Sisters

One of the things I was most excited for was seeing Kinley's face when she got to meet her new sister. Here is the video of them meeting for the first time. We pulled into the drive way and she was waiting for us on the front porch. Her face just lit up and was so great to see.

We told her to go into the house, sanitize and then wait on the couch to hold her sister.

Kinley holding Kendall for the first time.

They have on matching shirts, but Kendall's cheeks are hiding the "little" part on her shirt.

So precious!

Kendall Everlyse Pappas

Well, she's finally here! I went in for my c-section yesterday at 11 and Kendall arrived at 11:32am. She was definitely ready to come out. Our precious "little" girl weighed in at 9 pounds and 9 ounces. She's 21 1/4 inches long and has huge hands and feet. Even our pediatrician joked that she took her first step in the nursery last night.
Kendall has been doing great. She is super sleepy - everyone knows how hard it is to be cute all the time. Kinley gets the most amazing look on her face when she sees her little sister. We've showed her Kendall through the window in my room since we can't have any visitors. She smiles, laughs, reaches for her sister and then wants to know how many poopy diapers she's had.

Here is Kendall just minutes after she popped out. I can't remember what its called, but her feet and her arms were purple for a couple hours after birth - nothing to do with breathing, although, she did have the cord around her neck loosely one time.


Here we are with our new daughter. Kendall was crying a little bit until her daddy held her and started talking to her. Can you believe how dark her hair is - I'm still amazed she has hair at all.



This is the cute night-night outfit that Kinley picked out for her little sister to wear in the hospital. You can't see, but she has matching socks, too.

Here we are with our new bundle of joy!

Kendall does have blue eyes, but mostly she's too tired to show them or her cheeks push them closed; I'm still debating:)

Here is Kendall on top and Kinley on the bottom. Just for those of you wondering.

Halloween Fun

Kinley is one lucky girl! The Saturday before Halloween the Manhattan zoo has a Spooktacular even where the kids can trick or treat and get to see the animals. Kinley chose to dress as a nurse for this day. Her "real" costume is a white witch, but at school they could only dress up as community helpers, so she decided on a nurse.

The family picture at the zoo.



Here is our precious nurse! She barely glanced at the animals, but she was on a sharp look-out for the next candy opportunity.

We had a great time walking around with our friends and looking at all the animals. We got to pet an opossum the size of a cat, a turtle, a goat and a snake (Tom and Kinley avoided this one).

Halloween was so much fun this year. We got together with friends and had a blast! Kinley was so much more into the trick-or-treating this year. She was so cute going up to the house and knocking on the door and waiting. A few times she would forget to say thank you until she started walking away, so she would just YELL it over her shoulder as she was running back to us.
I just thought the decorations were cute at this house. Too bad it was already dark.


And finally, here is the beautiful white witch!

Fall Happenings

We've had a pretty busy fall so far.

Last weekend we went over to Wamego to the Oztoberfest. That's right...like the wizard of Oz. We walked around for a while and Kinley decided to take her picture with the Wicked Witch of the West. She was completely fine until the witch said hi to her. Luckily Daddy was there to protect her.



We met up with some friends for dinner one night at at local wing place we like. The had expanded next door to make a game room, so of course, we had to go in.
Jimbo, Kinley's hunny, was working with her on her hunting skills. She also played air hock with Andy and skee ball with me. That one was a little tough.


I was working on Kendall's stocking and Kinley, being the big help that she is, decided to "help" me hold the jingle bells. Goofball! (Look close and you can see them in her ears too)



Kyle's parents were in town from Texas so we all went out to have s'mores and good times. Again, Kinley was such a great helper the marshmallows were only completely burned on the outside:)

Today Kinley finally go to go on her class field trip to the pumpkin patch. It got canceled last week because it was rainy. Luckily, today it was only cold and windy.

There was a petting zoo where she got to pet a calf and 2 baby piggies. She just barely tapped the pigs and pulled her had away. I'm not sure why since they were sleeping and not even moving.

She also pet a few goats, but by the time we were leaving, they were a little skittish and that really frustrated her. She just wanted to touch them and they would only get close to the adults.

We took a hay ride out to the beginning of a corn maze. Kinley didn't want to sit by me, but finally during the ride she came over, probably because I had a blanket.

The worker told them a little story about how the pumpkins grow. Kinely got to be the sunshine!

The kids led the way through the corn maze that ended at a little pumpkin patch. Kinley is on the far left with the bright pink coat and hood.

See the pumpkin she picked out by herself!

Besides the cold, this was really fun for me. The last field trip they went to a fire station and Kinley told me I couldn't go. She was just going with her teachers. This time, she asked me to go with her and even wanted Daddy to go too. It really is feeling like fall around here, and we can't wait for more fun things to happen!

Bordeaux, Talence and Paris

Our trip to France was pretty good. I'm just going to give a brief overview and then explain some pictures. When we got to Bordeaux, the weather was great, and it was amazing the day we were in Paris, but in between was pretty chilly and rainy. Tom ended up third at the DecaStar meet. The scores were nothing to brag about, but Tom finished 2 decathlons this year healthy. I'm pretty excited for next year since he will finally be able to start training on time without setbacks from health issues. Hopefully things will come together for him this next year.


I rented a mini van in Bordeaux for us to get around in, and this was very helpful for all of us. Unfortunately, the first day we tried to make a U turn (not using a round about) we (Tom) hit the curb a little too hard and popped the tire. Here's the proof - Tom and Kinley were big helps changing the tire:)


Dr. Draeger and Kinley doing treatment on their "patients".

This is a picture of the track when Tom was doing his pre-meet the day before the meet. You can tell it was a bit damp and cool.

This is the award ceremony after the meet. To get to the podium, they were shoved in little bitty cars and driven around the track. I've never see so many big guys in tiny cars! Oh, Tom's the one in the bright orange shirt.

Here is the family picture at the dinner after the competition. We had some amazing duck and some sort of strawberry cake-like dessert.

The day after the meet, the meet director had arranged for people to go surfing, but that didn't interest us, so we went to the beach by ourselves. It took us about 45 minutes to drive over there, and the weather was pretty nice for a bit while we were playing in the sand. It got a little cooler and overcast when we walked around the little town, had lunch and of course ice cream.

We made Kinley into a mermaid. I have never seen one so beautiful!

The guys made "Kinley" a sand castle, but I think she only put a couple shells on it for decoration. There was much strategizing and planning involved for a castle that a little girl supposedly wanted.

We went back to the hotel and picked up Cliff to go on a tour of a nearby winery. It was pretty amazing! We got to see the whole process and taste 4 different wines. I'm pretty amazed at the effort that goes into a single bottle of wine and the knowledge that people have about wines and wine-making.

Our last night in Bordeaux we went into the city center for a great dinner that a girl we met at the winery suggested. It was a tiny place with a huge underground cellar for the wine. If you wanted any, you went down and picked out the bottle yourself!

This was a huge fountain in the city center. Obviously you can't tell, but it was beautiful with statues and water all the way around.

We flew to Paris on Tuesday and spent about 8 hours trying to see as much as we could. Our first stop right out of the taxi was at the round-about around the Arc de Triomph. We decided we didn't need to go up in it, but looking at it was good enough for us.

Here we are across the river from the Eiffel tower. We both really enjoyed going up in it and seeing the city. I wish Tom could have gone with us.

After the Eiffel tower, I promised Kinley she could ride the carousel that was right across the street. I think might have been the highlight for her.

You probably can't tell, but Kinley is running through a garden that leads up to the Louvre.

Kinley and I in front of the little arc that sits outside the Louvre.

We made it over to the Notre Dame cathedral. Didn't get to go inside, but still got to see the beautiful outside.

As we were boarding our flight, Kinley got to go into the cockpit and talk to the pilot. Unfortunately, this is not the plane we flew home on. After 3 hours of sitting on the plane waiting for the air conditioning to get fixed, we were transferred to an other plane and eventually made it home 3.5 hours late.

1st Day of Preschool

Well, the day finally dawned when Kinley got to go to preschool. To say that she was excited would not even begin to describe how she was feeling.
Tom tried to wake her up this morning to no avail, but when he mentioned it was a school day, she opened her eyes super wide, then a huge smile popped up and then she sat straight up in bed ready to go.
I made her a special breakfast of banana pancakes with sprinkles (her favorite). She needed a little encouragement to keep eating. She just kept telling me she was ready to go now.

After all the necessary primping, we were out the door. Here is the traditional front door first day of school picture. I know the lunch box is a little boring, but her real one is backordered.

After about 3 minutes of our drive to school, Kinley asked me what was taking so long. She cracks me up!

Big girl heading into school.

This is one of Kinley's teachers helping her put her bag in her little cubby. She was excited and didn't act scared at all. I gave her one last hug and kiss and told her she was going to have fun and then I turned to leave the room. Thankfully, I suddenly felt two little hands grab mine and Kinley is there looking up at me with those huge blue eyes and she says, "But Mom, I'm going to miss you." Aww, I know she's great. I told her I would miss her too but she was going to have so much fun. She went right over to the table where her name was and sat around with some of the other kids trying to figure out what they were supposed to be doing.

When I went to pick her up she was so happy! Her teacher said she did "amazing". I keep trying to ask her what she did, but she won't say. So far I've found out they learned a wash your hands song while they were in the bathroom, they played outside, ate some lunch, and she told Jimbo they painted their hands and stamped them on paper. Maybe I'll figure it out by the time the school year is over. Oh well, at least she had a great time.

Once we got home, she went into her room and found these!

Jimbo's mom made her some amazing wings! I think its funny she knows exactly what they are and how to put them on - no question.

Germany Trip

SUPER LONG POST!

Our trip to Germany was so fun! Not only did we get to see some amazing things, but most important, Tom won his meet and did GREAT!

The first challenge once we landed in Frankfurt was to catch a train and go to Cologne. We got our luggage, bought train tickets and made it to the platform for our train.

Here is Kinley on the way to Cologne - we are a little bit tired.

This is a shop right by our hotel. Kinley and I liked to look at all the animals out on the street. She would even give them all hugs and tell them bye when we left.

After a short nap, we went to the Dom Kolner. This is a huge, beautiful Gothic cathedral that is right down by the major train station. We got to look inside and it was amazing! There were gorgeous stained-glass windows, beautiful paintings, a mosaic tiled floor and just an overall beauty to the entire church.

On our walk back to the hotel, we decided to stop at Hard Rock Cafe' for dinner.

Kinley was getting tired and didn't want to eat or take a picture with me.

After I let her get down and dance, she perked up for a bit.

The next day we ventured out to the Chocolate Museum. There was a whole history of when people started using cocoa and how its harvested, and our favorite part...the chocolate factory! We got to sample the Lindt chocolate from this fountain. Again, Kinley not into the picture.

This is the "train" we took from the chocolate museum back to the cathedral so we could get back to our hotel. Kinley had been seeing these and was so excited we got to ride in one.

From here, we took a couple trains up to Marburg where the meet was held. Tom had been at the track, so by the time we got to Marburg, checked in our hotel and then walked down to Tom's hotel, he had been there only a couple of minutes.

We hung out for a little then went with the team to a restaurant where the athletes got to eat free all week - good food for us! We said our goodbyes and then went back to our hotel for a good night's sleep.

We got up a little early and met Miss Reva for a day trip to Kassel. One of the reasons I wanted to go here was because this is where the Grimm brothers (of the fairy tales) grew up. I am somehow related to them (Great-Great-Great Uncles or something).

Outside the museum by a poster.

We only got to see the floors of the museum about the fairy tales because the floors with the life and work were under construction. I took this picture of some artwork by the 3rd brother before I was told no pictures - oops.

The town of Kassel was interesting because it wasn't really very old. It was bombed during the war and most everything looked like 50's architecture when everything was rebuilt. We took a little tram to the edge of town to look at 2 different castles.

The first was Lowenburg. It looked great, but was too far away to walk up there. The second was the a very extravagant castle with an aqua duct system coming 1.6km down from it, and there was a big statue of Hercules on top - I think he is a symbol of the town.

Lowenburg


Schloss and Hercules (there is scaffolding on the left of Hercules)

Cute girl in a tree

One of the pools that the aqua ducts ran through.

I don't really know what this building was for, but now its an art museum. We went up to the third floor to see a few Rembrandt and Reuben paintings. Pretty amazing how detailed and long lasting some of them are.

Now, on to Marburg.

We took a tour of the city to see the Landgrave's castle and Elizabeth church. We also found out many other neat little facts about the town. All through town there were different reminders of the Grimm brothers' fairy tales. They would come to Marburg and occasionally stay.

Kinley by the little fountain in the center of town

The seven dwarfs on one of the walls of the castle

Up by the castle overlooking the town. See how the spire is leaning. Its so if it would catch fire it would fall away from the church.

This is Elizabeth church. Our hotel was less than 100m from here, so we walked by at least a dozen times on the way to and from Tom's hotel.

Elizabeth hospital. Elizabeth built this hospital to help anyone in need, and the medical industry is still one of the major industries in the town.

After the meet (I'll post more on that later) we spent the next day at a Roman military base first built 2000 years ago and then in Frankfurt.

The gate of Saalburg. This was rebuilt in the 1800's and they weren't sure how it really looked, but it looks neat now.

The family picture

Frankfurt main train station

Reva and I got caught in the rain storm

Tom and Kinley stayed dry at the cafe'.

This trip was amazing! I had such a great time and I think Kinley did too. I have many pictures of the meet and other things dealing with the Thorpe Cup, but I'll do a separate post about all those.