Arabia Steamboat Field Trip

More field trip fun- this time to the Arabia Steamboat in City Market!  I'm so lucky to be a substitute teacher so I'm able to take off any day I want to go on field trips with my kiddos.  The third graders got a tour of the museum and even got to meet one of the men who dug up the steamboat!  

I remember taking a field trip to the museum when I was around 4th or 5th grade.  Although they have been cleaning items continuously since they uncovered the steamboat in 1988...it still looks pretty much how I remember it from the early 90's.

We had lunch outside the gift shop and the girls in Hannah's class all sat together.  They are such a sweet group of kids.  Then they went to Loose Park to play at the park.  It was a fun day!

Meneely Reunion

 Justin and Becky live in Idaho and Marissa and Casey were on vacation in Florida, so it was just us at Meneely Reunion this year.  My cousin Amanda couldn't travel because she was about to give birth, so there weren't even second cousins there.  And it was raining.  We had a good time anyway.  No door prizes this year, instead there were jars of candy.  Whoever guessed the closest won the jar.  Steve got some mints!

Neither of us had sisters there, so we were sisters for the day. :)

Meneely three: John, David, and Sarah.

It was too rainy to play at the park, but we explored the Locust Creek boardwalk for a little bit.  We need to come back when we have more time.

First Lost Tooth

Olive lost her first tooth!  She was complaining that her tooth hurt when she was eating snack.  I told her it was probably loose.  Ten minutes later she had a whole in her smile.  Hannah lost her first tooth in kindergarten so Olive has been waiting awhile.  On the night before Olive's last day of kindergarten Olive said, "Mom, I don't think it is going to happen for me."  I agreed it probably would not.  But her wait is over and she is very happy to be in the toothless club.  Her other bottom tooth is now loose so I think it is going to be a big year for the tooth fairy!

Adventures with Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa came to KC to see Hannah's first soccer game of the season we took the opportunity to have a City Market adventure.  We visited new shops, we rode the street car, we went to Union Station, and then ate dinner at Minsky's, oh my!  Basically the perfect Saturday.

When we were at Union Station, Olive wanted her picture with this poster.  Her grade is involved in Battle of the Brains to design a new exhibit for Science City.  She is SUPER into it!  She came home from school the first day and started making plans.  Her idea is an insect habitat where kids can climb through spider webs, honeycomb, etc.  It was one of the top 3 ideas chosen for her school, now it goes on to the whole city.  Fingers crossed!

Rooftop garden downtown.  I have no idea what Olive is doing.

Beanstalk Garden Field Trip

I went to Kansas City Community Garden (Beanstalk Garden) with the 3rd graders.  It was so much fun!  We got to taste lots of food straight from the plants.  We tasted plants that were bitter, sweet, minty, and one even numbed your mouth!  We tried some peppers, berries, spinach and more.  Best of all I got to spend some time with Hannah and her two best friends.  I caught them walking together holding hands.  Too sweet!

A few of the things we tried...

This plant (I forgot the name) closed up when you touched it.  The leaves on the left are still open and the ones on the right have closed.

Labor Day Weekend Camping Trip

Labor Day weekend we went camping in Missouri.  It was a repeat of our very first family camping trip that Olive doesn't really remember.  I usually don't like going to the same place twice, but it was fun to reminisce.  We started at Elephant Rocks.

Johnson Shut-ins

We showed Olive the blog post of the last time we went here.  She wanted to recreate her favorite pose.

The pose again...

Most of the areas were just knee deep, but a few were over my head.  It is hard to tell in the picture, but Hannah is jumping into a deep part from the rock behind her.

Where's Waldo featuring Steve, Hannah, and Olive.

No one is in this picture, I just took a trail to look out over the end of the Shut-ins at the deep part.

The next day was canoeing!  We all fit in the same canoe, but at the end we let them paddle around together while we stayed on the bank.

Like last time, Olive found some sunglasses.  She liked these because they made her look like a pirate.  This is a mean pirate face.

 Exploring the cave.  This year Olive went, too.

 As we were finishing our canoe trip a bald eagle flew above us!  Then while looking for firewood that night, I found a spearhead!  The girls were not impressed.

Morning silliness.

We stayed at the same campsite so we had the same playground and band playing on Saturday night.  This time our campsite wasn't so close so the girls were able to sleep.

Catching tadpoles.

The sign is still there...but in pretty bad shape.

In 2014

KC Dance Day

We did KC Dance Day again, and like last year Hannah was not into wearing dance clothes.  She wasn't doing ballet anyway.  She tried out jazz and hip hop.  She did not like hip hop, but she was okay with jazz.  Olive only wanted ballet and she loved it!  She decided not to do soccer this fall and instead signed up for dance class.  A girl after my own heart. :)  She is taking ballet and tap.

Olive on the Diving Board

Olive was very disappointed when she was too short to go down the slides at PV pool.  Then we saw a kid smaller than her go off the diving board and we learned there was no height requirement for that! Olive said, "I'm doing it!" and marched right over.  Hannah was there to cheer her on just like Olive did for her.  I love how they support each other.  Olive became such a brave swimmer this summer!