Summer Fun II--Royals Game

Another family and us went out to the ballpark today. On Sunday's they have a special deal--4 tickets, 4 hot dogs, 4 Pepsi's, and a bag of popcorn for $44. Not bad!! So another family of 4, plus 4 additional kids, and our 4 sweated it out in 90 degree weather.

The girls--all 6 of them--were so good. None of them were terribly interested in the game, but they watched a little, and clapped at appropriate times. More importantly, they did not fight, argue, or whine. I couldn't have asked for more. One of the reasons we went today was guests under 14 years old got a stuffed animal from Build-a-Bear. It was a river otter from the KC Zoo, and is adorable! Here are all the girls lined up by the fountains in the outfield with their otters.



During the first inning, three of the girls were getting food with the other mom, and I was taking Kaylin to the bathroom. That left Emily and Macy at our seats with the two dad's. A couple Royals' reps came over and asked if they'd like to do the Hat Shuffle in the 4th inning and be on the big gigantic screen. Of course they said yes. So when all the other girls got back, I figured we'd have WWIII. But we didn't.

So the top of the fourth comes, and here comes the cameraman, three official looking people, and the guy who goes on air with them. They get all settled, and we wait for a half inning. Macy was scared to death--she orginally didn't want to do it, and the other girls were quick to say they would. But peer pressure worked in the right direction, and she did a wonderful job.

Here's Macy answering where she is from. It was funny to see her 11 stories tall!!



After the ball is shuffled around, he asks Macy where she thinks it is. The whole outfield is yelling, "1"! Thankfully she said #1. This is Emily agreeing that she thinks the shuffled ball was in Hat #1.

Here's Macy again, in 11 stories of glory. She really held on to that otter! She was so scared, but was proud she did it and was telling anyone and everyone she ran into.

After the game, kids get to run the bases. We had to wait about 45 minutes, but again all 6 girls were wonderful. It was hot, they were sweaty and sticky from cotton candy, and all of them were so good. Here's 5 of the 6 girls running the bases; Gillian ran out ahead of the others.

What a fun way to start the summer! My shoulders and upper arms are pretty sunburned, but that's okay. It'll be tan tomorrow.

And the Royals won 6-1!

Summer has begun

We've had a busy couple days!! Here's some pics from the last few days:

The girls up at Watkins Mill. I thought this was cute. I like pictures from the back like this for some reason.

Kaylin as a clown at her preschool program last Wednesday. She was the tambourine player, and did a darn good job. If you watched the video, she was incredibly silly through the whole preformance. Macy wouldn't hardly do anything her first time on stage, and Kaylin was a total ham.

Kaylin with her teachers. I hope I never have to wear a clown suit to work.

On Friday, Macy's friend Gillian had an end-of-the-year pool party. She has an inground pool, and the girls had a blast. This is Macy, Gillian and Mallory. Mallory is moving to the new school with Macy, but Gillian is staying at the old one. :( At least they will still have Jazz class together. Macy quickly learned she could swim well enough in the shallow end that she didn't need her life jacket, and ditched the uncool accessory.

Ahhh, Kaylin's dream in life. A gigantic bowl of Cheeto's all to herself...


Today I had Girl Scout training for camp in the morning, then we had ANOTHER pool party for Jericho's birthday, then a Girl Scout picnic this evening. It was crazy!! Tomorrow is the Royals game; hopefully Monday I can rest before VBS starts on Tuesday!!!

For your viewing pleasure...

Wednesday night was Kaylin's preschool program. The theme was "Under the Big Top". Very cute. I still haven't downloaded the pictures--shocking, I know, for me--but I do have a little video to show you. They got all the dads up on stage to do Mr. Fun Show, and the song repeats seveal times "Shake it like a duck!"

Enjoy! :) I may need a divorce attorney after this. :)



I'll get the pictures downloaded sometime this weekend, in between birthday parties and picnics and the Royals games.

Thoughts on graduation

Worked graduation last night. Beforehand a bunch of us went to eat in the new Power and Light District. I've been to the Sprint Center, but never to the P&L district. I was impressed--it was really cool. I'd like to see it before a big concert or event. We ate right by the stage where David Cook sang a couple weeks ago when he was in KC.

We were expecting graduation to be looooonnnnngg--last year it was just shy of 3 hours. This year was barely 2 hours! We were in the car by 9:30, which is quite impressive for a graduating class of 579 seniors, the largest in school history (but only for a year). I've never been so thankful.

Here's my not-so-inspiring words of advice for seniors:
1. Some girls need to practice walking in high heels before they try to walk in front of 5000 spectators.
2. It is never cool to show up to your high school graduation with jeans and dirty work boots. Or tennis shoes.
3. High heels should fit better so your toes don't curl up over the top.
4. Everyone walks out in the processional with a cocky swagger, even if they are the shyest person on the planet.
5. All of those cocky swaggers will quickly be put in their place this fall.
6. If girls wear a halter dress that ties around the neck, it looks really weird with the robe.
7. If you sit on the end of a row, don't take your cell phone out. The security people will take it away. And quickly.
8. Don't pretend to be embarrassed when your family is loud and obnoxious and uses 3 air horns. You knew they were going to do that!

Vampire trilogy

Tonight I finished a trilogy I've been reading by Stephenie Meyer. A fellow book lover at school, the photography teacher, told me I had to read these books. I was putting them off, because they are about vampires. Now, in recent years I've really branched out in my reading. I used to only read mysteries. I've been better lately, but vampires was outside my desired reading. But she kept on me, so I checked them out of the library. I could not stop reading! I went instantly from one book to the next. I feel sad now that I've finished...

First is Twilight--498 pages
Second is New Moon--563 pages
Third is Eclipse
--629 pages

All read in 1 week.

Meyer's novels are considered Young Adult Literature. I know many people who consider YA Lit to be "beneath them". But written correctly, YA Lit can be just as good, if not better, than adult literature. These novels were so well-written. The fourth book comes out in August, and I can't wait. Twilight is being made into a movie that will be out at Christmas.

If you have a chance, read these books. I highly recommend them.

To please a dog...

Last night we watched Jesse and Melissa's little girl Kali for a couple hours. Macy especially was in heaven; she wanted to carry Kali around the whole night. Jesse is a blogger too; my "inspiration" if you want to say that, although he doesn't need to know that. He blogged once before about Kali's eating habits with their dog, Nova. Click here read one of his blog entries about Kali and Nova.

We don't have a high chair anymore, so I put Kali on the couch with a towel on the couch and some paper towels around her. She thoroughly enjoyed Spongebob SquarePants (her first ever episode?) As you can see in this picture, Kobe is intent on the food in her lap. Gabe isn't so concerned. He really wasn't happy at first that she was in the house.


I went upstairs to change the laundry, and I heard giggling. Gabe and Kobe were suddenly closer. I came down to check out the situation, and grab my camera. Kali looks at Kaylin to say, "I think your mom is on to me!" I decide to move over to the kitchen where I'm behind her and she can't see me.

And all it takes is about 30 seconds. She pops a pasta bite in her mouth, picks up another one and hands it to Gabe. He gobbles it up. She giggles. I said, "Kali Leimkuehler!" in a fake angry voice. She looked up at me with a huge grin. "No, don't feed the doggie!" She grinned some more.

Obviously she listens to me as well as my own girls do. Another bite goes in her mouth, another bite goes to Gabe. He is in heaven. No longer concerned there is a strange girl in his house. This strange girl feeds him!!

Seriously?

Many times the attitudes of high school students astound me. Sometimes it is in respect for their maturity, sometimes it is in shock at their immaturity. Either way, there is rarely a dull day.

Today's vocab word was "compensate". The sentence they had to agree/disagree with was: "People should work for fun, not compensation." That lead to a lively discussion on wages, jobs, etc. I said that I think people should love the job they do, and it doesn't necessarily matter how much you get paid. (thanks Dad for teaching me that lesson.)

One kid looked at me like I had three heads. He said, "So, let's say you could make $10 a hour teaching, and $45 a hour shoveling horse poop out of a barn. Which would you pick?"

I replied: "In a heartbeat I would keep teaching. It doesn't matter the pay; I love high school kids, teaching, the people I work with, and so on. I have no desire to be in a stinky barn with horse poop, probably by myself all day, no matter how much money I would be paid."

Then he looked at me like I had about 10 heads, 20 eyes, and green snakes coming out my head. "Seriously?"

"Seriously, Jesse."

Other students agreed with me, but this one student just couldn't get over the fact that I was willing to be paid less to do something I want to do. It's young people like him that concern me--to him, it's all about getting ahead, getting more money, and not enjoying the time we have here on earth.