The Smooch

Well, the boys had their newspaper debut this weekend in The Kansas City Star. Their photo was taken while visiting The Kansas City EarthFest and EarthWalk - the big Earth Day event I plan every year. Below is the picture that ran in the paper. The second one with cousin Andrew, posted on www.kansascity.com, is the one that should have been printed. Priceless!

Out "trash fishing" at the Keep Kansas City Beautiful booth are, from left, Logan Nachtrab of St. Charles, Mo., 4, and his cousins, brothers Jack, 4, and Alex, 1, Barland, of Lenexa. In addition to "cleaning up the pond," kids learn about recycling as well. The Kansas City EarthFest was held at The Theatre in the Park at Shawnee Mission Park, Shawnee, Apr. 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

As Jack Barland of Lenexa, 4, center left, and his cousin Logan Nachtrab of St. Charles, Mo., 4, "trash fish," Jack's brother Alex Barland, 1, left, gets a big hello kiss from his cousin, Drew Weiler of Kansas City, 2. The Kansas City EarthFest was held at The Theatre in the Park at Shawnee Mission Park, Shawnee, Apr. 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Happy Easter!

Jack's Mile

We ran in the Raintree Run in Lawrence on Sunday. Jack has been wanting to run in a road race with David and me, and the Raintree Run offered a 1-mile kids fun run, appropriately named Jack's Mile (named after a little boy Jack's age who was killed in a car accident in 2001 and had attended the Raintree Montessori that benefited from the run.) David, David's sister Sarah and I ran in the 5K race - David finished 18th overall and 3rd in his age group! When it came time to do the Jack's Mile with Jack, we discovered Jack had a different plan in mind for how he was going to get to the finish line. I pushed Jack in the umbrella stroller with Jack commanding "Run, Mom, Run!" until David was able to coax him out of the stroller to race the last 100 meters or so. We had lots of fun - I think the kids' favorite part was playing on the playground.

Who's putting who to sleep?

I put Jack to bed tonight, and David was to put Alex to bed.

This is what I found after leaving Jack's room.

Alex was quite pleased with himself.

Soccer Monster

Jack played in his first soccer game today. I've never actually witnessed a group of 3- and 4-year-olds trying to play in an organized game of soccer - it was quite humorous and incredibly cute. You always knew where the ball was on the field, because it was completely surrounded by a tight pack of 8 little boys kicking and falling all over each other. With most never having any type of formal instruction, the boys actually did quite well. Jack was the only one on his team to score a goal - unfortunately, it was in the wrong goal. All of the boys seemed to have a good time though - and that's what it's all about.

A Soccer Superstar

Coach Tom giving Jack and his fellow teammate instructions on how to throw the ball in

Jack practices dribbling to the goal

A pre-game prep talk

Go Jack Go!

Cheering on the team!