McPherson All School's Day Celebrations

Ryan, Will and I flew to Kansas for the 100th anniversary of McPherson County All School's Day.  Festivities included Thursday's May Fete (moved indoors due to threat of bad weather), Friday's parade, and Saturday's preschool play date with friends.  We enjoyed a lovely mother's day  brunch at home before heading back to KCI to fly home.  It was an exhausting and wonderful weekend!

May Fete starts with the winding of the May Poles by 5th grade girls.

(Photo credit to Tom Curteman)

If you zoom in, you can see the state championship banners that Ryan and I were part of.  Debate and Speech - not Basketball!

 Virginia-born boys: 

Hayden and Will spent most of May Fete coloring or playing, but the cheerleaders got their attention.

 The state champ girls volleyball team rode on this fire engine

 MHS Royalty

 The horses signal the end!

By this point in the parade we had moved down to the other end of Main Street to visit with more friends.

 

 Saturday's play date in my parents' back yard. Grandpa Roger's planters provided great amounts of dirt-digging fun.  There were also water guns and sidewalk chalk; donuts and muffins; and race cars and trains.  A fun time was had by all!

 Will and Hayden spent most of their time looking for "bad guys" to shoot with their "water laser guns."

 After all that fun, this guy put himself to bed for a nap!  It wasn't pretty when I woke him up for dinner and bath time!

 Clean and calmed down, Will was ready to challenge Grandma and Mommy in Scrabble.

 

Field Museum

I recently found out that my company has corporate memberships at several Chicago museums which entitles employees and their families to free admission. Today we took advantage of free admission to the Field Museum!  This was the first visit for all of us. 

 

We got there right at lunch time, so we had lunch at the Corner Bakery (my father-in-law's favorite!) with a view of Sue the T-Rex before heading upstairs to tour the dinosaur exhibits.  

Will loved pushing buttons on any interactive display. I don't think he cared much about what the screen was showing; it was just about pushing the buttons as fast as he could.

 

He posed for this picture in front of Triceratops.  It was obvious we have watched Dinosaur Train on PBS and also have a few dinosaur books.  He was regularly referring back to dinosaurs he knew.   

The dinosaur fossils were very impressive, but Jason and I were blown away by this Giant Tree Sloth - an animal we never knew existed.

After dinosaurs, we went through Mammals of Asia and Africa (mostly stuffed specimens, including the Man Eaters of Tsavo lions) then saw an Egyptian burial tomb and mummies.  Unfortunately I mismanaged the clock and we missed the last entry to the kid's play lab area.  After that, only a trip to the gift shop for a trinket would compensate for the rapidly tiring little boy in our tour group.

I got this reluctant pose in front of Sue on our way out.  He's holding his new set of plastic dinosaurs and cargo truck.  Another $9.95 well spent. 

On our way back to the parking garage, I snapped this picture of Soldier Field where the Bears play.  The Museum Campus is one of the most beautiful areas of downtown.  It's tough not to love the city on days like this!

Saturday at Home

This weekend was fantastic!  All three of us were finally home at the same time, and the weather was beautiful!  On Saturday morning, Will woke up about 6:30.  After snuggling in our bed for a few minutes, I took him back to his room where he slept for another two hours before he returned.   At that point, Jason got up for the day, but Will and I dozed for a couple more hours.  I have no idea how long he really slept.  He's getting smart about watching the iPad in bed next to me so I can keep napping.  We finally got up and had breakfast for lunch at the picnic table.  Rachel grabbed for Will's pancake when he was busy telling a story, but catastrophe was averted and Daddy salvaged the pancake.  We finally got dressed and put on sunscreen and played outside all afternoon in the sandbox and doing yard work.

Cubs Win?

My office hosted an afternoon Cubs game on Friday at Wrigley Field.  Unfortunately it was blustery and cold, and we only lasted about 5 innings before heading across the street to a bar to warm up.  It was a great idea though:  who wouldn't want to get out of the office at noon on a Friday and meet up with friends and spouses for drinks, food, and fun on the firm?!  I don't even know who won the game, but I enjoyed the afternoon anyway.   If nothing else, it was fun to spend a few hours with Jason and with my co-workers and their spouses.

Fifths Disease

Will was treated to YUMZ frozen yogurt on Sunday after great behavior at the nail salon while I got a manicure.  He got his second trip back on Thursday after great behavior at the doctor's office.   We got the call from school on Thursday morning that several kids were suspected as having Fifth's Disease because they had similar rashes.  Good or bad, the rash means the contagion period has passed, so the kids can go back to school as soon as a doctor has ruled out something else.  So, Jason took Will to the doctor, got Fifth's confirmed, and treated him to frozen yogurt.   He went back to school on Friday without incident.  

Bottle & Bottega

We had a fun post-busy season team event at a BYOB art gallery.   It was a fun way to unwind with the team and do something a little different than the steak house dinners we usually do!  We picked out five pictures in advance, and each one was selected by someone in the group

 Farm scene

 Flowers

 Rose (check out all three interpretations!)

 One of three farm scenes painted

 The two faces

 My flowers and a Buckingham Fountain

I took creative liberties with my flowers since I wanted a purple instead of blue background.

Another flowers and fountain

Gardening

During the month of April, Jason traveled 17 days, which has more than made up for the lack of travel in the first quarter of the year while I was traveling and working all the time.  (Only three more weeks, and we're all actually getting on an airplane together for the first time in more than six months!)  Sunday was the last "Mommy and William" day for awhile, and we enjoyed a quick gardening project to plant the daffodil bulbs that Ryan gave us at Easter.    It doesn't take much convincing to get a little boy to dig holes in the dirt!  He didn't want his picture yesterday, so I had to get this one from behind.  I just couldn't resist documenting his pajama bottoms, rain boots, and gardening gloves. 

 



Quick Trip to the Zoo

The weather on Saturday was beautiful, so we made a quick trip to the zoo between our morning of lounging around in our pajamas and an evening of princess partying.  We took the jogging stroller so I could get some exercise, and so we could make quick work of all of our favorite exhibits.  First stop was our favorite: the giraffes!

After a trip to the far north side of the zoo to see the penguins and crocodiles (both recent additions to the must see list), we went by the fountain to see the giant dinosaur.  Last year it was BUGS! and this year it is DINOSAURS ALIVE!  We didn't have time for the special dinosaur exhibit, but Will was very impressed by this one that moved and roared.  I was shocked he wasn't afraid.  Lots of kids walking by were afraid. . . .

Near the end of our trip, we got the urgent request for a stuffed seal for the birthday girl, so we headed over to the gift shop outside the dolphin arena.  We checked out the dolphins from the underwater viewing area before completing our shopping and racing home in time to get showered and changed for our Princess Sofia Party. 

Princess Sofia Party

Will had another princess party this weekend with the regular crew.  Birthday girl Hannah was SO EXCITED by the whole event.  She was in love with every single one of her presents and announced that very expressively when she opened each one up!  It was great!  Will and I were able to save the day by locating a stuffed seal (her newest, most favorite animal EVER!) at the zoo that we could pick up on her grandma's behalf and deliver before the party.

There were actually three boys at this party since our friends Julie and Chris were able to make it with their two boys this time. Although Will doesn't mind the usual 6 girl to one boy ratio, the 6:3 ratio worked out great this time.