Playing on the REAL field

It’s pretty cool that Beckett’s football team

Is the Broncos this year,

Just like the high school team.

Even cooler is that he gets to play on the Broncos’ field

Development season or not,

It’s pretty cool to play like the high schoolers 

Friday Night Jam-fest

So this is becoming a thing—

Just a bunch of guys,

Playing some tunes,

Making some music

Not a bad way to spend our Friday nights

MVP!

Tonight,

Tuck was recognized as MVP of his football team

For his constant 100% effort

At everything he does.

Way to go, Tucker!

 

Return to Renn Fest!

The KC Renaissance Festival is on our Fall Bucket List

And it’s been a year or so since we went

So Mom made sure it was top of the list this year.

Because Tucker was finally tall enough to do the bungee trampoline 

And he loved every minute of it

His flipping skills came in handy

(There was a LOT of flipping)

It was worth the wait.

It was a lovely afternoon—

We wandered into nearly every shop,

Watched a joust or two,

Paused to take in a magician,

Ate way too much kettle corn,

And did a lot of people-watching.

Check one off the list!

(And if you are wondering…

Jack was back in LS,

 Wowing his robotics team

With his rebranding presentation…

More to come on that…) 

 

A BFF birthday

One of Tuck’s BFF’s Miles

Turned 10 this weekend…

And he was over the moon

To celebrate with him and his crew

At Great Wolf Lodge.

I’d say they had a good time!

(He’s making notes for his own birthday party…)

 

Friday Night Lights

A new one for the Reed family—

Friday night football games…

And not for the football!

We had to come and see the product

Of all Weston’s hard work

There’s our little Westie!

(The guy with no hat in the back)

But wait!

Who’s that executive producer and technical director

for the football livestream?

Our little Jackie!

Our original reason to pay any attention to the LSN football games

Now we have a reason to come to in person

AND listen to the livestream!

The Bronco Marching Band show this year is

The Spark

And it’s a pretty cool show.

We’re a little bias,

But the front ensemble is the best part

(Wes is the one in the center, 

Second row on the track,

Playing the bells)

He wasn’t thrilled to get his picture taken…

But isn’t he so cute in his uniform?

Way to go, Reed boys!

Looking forward to lots more Friday nights this year!

Two Broncos in the pool

We’ve got 2 high school swimmers now,

Making the meets even more fun.

Jack took on the 100 and 200 free today,

Getting PRs in both

Wes swam the 50…

And the 500!!!

Willingly!

It is a really long race

And an awesome feat for a first meet as a Freshman.

He came in at 7:14.45.

It may have been 7th out of 7,

But he earned some respect from his team

As they all gathered at the pool to cheer him home

Definitely earned our respect!

Can’t wait to watch him tear seconds off that time this season.

 

Labor Day = Lake Time

Mom’s work schedule was pretty full this weekend

But with 24 hours free,

We HAD to go to the cabin!

We did some tubing

Even though it was a bit windy

We held on for Jack

But Dad got us off

(And bent Beck in half…

It may be a minute before he gets back on)

The rest of the day was less adventurous—

Mema and Pappo,

Klusmeyers,

Steve and Carol,

Cousin Matt,

Aunt Kathy,

And 4 of the 5 Orfords were down

And there was plenty of floating and swimming

We ended the night with pizza, s’mores,

And a campfire.

It was a pretty perfect cabin day.

A little something special for Grandma P

Dad found this cool ad

To make-your-own candle

At a little shop in downtown LS.

Sounded like a perfect birthday gift for Grandma Phyllis

There was a lot of sniffing

And choosing

And mixing

Hopefully all our work pays off

With something real nice!

Then it was on to Adam and Michelle’s

For swimming,

Tacos,

And of course,

Cake!

Happy birthday, Grandma!

 

51 glorious years of wedded bliss

What does a 51st wedding anniversary call for?

Strouds and sparklers, of course!

Happy ‘Versary to you, Mema and Pappo!

 

Shrinking Sports Saturday

And it’s down to the 2 of us

To keep the weekend sports going:

Tucker with flag football and

Beckett with tackle football

We’ll do our best to keep it entertaining!

The annual Back to School Pictures

Let’s go!

Jackson, Junior

Weston, Freshman

Tucker, 4th

(He’s the next one to leave the house…

Hence the order!)

Beckett, 6th—

First year of middle school!

4 brothers,

3 schools…

Let’s do this!

Hello school, here we come!

Just like that,

Summer is gone

And we’re headed back to school.

It is REALLY crazy that Tucker is the only one at HPE this year.

He asked how long we’d been going to 

Back to School Night—

This is our 12th year here!

Even more crazy—

We only have 2 more years!

2 in high school,

1 in middle school,

1 in elementary…

Here we go!

Tackling Football

When Weston jumped into middle school tackle football 

From flag a few years ago,

We learned there is a big learning curve.

Tackle is an entirely different game and mindset.

With that in mind,

Beckett’s flag football team decided to 

Make the jump to tackle this year

So that next year

They’ll all hopefully be better prepared.

Just like the last time,

The learning curve is STEEP.

But we’re here for it!

Right, Broncos?

(Yep, we happened to land on the Lee’s Summit Broncos team…

Foreshadowing?)

Beck is playing a both defense and offense—

Corner

And safety

And linebacker and receiver on offense

Our practice jamboree today was tough—

Really hot

And some big competition

But it was a whole lotta fun too.

Rounding out the Summer Bucket list

With only a few days of summer left,

We decided to spend a few of them exploring our city

And doing some of the things we always talk about doing

But don’t quite get to.

First up—

Downtown and River Market.

We stopped at the famed Messenger Coffee to fuel up

Then rode the streetcar down to River Market.

We ate and wandered and shopped for hours.

We came away with a lot of produce,

Several bracelets,

Some flowers,

And a candle.

Next, we ventured waaaay up north

To Shatto Milk Company

For a farm tour.

We tasted 8 different milks on the front porch

Toured the processing center

And the milking barn

And wandered out with some creamer, cheese and 

The infamous chocolate milk.

But wait…

One more to check off…

How can you pass up 1/2 price Tuesdays

At Top Golf?

Whew!

That’s how you wrap up summer!

 

The annual Worlds of Fun trip

As usual,

Mom checked the summer schedule way back in early June

And between camps, vacations, and Mom’s work,

we found ONE day that we could hit WoF!

Unfortunately,

We found out Oceans of Fun closed for the season yesterday.

Luckily,

We happened to choose the LAST day WoF is open during the week

(We figured that out last night…that was a whew!)

The day was a bit cloudy and looked like rain…

Which meant no lines!

We rode Prowler and Mamba

To our hearts content—

Like 3 times in a row.

We hit the others that usually have big lines—

Fury, Boomerang, Timberwolf—

And nearly walked on.

We actually had to wait for the bumper cars

There were only 4 cars running!

Just the 7 of us out here!

The longest wait of the day

May have been the taxis

(At least for our second round of them)

Mom’s view—

She was terrified ;)

Did we mention the Patriot?

We rode it 2 or 3 times too.

Mema and Tuck sat this one out

But caught the rest of us mid-flight—

We’re the 3rd and 4th row

Without the Oceans of Fun break in the middle,

We wore ourselves out before closing this year!

Our brains and stomachs had all they could take.

Even without Oceans of Fun

(We’ll be sure to get that in next year),

It was awesome as always!