Friday the 12th was Meet-the-Teacher for Alexee and Crosby. We are very excited about both of their teachers. We've heard that Mr. L is awesome, and we already know that we love Mrs. S from Alexee's 2nd Grade year (So happy to have her again)!!
As soon as we were finished with the school meetings we left for Kansas City for a back-to-school weekend. We got there about 6pm, checked into our hotel and went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory. After dinner we walked to one of the nearby fountain areas. It was such a nice night.
On Saturday we went to the
zoo. Lane and I enjoyed going there back in
June and thought the kids would like it!
And we rode the Sky Safari several times. We didn't know if Crosby would be willing to try it, but he loved it. On just one sky ride across "Africa" the boys and I spotted four snakes on the ground below. You can see a big black snake in this picture below Crosby's tennis shoes. Scary!
Ricky the Rhino and the sleeping lions were neat to see up close.
We also liked the hippo, koalas, penguins, sea lions and the
Wings of Wonder bird show.
It was a fun day, but it was very hot so we were running out of energy by mid-afternoon and decided to move on to our next stop: Trader Joe's. Air-conditioning and free samples! :) We stocked up on coffee, figs, cookie butter, lemon wafers, biscotti, etc. We went back to the hotel to rest for a few minutes, then we had dinner at
Jack Stack BBQ. Yum! Sunday morning we had breakfast at Cheesecake Factory. We tried two other local places first, but the wait was really long at both. We were able to get a table quickly at CF, and the brunch was good. I had French toast, Lane had a Monte Cristo breakfast sandwich, and the kids all ordered pancakes.
I love the landscaping in the plaza area, especially the yellow cannas--so pretty!
After breakfast we went downtown to the science discovery center at
Union Station.
Lots of fun activities and exhibits there!
Everyone tried the giant hamster wheel, and Rhett rode the sky bike.
Sunday night we ate at P.F. Chang's and finished the evening with ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. It was just a short walk back to our hotel so we sat on the patio to eat dessert. The sky was so pretty. It was a sweet weekend together, and a great way to end the summer break.
We drove home Monday morning, then Lane and Alexee went to pick Bogart up that afternoon from my Dad while I took the boys to get their back-to-school haircuts. I started washing the large pile of laundry from the weekend, and the washing machine broke. Ugh! (Thanks to Lane's detailed Google research, his awesome handyman skills and the convenience of two-day shipping it was working again by Thursday! I'm kind of crazy about keeping up with laundry. We were very thankful that it was a fairly easy and inexpensive fix.) Monday evening was also 7th grade orientation for Rhett at the junior high. The principal gave a welcome speech in the gym, then everyone rotated through their seven class periods (5 minute versions) to meet all the teachers and find out what to expect for the first week of school. Rhett has at least one or two friends in every class hour, so he was happy about that. There are two lunch periods, but it seems that he has the same one as the majority of his friends so that was good news, too. Several people have told me that the junior high is a great, positive environment with a strong emphasis on character, hard work and relationship-building. I think Rhett is ready for it and will do great there.
Ready or not, it's time to get back into the school routine!
Posts
