Dinner - New Table

I'm constantly searching Amazon for toys to keep at my house for when Violet comes to visit. She knows the closet in my office is full of stuff for her. I recently purchased paints, paint brushes and finger paints. As I looked around my house I wondered where Violet would be able to use them without destroying my furniture and carpet.

I found this table and chair set which is just her size. They also showed up at dinner time so we had to eat on the small table. Trust me, it's an extremely sturdy product. Violet wouldn't cooperate when I wanted to take the picture so I used the old bribery routine. I told her I had another present for her. She immediately turned to the camera and said "Cheese"! Am I spoiling her - probably. Do I care - NO! (By the way, Melissa is 5 months pregnant in this picture.)

Starlight Theater - Mary Poppins

My friends from high school, Jamie and John, invited me to go to Starlight last night to see Mary Poppins.

John is part of the "Producer's Circle" which means he has premium seats to all the shows. There was a dinner and backstage tour before the show but we were a little late and missed the tour.

I don't quite remember all the parts of Mary Poppins and the actors were a bit exaggerating but it was a good show. Mary Poppins even flew through the air across all the seats to the back of the theater at the end of the performance. I was so mesmerized by her flying that I forgot to take a picture. The temperature in Kansas City has been extremely hot the past few weeks but last night it was rather cool. Also sitting so close to the stage (our seats were in the third row) there is air conditioning blowing from the vents at the bottom of the stage. The other woman in the picture is John's Mom. She still lives in Manor Oaks and I took her home after the performance. I laughed all the way home while she told me old stories from our high school days. Most of them I didn't remember but I laughed along with her.

Sunday Lunch with "Ma"

Melissa, Violet and I went shopping this morning to use some coupons before they expired.

After shopping we stopped at Freebirds for lunch. Violet is in to that dancing phase. See her fingers pointed in the air. That's her "boogey" move. This was one of those rare occasions where I asked if I could take a picture of her dancing and she said "Yes"! But we all had to dance with her. Eating and dancing - what a combination.

HamBINGO

Melissa is on the board of the Kansas City Infertility Awareness Foundation and last night they held a fundraiser at Hamburger Mary's. Hamburger Mary's is a gay-themed and LGBT friendly burger restaurant chain. Their motto is "an open-air bar and grill for open-minded people." In short, it's a drag club.

Several days a week they hold HamBINGO which is a charity event supporting local Kansas City charities. But this is not your typical "church basement" bingo. It can get a little risqué. The entire wait staff and entertainers are dressed in drag and keep the audience entertained throughout the evening.

We got there about an hour before bingo started so we could eat and get a good table. They also have some of the best burgers in town.

Besides bingo they were having a raffle. For $10 you got as many tickets as could be wrapped around you. The money collected from the ticket sales is divided equally between the winner and the charity. It just so happened that the President's husband won the raffle so he donated his half back to the charity.

Between games we were entertained by performers dancing through the crowd. If you gave them money they would stop and let you take their picture.

Ten games were played and Ashley finally won game 9. After you select your prize from the prize table, you have to run through the restaurant while everyone throws their losing bingo cards at you and the drag host/hostess???? taunts you.

The staff looked a bit confused to me. I don't think they knew what to do with so many pregnant women in their audience. I believe they said the charity raised over $2,000. Not bad considering they only had $1,500 in their bank account.

FireFest

After the rain stopped on Saturday, Melissa, Jamie, Violet and I headed out to the Independence Event Center for FireFest - an annual event featuring historical fire trucks, fire truck rides, water displays and kid's games.

This was a charitable event so the décor was somewhat lacking but creative.

The Harry S Truman Independence '76 Fire Company puts on the event to raise money to preserve the history of the fire service in the community.

I bought a book title "Maxwell The Firehouse Mouse" written by Michael S Cangelosi (a Fire Captain with the Independence Fire Department) and illustrated by Sam M Cangelosi (a former Hallmark Card artist). It's a soft cover book so I'll to give it to Violet when she's a bit older.

Violet had fun spraying the water from the fire extinguisher. She's so smart. It doesn't take her long to figure out something and then do it on her own. She's holding down the lever to shoot out the water. Jamie's holding the end of the hose so Violet doesn't spray anything but the house.

Then we thought Violet wanted a fire hat but later found out what she really wanted was just the sticker.

I bought raffle tickets for an antique fire truck pedal car but no one called so I guess I didn't win.

Coca Cola

I was out shopping the other day with Melissa. While we were in the check out line I saw a bottle of Coke in the refrigerator case near the check out with Michael's name on it. Since then I've kicked myself for not buying that bottle of Coke.

So while I was at Target I saw the bottle again. Now my quest begins. There are approximately 20 checkout aisles at Target - 10 of them have refrigerator cases with Coke products and 10 have Pepsi products. I was on case number 19 before I finally found a bottle of Coke with Jamie's name on it. I think the manager was ready to throw me out for moving around the merchandise. Now I need to decide if I want to the drink the Coke or let it go bad. Does Coke have an expiration date? Maybe I can drink the Coke and fill the bottles with colored sand. Michele, any ideas? I couldn't find one with Violet's name. I need to go to another Target...OR, once again, I may need professional help!

Walking in the Sun

In 84 days I'm heading to Miami to take a cruise with friends to the Dominican Republic. I don't usually post goals in my blog but I've decided to take these 84 days and really work on dropping a few pounds and getting a little sun.

So every day, provided the weather cooperates, I'm going walking outside at 11:00 a.m. Not only am I burning calories but I'm getting at least 30 minutes of sun. As I sit here posting this blog, the sweat is still dripping from my forehead. But this has to work. I've even made a chart to mark off the days!

Bike Night

Some friends of mine are avid bike riders (that's motorcycles) and Harley Davidson up by the airport has Bike Night every Thursday night.

Their parking lot is equipped with a stage and barbecue shack that serves the best barbecue. They hire a little unknown band but bikers will show up for anything as long as they have $1.00 beers. Bike night usually draws several hundred people but due to rain the crowd was fairly light.

Since this was July 2nd and for my working friends the 3rd of July was their 4th of July holiday, we decided to go to Arthur's for some karaoke. Bikers are really just old hippies so the night ended fairly early. It's nice to get out and do new things.

Melissa and Jamie - Anniversary #9

I'm desperately trying to catch up on my blog entries. On July 1 (which shows you how far behind I am) Melissa and Jamie celebrated 9 years of marriage.

Their wedding day was sunny and bright. But that Wednesday the weather was not as cooperative.

I volunteered to babysit Violet while Melissa and Jamie went to the show. Then we all met Michael and Ashley at Freebirds for dinner.

Our next stop was Paradise Park to ride go karts. And that's when the storm hit.

Instead of go kart rides we were ushered into the storeroom while a tornado was spotted a mile down the road.

Violet did very well but after an hour it was a little hard to keep her entertained. That's when we all decided to brave the down pour and head home.

Long gone are the days of spending their anniversary in Hawaii or some other affordable vacation destination that allows children.

But at least they got to spend their anniversary in Paradise.....(Park)!

It's A Boy!

I'm so excited that Melissa and Jamie are having a baby boy in November.

Melissa has the cutest ways to announce through social media the sex of the baby. Things are beginning to even out in the Taylor household!