Be My Jiggly Valentine

Nothing says love like red jello hearts! These guys definitely love them, that is for sure. It was just us hanging out while dad was on a business trip, but we kept in touch over the phone and sent Dad our love.  We even made him a Valentine's photo scavenger hunt he could do on his trip, but he did not have a lot of time to get it in.

Cute Hair, Don't Care!

These ponytails lasted about 4 minutes...this girl is NOT a fan of hairdos, as her facial expression shows. She definitely looks adorable with ponytails but, sigh...the world will never know!

Derby Day...in January

Here is our race car driver! This year we had a little more involvement in the Pinewood Derby, Dad was in charge of the whole thing! That meant we had the scouts over to our garage on a cold night to work on their cars to get ready for the big race, Dad had to order the trophies and run the computer during the race (hardest part!).  This year our guy did not get in the top ten so he did not go on to the regional competition, but making the car and racing was a fun experience.

Getting Steps In

A little chilly, yes, but it was still a good day to head out on the trail with Dad.  A phrase around our house since April, when Dad won the Fitbit, is "getting steps in" - he shoots for 10,000 steps daily. Of course, these kids have plenty of energy to burn and are great companions if anyone ever needs company getting any steps in, they can help!

New Year, New Arrangement

For a while, ARM has been asking that we "bonk" the beds...and her wish came true to start off 2016. It is nice to see how happy she is about this change - ahh, the small joys of life! We are just worried she will climb up there with her new book light and a stack of books and we will never see her again.

KC Cousins at Christmas

Seeing cousins is one of the highlights of Christmas, it just does not happen often enough! Every year it is amazing to see how much they have grown and changed, but they all pick up where they left off and have a lot of fun. This picture is in front of the tree at Uncle Joe's house...I think there were about ten pictures taken and there was not one were everyone looked at the camera, ha! No matter, just love seeing these cute kids all together again!

2 Great Things

Two great things that go great together - Christmas and chocolate! Since we had time off of school for break, we decided to go take a tour of a chocolate factory...mmmm!!! Oh, the smell practically carries you away. These three wanted to purchase every piece of candy they laid their eyes on, but they each were allowed to pick out a little bag of their own, so they had big smiles on their faces when they walked out the door.

Family Pictures!

Look at this - something that has not happened often enough...a professional family picture! We were very happy with how our pictures turned out! But with these good-looking kids, I knew they would!

Pippi, is That You?

Remind you of anyone? No...this is not a preview for Halloween, but she would make a good Pippi! And she also loves the books, she has read two or three and liked the movie a lot, too.

Go Bananas!

Here is our star soccer player with the coach of her team - the Bananas! This little girl really enjoyed the season and tore up the field.  We had some chilly games but that never seemed to bother her, she was always too busy trying to kick a goal.

Fishing...In the Living Room

A fun way to work on learning the alphabet with BGM is playing this version of Go Fish! Those little hands have a hard time holding all the big cards so these egg cartons became card holders, making it a little easier for them to play.  I think these kids would like to really go fishing, too, judging by how eagerly they dig up fishing worms in the yard!

Goodbye Summer, Hello School (Sniff)!

Wow, how is this happening? Summer is over on August 13th? NOOOO!!!! We have had a fun summer and are not ready for it to end! Even though they prefer summer, they still have nice big smiles for the first day of school and will like seeing school friends regularly again.

And what is that school supply that Abby has that she did not have last year? Glasses! She seems to really like them and they look so cute on her.

Pool School

So far so good for BGM in swimming lessons! Unlike some of the kids, she does not fear the water, and she is constantly moving and putting her face in the water without thinking twice.  Her favorite part is getting to jump in over and over at the the end but she also likes diving to the bottom of the pool.

Darth Wall

EMM having fun conquering Darth Wall at the Star Wars birthday party he attended today.

It All Comes Out in the Wash

RIP to our washing machine - we got a lot of years out of it, and right at the end a few funny pictures! Now the part we dread...having to find a replacement!

All Aboard!

 All three kids thought the enormous pirate ship at Camp Beaumont was pretty cool, but we only managed to get a non-blurry picture of one child on it! By the end of the afternoon it was time to abandon ship and head home for a shower, they were worn out and completely filthy and wet from playing in the creek.

A Fair To Remember

These two sure made Mom and Dad proud! Our little artists each had art selected for the District Art Fair.  The still life painting by ARM's face is what she had submitted and EMM had a little clay owl that is nesting in a tree behind him on the table.  It was fun seeing all of the submissions and was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Happy 7th!!!

7 years old, and we cherish this little guy so much! His birthday landed on spring break so Dad took a day off of work so we could just go have fun.  It was a tour at the chocolate factory, the zoo, Evan's favorite meal and of course chocolate cake and ice cream!

One Talented Girl

As a reward, ARM's music class at school chose to do a talent show.  Each child is permitted to present two talents and is allotted two minutes per talent for showing off in front of the class. Some kids are too shy to do anything at all, but we were proud of ARM for being willing to present two talents.
Since they are allowed to submit something on video, she wanted to use horseback riding, which meant making a trip to Grandpa's house so she could ride Cooper, her uncle's horse. She narrated the entire thing without rehearsing very much and did a great job!  For her other talent at the show she is going to memorize a song and play it on the piano. Mom and her little sister are excited about going to cheer her on!

Piece on Earth

   Last weekend we made a quick trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa. These three went downstairs and it was a little too quiet- that normally means they are into something. Nope, just putting a puzzle together. 

   ARM has her pants rolled up and is only wearing her tank top because she was so hot from working out!

Happiness is...

watching your toy snakes being devoured by your toy dinosaurs.

The Christmas Book Collection

Every year, our collection of Christmas books grows.  This year, BGM was pretty happy that Mickey's Night Before Christmas was the newest book on the stack.  Each night before bed in that month before Christmas, we read Christmas books for our bedtime stories.  After Christmas, these books get packed away with the decorations - there just is not enough room on our shelf for them anyway!

A Special Veteran's Day

Every year, the school has a very nice program at school to honor our service men and women on Veteran's Day.  This year it was held on a Monday (verses mid-week when they normally have functions) which was wonderful because that meant Grandpa was able to attend! The kids all work very hard learning songs and decorating the school.  Abby and Evan did a great job and were so tickled that they had guests of honor to sing to this year.

Attention Tooth Fairy!

At the ripe old age of 8, yes 8, ARM has FINALLY lost her first tooth! There have been a number of "sympathy" loose teeth - that is teeth that she said were loose when a friend had lost a tooth, but it was more a case of imagination, but this is the first to really fall out.  As a side note, her father had to have some baby teeth pulled by his dentist because they just did not want to fall out.  Maybe she is taking after him?

Have Your Cake...

...and sit on it, too! They found the Soulard Farmer's Market Cake.  These have been really cool to spot around the city - what a neat idea for the city's birthday!