Heart Senior Class 2010 Prom

Suck it up momma it's time for prom and your babies have dates. Quite beautiful dates actually. I doubt that there are very few dry eyes on this night for parents of Seniors all over the States. What a monumental time in a young persons life. I was very blessed to be able to be "hand on" during the prom... trying my best NOT to embarrass my boys too much. These kids really didn't need a baby sitter and all the parents were on their best behavior and looking beautiful!

Now, I am going to fully give credit where credit is due. The night of prom we were to meet the photographer at 5. Nick was running late because he had to run south to pick up the corsage for Liz before heading 45 minutes north to pick her up. I was running late because after getting more than half way to the location of the prom my son calls and tells me the corsage is in the fridge... can I please go back and get it. My AWESOME husband got the corsage and jumped in his truck while I fight downtown traffic and met me half way to drop it off and save the night. By the time I finally get to the location I am running behind. I should have been there an hour and a half ahead of time. Needless to say I did not have time to take the kids to the park to do the shoot.

This is where January our most awesome photographer comes in and saved the day. She got some fantastic shots of the kids! Bless her heart! If anyone needs a  great photographer just let me know and I can hook you up. She is very reasonable and does on location photography. If you would like to see more of her work just scroll down to Nicks senior pictures or watch for Aaron's Junior pics to be uploaded.

Tell me I have no reason to be a proud parent... No wait... I love my babies and I think they are absolutely perfect! Look at my little hot shots!

Nick and Liz

Aaron and his sweet date Haley.

Nelson Atkins Museum of Art

I am going to be honest. We are not really one of those fine arts kind of families. Maybe years ago, but not now. I personally love art. My rough and tumble kids however have not come to appreciate it quite yet. This year at least they did find some pieces of interest. Thank goodness for Hali, who seems that I can hold hope out for. She and I will return again soon to spend a bit more time looking at European art and check out the new Egyptian exhibit.

I will say this... The Modern art had the boys' attention. They met up with a fantastic curator who gave them a fantastic inside scoop to the pieces in his area. So modern art and Medieval Art is their thing!

To find out more about the collections including Monet, Rembrandt,Titian, Bronzino, Strozzi, Reni, Guercino, Castiglione, Sebastiano Ricci, Canaletto, Gianquinto, Panini, Traversi and Guardi visit The Museum's website.

The stairs are a real killer!

Nick & Aaron actually shot a movie for youth group here on this location. It was Rocky themed and by the time they ran and re-ran these stairs Nick was exhausted!

The Shuttlecocks are the signature series that most know Kansas City by.

Sorry about the quality here but no flash is allowed! Not every often you get to take a picture next to impressionist Art.

So here we are traveling in a group of 5. Hali has gone up ahead just a bit and all of a sudden she comes running back saying "I have finally found HIM"... So we are like... Okay... find who? We didn't know anyone was missing! Hali said... "I finally found my Knight in shining Armor! He DOES exist!".... LOL
I SOOOOOOO love that child!

So here she is with her "Man"...

This is the kind of Art we all could relate to. I often wonder if the end of the world doesn't happen soon... what people in a couple of  hundred years are going to think about us?

I really found this twig and mud sculpture pretty awesome.

The boys are still trying to figure out what exactly this says...

A chair that is long enough for Nick to sit in and stretch out his legs!

This one in person was actually quite beautiful. The mirrored art and the woman's eyes spoke volumes in vanity of women.

And lastly this was my all time favorite in Contemporary Art. She wore and itsy bitsy teeny weenie yellow polka dot bikini!

Federal Reserve Money Museum Field Trip

Some of you guys remember me telling you we started a new Homeschool support group. I am having a great time meeting other parents and we are slowly getting tuned in to making time to do things with other families! We have had a great time. The South Kansas City Homeschool Support Group decided to make this our first field trip. I believe I was told there were either 40 or 50 people that came. Maybe 40 that signed up and 50 that actually came? Anyway it was a great trip. VERY educational and they had something for all age groups!

You can see more of the facility and what it offers here at The federal money museum of Kansas City.

Just finished checking out the Truman Coin Collection...

One of the objects was to answer several pages of scavenger hunting questions scattered throughout the museum.

Some of the other families looking for information.

Here is my kiddo's searching for answers. This was really hard!

There was tons of information to be found in the interactive displays.

Someday she could be a female president on the front a bill, right?

I love the look of money on her! LOL

It's not every day that you get to take your picture in front of $40 Million Dollars!

Aaron was REALLY thinking he would like to take some of this cash home with him!

Just one more picture mom! I don't think his friends would have believed his "fish story" without seeing the actual proof!

The levels are marked and yes, this really was the real deal. Across from this and down a bit was the vault and the sorting areas that are viewable to the public. We were asked not to take pictures of these areas because of security issues. I love my camera so I obeyed!

Here is a pic of Abby and myself. You see that bag she has in her hands? This is a couple hundred dollars that are actually shredded in this facility. They package it and send it home to parents so WE can clean up all the mess. They sure have this recycling thing down....

Here is a 27 pound brick of 99.9% solid gold. It was a very impressive site. The people who move these bars of gold actually wear protective clothing because it is so soft it scratches and the gold dust is everywhere. You cannot read this very well but it says that at the time of this picture this bar was worth $489,110! I wouldn't mind having a few of these at my house in a safe!

So that wraps up our time at the Money Museum. We learned so much more in just a few hours than I think we have in a whole year of Economics! I am very serious!

Goodbye Maxwell... Hello CRV!

Grandparents are a blessing! I am sure each and every one of you reading this knows this already. They laugh with the kids, give them good advice and tend to love them unconditionally. Kids think grandparents are great because they always take their side and usually grandparents never have to be the "Heavy" like mom and dad.

Well, let me tell you... Nick has a  great Grandpa Mark!

Several weeks ago we had the pleasure of seeing Maxwell sit in the driveway for the last time. He moved on to live with a sweet young lady who has always desired a truck like Maxwell.

Bye Bye Maxwell! Enjoy your new home!

Hello CRV! Welcome to our Driveway! May you never leak a thing, always be reliable and safely take Nick to every place he needs to go!

Such a beauty! Nick's uncle Nate even vacuumed it all out!

Plenty of room for larger than life football players back here!

Jesus take the wheel!