More outside fun

Even though it was a little chilly outside the kids loved the outside play space.

Cooking & outside fun

They have a fun dinosaur dig area in the sand. We opted out of that, b/c it was wet. We also went to story time, then they got to do a craft project and went to cooking class where they made a bird's nest with sticks, chocolate, and jelly beans.

Face painting

At Paradise Park they had face painting. It is a little area where the kids are supposed to paint their own faces. This area was a hit, as well. It was kind of funny how they just sat down, no direction at all, and went to town painting up their faces like they'd been doing it all their lives.

Fun at Paradise Park

The kids enjoyed "fishing". They had magnetic fish and the kids tried their hardest to catch as many fish as possible.


The water tables captivated the 2 year olds! Emerald and Keegan had fun, too, but Gavin and Calvin played for an hour with the toys in the water.

While the Lindsay boys were here we took the 5 kids to a fantastic kid-friendly place in Lee's Summit called Paradise Park. It has several rooms in the building for playtime fun. We were probably there for 6 hours and the kids had a blast! More pictures to follow.

A full van

Yes, we fit 5 children, 2 adults, and 2 strollers in our van. Guess it's a good thing we got the van :) Luckily, Keegan is old enough to ride in a booster seat--not sure we could actually have fit 5 car seats in the van.

Gavin is such a happy little boy--most of the time anyway. Just don't change his clothes.

Keegan thought he was pretty big to be the only one using an adult seat belt.

Emerald, the princess among all those boys.

Calvin showing off his cheesy grin. He was excited to have someone riding with him in the back. Since Zachary joined us in the van, Calvin has been a big boy riding in the far back all by himself.

Zachary, as usual, was a good boy in the car. He spends most car trips like this--asleep.

And to think that when we were kids we didn't even ride in car seats. It is not an easy challenge trying to fit 5 children age 5 (well, he's almost 5, in 2 weeks) and under into a vehicle. Those darn car seats take up much more room than their tiny little bums. We only had a few issues with the "my space/your space" concept. Keegan was trying to train my kids that they should keep their hands to themselves. I wish we'd gotten a picture of them all when all 5 were asleep in the van--too sweet.

Some smiles from Zachary

Zachary is smiling more and more these days. He really seemed to "find his voice" today. He has been "talking"/cooing with us a lot lately, but today he just seemed to go on and on making noise. I thought he was fussing at first, but nope, just talking away. Emerald was so excited b/c she helped make him stop crying. They are both still enamored by their little Zachy.

Carnival night at Emerald's school

All the kids waiting patiently in the back of the van while we loaded Zachary and the necessary items.

Gavin so badly wanted to hold baby Zachary all by himself.

The kids got to visit inside of a fire truck. They thought it was a lot of fun.

They were cracking up, all lined up letting Laney give them each kisses.

Emerald's school had a May Day carnival. We had a long day and ended it by sugaring them up and playing many games. It was fun. Wish I'd gotten more pictures.

More March for Babies pics

Here is Team Pankewich all walking in honor of our Zachary.

My sweet munchkins after the walk. Sharing toys with Zachary.

Here are 4 of us NICU moms together again outside in the real world. L to R, Morgan & Greyson, Steph & Zachary, Jerri Dawn & Zane (our neighbors when we first moved in to the NICU), and Roseanda and Micah. Isaiah wasn't able to join us on the walk, but we know he'll be there with us next year. All of us were in the NICU with our baby boys at the same time.

Gavin was so tired he fell asleep during the walk.

The walkers in the green shirts are some of the staff members from the OPR NICU. I really teared up seeing some of them. Look at that crowd! Yeah for March of Dimes walkers!

Micah was hamming it up for the camera.

Roseanda & Micah. We missed you Isaiah!

Isaiah sporting his March for Babies onesie and cheering us on from home.

Greyson & Zachary holding hands.

I was so happy I could "steal" some of these pictures from others. We got a lot of pictures, but then my camera started acting up.

March for Babies

Our little family ready to walk

Zachary sporting his March onesie

Emerald and Calvin enjoyed some Radio Disney music before the walk

Zachary's picture was part of Baby Boulevard, which displayed posters showing the "at birth" photos and the "look at me now" pictures. It was amazing to see how much some of these babies had grown. They also had "In Memory of" posters shown, which made me a little sad.

Thank you to all of you for donating to our wonderful cause. We "marched" today in the March of Dimes March for Babies walk. We joined several other families that were in the NICU with us. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed being in downtown Kansas City. Aunt Heidi, Uncle Jeff, and Josiah, and my good friend, Stephanie, and her boys, Keegan and Gavin, joined our little Pankewich team while walking. We were able to raise over $600 which was a dream goal of mine--it represented $100 for each week Zachary was in the NICU. We continue to remain thankful for our 3 healthy, beautiful children! More pictures to come later, it's late and I'm tired after getting up at 5:45 to walk :)