Making a cake for Niko's Birthday

Niko told me that he wanted a "baby cake" for his birthday party. (For those who don't know Niko very well, "baby" is his much-loved stuffed bear.) We baked the cakes last night and I will put them together and trim/frost them tonight!

New duty

New week, new class chore.

Texting

Niko plays with my phone on the ride home from school.... he decided to text Daddy yesterday evening.

Homework!

Niko's first homework assignment came home last night. Yes, you read that right! Homework! He had to draw his house and send it back in tomorrow. He also has his first Bible verse to memorize. He will have a Bible verse a week to memorize and recite on Fridays. If he does it right, the teacher will reward him with a treat. :) Reminds me of my school days!

So the house turned out more like a tornado/dust storm. I will just have to explain that his mom works in Emergency Management and hopefully that will help.

Lightening Damage

I finally got around to taking some photos of the damage we had from Friday's lightening storm. The top picture is the branch that was hit by lightening, then the charge traveled down the tree and looks like it split the tree.

We are having an arborist come in to see if the tree can be saved.

School daze

Birthday on the birthday board.

Class chores assigned.

First Day of School!!!

Walking from the parking lot to school! (Note the new haircut thanks to Monica!)

Wow. He looks like a big boy in this picture, headed up to the door with his backpack on!

First day of Preschool!!!

New cubby!

Niko's new class room...

He's got a letter from his new teacher in the class mailbox!

Then we had a bit of a breakdown. He clammed up when the teacher invited him to sit on the activity rug with the rest of the kids. Every now and again, Neil's personality comes out and he gets all shy.....

Last day of 2 year old class

Today is a bitter-sweet day for us.... it was Niko's last day in the Tiny Tots room (2 year old room.) We are really going to miss Mrs. Elisha... she really loves Niko and helped us get him potty trained. Niko gave her a dozen roses and gave her hugs and kisses goodbye.

Council Budget Work Session fun

Lots and lots of toys are key to surviving....

A Council Budget Work Session.... oh man. If Niko doesn't grow up to be a public servant, I will be amazed.

Swinging at the park!

Once again.... one of these videos has a fun surprise for someone!

KC Zoo trip

We went to the KC Zoo yesterday. The weather was finally nice here in KC and in the 80s! Woot! Niko enjoyed looking at the monkeys in the Tropics section.


The lions were by far one of the better animals to see on Sunday. The only gripe I have with the KC Zoo is that it's more of a park with animals in it than a zoo. You can walk for quite a while before seeing any animals. I like the bottom picture because it looks like Niko is feeding the sleeping lion some raisins.

Niko and I are checking out the elephants.

This is the closest we came to seeing the polar bear at the zoo.... Nikita was hiding from us.


If you ask Niko what he did at the zoo, he would answer that I rode the train. This was by far one of his favorite areas of the zoo. Doh.

This would be the other favorite part of the zoo. So glad we took him to the zoo so he could play on the playground that we could have done for free around the corner from the house.

Look at all those meerkats wanting to see Niko!

Hehehheh.... they were really want is the bag of goldfish daddy was dangling behind Niko. He doesn't need to know that though... he thought they wanted to see him. :)

Yes... one of the many non-zoo items that Niko was fascinated by.

We rounded out our trip with a ride on the carousel. Great times and we will go back a few more times now that we have renewed our membership!

Doctor Visit

We went to the doctor on Friday afternoon for a rash that didn't seem to be getting any better on his nose and cheeks. Turns out it's a skin infection (gross) that he picked up at daycare. I talked to his teacher about it and 2 other kids have the same thing on their arms/legs.

Ahhh... the joys of daycare! The cream seems to be helping and the doctor said it should clear up in a week.

Niko is 33.7 pounds now. They didn't take his height, but his 3 year-old check up is less than a month away now! Wow!

Totoro art smock

For Niko's Pre-School class he needs an art smock.... and I need to practice sewing for Mark & Shelly's wedding items. Soooo..... we start with a store-bought kids smock. I can't even make this thing for as cheap as I bought it - $1.99!!

I cut out the fleece Totoro characters for the smock and stuck them on the smock for placement.

Sewed the smaller pieces to the larger pieces then sewed them to the smock.

Added some fun iron on letters for his name.

Boom - done! Super cute! :) This is the first sewing project I let Niko watch me do. Not sure that was a good idea... he was kinda frustrated that he couldn't take Totoro off and play with him anymore...

Wichita, Kansas Trip

If you ever drive on I-35 South to Wichita, this what you will see for about 2 1/2 hours. The Flint Hills is what the area is called. It's pretty for about the first hour.... then you just want to speed through it. Thankfully the speed limit is 75!

I co-facilitated a class with my Social Media Wonder Twin Almitra Buzan at a conference in Wichita, KS yesterday. We have made this presentation a few times together. It's all about how government agencies and non-profit organizations can diversify their communications strategies to include social media and how to track their results.

Have I put anyone to sleep yet? No? I can get into crowdsourcing and government 2.0 if you really need to get some sleep.... snore, snore, snore.

Anime wig fun

First and foremost, I love costumes. I have hundreds of accessories... like this awesome foam anime girl wig. This is what happens when you work at a toy store for YEARS and YEARS... you buy weird things when they go on clearance. Got this beauty for $2.12 several years back.

I also have a blonde bell-shaped foam wig and an Elvis styled foam wig. Sweet. Can't wait to bring those out around Halloween for him!

Shelly's Shower

Niko hangin' with one of his besties, Alyssa.

Tracy served as Game Warden for Shelly's Shower. Thanks so much Tracy for all of your help! This shower wouldn't have been nearly as much fun without you!

Lots of fun Bacon themed items.

Niko of course had to help Shelly unwrap her presents. Any event that has presents is automatically a birthday.... his birthday. Ugh.

Shelly got some... uh.... post-wedding items at the shower. Hehhhhehehe.... sinner.

Frosting cookies

Niko and I have been baking up a storm the last few days for Shelly's Wedding Shower on Saturday. We made the sugar cookies yesterday (I wasn't able to get picts because it was super messy and I was up to my elbows in flower!) Then we spent most of the night last night frosting them.

I would say we have around 300-350 cookies ready to be packaged up tonight. I am also making 2 pecan cakes tonight for the shower. I baked the cake last night and I'll make the frosting tonight.

Whew!