A Boy and his Dog

Pancake Breakfast

Saturday was the annual pancake breakfast at Pembroke Hill. The boys ate lots of pancakes and then headed outside to play with their friends. J meanwhile found 2 hula hoops to entertain him!

KC Car Show

To end a very fun and busy weekend, we took the boys to the Kansas City Auto Show to check out some cool cars. Chris was very excited because he was finally able to sit in the driver's seat of pretty much any car he wanted. The jeep pictured above was the "Moose" jeep named in honor of Mike Moustakas from the Royals. So Chris got to "drive" a Porsche... 

a Maserati...

a Corvette...

and, most importantly, a Mustang...

He also gave Jonathan a quick driving lesson...

And we found the perfect car for Mommy-- a purple one!

Chris also got to sit in a race car designed and built by college students. You can barely see him behind the red balloon sword he got at the show!

Return to Parkside Cafe

When Christopher was a toddler, we had plenty of early mornings where he was full of energy, I was not, and nothing was open. Nothing, that is, save the Parkside Cafe, a little coffee shop in a church in Lenexa that also had an indoor playroom. I had been there numerous times with a mom's group I was a part of and it was where I met one of my best friends, Danna, and her kids for the first time. This morning, Jonathan and I returned to Parkside for coffee (me) and play time with friends (him). We met Tiffany with Noah and baby Christopher Hall and Tiffany's sister-in-law and her three kids. It was a fun morning that J seemed to really love!

Jonathan loves getting to see his little friend Noah and he really loves Tiffany too! This was his reaction when I asked if he wanted to play with his friend...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR2MipIrUdY

You Have to Read This

In school, Christopher and his classmates are working on writing a biography about a famous person in history. Chris is writing his about Harriet Tubman. When I picked him up from school yesterday, he stated that he would also be writing a biography about himself. After explaining that this is what is known as an "autobiography," he and I discussed the "big and small" things of his life that he would like to include in it. After getting ready this morning, I went to my desk to find the above paper started by our author. My favorite thing is that he used the heading "In which I am born" because that is the style used in the chapter headings of Winnie the Pooh and My Side of the Mountain which we just finished reading. I can't wait to see the rest of his work...

The Latest Fort Magic Creation

Chris

As parents, we often wonder what our children are going to be when they grow up. Over the years it has been fascinating to see Christopher's interests and talents change and evolve. One thing that has been consistent, however, is his love of building. He constructs things out of paper and tape, K'nex, blocks, Legos, Fort Magic pieces. You name it, he'll build with it. The tent in the picture above was constructed early this morning. If you are familiar with our household, you know that most of my mornings start very early, mainly between the hours of 5 and 6. This morning, with everyone off of work and school, I miraculously slept until 6:21 before Kasey woke me up to take her out. When I got out of bed, I thought Chris was (also miraculously) still asleep, but in fact he was working on said tent in the playroom. I really appreciated him letting us sleep and just getting right to work. Like his mother, he functions best first thing in the morning so it makes sense that he would construct something like this right away. Later in the day he made this bike out of Fort Magic pieces simply by looking at a picture on the iPad...

Now, who knows if Christopher will have a career someday that involves design or engineering or art. But regardless of what he does, his real talent right now is creating. It's very exciting to see!