Arboretum

Taking walks around the arboretum has become our new morning entertainment. I don't know why I've never thought of taking the kids there before, but we've gone almost every day this week, and we've been having so much fun. This morning we took bread to feed the fish but found some geese to feed instead.

Fishin'

We joined Leigh Ann and the boys this morning for some fishing at Lake Vista in the retirement community here in town. Emmet made a little pole for Natalie and Max to play with. It must be quite the pole because Natalie claims to have caught two baby octopuses. 

School playground

School is out for summer, so now we can play on the school playground equipment across from our house whenever we want.

Natalie plays mama almost constantly these days. She tells me, "I am the mama, and you are the sister," which means I have a helper on our walks now. Here she is pushing Max to the playground. 

We could get used to this

The kids love to load up on samples when we go grocery shopping at Dillon's. They usually sample watermelon, oranges, and berries, but yesterday they got mini cupcakes!

Morning hugs

Max almost always wakes up before Natalie does, and he is always eager to greet her with a hug when she comes out for breakfast.

Chipotle

Chris and I have an unhealthy obsession with Chipotle. We ate out a lot in college. We tried most of the restaurants in Manhattan, but Chipotle was one of our favorites. Finish a big project? Reward yourself with Chipotle. Up all night studying? Push through with Chipotle. Finals week? Chipotle, Chipotle, Chipotle.

We lament the fact that we now live 40 minutes from the nearest Chipotle and can no longer eat there on a whim. Now it usually takes some planning, but so does everything else in our lives these days. Last night we took a quick trip to Wichita to do some furniture shopping (still no couch) and ate supper at Chipotle. We ate on the patio, and the kids had a blast.

As we were leaving, Natalie hopped up on this rail and said, "There's no telling how high I can go!" It's a line from a really sweet, inspirational children's book called The Crown on Your Head, and my heart melted a little when she said it.

Cousins

Her first harvest

Water

Natalie has running through the sprinkler and splashing in the kiddie pool down. Max prefers to just drink the water and pour it down his front.