Safe Home

Noah's middle school is introducing a new program this year called, Safe Home. We had a chance to talk to one of his teachers about it and it sounds like a great thing to teach to middle school students. We looked their curriculum over and we have actually talked to Noah about 99% of the things on this list. One of the things seemed beyond his age but that is because he doesn't have his own phone so some of the issues he is safe from for now. Unfortunately, technology has really made inappropriate behavior much easier to find and respond to.

Safe Home will be discussing Stereotypes, Boundaries, Respect, Healthy Communication, Sexual Harassment, Technology, Power, Control, Equality and Respect. They will be discussing emotionally healthy relationships, appropriate physical and emotional boundaries and how to deal with people who verbally, emotionally and physically abuse them. They are discussing how to communicate assertively, not passively or aggressively, when someone disrespects them and what to do if they or someone they know is being hurt. They are taught the necessary steps to reporting someone and how to stay safe.

We have already discussed some issues in regards to his two households, school environment and different adults in his life but I am anxious to hear his thoughts after their 7th and 8th lesson. They are going to focus on unhealthy relationships.

All unhealthy relationships are based on one person trying to have power and control over another person. In this lesson, students will connect the different forms of power and control to examples from their own environment. Unhealthy and abusive relationships often follow a cyclical pattern of tension building, explosions, and then overt apologies. This lesson will also explore how to break this cycle....Healthy relationships are fulfilling and encourage self-worth. They also promote positive school and community environments. These relationships are based on the foundation of two people interacting as equals and respecting one another.

We think this program is great for this age and we know it has already impacted Noah. He has already seen some signs of abuse in different environments and took the opportunity to stand up for a friend at school when he saw a bad situation. He is such a great kid!!

The Greatest Show On Earth!

Scott and I had a plan. We were going to take our whole family to the circus this year because we had to miss it last year. Since we live near downtown KC, we saw the Circus trains last year, saw the animals and cages in the West Bottoms and were really excited about the show. Lucas kept telling us we had to go because he heard it was THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH! Good advertising huh? :) Well, no job meant no circus so we planned on making up for it this year.

But, we had a request for the boys to go to the Circus with their mom's mom to celebrate Grandparents day and we decided we could change our plans because really, we just wanted them to experience the show (no matter who they were with) so we decided to keep our plans and take Grandma with us. I got a special on tickets that saved me $15 and we managed to get FRONT ROW SEATS! It was fantastic! We didn't think we would actually see the kids because the arena is a huge place but while we were standing in line we turned and saw Noah and once Noah saw us he came right over. All the boys ended up with us in line for a few minutes giving us hugs and asking why we were there. They were quite pleased and amused though we learned later that OTHER people didn't find it quite so funny. And in fact, Eli was told that he couldn't come back to talk to Scott while we waited 30 minutes in line at the front door. CAN YOU IMAGINE if my mother told the boys that they couldn't go talk to their mother? How outrageous right? Apparently, not everyone thinks that way...Anyway....back to the circus....

I LOVE the circus!!

 Our seats were AMAZING!! And dirt cheap! We were close to the band and they were fantastic! It was a great concert as well.

 It started off with these amazingly agile people flying thru the air, twisting, turning and spinning...

 And later the tigers came out. WOW! My favorites were the white ones.

 It was a great cat show!

 See how close we were?

 These people did some amazing feats! Look at her abs! I have actually done this before although the other person only sat on my stomach...but WOW!

 WOW WOW!

 SNAKES! Ugh! Why would someone dance with snakes?

 It might be hard to see but this lady is hanging from her HAIR and flying around the arena twirling fire as she spins....WOW!

 Their strong man...

 I have always loved this act! And they were so close!!

 

I loved this too! They had 6 guys (and a girl) riding motorcycles in this little ball. It was amazing!

  

It was a little freaky as they went flying around and around the ball and even went upside down!

Awesome!!

 During the intermission we saw the kiddos sitting at the end of the arena. Can you find them? We waved a few times but they didn't know we were on the front row. :)

 I LOVE the elephants!!

 Loved this too!

 I always wanted to do this when I was little but my body likes to be upright at all times. I get lost and confused if I try to flip, spin or twirl in the air. I am BAD on a trampoline!

 I really love these guys!

This was amazing too! The guys would jump down on the see saw thing and the girl would fly and flip thru the air and land on the shoulders of the guy on top. She actually fell once but luckily 3 guys caught her. It was crazy!

 On the other end of the arena they were doing the same type of flips but this time they used a guy on stilts. It was so cool.

 Big trampolines with guys flying thru hoops...

The grand finale! Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus : The Greatest Show On Earth!!

Labor Day

Have I mentioned I have been working 50+ hours a week? I did? Ok good.....that means you will forgive me for posting about Labor Day weekend 20 days late.....

One of the things I love about Greater Kansas City is the amazing kid friendly FREE events that are offered almost every weekend. I have some great websites that list these events (KC KIDS FUN) as well as city sites, community center sites and random twitter feeds I see during work. One of those yearly events is the FREE Symphony in the Park performance that happens every Labor Day. We didn't get to go last year but the year before that, the kids and I took the Aunts that were here visiting grandma in the hospital. It is a fantastic concert with world class music! The conductor was very funny and made it an enjoyable evening. I LOVE the symphony!!

 

It was super bright as the sun was setting...too bright to s mile for my pic...I was also hoping that I could hook grandma up with the nice man who is sitting next to her but we didn't get that far. He was super nice, talked to her a lot and helped her take her coat off before she sat down. Awwww..

 Here is our view from the top of the hill.

 My favorite redhead...

 The weather was perfect and the sunset added to the beautiful concert! My favorite music was the fun stuff like Star Wars and Super Man. I love it that my kids get to experience something so amazing as the KC Symphony!!

Award Winning Photography

Do you remember when I took Autumn, Eli and Lucas on a photo tour of KC this summer? We spent a VERY HOT afternoon in the convertible driving around KC finding cool things to shoot. Well, over Labor Day weekend I happened to see a tweet about a photo contest for the National World War 1 Museum here in KC. The contest was called A Look At Liberty and the categories were the Spirit of Liberty & Museum and Memorial. They had a youth category for 17 and under and one for 17 and up. The kids have always taken a ton of photos using my dslr camera and their digital point and shoot but we have never submitted any of their work....UNTIL NOW....

So, I went thru their pics and submitted 3 for Lucas, 3 for Eli and 2 for Autumn....and then I COMPLETELY forgot that I did it! I had high hopes but after a super busy 3 weeks it completely slipped my mind....until Thursday (Lucas' birthday) when I got two emails....saying CONGRATULATIONS Lucas & CONGRATULATIONS Autumn! I could hardly contain my excitement!! Autumn won FIRST PLACE in the youth division and Lucas won SECOND PLACE! Can you believe it?

They each get great prize packages too!

• First Place:  A Family Membership to the Museum for one year, a private museum tour for four, lunch in the Over There Café for four, $50 gift card to Museum Store, souvenir book, and a framed photo of tour group at the top of the Liberty Memorial tower (approx. $175 value)
  
• Second Place:  Four tickets to the Museum, dessert in the Over There Café for four, $25 gift card to Museum Store (approx. $75 value)

Isn't that fantastic?!? I was sooo excited I texted Autumn to give her the news and emailed Lucas' teacher. His teacher put his winning photo up on their screen and announced to the class what it was and what Lucas had won. They were  both pretty proud and we are even more proud! One of the neatest parts of this prize is that both of their photos will be displayed in the museum too! Did I mention how proud I am? 

Here are the 2 winning shots. Both have interesting angles and I couldn't be more proud!

 

Autumn's First place photo.

 

 Lucas' Second place photo.

 I will let you know when the photos are up on the WW1 website and share our pics from our private tour with Autumn. We are sooo excited!!

Birthday Festivities!

I can't believe it but my baby turned 9 this week. He is just growing up so fast! We celebrated last weekend with a little family party and a special cake. We made a strawberry vanilla jello poke cake with a strawberry and whip cream topping. It was delicious!! The theme this year turned into a SKATEBOARD party as that is one of Lucas' current loves. He got a tiny one, itty bitty toy ones from his sister, skater themed shirts and a new bigger board. He was quite pleased. Since we stayed home he spent that afternoon riding his new toys and playing with his brothers. I love those kind of afternoons! For his actual birthday, we did our annual Birthday Breakfast at a little cafe and Grandma came too. It was super early but he was bright eyed and funny! We had a great breakfast to start his big day. Love you Lucas!

Happy 9th Birthday Lucas!

Today is our little man's birthday! I just can't believe he is 9!! He is just an amazing young man who we thoroughly enjoy spending time with. He can dance, loves to sing (and dance) to old school Michael Jackson, loves art, music and people. He is funny, intelligent and curious about everything! He is super smart and I really love our in depth conversations. He has some amazing things to say and is always working on a fix for whatever problems may arise. I once had him work on my vacuum and he fixed it in about 10 minutes!! He keeps us laughing and I love it when he snuggles on the couch with me. He tells me he will never be too big for me to carry and he usually begs me to carry him to bed every night. It's pretty funny because his long legs dangle about 6" off the floor but he still manages to snuggle in. He still runs and jumps into my arms and I love his laugh when I catch him. He is my baby!

Happy Birthday Lucas! We love you and are so proud of you!

An afternoon with models....

I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with the cutest kids last week, for an impromptu photo shoot. They picked their own outfits (which is the easiest way to get them to cooperate with this mamarazzi) and we headed out the door with their instruments. A cello, violin, clarinet and though Autumn was sans instrument she is getting ready to start piano lessons. There were a lot of silly ones and a new trend of serious model type ones...that always ended in giggles. This is a good snap shot (pun fully intended) of how we spend our time together at our house. It is creative, artsy, active and full of love! I hope you enjoy these...