Mason's Art & A Birthday Countdown!

We are so proud of Mason for drawing his first person that has a body! He usually draws a face with arms & legs coming out of it, but this time he drew a body.
And then, as you can see, I thought he was making it anatomically correct, however he informed me that the circle and the line are the button & zipper on his pants!!! I secretly laughed until I cried!


Since it's only 19 days (gasp) until Mason's 4th birthday, we made a countdown chain so he can keep track...

And yesterday he painted a few pictures to give to his Gigi's (Great Grandmas)


Happy First Day of Summer!

A Little Bit of This & A Little Bit of That

I have some random misc. pics to share so I thought I'd lump them all together into one big crazy post!

Mason got to make a new animal at Build A Bear a few weekends ago while we were out shopping with my Mom & Grandma. He chose a bear because he's never had a bear of his very own~the bear that he's always played with was Wayne's teddy bear when he was a child. He chose a soft, chocolate brown bear and we named him Hershey.
Every time we've been in Build A Bear, Mason only wants to play with the strollers that they sell to push around the stuffed animals. He's TOTALLY distracted & can barely focus on making an animal b/c he's GOT to push the stroller. So we finally caved & bought him one so Hershey could ride in it. (They have a blue one for boys) Mason was in heaven. He didn't want to dress his bear, so we chose a little AR Razorback t-shirt to put it in & some sunglasses & called it good.

Foot on the pedal, filling his bear with stuffing

Waiting...

Washing...

Strolling...

I meant to post this a few weeks ago~Our "Pet" bird update:
The baby birds in the nest right next to our sunroom window hatched & flew out of the nest about 2 weeks later! They grew SO fast! Mama Bird & Baby Daddy taught the babies how to fly, hunt for food in the grass, & all the other things birds need to know how to do. It was such a pleasure to watch them grow from eggs to teenagers...

Mason drew his very first Faces!!! Up until now all of his drawings were just (beautiful) scribbles. we were playing the other day & he just decided he was going to make a face. He drew eyes, a nose, cheeks, a mouth...and then a moustache! hilariously awesome. I am SOOoooo proud! (can you tell?)

If you know us or have read any of this blog in the past, you probably know Mason's fascination/obsession with vacuums. Well, you may not know that he is also in love with robots.
Enter: Robot Vacuum. Not many things in this world make this child happier than our Roomba vacuum. My parents have one too, so he gets to play with one constantly. He knows how to turn it on & off, do a spot clean, & return it to the charger. He follows it around with HIS little "robot vacuum" (that unbeknownst to him is actually an old portable CD player. Ha!) What a cute, clean kid!


Mason also still likes to line random things up in an orderly manner like, say, these pillows...

That's all for now but I'm still playing catch-up. I'll post pictures from Touch A Truck & then celebrate my 400th post (holy geez!)

Our Trip to Kansas City for Our 9th Anniversary

We had a great time in Kansas City! We got home yesterday afternoon after 3 days & 2 nights. We really missed Mason a lot, but he did great staying at my parent's house.

We took 222 pictures and you know I always have trouble parring them down! I tried my best to show just the highlights, but this is still one of my longest posts ever!!

DAY ONE
We got into town after a quick 3 hour drive, checked into our hotel and walked down to the Plaza for lunch at the M&S Grill. We had reserved a tour at the Boulevard Brewery for that afternoon (as far as beer goes, Wayne only drinks Boulevard Wheat anymore) so we drove straight there after lunch. It was neat to see all the equipment it takes to make beer. (spoken like a woman) There was a tasting at the end of the tour and although I'm not a beer drinker, I tried a small glass of the Summer Ale.
After the tour, we stumbled upon the National World War I Liberty Memorial but they were closing, so we got some pictures outside and vowed to return the next day.

J.C. Nichols Fountain



Having lunch


Boulevard Brewery



Outside the WWI Liberty Memorial




Dinner (we were tired!)


DAY TWO

After breakfast, we headed straight to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I had been there before, but it was about 10 years ago. It was one of the big highlights of the trip for me! (imagine that) We got to see pieces by Monet, Van Gogh, Rodin, Gauguin, Rembrandt, Kandinsky, Caravaggio, Seurat,and Warhol, just to name a few. I was in Heaven! We then ate lunch at Fiorella's Jack Stack BBQ (rated #1, and rightly so!) and then went back to the WWI memorial. We went up in the tower (don't know how many stories, but it was very tall! Picture is above) and got a great view of the city from atop it. We had dinner at Houston's then walked around the Plaza and went on a gondola ride on the river (another highlight of the trip!)
Here I am with "Water Lillies" by Monet

Wayne browsing the European Gallery

Me with "Olive Grove" by Van Gogh

Pondering...

My Knights in Shining Armor :)

Wayne really liked this one for some reason...The Three Graces

Me with "Ra-wer" from ca. 2400 B.C.!

Anyone up for a (large) game of badminton?


The museum itself is beautiful!

"The Thinker" by Rodin

My yummy lunch

The only picture of the both of us together--the nice waiter took it!

And then he brought us this as a surprise!

On top of the Liberty Memorial




Union Station

inside Union Station

The beautiful ceiling

Some of the fountains and sculptures...

We even found a razorback in KC!



Our gondola ride on the river


I felt the urge to take a pic of the Betsey Johnson shop!


DAY THREE
We walked across the street from our hotel to the Kemper Museum of Contempoary Art. We came to realize that we aren't big fans of contemporary art, but found some neat things as well.

"Crying Giant" outside the museum

The Spider out front

Waterford glass


Almost home...


If you're still with me at this point, congrats! You made it! The longest post in history is over!!
As you can see, we really had a great time! We found ourselves saying over and over that if we ever HAD to move, that we would actually enjoy living in Kansas City! I have never said that before about anywhere! It was a beautiful city, filled with art, fountains, sculptures, and things to do. I can see us visiting again in the future...