Down on the farm

Friday was going to be our camping day, but the weatherman kept calling for rain and a high of 56 degrees, with more rain overnight and a low of 38-yikes! So, we cancelled and Scott went to work instead. This left me with a full day and no plans. We made a few calls and planned a trip with Claire's good friend Chandler to head out to Purina Farms for their Easter village. I have never been there. Scott's parents took Claire when she was a little peanut. It was a long drive and I took the risk that maybe my big kids were too big now for this little outing, but it was a risk I was willing to take. So we piled up and headed out west to the farm!

Here is Claire and Chandler on the wagon ride.
Here is Emma, the animal whisperer with her lamb friend. He did seem to really like her :) This was in the Easter village portion where they had a lot of baby animal to see and pet. There were also bunnies, chicks, pigs, cats and dogs.

They all got to have a few turns on the rope swing that flings you over a large pile of hay.

Here is Sam with a big grin on his face after just coming through some of the many climbing tunnels.

And to top it all off the Easter Bunny was even there! It was a fun day. They probably won't need to go again as they were probably too old for a lot of it, but it was still fun. They especially enjoyed the dog show where Claire was chosen to be a volunteer for the doggy basketball game. The dogs had lots of impressive skills like basketball and frisbee. We tried frisbee with Blitzen when we got home, but no luck!

Afterwards we went to McDonald's for a free kiddie cone. It is just the right amount. Everyone was happy for the car ride home.

Family Game Night!

So camping was cancelled and game night was on!! Audra and I decided as a fun backup to camping we would still get our families together for build your own tacos, games and build your own sundaes. This was way better than camping in my opinion! We enjoyed an adult game of Jenga building 29 rows!! The kids enjoyed playing Hullabaloo by themselves. Then we let them enjoy a game of Jenga. Here are some photos of the INTENSITY.
Check out Lucy's poke and slide!

Here is Sam doing the stack--all with a little help from his tongue. Lucy seems to have her tongue out quite a bit too. Maybe it is an age thing.

Sadly, someone had to make it crash. Michael took this time to teach about good sportsmanship!

We ended the evening with a game of Memory. Emma should have listened in on that talk about good sportsmanship. She was a little upset that Sam and Lucy were whoopin' up on her. However, she did end up winning the game so all was well in Emma world.

Claire took Michael on in Othello and I don't really need to say who won that one :) Nor did I take any pictures!

Overall, it was a great time and I hope we can do it again really soon! Scott is practicing his poking and stacking Jenga technique at the beach (ha, ha!)

Lost in the Magic House

It is spring break here and so we are trying to make our "staycation" fun here in St. Louis! Yesterday Scott took the kids fishing for 4+ hours at Busch Wildlife and I got to get some things done at home. Today some friends called and invited us to go to the Magic House with them and we gladly accepted knowing that daddy had a full day of basement rearrangement ahead of him! We got there at noon. We headed to the new section first hitting the fairy tale section and climbing up and down this very tall beanstalk. See Claire below.

After the beanstalk, we visited the oval office, the very cool and loud sucking tubes. I think these are similar to what sucks my money up the tube when I go to the bank, but I am not sure :) We then spent a lot of time in the oval office, signed our names on the Declaration of Independence, dressed up as a judge and rang the Liberty Bell. I think this was a great addition to the Magic House. In fact, I might need to go there to study up before Claire gets in 5th grade. I am not exactly the brightest when it comes to our judicial system or history. I think I learned quite a bit about our past presidents today. If nothing else I will be better at Jeopardy or Trivia Pursuit next time around!

Next we headed to the construction zone. This area is also new and very, very cool. It has a huge pit of rocks to shovel, a roughed in house to explore, a CAT machine to climb on, foam bricks and even some interior design things. Sam loved shoveling the rocks and putting together the PVC pipes. Here he is with the rocks! And there is his tongue out again!


We met Audra, Olivia and Lucy at the Magic House and while there we ran into Julie, Hannah, Madison and Cooper. So at times we divided and conquered. All the kids wanted to do different things so we took different groups to do different things. While I was in construction with Sam and Lucy, Audra took Emma and Claire to the jungle downstairs. Audra and I spoke on our phones and decided to meet in a certain place ASAP. When I arrived at the designated place Audra is freaking out asking ,"Where is Emma?" OH NO!!! Where is Emma? We then find Julie to keep the rest of the kids and Audra and I split up looking for Emma. She is no where to be found. I am praying. It is crowded. After no luck, Audra goes to the front desk to report her missing. While she is gone little Emma comes around the corner yelling, "MOMMY!" She was sooooo scared and I was sooooo happy to see her. The poor little thing had been in a tee pee in the jungle when Audra left to meet us at the designated meeting area. She had gone completely upstairs and over to the new construction zone remembering that is where I was! She is so smart, not smart enough to know to stop at the front desk or to look for someone with a red Magic House shirt, but smart none the less. She was scared and would not let go of my hand the rest of the day. I did not want to let her go either.

After our heartbeats returned to a normal pace we went to the soap bubble room, the children's village, and art room, and the electrostatic ball. Here is Claire and Hannah with a little electricity through their hair!

After all our friends went home we stayed a little bit longer. Emma wanted to go to the construction zone since she never really got to play there, just look for me there! She dressed up right away and had fun shoveling the rocks. I am not sure why the picture did not rotate, just tilt your head :) See, she is still cute!

Even though we got lost literally in the Magic House it was still a wonderful day!

adding video

Here is my first attempt at adding video on the blog. Scott's camera takes short video clips. Here is one from February. It is pretty cute! Blitzen is a good catcher...if only he would drop the ball :)

Biking and Blading

Here are some pictures of our family outing today! We had a fun time. I still need a bike but roller blades worked well today. Emma rode Claire's old "big " bike for the first time and Sam rode Emma's old fushia bike. He got several chuckles which I am pretty sure were more because he is cute and a maniac on a bike rather than the fact that he was on a fushia bike. I am not sure, but he didn't care. He is just thrilled to be able to pass his sisters and ride down the big hills! I am just thrilled that no one got hurt!

The End!

That's not fair!

Why is it that my kids always have to tell their siblings things that are "secret"? I am not asking them to lie, just not tell something. There is always a slight chance they would forget something but if I tell them not to tell something there is absolutely no chance they will forget. In fact, they will tell their siblings the very next minute!

This always causes problems in our family from ice cream to birthday parties. As Sam reminded all of us at dinner the other night, "Life is not fair!" He doesn't really understand this as he is one of the biggest offenders but it is funny to hear him say it.

I know they are kids and keeping a secret is hard. I know as an adult that there are times when I become the holder of valuable information and I can't tell anyone! It is sooo hard and there are unfortunately times I do blow it. I can forgive them because I understand it...I still don't like it!

Clean rooms & T-ball

Today was another good day. It seems like I only blog on good days. Maybe that is good. I don't want to use the blog to complain. I don't want my children to have a lot of "grumpy mom" on record although we all know she exists. We have had awesome weather here. 70 degrees the last few days. That means I have been running more, my kids are worn out and sleeping better, and my dog is worn out too...all this = happy mom!

Happy mom had to clean today. It felt good. I cleaned both upstairs bathrooms, and 3 bedrooms. I wiped baseboards and pulled out a toothbrush for a few jobs. I love the feeling of a clean house. I very seldom have it, but I love it! I spent the most time in the girls' room. It is a pit. I collected several bagfuls of trash (things they will never miss). I cleaned their shelves, under their beds and Emma even noticed I set up the Barbie house. I didn't tell her that I played with the Barbie's and that she and Ken are in a fight (just jokin' I would never have time for that!) Someone once told me that when your kid's rooms are clean you should take a picture of them and tack them on for the kids to see so that when they are cleaning their rooms they will know what it should look like. I did that today. I will let you know if it works!

The cleaning took most of my morning. After school Sam had his first T-ball practice. He has been so excited about this. I went to get him a right handed glove today (since he is a lefty). He was so pleased to have his very own glove. Mrs. C is his coach and she is so fun and cool! Sam told me today that she is the only one that knows everything about baseball, except daddy! She has his respect! The practice was one hour. They learned the ready position, running and touching the bases, practice catching pop-flys, each got 2 turns at bat and learned how to throw. It was so cute. It was all boys in JK and Kindergarten. The out fielding was of course the highlight. Watching all of them run towards the ball, try to catch it and then wonder what to do with it. Claire was helping in the outfield for a little bit, but I had to pull her off because I thought she was stealing some of their thunder. Sam had so much fun. Tonight at church while eating his dinner he said, "Mom, I think that was a pretty good T-ball practice today." I nodded in agreement. He is so big :(

I will have to get some pics of the next practice.

Callling anyone who likes to clean!?

What is up with my house today? The weather was nice this weekend and so it seems we spent most of our time outside playing and we got some work done outside, but what happened to the inside? Here is a brownie pan with 1/2 brownie left inside because no one wants to eat the last brownie because you know if you eat the last brownie then you should really wash the pan. Here is also a cookie sheet and dirty crock pot left over from Sunday night dinner. Scott would DIE if she knew I was posting this. This is another reason why the blog is mine...all mine!!

Here are the legos. Can anyone find the missing scuba diver flipper which is barely the size of my pinky fingernail and can anyone find his missing head???

Here is our cleared out living room for the Hullabaloo game. This has been a favorite game since Thursday night and if you are going to keep playing the game , then what is the point of moving the furniture back in?

All this to show that my house is a mess. It is Monday and the weekend was fun. I will clean on Wednesday! More fun till then!

Mani/Pedi for ASC!

What is the ASC you ask? It is the CCS auction steering committee. This is a group of ladies who have worked countless hours over the last 4 months to pull together a huge fundraising auction for our dear school. While I have had the honor of being on the ASC for 2 years now, although I had a much smaller role this year, I just want to recruit others to join the ASC in the coming years!!! So if you join the ASC you too can get mani/pedis before the "CCS prom"!

Here is our own Carmen taking time out of her crazy schedule to pretty herself up for the big night. She is still too busy to turn around for my camera though! I am so proud of you Carmen for getting out of your spa blue space to head to the real spa for even a few minutes of pampering! Thanks for all you do for our school!


Ana and Melanie, where are your laptops and paper cutters? You look so relaxed. Thanks for turning your lives upside down crazy for CCS and doing way more than I could ever dream of! You are super and you look it too!

Picture proof! Kelli McKie getting her very first mani/pedi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no turning back now Kelli. I do hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for all your hard work!

Today it was 28 degrees and we all had on long pants, coats and flip flops. No matter how cold it is tomorrow night I bet we will all be wearing sandals to show off our toes! Here is some of the finished work on toes of a person, not to be disclosed ( you know who you are!)

And to Audra who left before the picture taking began...she said she needed to get back to work or something??!! Thanks Audra for your organization, computer skills and painting abilities!

So, the fun is almost over! You are a great group of ladies who work hard for a great cause. I know it was too hard to plan a weekend away but I am glad we had the time to at least take 45 minutes to sit in a massaging chair and put away our computers! SEE YOU AT THE PROM!! Love ya!

Ice Skating

This morning Claire and Sam had ice skating lessons. Emma has decided to sit out this session. Sam is skating at the Pre-Alpha level and is doing really well. He has progressed to wearing hockey skates and can even stop now!

Sam has to have his tongue out to concentrate on ANYTHING!! If you have hockey skates you have to wear hockey gloves too! Thank goodness for hand-me-downs!!

Claire working on some of her more difficult moves!

Give me a S-P-R-I-N-G!

Here are just a few photos from our Spring-like day. Scott took the kids to Creve Coeur Park to go biking and they all made it all the way around! Sam is riding without training wheels now and it is about 2.5 miles around. I was very impressed. When they got home they played football in the backyard, Emma did jump rope and pogo ball, Scott grilled out and I took pictures! We ate outside for the first time this season. Everyone, including Blitzen was tired after a day like this!

The Pass! She has a pretty good spiral!

Keeping her eyes on the ball!

Emma with the pogo ball!

The little man in action!

The big kick!

I love days at the beginning of the season that get you excited to see the next season come! We enjoyed it while we could for I know it will not last long!

Emma's chapel and 80 degrees!

Today it was the kindergartner's turn to lead chapel. They did a great job! Their message was to serve God first, others second and yourself Last." Emma opened the chapel with some welcoming lines and introduced the first song. They sang "Rise and Shine" and "Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah...Praise Ye The Lord." Here is a picture of most the of kids. Emma is in the front row with the pink robe and headband.


Emma saying her lines

Emma singing "Rise and Shine"

Jack, Emma and friends

After the chapel, Sam had Miles over to play. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. It got up to 80 degrees! Scott and I cleaned out our vehicles while the boys played outside. Then Scott took them fishing and I worked some in the yard. Sadly Scott had to go to work-bummer. After I picked the kids up from school we headed to the Forest Park playground. We met the Maynors there for a crazy game of Monster! Thanks Mr. Maynor for wearing them out! We had mac n' cheese for dinner (with peas and ham), baths and bed. It was a GREAT day!