August 2012

Dan and I took a small "staycation" the first few days of August to catch up. We enjoyed an afternoon of relaxing at the pool, went flying one morning and took Burke to Wonderscope, a children's museum in Shawnee. Here are a few pics of the Small Wonders Room, perfect for Burke's size and high energy level.

 Ready, Set, Go!

Burke runs everywhere he goes. We are starting to have to discipline him as he thinks it is a fun game to run away from us.

 Captain Burke

 Never too old to play

 Peek A Boo!

 Does anyone see Burke hiding? His new hiding spot.

 We made a fort for Burke's Saturday morning reading.

 Pooped!

 Breakfast at Canterbury

 It has been a dry summer. The boys anxiously watch an evening storm roll in.

 Watching the Summer 2012 Olympics in London

 We have a basement on our lot. Check out Dan's blog for more home details.

 Dan inspecting the foundation. 

 The Crofts standing in their future backyard. Progress feels good!

Sunday, August 19th we Crofts headed to the Kansas City Zoo.

Dan and I hadn't been for 8 years and many renovations had improved the zoo drastically.

The first stop was to see the Polar Bear. It was actively entertaining the crowd with a plastic barrel it was rolling around in the water. 

 What a gorgeous day! We had a nice 70 degree morning stroll to the Australia portion of the zoo.

 Burke roared at the Siberian Tigers. Take that Tiger!

 Little did we know walking into a gated portion of the Australian Outback we would be walking among kangaroos. We even saw a Sally (female kangaroo) with a little Joey in her pouch. We learned that the Joeys dive in head first so their gangly legs stick out of their mama's pouch. Ouch!

 Look closely and you can see the Joey's leg sticking out by her belly.

A new baby giraffe was born the first week of August and was already available to the public. Burke thought the giraffe was a horse and immediately said "nay" to him. 

 We snorted at the rhinos.

 We took the train to and from the large Africa portion of the zoo, right past the elephants and pink flamingos.

All in all, a great trip. We were in at 8:30 and out by 11:30 for lunch and nap time for all.

July 2012

HAPPY 4TH of JULY!

The Croft Clan headed up to Parkville, MO for the 4th of July Pararad with the Pacey's and Elliot Family.

Burke had just gotten a new buzz hair cut, appropriate for the HOT HOT HOT 100 degree weather day.

Back at home the boys indulged in a few toddler grade fireworks- smoke balls, worms and snap n pops.

Burke wanted to hold the punk.

Burke learned at school that fireworks go up in the sky and say "BOOM!" which he says very eagerly.

The 4th of July was on a Wedneday and we moved two days later. We are in a duplex about 10 miles south of where we will be in our new house. We were very fortunate to have Mom and Dad come up, stay with Nicole to watch Burke and Grier kids. Nicole and friends helped us move. It was 105 degrees the two days we moved. Considering we moved every belonging we own in hot weather I feel very fortunate that everything went very well. While we are still adjusting to our new place we are quite settled. Our gaurd dog Gage is on high alert below as he patrols our new abode. Isn't he a beautiful boy!?!

We have a split level which is very handy considering our basement has a door directly to the garage which was slick for loading all our extra furniture and belongings from the moving truck.

Cheryll unpacked the kitchen for us. Thanks Cheryll! Little man is just exploring every corner, just like Gage.

Burke's room all moved in thanks to Aunt Nicole's help.

As long as all my boys are here with me I will feel at home.

Burke's new words this month are (s)nack, (s)poon, FUN, OUTSIDE, Owl sound, Burke sounds like Book, bye bye with a wave, pwease = please.

 We went to our friends' daughter, Eliza's, 2nd birthday party.

 Burke found the straw in a cup very riveting.

 The last weekend in July we went to the Lake of the Ozarks with the Pacey's and the McGown's. This has been an annual trip for over 7 years. We missed it last year but were happy to introduce Burke to the lake. He had a ball relaxing at the house and choosing 1 of 6 adults to read him a book.

 Saturday we played on the beach where he belly flopped on the beach and paddled around a lot. He LOVES the water and has a ball jumping off the dock.

 Sunday morning we took a boat ride.

 Pulling out of the dock it was almost Burke's nap time so he was just absorbing the lake scene and new experience.

 Two cool dudes.

 Wait a minute. He isn't relaxing. He is sleeping!
The boat must have rocked him to sleep. Funny guy.

 Back at home being a monkey and climbing everywhere.
There is a picture of me about the same age where I also crawled in the dog kennel.
Like mother. Like son.

 Burke is a puzzle master.

June 2012

WE ARE MOVING!

The theme of the month of June was packing! Thank goodness we had 60 days to close and move out of our house. It turns out packing with a toddler is challenging. For every thing I put in a box, Burke pulled two out. He put a lego in a few boxes that I am sure we will find later.

Look at Burke's positive view on this adventure we are about to embark on.

Our little monkey is climbing EVERYWHERE!

It is hard not to be sentimental these days. This house was our first. We brought our puppy and our baby home to these walls. This is where we have built our life and called it home. We will miss our great neighbors and our place that we have put so much time, energy and pride into.

Even though there was a lot of work to be done you can see Burke took a break to enjoy a popsicle this hot Saturday. He is a big Royals fan like daddy. We call him Moose, like his Mike Moustakas T-Shirt.

Dad takes break from packing to give his monkey a ride.

Burke enjoys his first jello experience. BOING!

This lil cheeseball is a happy guy- mom is not as he slings spaghetti everywhere.

HAPPY 2nd FATHER'S DAY DAD!

We enjoyed a trip to the pool. Burke and Dan played in pool where Burke jumped off the side of the pool repeatedly. As we were leaving the pool Burke said "That was fun!" This was his first sentence ever - just in time for Father's Day.

May 2012

Our Noble Street house went on the market April 21st and we had our first offer May 8th, approximately 2 weeks after we went on the market. We are extremely fortunate that we weren't on the market longer as those 2 weeks wore us down trying to keep a house spotless with our toddler doing everything in his power to destroy our cleaning efforts.

After a few counter offers, inspection, and a few minor fixes we are officially SOLD.

We move out July 7th. I become more nostalgic about our first home each day.

We will be living in a duplex while we build our new home. We expect to break ground the first week of July. We hope to be done with the new house mid December. I will consider it a Christmas gift if we are in for Santa to come to our new house.

While the house was on the market our Burke came down with Hand, Foot and Mouth. This is a viral infection that is highly contagious and he was out of daycare Tuesday - Friday the first week of May. He was lucky and only had the blisters on his feet and bottom, nothing on his hands or mouth. Since we had showings and beautiful weather we spent quite a few days & evenings at Shawnee Mission Park. This might be what fueled Burke's obsession with ducks and birds. He relentlessly tries to catch them. It was his favorite word for about 3 weeks. "Ducks" and "Outside" or "Owwwsiiiiiddde" were the first thing he said each morning.

Mother's Day morning was spent at Shawnee Mission Park where we ate donuts and woofed at the ducks. Burke was attempting to go swimming with his duck friends.

This boy has ENERGY! He is running everywhere he goes.

I love this little character that makes me laugh daily, keeping it all in perspective.

My highschool friend, Abbie, came to town to visit so all the MHS girls and their babies ate lunch together at Polly's house.

Polly and her sweet Brecken.

Me, Polly w. Brecken, Abbie holding Burke, and Emily w. Sophia

Burke is rambunctious in the tub.

This particular Friday night he was amped up and making waves in our master tub. Maybe the mo-hawk I gave him made him wild. Who knows, but he was hilarious.

After the bath, he was yelling at Gage. It was almost as if he was saying "GAME ON!"

We keep this fleece animal print blanket in Dan and I's bedroom and Gage has claimed it as his bed. Gage will pull the blanket into the hallway and start tugging on it. Well, Burke decided a game of tug of war was next. Here is naked Burke trying to snatch the blanket from Gage, but Whoops!, he accidentally lost his balance and the blanket quickly became a sled pulled by Gage. FUN for all!

Burke contined to get yanked off the blanket but would run and catch back up to Gage's blanket and plop back down to get another ride. Needless to say, Burke, Gage and myself were entertained for a good 20 minutes. This is my new version of Friday night fun. : )

Gage was pooped after becoming a sled dog.