We started this blog almost 10 years ago, when Daniel was born. It's hard to believe it's been that long, but it also has flown by so fast. The Gilliam Gazette been a fun way to document our lives and keep family and friends informed of any exciting (or not-so-exciting) news going on with us.
Google is making a change to their system that will eliminate the auto-generated emails that go out every time we make a post. When we saw this announcement, we started looking for other solutions or ways to notify you of new posts. But, to tell the truth, our enthusiasm for maintaining this family blog has waned over the years.
So, we've decided to take this change as an opportunity to step back from the blog. We will leave it in place, available for anyone who wants to read our old posts, but we still stop updating it regularly. This feels like an end of an era, but we also feel a sense of relief by moving on.
We are considering setting up shared Google Photos albums, or something along those lines, as a way to still share fun pictures and videos without the narrative that goes along with the blog. If that is something you'd be interested in, please send us an email or leave a comment on this post and let us know.
Thank you for letting us share our lives with you.
I didn't realize how much has happened in the past few weeks... probably because it's gone by so fast! We'll start out with the last day of school. We made it! What a year it was through virtual learning, masks, social distancing, zoning at school, etc. The kids both did extremely well, coming home with report cards exceeding all expectations. We're so proud of their continued excellence over the last year.
Our neighbors, The Mitchell family, invited us (and several other neighbors) over for an icy treat on the last day. It was fun to see the kids all gather on the last day and play. They were all ready for Summer!
School ended on a Thursday and Saturday we traveled to Des Moines to see family. We haven't been there since Christmas, so we were very overdue for a visit. My sister, Carrie, and her husband, Luc, are expecting a baby in November!!! We are all super excited for them. They found out the gender and wanted to do a gender reveal party for the family. Timing was great since it was over Memorial Day and we could be there. We're excited to meet our new NEPHEW in November!
It was fun to spend some time with family too. We were able to see my Grandpa mask free since we're all vaccinated now (with the exception of the kids who we hope the vaccine will be available to very soon). We visited a new-to-us park in my parent's neighborhood. The kids loved it. We'll have to make another trip there when we visit again!
Reading with Aunt Niecie
Just after heading back home from Des Moines, the kids started Summer school the next day. Summer school is open to all students who register. It's not just for those who might need some additional assistance with learning. We've always wanted to try it, but our schedules never allowed for it until this year. We figured we'd give it a shot, and if nobody liked it, then we wouldn't do it next year. It's Monday-Thursday from 9:15-3:15 and it only goes until July 1. It gives me some much needed time to run errands and get things done, and the kids really enjoy it. They get to play with some of their friends and meet new ones too. It doesn't hurt that they get popsicles on Thursdays too.
First time being car riders for school. Ready to go!
In other news, Leslie had her dance recital this weekend! After not having a dance recital last year due to Covid, it was so nice to see her up on stage again. She loves performing and is especially fond of getting to wear make-up (oh boy...). She's one of the youngest in the group, but she performed really well. She loves her teacher, Ms. Tia. And as you'll see in the video, she runs off stage quickly. I asked her why she ran off like that, and she said she wanted to make sure she could hug Ms. Tia!
With friend, Taylor
Daddy got her flowers
Leslie's dance friend, Adelynn, broke her arm just a week ago. We weren't sure she'd be able to dance, but she made it to the Sunday show! They have such a sweet friendship.
Leslie with her beloved dance teacher, Ms. Tia!
And finally, Daniel got a new bike. He was getting too tall for his old one. He loves it and is already asking to ride when we go for walks. We love that he's feeling confident on the new bike!
A couple of weeks ago, Daniel had his Spring piano recital. It was his first in front of a live audience (more than just mom and dad). He was a little nervous (according to him!), but he played well and you'd never know he was nervous.
He had a small fan club due to Covid, but Grandpa and Grandma were able to join us too -yay! We snapped some pictures before the big performance.
Thanks to the grandparents, Bobby and I were able to go out for an overnight trip. One of Bobby's co-workers got married downtown, and the reception was at an Irish bar. So we got a hotel for the evening. Though he's worked for almost nine years, I still don't know a lot of his co-workers. (I know their names, but not faces.) So it was good to get to know a few of them in person.
We stayed at The Hotel Kansas City - recently opened and completely renovated, but the building dates back to 1922. It was gorgeous!
Beautiful 6-story chandelier
The next morning we went for a walk downtown and visited City Market. We'd like to try to go with the kids there sometime soon. Leslie would love the little shops/vendors and Daniel wants to visit the Arabia Steamboat Museum.
City Market
We walked down to the Missouri River and happen to see all these kayakers (literally hundreds over several minutes). As you may also notice, all the locks behind us on the fence... evidently it's a popular point to "Lock Your Love" here. We saw something similar to this on our trip to Italy a little more than 10 years ago.
Breakfast at The Farmhouse
This is the side of the parking garage of the Kansas City Library. So cool!
The next day, Grandpa and Grandma left to return to Iowa, and Grandmommy and Granddaddy arrived from South Carolina! They drove their trailer and stayed at a campsite nearby. While it seemed to rain most of the time they were here, we still managed to have lots of great time together. We went on a hike. While the kids were at school on Monday, Bobby took the day off and we went out to lunch together to a new restaurant. Later we celebrated Grandmommy's belated birthday with brownies (and then the next day with pie!). We also played games and enjoyed dinner together each evening. And we got to meet Sammy! He is Grandmommy and Granddaddy's new puppy (he's about a year old). He has a lot of energy and reminded us of how much work a dog can be, but also how sweet and fun dogs are! We all enjoyed having some puppy playtime and laughing at how funny he is. Hopefully the next visit won't be so rainy. We loved having you here, Grandmommy and Grandaddy.
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! And especially to my lovely wife! We had a relaxing, uneventful day at home and it was wonderful. The kids made cards and presents for Amy and they were super cute. We also took some pictures of Mommy and the kids:
We went for a neighborhood walk and saw the baby geese and their parents out and about. We've been anticipating their arrival for a while now - we keep seeing the parents and knew babies were on the way. It was fun to watch them from a distance!
We did take-out for dinner and it was delicious.
Amy is an amazing mother and we are all so very lucky!
In other news, our relaxing, uneventful day today was well earned as we had a garage sale on Friday and Saturday. We sold a TON of stuff, donated a lot of what was left, and now have a very empty and clean basement. So cathartic. I took Friday off of work to help out with the sale and Amy and I managed to make a lunch date out of it. Chipotle on a TV tray in the garage. Does it get better than that?
Leslie recently has had a lot of social fun. Last weekend, she went to a friend's birthday party where they had a "spa day". Nor surpsingly, she loved it.
And the next day, her longtime BFF Annie came over to play for a few hours. They girls played and giggled and had so much fun. It's such a special friendship that formed when they were in pre-school together and I'm glad it is continuing as they are at different schools this year.
And, while Leslie was at the aforementioned birthday party, Amy and Daniel got a little video game time in... Lots of laughing and fun there, too!
We also continue to work on puzzles. Our most recent one was of Chicago and both kids had a lot of fun working on it with us.
And, finally, here are a couple of pictures of Leslie's recent school work. She loves snakes, much to her mother's dismay, so she chose them for one of her projects. Her other project was on flamingos.
