Checking It Off the List

    Look where we ended up over Christmas break! As break was winding down, we found ourselves downtown meeting friends and on the way back thought it would be fun to "check" out a VERY cool place that calls St. Louis home.  The International Chess Hall of Fame & Museum!  Yes, we are posing next to the World's Largest Chess Piece! Up and down the street, chess tables are sitting out on the sidewalks - all available on the frigid day we visited! 
   The museum has more photography exhibits than anything but something that may be the wave of the future for museums - big touch screens that are at least four to five feet tall that scroll endless chess facts and photos for visitors.

We hope to return when the weather warms up so we can sit outside at one of the tables and play a game! Evan and Brooke both know how to play and Abby still needs to learn, so we will work on teaching her in the meantime.

Celebrating at Gram's House

Christmas this year has been a whirlwind with a lot of traveling, but we are having a lot of fun seeing everyone.
Lots of fun things are planned in Kansas City and the kids love every second they get to spend with their cousins!

It is always amazing when we walk in the door and see how much everyone has grown since the last time we have seen them and we know when we give that last hug that it will be too long until we see them again.  But for now, it is one of the biggest Christmas gifts to get to spend time with these precious cousins!

Chef Tim Saves the Day

Ahh, the second grade turkey project!  The idea is for the kids to think up how their turkey would avoid becoming turkey dinner and write their story, decorate the turkey and then these hang in the hall at school before Thanksgiving.

Chef Tim is what Brooke came up with for her story - her turkey dressed up as a chef and ends up ordering pizza for everyone. Ordering pizza would definitely be a whole lot easier for Thanksgiving, but this year we are going to do something out of the ordinary for our meal and make a homemade Chinese dinner - can't wait!!!

Halloween 2018

Pictured: Brush with Death, Scuba Girl, Cereal Killer

These three got about as many compliments on their costumes as they did candy this year - and they got a LOT of candy! That was pretty cool since these were actually cheap and easy costumes to throw together.  The cereal killer enjoyed getting to eat the cereal to prep for Halloween, the scuba diver was excited about the purchase of new workout pants and the scuba gear to use in the future, and the Brush with Death loved the inflatable and can't wait to bring it to the pool!

As they have done in a few years past, they went up to Trunk or Treat at school and saw a lot of friends one night and trick or treated in the neighborhood on Halloween - the weather was great for both nights!

Birthday Girl

Can it be? Our little girl is 11 already? It does not seem possible.  We love this smart and beautiful daughter of ours more than words can say.

School is in Session!

 We are NEVER ready for summer to end! This year meant heading up to school early for Abby and walking the halls to see where all of her classes would be, find her new locker and learn how to use the lock. Middle school brings a lot of changes...she will dress for p.e., have block scheduling, have orchestra every day, and have encore classes that switch every quarter.  She is really looking forward to not having assigned tables in the lunchroom and being able to walk and talk with friends in the hallways between class periods.

Evan will be the big man on campus at grade school. Fifth grade is always a fun year and it seems to go by quickly with all of the different activities they plan for fifth grade.

Brooke has a teacher that is new to the school this year so it will be fun getting to know her.  She loves school and can't wait for math class!

Mother's Day with the Lincolns

This year on Mother's Day, we decided to take a day trip up to Springfield to see the Abraham Lincoln Presidential library and museum.  We recommend the visit to any history buff or fan of Honest Abe and had a fun time seeing the sites.

"I lost my toof!"

Another sign that she just keeps growing! Brooke lost her first tooth.  Yes, many kids have lost half a dozen by the time they are her age, but these kids seem to keep their teeth longer than average children.

This tooth was wiggling around for quite a while and Mom was pretty worried she would end up swallowing it.

And the other thing this photo points out is that she definitely needs to go in for a trim!

Circus Flora Tickets - Yes Please!

 Don't you love winning things? Thanks to the local radio station, we were able to go to Circus Flora for free!  Everyone loved "The Case of the Missing Bellhop," and I was surprised there were not more people there - it was family friendly and very affordable.  I definitely recommend it to anyone!  You can see that Abby was a little frightened that the tightrope walkers were going to fall - she could barely stand it.
 Next summer we plan to go again and are hoping to get some family or friends to go along with us - it is such a great show we want others to experience this show!

Magical Monday

 Feeling the wind in her hair :)

 Sorting real trash for recycling!

 Posing with friends and a very large bunny!

Holding hands at the Ring-around-the-Rosie statue.

Our little girl always has fun playing at the children's museum in town, especially when we have some friends along! The place was packed since some schools are on spring break but luckily the place is big so it is still enjoyable. 

Cool Shades on a Cool Kid

This girl makes shopping more fun.  It is very hard to pass up a rack of sunglasses, even if you do have an Easter dress to find! The good news is that we found an Easter dress for her, one that coordinates beautifully with the one her sister has - our family will be doing a navy color scheme this year! That sort of fell into place, normally we just try to make sure everyone has something nice to wear.  Now getting to church on time will be the next thing to accomplish!

Nothing Says Birthday Like Fried Dough

Mouthfuls of chocolatey birthday doughnuts!

When ARM was little we began a tradition of getting birthday doughnuts.  It was something we did not do often so it was a treat and there was a neat little place we could walk to so that made it a fun thing to do.  We "donut" have the neat place to walk to anymore, but that does not mean these kids do not want to give up getting doughnuts on birthdays - because who doesn't like doughnuts!?!

One of the nearby grocery stores has a little loft where you can eat if you want so we camped out up there for EMM's birthday breakfast. The funny story from this morning was that our debit card transaction did not go through so we had actually walked off without paying for anything without them realizing it until we were gone. Luckily for them, we had told them we were going to have our morning meal upstairs and they knew where to find us so they could actually have us pay for the groceries we bought!

Happy Birthday to our little guy...who is getting too big on us! How we love him!

A Cousin Stopped By

Well look who we have here - Cousin It! Our kids did not know who this famous member of the Addams Family was so we had to enlighten them!  They want to watch the movie on one of our upcoming movie nights, pretty sure they will love it.

Enthusiastically Participating

At school, instead of regular homework, EMM's class has sheets with projects that they can complete and submit to their teacher on their own time.  One thing kids like about "enthusiastic participation" is the variety of activities there are to choose from.  In this picture, EMM is posing with a cabbage as part of some homework at the grocery store - finding a piece of produce that weighs in at exactly two and a half pounds.

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!