Relaxing

Allison at School

Allison's school has a facebook group for each classroom that the teachers can post pictures in. It's a great way to see what your kids have been up to (and to help fill in the blanks on the stories you hear when they get home.

"Ms. Elizabeth found rats in the O.C (outdoor classroom)!" Allison told me, "but they were underground so I don't think they're alive anymore."

Elizabeth moved some compost in the pile and came across a squirrel nest with four (alive) baby squirrels.

 Allison thought they were very gross and decided to concentrate on weeding the garden instead.

 This picture is from a windy day where the kids were given pinwheels to play with. Allison is in her "pose" form (note the turned foot), while the other children look normal.

Under the Sea

Today I took Allison to the Under the Sea exhibit at Crown Center. We met up with April and her kids for the free event. I've been to a few of these traveling exhibits at Crown Center and this one is my favorite. There was so much for the kids to see, explore, crawl through, and climb on. Allison loved the ship with the treasure, and I liked the Greek temple that was on such a steep slant that I felt nauseous walking in it.

After playing in the exhibit for an hour and a half, we sat in the food court and ate our lunches that we brought from home.

 

 

Allison fell asleep on the way home because she had played so hard this morning and was up a dozen times last night.

Flying Broom

We are still on our streak of great weather. Allison and I spend as much time outside as we can. Today I was sweeping the driveway when she insisted on helping. She took my broom and started to run around trying to get it to fly.

When it didn't work she told me to cast a spell on it to fly and when I said I didn't know how to do that, she cried. So... that's what our days are like.

 

New Shoes

Allison has always had small feet and they don't grow very fast. Most kids I know get new shoes every 3-6 months but Allison has been the same size size September (even though she's grown 2.5 inches taller since then). There was a clearance of shoes at one of my favorite shoe stores so I decided to preemptively buy shoes for the next season (since they rarely go on sale).

Allison was on the porch when the package arrived and immediately wanted to wear them because they are "Frozen" themed AND they light up.

I told her they were still big but she could wear them in around the house until she grew into them. I know it's a little dangerous but she spends a lot of time in my heels running around so how much worse could it be?

We spent the afternoon outside raking and doing some gardening. The weather was so warm that the ice cream truck drove by!

 

Allison wasn't interested in raking, she just wanted to model her shoes for me.

Bubbles

Allison came home with an impressive Valentine score last week. Most of the kids gave out a small treat (sucker, gummies, mini-chocolate bar) with their cards. I decided to stick with our previous holiday policy that everything gets put in a goody bag and each day Allison can pick out one item until everything is gone.

One of the special treats was a container of bubbles. She really wanted to play with them but I told her that it was too cold outside and that I didn't want water on my floor. I turned away and went back to making dinner.

A few minutes later I realized that I hadn't heard from her in a few minutes so I went looking and found her in the tub. She had taken off all her clothes and was blowing bubbles so that her clothes and the floor wouldn't get wet.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today we had our weekly Mom Group meetup. We had a little Valentine's Day party for the kids with an art project, balloons, snacks, and of course, Valentine's!

Allison had a great time playing and was sad when it was time to go.

Instead of getting Allison candy for Valentine's Day, Nathan and I decided to get her a small Play-doh set that's she's been asking for. She was so excited when I brought the Crazy Cuts set out for her and it kept her busy from dinner to bedtime.

Louisburg, Kansas

Nathan has the weekend off so we decided to take advantage of this 25 degree day and head out of the city to Louisburg, KS. A great thing about living in Kansas City is that if you travel just 30 minutes on the highway, you're out in the country. Louisburg is a very rural town but it's only 35 minutes from our house.

Our first stop was the Louisburg Cider Mill. It very popular in the fall (apple picking, pumpkins, etc) but we were the only ones there this morning. There was a cute shop with homemade items, preserves and jams, and of course, their famous apple cider and cider donuts.

 

I bought some strawberry rhubarb jam and donuts for each of us. We were able to sit outside in the sunshine to enjoy them. After our donuts we walked around the property and looked in on the small barn that houses the cider pressing equipment.


Our next stop was a small thrift store just off the main drag. We turned off Amity street onto Mulberry, and there in a converted church was a really cool thrift store, complete with a baby in only a diaper behind the counter (with no one else around). After a few minutes, a employee showed up and welcomed us. There were some funky things there. I found a couple of books I was looking for and Nathan found some golf balls for cheap. I was most interested in the building because I love the feel, smell, and look of old churches.

 

After the thrift store we wandered around the block, looking into the post office, city hall, and library.

Next we headed to the Cedar Cove Feline Conservation Park. It is a small park that houses large cats (Jaguars, bobcats, tigers, caracals, and lions) that have been rescued and are now living out the rest of their lives taken care of by trained professionals and volunteers. A guide takes you through the park, and she is a Professor of Linguistics and Kansas University, but volunteers on the weekend. She was very knowledgeable and shared the information on where each cat came from. Several of the animals were rescued from homes that wanted to domesticate the animals, one of the bobcats was being raised as a barn cat by a young boy until it attacked him one day and his parents realized it was a bobcat. The jaguar was rescued from a bar where it was kept as a tourist attraction. Many of the animals were old, but they looked well taken care of. The Park was clearly not there to make money, but to educate and care for the animals. 

  

 

At 2pm, the staff fed the cats. The meat is all outdated meat that is donated by the local Walmart and Price Chopper grocery stores. The cats can easily tolerate meat that is a few days (or even weeks) old.  The animals began to pace even before the food was brought out and their aggression filled the air. The animals are separated so that they aren't aggressive with each other. It was amazing to hear the animals crunch the bones and then swallow them in big chunks. It was a very interesting day.

We were back home by 4pm, and we were all very tired from spending so much time outside. When we got home, I opened all the windows to air out the house, I'm so thankful for this spring day in winter!