Evie's Lemonade Stand

Evie LOVES setting up and operating her lemonade stand in the yard.  She cleans up the stand, creates a sign, makes the lemonade or fruit punch with Nana, gathers her paper cups, and sets up shop.  Henry loves drinking the lemonade or fruit punch, and makes many, many purchases before I have to cut him off.  It's really entertaining to watch them, haha.  We had such a great week at Nana & Papa's house, and had so much fun with everyone!  We'll be back in the Fall, and we'll bring Joe with us next time!

Papa's Boat!

Papa took Evie, Henry, and me out in his boat on the lake.  The kids had so much fun!!  Henry had never been on a boat before, and really loved it.  Evie was a total professional.  It's so fun to be able to see the kids enjoy these new and different experiences.

Memorial Day Celebration in KC

I took the kids to Kansas City for the day, and we had a ton of fun!  Kansas City has a huge fireworks display for Memorial Day at Union Station every year.  We went one year when Evie was little and thought it was great.  So after our two-hour drive, I immediately took the kids to the park in our old neighborhood to burn off some energy.  Then we drove over to Crown Center and walked around.  They had a Thomas the Train exhibit that the kids really enjoyed.  We got some food, and walked across the street to eat outside in the plaza.  After spotting a Hawaiian Ice truck, Evie & Henry HAD to have snow cones.  I ordered an ice cream sandwich, and after a few minutes, Henry decided that we needed to trade, haha.  We walked over to Union Station to check out the kids activities, wandered around the station where Henry lost his balloon (and cried forever), and ended up walking around the Westin Hotel.  At this point, we were just burning time until the fireworks display to start at 9 pm.  The kids were getting tired, but we stuck it out.  The fireworks were great!  And the kids passed out as soon as we hopped in the car to head home.  It was a super long day, and the kids were challenging at times, but it was really special and worth every minute.

Water fun!

Papa surprised the kids with some awesome water guns.  They loved it!  The weather was pretty warm, so the water guns and sprinkler and garden hose got lots of use.

Fun at Parks!

There are some really great parks in Chanute.  A couple of them still have the ancient, painted metal playground equipment that is sooooo much fun.  And funny enough, a few days before our trip, Evie said that she wanted to ride a teeter-totter.  I couldn't think of any teeter-totters in Phoenix, but I knew there was still one or two in Chanute!  There is also another park that has brand new playground equipment that is pretty amazing, since it is designed for kids with autism. 

Visit to the Rural Veterinarian

We always have so much fun visiting the veterinarian down the road from Nana & Papa's house.  We see some of the same animals every time, and there are always new ones to check out.  Evie LOVES animals, and often tells us that she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.  Whenever we visit, she makes a new best (animal) friend.  This time, she fell in love with a friendly orange cat that was wandering around.