Continue reading »]]> I’ve decided I need to look for a volunteer opportunity that will allow me to snuggle with babies. I’ve heard of them, seen such programs featured on television, so I know they exist. I just need to find one and go through what I imagine might be a long screening process. I suspect someone will want references and a background check before I’m allowed to nuzzle my cheek on the soft fuzz of a baby’s sweet head.

My two boys are growing up fast, in more ways than one. When I want hugs from them, they now have to bend awkwardly to fit my slightly taller than average stature. As for snuggling, well it’s just not the same as when you could rock them in your arms.

I spent several years as the editor of two local parenting magazines. While my boys were growing into their tween years, I was able to keep my brain engaged in the world of toddlers and tots as I organized content based on the woes of getting baby to sleep through the night or how to teach toddlers to share. Now that my days are immersed in community news and events, mostly for the grownups, I realize I miss the babies! And before you suggest it, NO, I don’t wish we’d had more children of our own. Two was the perfect number, in every way, for my parenting plan and level of expertise. It was fun to put a baby-themed issue together this month and it just got me thinking about what brings me joy and what I miss about those baby days.

Enjoy what will surely be a busy month of May, and I hope I’ll see you around town!

Lisa Harrison, Managing Editor
Lisa@LifestylePubs.com

Continue reading »]]> Students at Overland Trail Elementary and Overland Trail Middle School held the Second Annual Hoops For Harvesters in March to raise awareness and meals for Harvesters. The three-onthree basketball tournament featured more than 150 Overland Trail students, up from 60 players the first year of the event. The players, volunteers and sponsors raised more than 30,000 meals. “Some of our young players experienced basketball, community service and Harvesters all for the first time in this tournament, and it was important we leave them with a positive impression of all three,” said Jennifer Geiger, tournament coordinator for Overland Trail Elementary.

Corporate sponsors for the event included Winning Streak Sports, Michael F. Flanagan, LLC, Langin Law Firm, Bettah Buttah, Honda of Tiffany Springs, SMN Teamwear, ADIDA DJ Entertainment, H & R Block, as well as many Overland Trail families.

Continue reading »]]> Nearly 2,000 people turned out for Leawood Parks & Recreation’s 19th annual Eggstravaganza. The free event was sponsored by National Bank of Kansas City, and featured more than 20,000 eggs filled with candy, toys and coins. Additional activities for the children included coloring, a balloon artist, stickers and free pictures with the Easter Bunny. The Leawood Kiwanis Club served hot dogs, chips and drinks for a small fee. Eggstravaganza was held in Leawood City Park. Photos courtesy of Marica Putman, Leawood Parks & Recreation.

Continue reading »]]> Jewish Family Services officially kicked of its “Friends of the Family” campaign at a recent breakfast at the Jewish Community Campus. More than 150 people attended the breakfast that focused on sharing the many ways JFS provides assistance to individuals and families in meeting life’s challenges. Under the leadership of JFS Board Member Marc Hammer, the JFS Friends campaign has a goal of raising $290,000 during 2012. During the breakfast, Nick Haines, executive producer for public affairs at KCPT, served as emcee interviewing various people who have benefitted from JFS services and programs.

Continue reading »]]> Jason Entgelmeier has achieved something less than one-tenth of one percent of ACT test takers nationwide achieve: a perfect score. Entgelmeier, a Blue Valley High junior, earned a perfect score of 36 on the college entrance exam. The ACT tests in the areas of English, reading, math and science. Approximately 1.4 million students take the test each year. In addition to Entgelmeier, three current Blue Valley seniors have earned perfect scores on the ACT. Blue Valley North senior Austin Dickey earned a 36 during the 2010-11 school year, while Blue Valley Northwest senior Druv Bhagavan and Blue Valley North senior Jake Reinig earned perfect scores earlier this school year.

Continue reading »]]> This year’s A Taste of Leawood is scheduled Saturday, June 9, from 7-10:30 p.m. at Leawood City Hall, 4800 Town Center Drive. The event features fare from more than 20 of the area’s best restaurants, wine, beer and spirits, as well as music from the popular band Souled Out. Attendees will take home the A Taste of Leawood gift bag full of goodies and stocked with savings vouchers. And don’t forget about the souvenir wine glass! Tickets are $65, plus tax, in advance and $70, plus tax, at the door (if available). Each ticket includes: five drink tickets, food samplings from all food vendors, music from the band Souled Out, complimentary soda and water, and a souvenir gift bag and wine glass. Attendees must be 21 years of age or older to attend. This is a rain or shine event and the tickets are non-refundable. To purchase tickets or if interested in sponsorship opportunities please visit LeawoodChamber.org or call 913.498.1514.

Continue reading »]]> The 6th annual Real Bikers Wear Pink motorcycle ride will take place on August 26 in Overland Park. Bikers from all over the metro are invited to this annual event, which includes a pancake breakfast. The organized ride was founded by a very young Megan Rowe in 2007 and has raised thousands of dollars for breast cancer research. Details and registration information can be found on RBWP.org.

Continue reading »]]> Local lacrosse athletes Spence Bodenhamer of Overland Park and Gavin Magee of Leawood will host their 2nd annual BASIC LAX (lacrosse) camp this June. Last spring, the two young entrepreneurs held a one-week camp for elementary and middle school children, teaching the basics of LAX, including how to cradle, shoot and scoop ground balls. The camp included appearances from three varsity LAX players from Blue Valley North and Pembroke Hill. As an alternative to baseball, Bodenhamer and Magee decided to try lacrosse three years ago. They were hooked immediately. Lacrosse contains familiar elements of several other sports, including the movement of soccer, hockey and basketball with some physicality of football. Now 13 and 14 years old, the boy’s love for the game has grown exponentially over the last three years while playing with a Kansas City Youth Lacrosse League club team, Leawood Storm and the Blue Lion Select Regional/National travel team. For more information, email BasicLAX@gmail.com.

Continue reading »]]> The Short Drive That Makes a Big Difference
Article Mary Bush | Photography Angela C. Bond

It is during the brief, 30-minute drive from Leawood to Lake Lotawana, Mo., that many area residents feel the strain of suburbia slowly drain away. “It’s a short drive but truly a different world,” says Robert Chapline, one of many who head to Lake Lotawana as often as work and other obligations allow. Robert knows the way well, as his family is the second generation to inhabit the cozy, lakeside dwelling that serves as the group’s “weekend and more” vacation cottage.

Ed and Sally Chapline, longtime Leawood residents and parents to Robert, began vacationing with their children at Lake Lotawana about 45 years ago. Robert fondly remembers multiple families trading weekends at fishing cabins or all just packing in together.

“There was no refrigerator so we ate out of a cooler or pulled our boat up to one of the snack bars that lined the lake,” says Robert. “It was a simple time full of wonderful memories.” These days, Lake Lotawana boasts some mega homes but many charming, fishing cabins and cottages still dot the perimeter of the lake. Like his parents before him, Robert has watched his sons, now 19 and 21, water ski and tube around the lake just as he and his siblings did.

“When I was a kid, we used the inner tube of a tractor tire to tube and had to watch out for the air stem while bouncing around behind the boat,” laughs Robert. “Now, the equipment is different but kids still love all the same activities we did. There’s a real connection to the past.”

In 2009, the Chaplines expanded their family’s quaint cottage but were careful to keep both its original footprint and stone foundation in place. Elise Chapline, Robert’s wife, says the family is gearing up for the next generation.

“We needed a little more space but wanted to retain the look and feel of the original home so we reused as much as we could in the restoration,” says Elise. “We even have the original Lotawana, knotty pine paneling on the walls.”

The Chaplines are also gearing up for the annual Lake Lotawana Homes Tour on Oct. 6, which will feature their home, along with five other lakeside dwellings. For more information, contact Lake Lotawana resident Sherlyn Vaupell at vaups@comcast.net.

Lee’s Summit realtor Toni Tygart is very familiar with Lake Lotawana as she has sold several properties around the lake’s winding shoreline.

“About 10 years ago, quite a few Johnson Countians with young families started buying vacation properties at Lotawana,” says Tygart. “With kids involved in sports and other activities at home, it is so easy to go back and forth, which you really can’t do at Lake of the Ozarks. Plus Lake Lotawana has a great, neighborly feel.”

Leawood residents Mike and Sue Hansen also head east to Lotawana whenever they can. The Hansens purchased their lake cabin in 2005 when their boys were 7, 9 and 12. The idea was spawned over dinner at The Marina Grog and Galley, a well-known restaurant perched on the water’s edge at Lake Lotawana.

“We could see a property for sale from the restaurant’s dock,” says Sue. “That planted the seed and we bought our home a couple years later.” The Hansen family’s 1950s cabin fronts to the lake and has become a gathering spot on July 4.

“There is an amazing fireworks display over the dam every year,” says Sue. “We started out having family and over the years, the group has grown and grown. It never gets old watching the sky light up over the lake.”

Greg and Laurie Widrig and their three sons, now 21, 19 and 16, also love watching the fireworks from the dock of their 1950s, Lake Lotawana cabin. The Widrigs found their vacation home about five years ago and visit as often as time and circumstances allow.

“We wanted the lake cottage to look different than our home in Leawood,” says Laurie. “We’ve put in wood floors and added some beadboard paneling and other touches to give it kind of a New England feel.”

The Widrigs, like several on the lake, have a two-story dock which makes for great diving, jumping and playing in the lake. Proximity to their Leawood home makes the home much more usable.

“We can go back and forth for just the day which has been great over the years, with three boys involved in sports,” says Laurie.

About three years ago, Joane and Bryan Wilkerson and their four children, ages 14, 20, 24 and 25, found their Lake Lotawana, four-bedroom getaway. The family’s favorite “room” is the back yard which slopes gently to the lake. Bryan, a civil engineer for Clarkson Construction, designed and “yardscaped” the back yard, which includes a three-tier waterfall, paved patio and decorative retaining wall.

“Our place is a lake house, not a house on the lake,” says Joane. “The house is a work in progress and the lake is simply an extended part of our backyard.”

Like most Lake Lotawana vacationers, the Wilkerson family enjoys jet skiing, tubing and fishing and when the wind agrees, skimming across the lake on lightweight, 12-foot sailboats. But the ‘piece de resistance’ is the bright blue, two-story slide that extends from the second-story dock straight into the lake.

“There’s always a line for the slide,” laughs Joane. “It’s quite a hit in the summer for both young and old.”

Leawood’s Lake Lotawana vacation dwellers agree that as homeowners, some days at the lake consist of more work than play.

“Some days, we work and some days we just enjoy our family and friends,” says Elise. “But no matter what, where else this close to home can you wake up to a beautiful sunrise over the water and then relax at the end of the day with a peaceful, sunset cruise?”

We plan to spotlight other area lakes in our Loving the Lake series. If you’d like to be included, email Lisa@LifestylePubs.com.

Continue reading »]]> Article Christopher Clark | Photography Courtesy of Parisi Coffee and Angela C. Bond

It’s been years, decades, really, since coffee began evolving from its role as a get-me-going commodity into a culinary craft, a tricked out piece of the foodie puzzle that may be every bit as demanding as haute cuisine. You need good equipment, a capable barista and the best beans, sourced from all over the world.

Long the clinched domain of specialty coffee hubs like Seattle, San Francisco and Portland, that same international ethic and devotion to the craft now is thriving in Kansas City. Shops, cafes and specialty roasters have sprouted up all over the metro, slavishly devoted to providing locals not only with their caffeine fix, but also the equipment and beans they can use at home to elevate their wake-up-call-in-a-cup into a thoughtful and surprisingly satisfying morning ritual.

So with recent medical evidence suggesting that coffee may offer some health benefits, such as potentially lowering your risk of diabetes and some neurological disorders, it only makes sense to go for the good stuff. And in Kansas City, there’s plenty to go around.

“Kansas City is known for having a great palate,” says Jason Coffee, the aptly-named operator of popular Kansas City-based website CoffeeCupNews.org, where readers can find tutorials on brewing coffee, equipment reviews and celebrations of the city’s burgeoning coffee culture. “We have a thriving and growing foodie and culinary scene. The success of places like The Roasterie and Broadway Roasting Company has proven that the same growth is sustainable in coffee as well. I believe that success and growth we are seeing now is only the beginning.”

Johnson County residents have no shortage of choices when it comes to quality coffee. You’ll routinely find baristas happily talking with customers about the painstaking process of making high-end espresso, lattes and cappuccinos.

Customers can watch as the barista pours just-off-the-boil water over freshly ground coffee, creating a mouth-watering aroma and rewarding the customer’s patience with flavors they didn’t know coffee could hold. The Take Five Coffee Bar, at 5336 W. 151st in Leawood, has one of the more interesting takes in the area, combining the exacting parameters of single-cup pour-over coffee and high-quality espresso with late night music, usually jazz-themed.

“My husband and I have a lifelong love of music and planned from the start to incorporate music into Take Five. In fact the name is derived from Dave Brubeck’s tune,” owner Lori Chandler says. “That said, we did not plan on becoming a prominent jazz venue. We’re glad it has happened, though! The ability for families and fans to gather around a band, not a stage with concert seating, has propelled our success.”

But even when the jazz is jumping, the coffee remains on center stage. Chandler gets her beans from Seattle’s Zoka Coffee Roasters. “They focused on exactly the level of unflinching quality I knew customers in south Johnson County would value. It was in their cafe that I first experienced a pour-over. Let me say up to that time I drank my coffee so doctored up that it was more like chocolate milk. After that first pourover… I have not added anything to my cup,” Chandler says.

Chandler’s experience with coffee proved so good she could stop adding milk and sugar. For roasters and specialty shops, that’s the goal—coaxing out the bean’s natural flavors. Of course the milk and sugar are there if you need it.

Beans sourced from Latin America often have floral or citrus notes, while Brazilian and Sumatran coffees carry deeper, more cocoa nuances. Ethiopian coffees, considered by some to be the most prized in the world, can, in the right hands, produce notes of berries that dance bright and juicy on the palate.

Those are the kinds of coffee that have helped Revocup, 11030 Quivira Road in Overland Park, earn a reputation among local quality advocates. The cafe specializes in what it calls “authentic, single-origin coffees” sourced from across the coffee planet. The owners are native Ethiopians

who seem most proud of the beans sourced from their homeland, varieties such as Yirgacheffe, Harrar and Sidamo. (Tip: Go for their Sidamo variety, whose blueberry and chocolate notes could kick your Maxwell House habit for good.)

Perhaps Kansas City’s most popular roaster, The Roasterie recently opened one of its two cafes in Leawood, a sleek but welcoming shop that also puts a premium on single-origin pour-over coffees and high-quality espressos, lattes and cappuccinos. But the company has made its bones as a nationally respected roaster, producing pound after pound of single-origin coffees and espresso blends from its Kansas City production facility for cafes, restaurants and home baristas across the country.

Leawood is also home to Joe Paris, whose Parisi Artisan Coffee roasting facility in Kansas City has earned him plenty of buzz in local circles. Parisi recently opened a shop in the increasingly busy Union Station near downtown, where
affable baristas make everything from press-pot coffee to single-cup pour-over to espresso.

Oddly enough, most of these same shops are helping customers replicate the quality-coffee experience at home. Many shops sell beans in 12-ounce bags, often just days off the roast when coffee is at its freshest. With practice and patience, would-be baristas at home can make terrific coffee and espresso-based drinks with just a little investment.

In some ways, those advances have helped the commercial scene. “Almost every coffee roaster I have been to in Kansas City is willing to help you make great tasting coffee at home,” says Coffee, whose website is filled with stories and videos about local shops and their outreach with customers. “The coffee shops benefit from this relationship in two ways.

As a consumer gains more knowledge about what it takes to brew good coffee at home, the more money they will pour into this newfound passion. As that consumer flows further and further down the coffee geek funnel they can’t help but share this newfound treasure with their friends.”

The presence of so many quality roasters and cafes in the metro reflects a broader worldwide trend in specialty coffee, Chandler says.

“It isn’t unusual that Kansas City would follow suit. Give credit to Starbucks for raising the visibility and accessibility of high-end coffee beverages. That said, I think having a local coffee shop that offers equal product (better, in my opinion
of course!) and keeps the money in the community is something customers really get behind.”