TheLinharts

“If John Lennon was right that life is what happens when you’re making other plans, parenthood is what happens when everything is flipped over and spilling everywhere and you can’t find a towel or a sponge or your “inside” voice.” – Kelly Corrigan

Somehow we ended up with a 5th grader, a 4th grader, and a 1st grader since I last posted!

The Linhart household has been birthday central lately....and you know how I LOOOOOOOVE birthdays!

This guy turned 11! I am so incredibly proud of the young man he is becoming.

We took a family camping trip on the weekend of his birthday. It was a new experience for us, but so fun! We made good use of our impulse buy at Costco...a MASSIVE tent :)

Miss Leslie even hosted a BBQ dinner, complete with a birthday cake for C and E:

And apparently it was the "best day ever", according to Ellie :) #parentingwin

Caleb finished up his summer baseball season with the Reds-

He went straight into a great season of fall ball. Highlights included taking first in their division, and scoring his first out-of-the-park home run!! We are grateful for his coaches who invest so much in him. He is better in so many ways because of the teaching and mentoring he receives from Coach Jack and Coach Matt.

Gah, I'm so proud of him. He got chosen to represent his school at the Olathe School Foundation breakfast this week:

Caleb went on a "guys trip" with Dan and Fred to Ohio to see the Football Hall of Fame:

And the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

One last Caleb story....We were walking to the park the other day and I noticed he needed a haircut. I asked him if he wanted to get one that evening and he immediately said, "Nope. I get a haircut every 2 months and I'm not due for one until October 16." Man of principle. Love it.

And this little lady turned 9!

Goodness it has been a blast watching her grow into the person she is becoming. She is so unique and fun and full of life. This girl has BIG dreams and BIG personality.

Ellie, never stop being proud that you are the girl with the most freckles.

Never stop showing your cool dance moves, or unapologetically peddling your many goods and services to the neighborhood :)

And never stop inventing!

Birthday breakfast is served! Fanta and pancakes and powdered donuts.....sorry, teachers :)

And her dinner choice was steak!

She celebrated with some girlfriends, complete with crafting and eating spaghetti and meatballs!

Dan and I surprised her with a horseback riding lesson at Fire Stables...she was OVER THE MOON. Her best day ever for sure!

Ellie's top 10 things you need to know about her:

One of her recent business ideas: LOL

She keeps life interesting! The girl is very business savvy. However, her attempt to "cut costs" got her into some trouble recently...in the form of thievery. Our first experience with this. I seriously need a parenting manual. And wine. Lots of wine.

Daniel's birthday was next- we said cheers to 36 years at Tom's Town Distillery:

He is my favorite! #lovehim #allmine

And finally, we celebrated Will!

Will. This kid. Seriously my favorite sound in the world right now is his laugh. The kid laughs so hard and so much. His latest joke is that he and a friend at school have a playful banter going on via hand written notes. Their teacher encourages them to write notes to their friends in class to practice their handwriting. So I've seen lots of notes like, "You are my friend. You are nice. You play with me." etc etc....these end up in the recycling bin fairly quickly. However, I came across a few lately that are definite keepers. Will, ever the jokester, and his likeminded friend are taking it to the next level by hilariously teasing each other and when he shows them to me he cannot stop laughing....and honestly neither can we. Here are a couple of examples:

(Dear Will, You have very bad hand writing. You are a mermaid. You wear makeup. You smell like a skunk. You are slimy. You are in love.")

("You are a stinky swamp")

HAHA! I love that the worst insult at this age is : "You are in love" LOL!

This is the same kid whose current favorite song is "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC. (I claim zero responsibility for this, by the way.) But what is a mom to do when her 6 year old decides to sing his new favorite song while walking in to church on Sunday morning?

He followed in big brother's footsteps and played baseball this summer:

This kid is as tough as nails.

He was playing catch with Caleb and took a ball straight to the eye. He ran inside for an ice pack and within minutes was handing it back to me so he could go back out and play. You can see the imprint of the stitches from the ball on his cheek!

He celebrated his birthday at the arcade with his friends this year:

And cupcakes with cousins!!

And we cannot forget Tessa! Oh, Tessa.

She's a little firecracker, and yet, she gives me such good material for this blog! LOL. A few examples since I last wrote...

One evening after a late baseball game, we were walking out to the car, and I noticed her doing the "dramatic silent weeping" act. I asked her what was wrong, and she said softly, "I'm just sad. I'm sad because I can't find my shadow. My shadow went away."

I'm happy to report, that HALLELUJAH!, Tessa is finally potty trained (insert all the emoji's here!). She held out for soooo long. In fact, she was so stubborn that she decided that she would rather change her own diapers than go in the potty. She started coming down from rest time with a dry diaper, so I'd give her a little "whoop-whoop!" and a treat. I started to notice that there were wet diapers accumulating on her bedroom floor. When I asked her about it, she's like, "mmm hmmm. I just change my own diaper now."
You guys. She goes to great lengths to get her way. She finally decided this was too much work, and is now a potty champ. Whew.

How about the time she got mad at me and yelled: "Mom! You just lost your crown!" She pointed to the carpet and said, "See. It's right there. On the ground.". I informed her that mommy has a permanent crown, but she didn't buy it. A few days later, we were playing in the kitchen, and she walks over and places an invisible crown on my head and says, "There you go mommy. You got your crown back."

And we won't mention the time when things didn't go her way, and she informed me: "Mom. I'm takin' away your birfday. I'm frowin it in the trash....And I'm takin' away your Jesus!" Pray for us.

She sure does have her daddy's heart though!

And she's a great little baking assistant!

The girl LOVES a good girls night!

Walking the babies:

Baking:

And she sure does love to talk!

T: "Look mom! Grandpa gave me a dollar!!"

Me: "Wow! Why did he give you a dollar?"

T: "So I would be quiet!"

LOL! It didn't work, by the way!

It's so sweet to see her love for books:

Look at our neighborhood superhero crew! LOVE LOVE LOVE these kids and their neighborhood shenanigans:

We took a fun trip to Wichita a few weeks ago and the kids had a blast-

Tessa and Teagan are the cutest little pals.

They run around and play for hours! Beanie babies and puzzles and books and pretend.

It was all fun and games until we found them in my mom's bathroom balancing one of her new contact lenses on the end of a Q-Tip, calling it their "treasure". True story.

Also, Is it bad parenting when all of your kids run in the house breathless and ask Uncle Thomas if he can chase them in the yard with the riding lawnmower again?!?

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We called this year our "year of travel"! Here is a recap of some of our recent adventures:

Dan and I escaped to beautiful Bermuda for a week of paradise!! It is the most exquisite and captivating place I've ever seen.

Then Mom, Aunt Judy, Uncle Greg and I explored DC!

We navigated the metro like pros:

And survived the Segway tour! We can't say the same for a few of our group members. #roadrash #theysaidtheydidntneedtraining #safetyfirst

Besides seeing the self-proclaimed Segway experts bite the dust on our tour, my ALL TIME favorite memory was seeing Aunt Judy's face when she was presented with a tiny gourmet octopus on a bed of rice. #dinnerisserved #shescreamed #littlesuctioncups

Cost of tiny octopus-like creature dinner entree : $$$$
Seeing her face when she opened the box: PRICELESS

Then we traveled out to sunny California to visit Dad and Sandy!

Pit stop in Vegas on the way :)

Dad rented an AMAZING place in Yosemite. It was breathtaking!

We cannot wait to plan our next visit!

*FLASHBACK*

Dad and I, then:

And now:

Lots of happy news! We found out John and Jackie are having a sweet baby BOY! He will be here in a matter of weeks and we cannot WAIT to snuggle him!

We participated in the Kids Obstacle Challenge, and the littles rocked it!

Enjoyed a Royals game with gram-gram:

Caleb and Ellie went to Youth Front camp again...and loved every second!!

We enjoyed our yearly tradition of attending Ohio Days in Waverly, KS with Dan's family. This is the first year that Tessa wasn't terrified of the rides :)

William was mortified that we made him ride the kiddie cars with her!

Mom and I enjoyed our yearly birthday tradition of wine harvesting...and tasting....at Stone Pillar Winery. Mom always has the right shirt for the occasion...LOL!