Back in (Almost) Full Effect

Chris had his first performance back today at Our Lady of Mercy Country Home! It was great to see our boy out there dancing and he said at least five times, "It is so good to be dancing again." It was great to be back with our dance family too and Grammy joined us for the trip up to Liberty. I am going to share two of Christopher's dances. The first one is his treble jig and the second is his set, "The Blackthorn Stick." Both of these dances are typically done in hard shoes but the floor of the home was slippery so he did them in his soft shoes (which still have a hard heel so you will hear some tapping). Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OKfRMbzIY8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuAnlZ8eajc

Mini Golf

The Nelson-Atkins museum has a fun outdoor exhibit that combines art with miniature golf. Although it was extremely toasty today, we joined Jack and Maddie and went golfing on the 9 hole course. It was a lot of fun! We also did the glass maze, which Jonathan has never done before, and that was roasting but a good time was had by all! J definitely got Grammy's "love of mini golf" gene and would be happy to go with her and play again. Chris would rather go Irish dancing but he was a good sport about it...

Random pics

Here are a few random pictures from the last few days... First up is Jonathan's attempt to vacuum the driveway!

On Sunday, we got to enjoy our homemade vegan gelato cookie sandwiches made with my favorite-to-make chocolate, chocolate chip cookies. They were delish and we got to have a second round tonight!

Next to one of the gas stations we frequent is this amazing mural that shows some of the highlights our our fair city. Murals like these are popping up all over the place and they are making random corners of KC very beautiful...

The boys got much needed haircuts today!

And then Jonathan was being his usual silly self while Chris was at dance this evening...

Blooming

We have beautiful gladiolas that have started to bloom! They are so beautiful and the red is so vivid. We can see them out of our kitchen window and they are lovely...

My broccoli is almost ready to be picked in my plot! Jonathan's was delicious last week and I'm expecting the same...

The weather has been so pleasant here and we spent some of the afternoon outside. Jonathan was all "fired up" to be the scooter riding fire chief...

And Christopher was happy to relax in the grass, in the shade. He looks sad but he was just making a face!

Grammy's Birthday

We celebrated Grammy's birthday by going out to dinner on Saturday evening at Seasons 52. It was delicious and the waiter gave us champagne and the boys got sparkling juice to toast their Grammy...

We also celebrated Father's Day yesterday by taking Daddy out to breakfast at the Bookserie (aka Eggct). No pictures but it was yummy too! And this morning I picked a couple carrots, too early it turns out but it was really cool to see that there is something going on in that dirt!

First Swim Meet

On Tuesday, Christopher had his first swim meet of the season at the City of Mission pool! It was a fun night and great to be back in swim season. The above picture is the only one I was able to take because I was a timer that night. Chris did great and earned a first in the medley relay, second in freestyle, second in IM, fourth in butterfly and first in the free relay. He was a busy guy that night!

In garden news, we have broccoli! This was the first year we've grown it and I wasn't sure how long you let it grow before harvesting. After a little research, we determined that now was the time! We picked Jonathan's broccoli and are looking forward to roasting it this weekend!

Loose Park

We went to one of our favorite parks today after Jonathan's camp and had a picnic, climbed some trees and went on some swings...

Weekend Stuff

We had a busy, full weekend! Yesterday, Jonathan had his first tennis lesson at Woodside with his friends Charlie (green shorts) and Rooney (orange shirt)...

Jonathan really enjoyed it but also said, "But I didn't actually play tennis." He's ready for the real matches! After tennis we headed down to the River Market for Veg Fest KC, a festival of all vegan food and vendors. It was great to go around and try food without worrying about what's in it! There was some great new stuff and we got to pet a three-legged pig named Elvis. I'm not kidding... After Christopher's dance class we went with Grammy to the Nelson-Atkins for their Juneteenth celebration. Christopher's class participated in the KC Kids Writing Project which paired his class with a class from another Kansas City school. The students learned a lot about the diversity of the city and they talked and wrote about race, privilege, socioeconomic issues and more. Their work, in the form of a mosaic, was displayed at the museum...

Today, both boys had playdates with friends (although I don't know if I'm allowed to call Christopher's a playdate; rather he hung out with his friend Cameron pretty much all afternoon). Jonathan and I went to Franklin Park with Rooney and they had a great time together...

And, big news! Look at what Jonathan can do! (Warning, he is making a loud sound as soon as the video comes on so turn your volume down)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjWW_syYPnk&feature=youtu.be

Blooms

The lilies in the new part of our garden are blooming beautifully today! Here are some of the pictures of the updated set up and some of the flowers...

 We also have milkweed blooming--come on Monarchs!

Also, here is an example of our mini broccolis that will soon grow into full size broccoli...

Yesterday was a real summer day, about 92 degrees, so we decided to hit the pool in the late afternoon and had dinner there too. Here are the boys relaxing after their dinner...

And today, Jonathan was getting goofy during Christopher's swim practice and he was having fun trying on my sunglasses...

Garden Time

While we were in New York, we had some planting done to complete our backyard. Here are the two new sections...

Much of the bigger planting we can't do ourselves but there are certain sections of the garden that I claim as my own canvases. The section below is a butterfly/bird garden. We have since added more mulch since we didn't get enough bags the first time and we also switched the bird bath below with another one we had in a different part of the yard. On tope of that, the lilies are opening beautifully! I will add an updated picture soon...

Also this past weekend, we added a fourth vegetable bed! In it we placed two pumpkin plants and a gourd plant (started by Christopher). He dried and saved seeds from our trip to the pumpkin patch in October and replanted them in pots. They have since grown and the flowers are opening on them every day! We also added a cucumber plant to this bed...

And here are the updated vegetable beds! This one is mine with broccoli, kale, tomatoes, okra, peppers, eggplants, carrots, and jalapeños. The spinach and lettuce are done so we removed those...

Jonathan's bed has broccoli (already with little mini broccolis), tomato, pepper, kale, onions, chard and a marigold to top it off...

Christopher's garden has chard, tomatoes, kale, onions, basil, peppers and eggplant as well as an added tomato plant, now that his spinach and lettuce is done, and a marigold...