Drive Through and Meet

 This year's "Meet the Teacher" for Little Guy's preschool was very different.  It was just a drive through line to grab and packet and see his new teachers.  He was pretty nonchalant about the whole thing, but it was fun to see his old preschool teachers as well.  

There was a Chatty Kathy holding up the beginning on the line, but we still got out of there in 10 minutes.  That's the quickest and most convenient school function I've ever been to!

Altered Activities

BB was excited to have his soccer season start.  It looks a lot different than previous years, but I'm grateful he has his same coach and team.  It provides a little stability in all the craziness.  They changed the game schedule to space out games, and sadly half of his games are now on Sundays, so he's missing half of his games.  We were happy he would at least have regular practice, but the school district just announced no one is allowed to use their fields, so the team is scrambling to find a new place to practice.  Luckily, BB is a go-with-the-flow kind of guy, so even though it was raining, he was really excited for his first game today.  They tied.  It's their first season with a real goalie and he said the goalie on the other team was amazing!  (I think the reality is that prior to this it was a miraculous feat just to get the ball in the goal, and now they have a person standing in front of it, so it's a whole new level of difficulty)

This afternoon the kiddos had a piano recital.  First issue: it's been so long since they've worn dress shoes that when they got dressed today we realized none of their dress shoes fit anymore.  They all had pinched toes for the recital.  Apparently they don't stop growing just because there's a pandemic.  It was already a bit odd with cluster pods of seating with everyone in masks, but the electricity also went out.  The electric company predicted the power to be back on line about 30 minutes after the recital was scheduled to be completed.  They played in the dark and it was still a lovely recital.  They lathered their hands in hand sanitizer before and after touching the piano.  It's so funny how little habits have become the new normal.  Meanwhile, it was definitely the best Little Man has ever performed on guitar and the best Little Guy and BB have performed on piano.  Everyone is progressing and really doing well.

 

Oldie but a Goodie

We took our new friends to Hillsdale this morning.  It's still our favorite beach (even though we absolutely loved Bloomington Beach yesterday).

It was another scorcher, but we had a great time.  We picnicked and then came home earlier than we usually do, because they have a 2 year old that still naps.  I'm not sure we would have lasted much longer in the sun anyway.  It's another triple digit day!

Our friends introduced the kiddos to water frisbee and it was quite the hit!

Other Side of the Lake

 Someone said the other side of Clinton Lake had a better beach, so today we ventured around to Bloomington Beach.  It was definitely a lot nicer and it had sand dunes that the boys absolutely loved.  

It got up to 101 degrees with no cloud cover, so I'm grateful for the canopy.  It's the only reason I was pink and not a complete lobster.  

We made friends with this little guy.  He has absolutely no boundaries, so you can tell this is definitely his turf.  We affectionately named him Aflac.  

The boys played "Mandelorian" in the sand.  When they would get too hot they'd run back to the lake, and then they'd return to the sand dune again to play some more.  

BB says he loves the lake, because he can eat chips straight out of the bag and not get in trouble.  He thinks lake food is living the high life.  

We played some games and then we had to head home, so I could get to work on time.  We've loved our lake days.  It's really helped us this past month since school was pushed back 3 weeks.  

Project #3

 Last year we put a bathroom in the basement.  The way the basement is configured the bathroom is currently in the middle of the unfinished portion of it.  We are in the process of fixing that issue.  The first step was to remove the small closet to make an entrance into the back half of the basement.  We also had to remove the wooden shelving.  The re-wiring of electrical outlets and recessed lighting came next along with the framing.  The last of this process was finished this evening.  

Before:

In process of closet removal:

Finished framing and electrical:

We're hoping to put a bedroom back here eventually.

Insulation and sheet rock is the next step.  Unfortunately, while they were finishing up some stuff this evening, they noticed water started dripping from the ceiling.  (You can see the spot on the floor).  It looks like our dishwasher is leaking.  Never a dull moment around here!  We have to get that looked at and fixed before we think about putting up sheet rock.  I suppose I should just be grateful it leaked before and not after we put up in the new drywall.  

While that was happening inside I was tackling the outside.  I was sad when I realized the really thick roots I couldn't get up last Fall weren't just your average variety of ivy.  Nope.  It's poison ivy, and it's back with a vengeance.  There's a lot more of it than I thought.  Now that a lot of the regular ivy is cleared it's more obvious just how bad the poison ivy was.  No wonder I was breaking out like insanity.  This time I went to extreme measures to avoid getting a rash, and I used the special soap until I was almost raw on my hands and arms.  I wasn't taking any chances.  I'm happy to report I didn't break out this time!  Wahoo! 

This is what it looked like 2 weeks ago after I pulled more ivy.  Unfortunately, even though I tried to get it as much from the roots as possible, it's already partially grown back.  Boo!  I am determined to eventually get rid of ALL the ivy in our yard.  It may take years, but one day I want to be ivy-free!

Home on the Range

 Today we ventured a little further away from home to enjoy the prairie.  We stopped in the town of Emporia.  It is home to the smallest accredited zoo in the United States.  It may be tiny, but the grounds are absolutely beautiful.  The flowers and plants are gorgeous and they have some seriously adorable animals.  We particularly loved the monkeys and baby prairie dogs.  

Right across from the zoo is a Veteran's Memorial park.  

From there we headed to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.  

We picnicked at the preserve and then hiked out on the prairie in hopes of finding some bison.

The hike involved a hill in 90 degree weather.  Little Man said, "Who knew there was a hill and Kansas?!  ...And we climbed it!"  It was beautiful even if it was sunny and hot.  We took regular water breaks and the kiddos actually did really well.

The bison hid from us, but we did see a lot of really interesting insects and a short-horned lizard.

We explored the barn and worked on our Junior Ranger badges.

Only 15 minutes away from the preserve is the town of Cottonwood Falls.  It's named for the falls at their dam.  Their courthouse is the oldest courthouse still in use in the United States.  It's such a picturesque town.

 Only 2 miles away is Chase State Fishing Lake.  We ended our day relaxing in the shade while the kiddos fished.  BB and Little Guy really wanted to learn how to fish.  Becca was super sweet and helped them.  We only had about 45 minutes before we needed to head home for Little Guy's piano lesson, so they didn't catch anything.  BB ended up with some seaweed, but that didn't dampen his enthusiasm.  They really want to go fishing again, so we'll have to try again soon. 

We are all exhausted, but it's a good tired.