Animal Love

One of my favorite things about being back in the country is the wildlife. The coyotes were a little loud (and woke me up most nights) and the garter snakes startled me a couple times, but the birds have been fun. I've found 3 baby birds practicing flying the backyard, and then today, a small finch flew into the living room window and while it was stunned, it let me pick it up and hand it to Allison. It quickly flew up to perch on her shoulder before flying away after 15 minutes.

 

 

Sprayground

My mom had the day off work today so we decided to take Allison to the Pinafore Park Sprayground to cool off. We picked up Dallas on the way so that Allison would have a buddy to play with.

 

 

 

Soccer Nights

My nephews had soccer games tonight at the Shedden Soccer Complex, so my mom and I took the kids, and while the girls played on the playground, I got to see the boys play.

Back to Boxall

Allison and I enjoyed some quiet time around the farm today. Allison spent the day digging in the dirt pile, swinging on the (multiple) swings, and driving her gator in laps around the yard.

 After getting her first outfit of the days filthy, Allison asked if we could go to the "waterfall" in the gully. We put on our boots and set out to explore. Allison insisted on trying to give me a heart attack by jumping of the water. After we climbed up the gully hill and got back into the backyard, we were both a little tired and hot. We took off our sweaters and lay in the backyard and talked about what we saw. Suddenly it was 40 minutes later and my arm was asleep.

 

 

Pool Opening

The kids were really excited to get the pool open, even though opening the pool before the end of June is Canadian Crazy. However, this week is going to be 30 degrees most days, so while my brother was out visiting my parents, he started to open the pool (since my Dad is still busy with farming).

The kids wasted no time jumping in the frigid water.

Tadpoles

We arrived back in Ontario yesterday, and after a rest, a gator ride, and a kinder egg, it was cousin time. My niece and nephews came to welcome Allison back to Boxall. Their first activity was catching tadpoles in the shallow water in the field next to my parents house.

I went along to watch/take pictures. While I was there, Scarlett asked, "Why do you always take so many pictures?" I just laughed and told her that it would be a shame if she didn't remember this when she grows up.

 

Sweet Thing

After a morning of packing and errands, I took Allison to McLain's Bakery for a treat. She picked her favorite, a sprinkle donut. There was a break in the heat today from a strong thunderstorm last night, so we sat outside while we had our treats.

 

Zoo

Today we continued with our kid-tour of Kansas City and headed to the KC Zoo for the morning. I thought we would beat the crowds and the early morning heat by arriving when the zoo opened, but that plan didn't pan out. We still managed to see plenty of animals, and ride the carousel and the boat before we came home for lunch.

Science City

Today we went to Science City and took our friends the Wedel's with us. Allison loved showing her friends the facility. As a special treat, I told Allison she could go in the tornado simulator and all the kids bravely held hands and the winds picked up.

Johnson County Museum

Today's was Allison's first day off school and within 20 minutes of waking up, had declared that she was bored.

I decided to take her to the Johnson County Museum for the (late) afternoon. We hadn't been there in a long time and Allison has been asking to go back. She's started to outgrow the Kidscape portion of the museum, but since there were only a handful of kids there, she was able to play her way so she enjoyed it more than usual.

 

 

 

 

 Allison's favorite part of the museum was the farming predictor. It's a plinko-style game where you drop a seed at the top and hope it lands on "bountiful harvest" and not, snowstorm, locust, tornado, flood, or increase in railroad prices.

 

 We both the 1950's house in the museum. Allison thinks the washing machine and fridge are very funny looking.

  Here Allison testes her typing skills. I tried as well and didn't do much better than her.

 Here is a video of Allison putting on a play in the theatre area of the Kidscape.