July 26, 2005
June 16, 2004
Otherwise, Zak's baseball team had their last game on Saturday and ended up taking 2nd in their league. Their tournament begins on Sunday, but Zak will miss the first couple of games while frolicing with Mickey and the gang. He's also been playing basketball and he attended the KU baseball camp last week. We've been extremely busy, which is typical of June, and we're looking forward to July when things slow down a bit.
I've decided that Jani is going through an early Terrible Twos period (lovely). Gina (a friend of mine) and I have deemed ourselves The Circus when we get together to take our kids out to eat or just hang out. In total, we have a 7-year-old, a 6-year-old, a 3 year-old, a 1-year-old, and two hyper puppy dogs. We've had experiences with mashed potato hair gel, ranch-covered dresses, french fries hurled across tables, and many eaten crayons. Jani always seems to be in the middle of it all for me. But, we manage to laugh at it all - eventually - and look forward to Gina's addition to The Circus in February!
Otherwise, Jani just keeps getting bigger! And smarter! She loves wrestling with Zak and cried hysterically when I dropped him off this morning.
We had a great time on our trip to Kansas City June 4-6 for the Hospital Hill Run and for Suzi's wedding party. I did the 5K and will have no trouble improving my time next year (since I walked-n-talked the majority of it with my aunt)! Mom ran her first 12K and did fabulous!!
Matt has already signed up for the MS 150 bike race for September. He hasn't started training yet, but maybe this post will make it a little more official! :)
As most of you know, Lucy, our beagle, died in April. Zak and I noticed her missing one morning and walked and drove the neighborhood looking for her. I made "LOST DOG" posters and Zak and his friend went door-to-door handing out little flyers with Lucy's picture on them. A couple of days later, a neighbor spotted Lucy in the creek bed. We're not sure of how she died, but it didn't look as though she was attacked or anything. We had a little memorial for her and burried her in our backyard. Zak had a tough time initially dealing with her death, but has healed well. He has a picture of her on his nightstand. Jani still refers to almost any dog as "Luuuucy". We'll probably wait until Jani is a bit older to get another pet.
Zak turned the big "8" in March. We decided to try the Great Wolf Lodge out for a wet birthday overnight. Zak invited several friends and so did Matt and I, and we had a great time in the water and on the tubes. Zak and I even took Jani on her first water-tube eventure and she faired better than I did -- I was so concerned that she was going to tumble overboard as she wasn't really big enough to quite fit right. She said she liked it, but didn't want to go again, and I was fine with that.
Baseball started early this year. Zak played for the Cubs in the SCABA league in Topeka. Man, are basebally schedules crazy. Zak was an outstanding outfielder and also played 3rd, catcher, first and pitched. He's a really good all-around player and I think the coaches were able to count on him at any position. His coach was incredible -- really focused on every kid getting to play and the fundamentals of baseball. Winning wasn't a top priority, although it was nice, and they ended up placing 3rd.
I continued taking Jani to playgroup until we got so busy this summer. She still goes to Mary Beth's house (a home daycare provider and friend) 1 and a half days a week. We both really enjoy that as she is able to play with friends and I'm able to get appointments done and volunteer at Zak's school.
We took a trip to Newton in May and had a great time with Matt's parents and family. We fished, went to the zoo, and caught up. Jani LOVES her Grandma and Grandpa!
Zak attended a couple of camps this summer, in addition to everything else going on! His absolute favorite was the Bill Self camp. His basketball skills improved immensely even after the first couple of days. He and a friend decided next year that they want to stay overnight for the week-long camp in the dorms. We'll see if I'm ready have him do that by then... I probably won't be ready for him to do that when he starts college!
Mom and I went for the Saintly award this July and decided to teach Vacation Bible School together. We had a class of 16 young 4-year-olds. For the most part, it was fun, but I don't think I could have done it without her! Jani was also able to be in a 3-year-old classroom and she was in heaven. The teacher was continuously telling us what a good student she was. I guess she gets all the other stuff out with me!!
We're presently getting ready for our annual trip to Branson. This year, mom and Kelly and her kids are coming. I've been looking forward to this all summer! It will also be Jani's first "real" vacation -- she's always been too young and stayed behind with Meema or Grandma and Grandpa. This should be interesting! I said I never would, but I wonder if a kid-leash is really all that bad!
June 28, 2004
Once Zak returned, he jumped right in to his baseball tournament. His team, the Indians, made it to the championship game, but lost by one run. They placed second in the tournament and in the league.
Otherwise, Zak has really been into playing the piano and his guitar. He's actually going through one of Matt's old beginner piano books on his own and is working on his finger positions. He's also been helping Matt train our puppy, Lucy, who just turned 5 months old. This has been a huge task, but they're definitely making progress.
Jani has been hamming it up lately. Like Zak, she has also been having fun playing her little play piano or our real piano as she "sings" along (she's quite the performer right now, which is very unlike Zak at this age). One day, I was in the kitchen and I could hear her tinking and singing away in the piano room. I grabbed the video camera and snuck in to catch her perfomance. To my surprise, she was sitting on the piano keys, hopping up and down, playing them with her butt and singing away! She was very surprised to see me and thought she was in huge trouble. But once she saw me laughing hysterically, she jumped down and said "TAA-DAA!"
Jani has also been enjoying the water more. She's gone through several different like/dislike stages in the last year. Since birth, she has loved the water -- when she was very young, she would fall asleep in the jacuzzi tub and we've always been able to occasionally use a bath as a reward. Then, last fall, we enrolled her in a "swim-or-die" program that teaches (OK, forces) children to learn to turn and float on their backs and get to a side of the pool in an "emergency situation". Jani did well, but was pretty traumatized. Since then, she has been more timid at the pool and won't set foot in the jacuzzi tub, but she's getting more and more daring at the pool.
Matt and Kristi are getting the softball team together for fall! If anyone is interested in playing or subbing, please let us know! We're really looking forward to it! Those of you who can't/don't play ball are more than welcome to babysit for all the kids! :)
Sorry there aren't very many new pics online right now. We haven't had the camera out a lot in the past couple of weeks. The most recent pics online have been taken by our Sprint PCS Vision phone (they are really fun and very cool - not too much $ with the rebate they offer). If you are able to receive pics via your phone, let us know! Otherwise, we've been able to send some hysterical pics to your e-mail address (you know who you are!!). You can send pics/text to (785)550-2409.
