Summer Exploration in KC

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is a famous site in Kansas City.  The last time Tom and I took a stroll around the museum was before Everett was born.  This morning we wanted to hit up the Apple Store to inquire about purchasing an iPad so we headed to the Plaza, which is next to the museum.   After getting a tasty coffee beverage, strolling around the Plaza, and checking out the Apple Store we wanted to give E some time to play around.  We knew just the place...

There is a lot of interesting stuff inside the museum, but what is perfect for an Everett aged person are all the cool sculptures outside. 

 Everett was actually more interested in playing in the puddles of water around the giant shuttlecock than anything else (see below). 

Right after we took these pictures Everett started to get closer to the shuttlecock and then a giant beeping sound triggered and we were told to "Keep our hands off of the sculptures."  We decided it was probably time to move on to a nearby park. 

 As you can see, the boys enjoyed it.  Everett LOVES slides! It is so hard to get him to leave because he just wants to ride the slide "one more" time. 

Kansas City is a pretty cool city when you have the chance to explore it.  Last summer was CRAZY.  We were buying a house, cars, phones, etc...This summer is moving at a slower, more enjoyable pace so we're trying to live up what KC has to offer. 

cherry picking

This is the time of year to enjoy picking fresh fruits and veggies.  Cherry picking was really easy for us this year because we were able to do a small bit of it in my parent's backyard.  One of my dad's favorite treats is cherry pie and while I was growing up we would get to pick cherries off of my grandparents cherry tree to make pie for my dad.  My parents are now continuing the tradition with their grandchild (soon to be grandchildren!).  They planted a dwarf cherry tree in their backyard.  It's just a small little tree right now, which actually makes it perfect for Everett!  

My dad took Everett out yesterday and the two of them were able to pick the first round of cherries from the tree.  I wasn't sure what Everett would think but he got really into it!  He was so fast at picking the cherries that my dad and I could barely keep up with him.  His picking quickness was impressive but it actually made it tough to make sure he didn't pick the ones that were not ripe enough yet! He would have picked the tree bone dry if we would have let him!

Maybe next time we come over Granny will have a cherry pie for us???

The Return of "Barf"

This title is not what it appears.  No, I am not experiencing morning sickness again (thank the Lord).

As I've mentioned before, my maiden name is Robertson so growing up my initials were BAR.  Harmless enough, right?  I didn't have any significant issues with my name or initials until I went off at college.  At the University of Missouri they issue you a "Pawprint" or username.  They use your initials and follow it up with random letters and numbers.  Of all of the random letters (or was it random???) to be placed next to my initials, what did I get??? That's right. A big ole' F, which made my Pawprint and email "barf" (Barfg4 to be exact).   Throughout my four years at Mizzou I was followed around by Barfg4, and every time it was brought up (think how many times you tell people your email address!) there was always a chuckle or some joke made.  That never got old....

At the beginning of this year I took the GRE and applied for grad school at Mizzou.  I actually intended to start taking classes at the end of March but I was in the midst of the terrible, awful, morning sickness so that didn't happen. As of two weeks ago I officially started graduate classes through Mizzou online.  I currently in a program to achieve my Masters in Educational Technology (EdTech).  I had completely forgotten about Barfg4 until I recieved an email for my graduate program telling me my graduate program Pawprint.  Much to my "excitement" I was reissued my old Pawprint.

Barfg4 lives again!

Our First Garden

Growing up both of our parents had gardens.  I have great memories of sitting on our back porch and helping my parents prepare green beans to be canned.  Now that we are homeowners we decided it was time to do some growing of our own.  

E helping plant some flowers at the front of our house.  Nice farmer's tan buddy! 

My parents created their own raised garden beds for their house and my dad was willing to build one for us.  We decided to keep it on the smaller side since it's our first crack at gardening and we're not sure how successful we'll be.  I love the look of the raised bed and it's great for keeping rabbits away (hopefully) and for not bending over as much. Score! 

My dad built the frame of the garden with the help of "his little buddy."  Everett actually did a really great job of "helping."  He mainly handed my dad screws and played with the tape measure.  Gramps would say, "Everett, I need a screw."  Everett would sprint over to me (bearer of the screws while sitting in a lawn chair) and then he would take it straight to my dad.  This happened over and over and over again.  It was awesome. 

Tom helped fill the bottom of the bed with some of the dirt he dug out of the front when he put the terraces in.  My parents then bought a compost/top soil mixture to put in on the top to help the plants grow.  

Once the bed was built Granny took over.  To say she has a green thumb is an understatement.  She is ridiculously talented at gardening and I am clueless, so as we planted she taught me about how to plant things and care for them.  The green beans, however, were left for Everett to help plant. E dropped seeds in one by one in fistfuls and Granny helped make sure they got to where they needed to be.  

We planted tomatoes, herbs, green beans, and squash.  We're so excited to see how things progress throughout the summer. 

I love the idea of growing our own food and having a garden in our own backyard.  Let's hope I like it now that it is a reality! Ha! 

While Tom Was Working...

As Tom mentioned earlier, he did a smashing good job on landscaping our house the first week of summer.  I'll be the first to admit I was of little use...you know, being pregnant and all. So here are some things E and I did while Tom was working his tail off. 

My primary role was to keep the family fed.  Tom got me a bread machine for my birthday so we've been living it up! Homemade cinnamon rolls and panini's! It's been fun.  Do you have any good bread machine recipes for me to try?

Everett did his best to help when he could.  It's hard to see in this picture, but he has a little shovel and he's trying to help Tom move dirt.  So cute. 

Everett's primary role was to keep everyone company.  Here you can see him and Gramps both enjoying their "sippy cups."

A unique treat that Everett and I participated in was to attend the Scottish Highland Games with my parents and aunt.  My maiden name is Robertson, which is Scottish, so my parents wanted to go explore our Scottish heritage.  There were numerous Scottish games (like the caber toss--throwing a giant pole), Scottish food (I ate kettle corn, which I don't think is really Scottish), Scottish sword fights, and connecting with Scottish relatives. Oh...and there were a TON of people in kilts.  Not our thing, but kuddos to all those guys in skirts.

We have also done a lot of playing outside with family and eating ice cream!

As you can tell, E and I have done a lot of hard work this summer. :) 

A Small Project

When we bought our house almost a year ago we were big fans of a lot of the updates made to the house.  However, one of the things that we knew we would want to put our personal touch on was the landscaping.  Back in April we decided that it was time to get started.  This is what it looked like before this small project began.

We thought we could get away with just trimming stuff up but soon realized that wasn't going to do.  So we decided to rip everything out.  That alone took a bit more effort than I thought, especially to remove the truck load of lava rock.  Here is the result of the cleansing:

I had a vision of putting a series of terraces in along the staircase and then filling in the rest of the hillside with grass.  I naively thought I could build the retaining wall in a day... well it took three.  It was exhausting.  However, I am really pleased with the result. 

The next issue that arose, which I grossly underestimated, was the amount of extra dirt I would have to dispose of.  I would estimate this was a good 2+ cubic yards of dirt, an overflowing truckload.  This is because I not only had to get rid of the stuff I dug up for the wall but I also had to sculpt the entire hillside to have appropriate grading.  Thankfully my teaching buddy David helped with the removal of the dirt.  All I had to do was buy him Chipotle to convince him to come over and help.

The final step was to put some grass on this bad boy.  For that I have to give a big thanks to Bonnie's parents.  They are doing some work in their backyard and needed some sod removed.  I just so happened to have a place for it.  Mike was a big help in cutting and laying the sod.  

I would estimate that this whole project took 7 days.  Had I known it would take that long I might not have understaken it but I am glad that it worked out.  Bonnie was a rockstar through it all by taking care of E and being super supportive.  Soon we will put some plants in the terraces and the job will be done.   

Next summer project... painting Everett's big boy bedroom.

Minnesota

The day after school got out we packed up our car and headed to Rochester, Minnesota, to visit some of our best friends.  The Jaeger's have lived in Rochester for a few years now because Chris is a resident at Mayo Clinic. We have always wanted to visit them but our crazy summer time schedules from previous years just made it too challenging.  So this summer we were determined to make it happen!  

It was so fun to spend time together with Chris, Sara, and their two kids, Lakin (almost 3) and Bennett (coolest baby ever).  We played hard, ate great meals, did some shopping, and enjoyed quality conversations.  Chris, Sara, and Tom have known each other since high school and we all went to Mizzou together.  There is something special about reuniting with friends that you have so much history with. 

Here are some pics of our time together.  If you follow us on Instagram you will recognize a lot of these photos.  We kind of blew up Instagram while we were together...! 

Headed to church.  Holding hands is a must. Lakin was such a good friend to Everett.  She was always so willing to help him out.  They were great little buddies! 

Maybe one of the highlights of the whole trip was going to the zoo!!! There is a free zoo close to the Jaeger's.  It isn't a very large zoo, which actually made it perfect for toddlers.  Everett and Lakin ran from one animal to the next.   They found it so exciting.  

Tom and I both enjoyed showing Everett so many of the animals he has seen on TV or read about in books.  Out of all the animals in the zoo guess which animal scared E?  It wasn't the bear...it wasn't the cougar...it was the pony.  That is our son for you. 

The Jaeger's have a park within a short walk.  How cool is that?!

The boys in their diapers. 

Pre-bedtime popsicles! 

Another highlight from the trip was seeing DJ, a friend of our's from GSIS.  He lives in St. Paul and made the drive to hang out with us for an evening.  It was awesome to reunite with him. 

The most tiring and epic part of the whole journey may have been our trip to Ikea.  Tom and I had never been to one and we found it AMAZING.  What was a bit less amazing was trying to take Ikea in while wrangling the kids--mostly our kid who was especially whiney during the trip through the store.  As you can see, the Jaeger kids were quite adaptable at the store.  Ben took his bottle on the go like a champ. 

I'm pretty sure Ikea dominated us rather than us dominating the store.  Totally worth it though. 

"Tom, will you read me a book?" Lakin and Tom became buddies too. 

It's always important to show your Costco ID card when you enter the store. 

Lakin loves to play dress up.  Everett wasn't that into it until this happened.  This picture cracks me up.  It was all done on his own accord. 

Rainy day pillow pit. 

All three kids paying hard together. 

Everett rarely lets us comb his hair, but he let Ms. Sara give him a post bath do after seeing Lakin getting her hair brushed.  Peer pressure is powerful. 

Before we knew it, it was time to put on our shades and head home.  This was a great little road trip to warm us up before we go on a two week trip to Canada at the beginning of July.  

Thanks Jaeger's for being such great hosts! 

brothers

 We posted this on Facebook, but we need to make it blog official that we're having another boy! Going into the appointment I (Bonnie) thought we were having a girl and Tom was betting (hoping?) we'd have another boy.  The first thing the sonogram pulls up is the image above.  Tom immediately said, "I think I know what we're having!" (His statement was prior to the word "thingy" being written on the screen.)  Even better news was that the baby is doing well.  All major organs are looking great.  And I know this may be really shocking to so many, but the baby is measuring above average in size.  At the appointment I was 20 weeks along and the baby's femur (leg bone) was measuring almost 22 weeks.  This baby is definitely a Meyer!!!  We're so excited to have another little boy and we're especially excited that Everett is going to have a brother!