Kansas City Summer Vacation

Several weeks ago, the kids and I traveled to KC to spend the week with family and friends so that John & Virginia could spend the week painting our house in peace. It was such a fun week and while the three of us were sad to come home, we were anxious to see John and gear up for camping for the 4th of July! This is our week in snapshots! 

Ritual McDonald's lunch stop

Nap time (no worries, I've already been reprimanded by my safety husband for snapping pics of the kids while driving--even if there were no other vehicles or animals around)

Stop #1: Columbia, Mo-Thornton Homestead

The kids played and played (Johnny was in pure heaven with all of the boy toys), we visited the bookstore/Mizzou campus and it was so nice to have an actual conversation with Sam in person versus over the phone where I'm half in and half out while trying to manage children at the same time.

(In front of Jesse Hall--it was such a neat experience for me to get to explain to MEllany that this is where I went to school and spent a portion of my life. We also drove by the Theta sorority house where I lived for almost two years and she was just in awe over the size of it!)

Stop #2: Kansas City

(Sending a selfie to daddy to say "hi")

Uncle Brad & Aunt Mae-Mae's Capri's house for swimming and playdoh. The kids had so much fun playing in the water and the only thing that really got them out was telling them that their food was waiting for them. 

We helped Uncle Brad overcome his fear/obsession of using more than one color of playdoh and Mellany was sure to tell him that several of his cans of playdoh were too hard :)....the Barrett clan is always here to help with things like that

Selfie for John, Gammy & Aunt Mae-Mae telling them we wished they were here

Aunt Amy & Uncle Derek's Daxton's house to ride bikes, shoot birds and play with every single truck/vehicle, airplane, tractor, etc that he has and to make new friends with their neighbors! Again Johnny was in heaven with the wide range of boy toys (not a single princess in sight) and Mellany was ecstatic spending the morning with Daxton just doing whatever as long as she was playing with him. Mellany definitely cried when we left saying she missed her Daxton......I just love that they are so close even with living so far apart from each other. It is really hard to believe that Mellany and Daxton will be 5 this year....I just can't figure out how that happened! 

Gammy's House: Watching the police outside and having dinner with Great Grandpa Bob

After spending the morning at Fun Run (video below), we went to lunch at my favorite place Corner Cafe.....the kids get cookies with their meals and somehow my son ended up wearing his....all. over. It was in his hair, on his calves, behind is neck....seriously, all over. 

More fun at Gammy's:

Playing outside at Gammy's for about a good 5 minutes....it was too hot to do anything that day really (notice I'm taking the picture from inside the house that was nice and cool). So they came in and put together a puzzle.  

Johnny using his chainsaw from Papa and Teresa to saw the coupe into pieces 

Mellany getting pampered by mama

Watching Baby Einstein

Papa & Teresa's House: We had a fish fry, rode the golf cart, some of the guys shot guns and the three kiddos played/destroyed the house

Fun Run with Gammy, Uncle Brad, Aunt Mae-Mae & Capri to spend the morning in some A/C...these were Mellany and Johnny's favorite slides

This is how Capri, Johnny & Mellany spend their Saturday nights at Gammy's

The long trip home was pretty quiet as the kids slept for a majority of the 8 hour drive. Once we got home though, they were really excited to see what was waiting for them in the drive...

Father's Day 2016

Father's Day weekend has been a blast! It has been busy, but so much fun. Saturday morning we let John open his presents. Mellany picked out a KC Royals Beach Towel, a KC Royals coozie, a basketball and a wallet. For Johnny, I picked out a car t-shirt for him to give to John. I mixed his love for cars with John's love for back massages.....it was a win-win! After opening his gifts we went to see "Finding Dory" at the movie theater (See: "Johnny's First Movie" post) then completed some housework for the rest of the day. 

On Sunday we went to church, made a trip to Lowe's, had mexican for lunch then finished some housework until Virginia got here and then went out for dinner. 

I can't say enough what a great dad John is to Mellany and Johnny.  He has such a busy work life but ALWAYS makes time for the kids (and myself) whenever they need him. They love to play hide and seek and be chased by him. Johnny especially loves to ride in daddy's truck and Mellany loves having him lay in bed with her and scratch her back. He truly is "the fun one"!

Johnny's First Movie!

We went to see "Finding Dory" this weekend as a family for father's day/Johnny's first movie. We have seen a ton of previews for it and thought it might be a good time to go as a family to the theater. He lasted about an hour which we were actually pretty impressed with....that was about as long as the popcorn and M&M's lasted. :) After that he got bored and tried climbing all over the seats, railing etc. At that point we knew it was time for him to leave, so John took him out and Mellany and I finished the movie. It was a really cute movie! I think we will wait till he's a little older to take him to another movie. 

{{Somewhat}} Wordless Sunday!

We've had a lot of randomness going on lately and I'm thankful for pictures to help me keep track of the chaos. Here's what we've been up to....

We're getting ready to paint the house and a trip to Sherwin Williams resulted in these sweet balloons. The kids fought over each other's balloons for three days, mom and dad were over it, and somehow they got popped in the middle of the night....strange how those things happen! 

Mommy and Johnny selfie

Slip N Slide with Lauren

Mellany's 2nd trip to the dentist and she was a rockstar! She even let them take X-rays....and that was after telling John and I that she would not be taking pictures of her teeth....we were so proud!!! 

This boy....just felt like pulling his pants up...

Mellany's photography

"Painting" the house and truck

Diva!

Typical Lunch

Mellany's Dentist Visit #2

Jump Start Summer Camp

Mellany had so much fun attending her preschool's summer camp that I had to make it into it's own post. They got to talk to firefighters and tour a firetruck, have a water play day, wear jammies and most importantly talk about God's creation of Earth. She was completely exhausted every single day and cried when Friday came and it was over. We'll definitely be sending her back next summer!

I am so thankful for teachers who take lots of pictures!