetheless. Today Christopher wore his Clifford costume to Miss Amy's class and we danced to Halloween songs and played ghostly games. Here is our big red dog...

Miss Amy busted out "The Monster Mash" for the kids to dance to. Here is Christopher showing off his moves (similar to last night's post!)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOZHFbRjjho

And one of my favorite things that we do at Kindermusik is this little quiet time where we lie down and relax with our kids. We do it every class and today was no exception. My favorite thing about it is lying down next to Chris and just watching him as he chills out. Sometimes he will just look at me with that sweet face of his and it is just the best! Not sure if video will actually capture it but here it is anyway...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtR3hb6v3Jg

Get Ready for the Launch

So one of Christopher's favorite post-dinner pastimes is dancing to "crazy music." Apparently "crazy music" is the music I used to listen to in my younger days, music which (I will neither confirm nor deny) I may have danced to in a club or two. Buds loves this music and the faster it is, the happier he is. There happens to be a song on our iTunes collection called "The Launch," a completely appropriate song for a little boy who loves rockets and anything related to space. Here he is dancing to "The Launch" this evening. Daddy was dancing too but I spared him the footage just in case he runs for president next year...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncsuIJoGzAk

Hiking

Hiking at Shawnee Mission Park yesterday after school on the "purple trail..."

Yesterday the high was 83. Tomorrow the high will be 53. Well, I suppose it is the end of October...

6th Annual Pumpkin Carving

That's right, folks. It was time once again for the annual Eakin pumpkin carving massacre! This happened to be the 6th annual carving and I am proud to say that we have attended each and every one of these events over the years. On top of that, Christopher has now been to 4 of the 6 carvings. He is happy to report that he ingested nothing but pizza and sugary treats tonight too. (Quote of the night: "Mommy, I like candy.")... And now you will get a preview of Christopher's Halloween costume. Here are two super cute puppies!

Christopher is going to be Clifford the Big Red Dog this year! Anyway, he wore his costume to Tristan's house and it lasted for a little while as he played...

More importantly, I now know what I am going to get both Chris and Brian for Christmas this year--a remote control race track! The boys played with this toy of Tristan's for quite awhile and I'm not sure who was more excited about it. You decide!

We had a fabulous time as usual and it was great to spend yet another holiday celebration with the Eakin family!

Today with Grandpa T

We've been busy with Grandpa T and today was no exception. Here are the boys ice skating...

Although Chris was not thrilled about the ice at first (it's a little more slippery than roller skating), he claims he wants to take skating lessons (yay!). Later on in the afternoon, we went to Union Station and met Daddy for dinner at Pierpont's. Here are the boys waiting at the station...

Christopher (and the rest of us) have had a very nice time with Grandpa and we can't wait to see him again at Thanksgiving time!

Misc Pics from Today

Here are some miscellaneous pictures from our day today. First up is Chris riding in the driveway like a madman and then taking the long road down the sidewalk...

Also this afternoon, Christopher was playing in the back of Grandpa T's truck. Grandpa has this really cool thing called a bed slide that slides out of the back of the truck. It makes it easier for him to put things in and out of the truck. When Chris discovered this contraption, he couldn't resist and made Grandpa T slide him out of the truck countless times...

KC Pumpkin Patch-Year 2

We made a return trip to the KC Pumpkin Patch in Gardner this year and the weather was just perfect for picking pumpkins. This year we brought Grandpa T with us too. They added a few new activities this year and we did some of the oldies but goodies from last time. Here is Chris on the barrel train and the Wizard of Oz train...

Of course, there were many areas for Chris to dig in and he even remembered the corn kernel sandbox from last year! Here his is with some John Deere trucks digging away...

Ever since Olivia's birthday party, Christopher has been loving every opportunity he gets to ride a horse. Here are some different kinds of horses he got to go on. He even took Daddy for a ride too!

One of Christopher's favorite activities this year was the bouncy bubble. It's kind of like a bouncy house, minus the house. They separated the big kids from the little kids (good thing!) so here is a video of Chris bouncing away!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPUGLCWoHJA

After a bunch of playing, we all took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch where Chris picked out his favorite pumpkin. Of course, he wanted to get the first pumpkin he saw but we gave him a lesson in being more selective. Here he is on the hayride eating kettle corn to fuel up for the big pumpkin search...

We had a lovely day at the pumpkin patch today! We also brought along another friend (named Flat Stanley) but Julia will have to wait for the pictures that we took of her until we send her back to New Jersey. Stanley wanted to bring home a 10 pound pumpkin until we told her she had to carry it herself! 

Flat Stanley

Dear Julia,

Just wanted to let you know that Flat Stanley has arrived safely in Kansas. She said her flight was good and on time and the mail taxi brought her directly to her destination. Flat Stanley has been adjusting nicely to the midwest and thinks Kansas is quite lovely so far. All of her traveling has left her hungry so we've been feeding her well, as you can see from the picture above. We have also been keeping her busy by taking her to music class as well as to my friend Luca's house for a playdate. Mommy says we have lots of activities planned for her and we will show her all the fabulous sites in the Kansas City metro area. Don't worry about her a bit; she is in good hands with us!

Love,
Christopher

Summer Lingers On

I suppose the weather gods are granting us a few extra weeks of summer because of the unbearable heat we had to endure during the actual summer months. Christopher has been making the most of it by playing outside endlessly. We have been at the trail as much as I would have liked to in July and August where our little outdoorsman has been hiking, playing, collecting, and riding his bike like a speed racer. He has also been spending time in the sandbox making roads and houses (and Spin Pizzas) as well as in the driveway drawing miles of roads with sidewalk chalk. We are going to take advantage of this pleasantness as long as we can because I have a feeling true fall is just around the corner...

The boys

Here are the boys at dinner this evening. We went to Blue Koi, a noodles and dumpling place in Leawood.

6 years ago...

Lest we forget... six years ago today, we met our adorable little snuggly girl, Kasey Moe. We went to a Petsmart in Independence, Missouri where we thought we would be looking at two little beagle puppies and we left having adopted the best dog in the history of doggies. It would be three more days before we actually got to take her home. Adopting Kasey was a fantastic decision. We love you Snuggles! (These pictures are from the first week we had Kasey at our old apartment).

Marbleworks

Special thanks to Olivia for sharing this awesome toy with Christopher! Marbleworks is really cool as Christopher announced when he said, "Wow, this is coooooooool!" She also shared another game with us so we were switching between the two the whole afternoon. Very fun stuff!

The new ABC song

So one night, when Grandma and Grandpa were visiting, Christopher decided to serenade us with some music at dinner time. He has been having fun coming up with his own words for things, usually at inappropriate times (such as during grace, as in "God is great, God is choo-choo"). Well, he didn't want to leave out the "ABC song" in this endeavor so please, if you will, sing the following words to yourself with the tune to the "ABC song" in your head or out loud or whatever...

"A, B, C, D, E, F, U,
"H, I, J, K, L, M, N, choo choo..."

Of course we were hysterically laughing after the first line and Chris joined in the laughter after the second line so the song didn't get much further than that. We can only imagine what else is coming our way in future made up songs!

Tree hugger

Here is Christopher looking for the best tree to climb at the park yesterday with Grandma and Grandpa...

We love Franklin Park!

Here is Christopher having some fun in his "spaceship" this morning with Daddy at Franklin Park...

The KC Zoo

We have traveled far and wide, from Oklahoma City to Omaha to San Diego, to see different zoos and now we finally made it to our own local one, the Kansas City Zoo. Grandma Jan and Grandpa Eric arrived from New York yesterday and joined us (and Grammy!) to explore the zoo and check out the animals. The weather could not have been more perfect and in addition, it was Girl Scout day so Chris had lots of ladies to flirt with. In actuality, however, Chris preferred to run from animal to animal to see how fast he could make it through the zoo. And when he wasn't running, he was directing which grandparent was to push the stroller next!

At the end of our visit, we asked Chris which animal he liked the best and he declared that it was the tiger! The tiger gave us a nice close up and Buds was roaring at him...

Christopher rode the carousel with Daddy and Grammy next.

And here he is with Grandma and Grandpa while we were waiting for the tram...

Then later, on the tram ride...

We had a wonderful trip to the zoo and now Chris is zonked out and trying to recover!