Fourth of July

For the first time in as long as I can remember, it rained on the 4th of July.  There were tears at the thought of a cancelled parade.  Luckily at the last minute it got postponed to noon instead of 9:00.  The parade went on!  In the sprinkling rain!

Free snow cones!

tiger

Unfortunately the rain cancelled Village Fest.  But we found other fun.  We went to Leawood Park in the evening.  They had lots of inflatables (and fewer people than Village Fest...which Steve calls Line Fest).  It was our first time so we don't know if there were less people because of the weather or because you had to pay for wristbands.  But it was definitely a more fun experience without lines!

This girl climbed all the way to the top!

We watched the fireworks from our blanket on the hill.  It was an awesome view of the fireworks and all the people on the soccer fields below us.  It was one of the best fireworks shows we've ever seen!  Our rainy 4th of July was awesome!

Chillicothe Weekend

We spent the weekend before the 4th of July in Chillicothe seeing both sides of the family.  First it was a day of fun with Granny, Great-grandma Velma, and the cousins: Golden Corral lunch, two parks, and bowling.  Whew!  The cousins and Granny even went to a movie after all that!

I think my kids might be part monkey.

We were playing at my school when I was in 3rd grade (different equipment).  Now I have a daughter in 3rd grade.  So weird.

We haven't been bowling in a looooong time.

I won against the kids!  Yea me!

We can't do fireworks in KC, so they were really looking forward to Chillicothe.  They love going to the fireworks stand and picking out stuff (which was mostly smoke bombs, snakes, and bottle rockets).  We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house with Aunt Marissa, Uncle Casey, and my cousin.

 King of the Snakes

Olive loved doing fireworks during the day, but she wanted no part of sparklers at night.  Holding fire in your hand?  No thank you.  So Hannah had fun with Aunt Marissa instead.

Our finale was a lantern.  It was fun seeing the kids get so excited about the fireworks even though we didn't have any big ones.

Kauffman Center

We went to the Future Stages Festival in June.  It was a chance to see groups like the KC Ballet and other local performing arts groups for free.  It was the first time the girls had been to the Kauffman Center and it was a beautiful day!

We saw shows in both auditoriums inside and listened to the organ.

Corporate Challenge

Steve's team won their division in Corporate Challenge for the third year in a row!  They even had to move up a division this year to make it harder.  Steve did the 5k, half-marathon, triathlon, 400m, medley relay, backstroke, butterfly, swimming relay, and tug of war.  We watched him in the relay and tug.  

They got 2nd place in tug.  The 1st place team hadn't lost a tug since 2009.  Steve's team beat them once, but they won because it was double elimination.

The girls' favorite part of tug is playing in the sand.

Blueberries