She's 7!!

Princess Sparkley turned 7 last Monday. SEVEN!! I can't believe it. We celebrated her birthday at Grandma M's in St. Louis as we passed through on our move east.



PS has taken after both of her parents with her love for reading. I keep having to remind her that bookmarks exist and that she should use them. She's up late at night in her bed reading books. And often times, she's so consumed by what she's reading that she doesn't even hear us talking to her.



Opening presents on her birthday in Virginia.



One of her presents that she requested, from Buddy, was a Fairy Cookbook. Here we are making these tiny fairy cookies.


At Friendly's with her Monster Mash ice cream sundae.

Forest Park

We've promised our kids that we'd take them on a boat ride in the lake at Forest Park near the St. Louis zoo for three years. Since this was probably our last trip to St. Louis before we move (other than the one where we drive through as we're moving) we decided this had to be the trip. B and I had gone on a boat ride a couple of years ago for our anniversary.

We started the day at the zoo. We were envisioning horrible crowds since it was Memorial Day, in Missouri, at a free zoo. We were lucky (sort of) though because it was raining. It wasn't crowded. We got slowly drenched, but it was mostly just a stead drizzle. And we got to see a baby camel. I love baby animals. Baby X enjoyed the penguins most and finally mastered the sign for bird.

We also paid extra to ride the train... another promise we'd made to the kids. $5 a person (except for Baby X)!!! But I guess I shouldn't complain since admission to the zoo is free.

We also paid extra for the new sting ray exhibit. I'd pet sting rays before at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, or somewhere of the sort. So I thought the kids would enjoy it. Buddy assured me that he wasn't going to touch one, but he'd like to see them. PS thought she'd maybe touch one. Buddy ended up loving it and after about 10 minutes of just watching them, he decided to touch them and ended up petting quite a few. PS was much more scared and only barely touched a couple.

Then we headed to the lake and the boat ride. B's mom was meeting us at the lake to sit with Baby X while we took the two older kids on the boat. By now it had stopped raining so we thought we'd have to hurry over there before a line formed for the boat rentals. When we went for our anniversary we had to wait quite awhile for an available boat. We didn't need to hurry. There was only one other boat on the lake and it was heading in as we headed out. B picked a row boat rather than a paddle (or is it pedal) boat so that our kids weren't falling out the back while we went. After about 15 minutes it started to rain. The guy in charge of the boats told us if it was under 40 minutes we could get a rain check and that if it started to rain, to stop under one of the bridges. We had just passed under the last, and best bridge when it started to rain so we turned around pretty quickly but it seemed to be letting up so we kept going. By the time we got to the final (and worst) bridge it was pouring, but the bridge was just a metal grate that did nothing to keep us dry so we decided to just head all the way back to the dock rather than sit still getting wet when it could just get worse. Needless to say, we got a rain check. And drenched. And the kids got in a huge, horribly embarrassing (the dock is also a fancy restaurant) fight over their umbrella while we waited for B to get the car.

We ate our "picnic"provided by B's mom in the car as we drove to my old roommate Karen and her husband Nate's home to visit with them. Karen is from western Kansas and they moved to St. Louis last summer. We've been trying to meet up over the last year and hadn't managed it yet. It was fun to visit with them and see how much their kids have grown. I babysat their oldest when she was just a baby and I was completely clueless about kids.




We ended our day by seeing the outside of Ulysses S. Grant's home and getting stamps for our National Parks passports (and using their bathrooms). Our kids have been to Grant's Farm before with Grandma and Grandpa M but B and I hadn't and it was sort of on the way home so we drove past so we could see it.

Train to St. Louis

One of the things Buddy got as a Christmas present was a folded piece of paper with a picture of him, a plus sign and a picture of a train. When the card was opened, there was an equals sign and a picture of the St. Louis arch. We finally got around to fulfilling this Christmas gift and he got to ride the train to St. Louis. B went with Buddy and Princess Sparkley. I drove Squeally McSqueal, aka Baby X in the car.


Baby X and I dropped them off at Union Station in Kansas City to catch the 7:30 AM train. While we drove straight east from Kansas City across the state of Missouri, their train headed southeast and went through Jefferson City instead of Columbia. The train ride was about $44 for the three of them (once we figured in discounted fares, student discounts and AAA discounts). It took 5 hours and 40 minutes. The drive from our home (about 40 minutes west of Kansas City) to Chesterfield (this side of St. Louis) takes 4 hours without stops.

Here's where I don't know the story anymore. B will have to fill it in but he's fallen asleep next to me. And just half an hour ago he was set to go rent a movie from Redbox. :)













PS has no idea what Hogwarts is. She just saw that I was making B take a picture and she wanted to be in it.


A fun caboose photo op in Union Station which isn't where the trains go anymore... it's all fancy restaurants and stores.


Union Station. Downtown St. Louis, MO.

Coming Home

Here are pictures from in the car on the way home from Spring Break in St. Louis and B is such a nice dad that we stopped at a second Fritz's Railroad restaurant(this one in KC, KS) for dinner on our way home.

Buddy and Baby X are always the first asleep on car trips. PS is never ever ever the first asleep... anywhere. The picture of her with the TV is at Grandma and Grandpa's watching What Not To Wear (as do we). She loves that show.

I have a video of the train delivering our food, but can't get it to upload right now. I'll try again later.

New camera

I've been wanting this camera:

Nikon D40

But it retails for just under $500, and I don't even think that's including the lens. I was saving up for it, but something more important to spend the money on kept coming along. So when my parents sent some money for me for Christmas this year I decided to add a bit to it and buy myself a better camera, if not my dream camera. Meet my new camera:

Nikon Coolpix S210 (in plum)
What you can't tell from this picture is how incredibly thin it is. .71 inches.
Oh, and it films with sound. (Loud clapping from all of this blog's readers.)

On our last trip to St. Louis we stopped at Circuit City in Columbia, MO (they've shut down all the Kansas City locations and supposedly have good sales at all other locations). I saw this camera and liked it a lot. My old camera was also a Nikon Coolpix. Circuit City didn't have any in stock. Nor did any of their locations in the St. Louis area. Or online. So I started shopping ads and found it on sale at Best Buy this weekend. I placed an online order and picked it up today.

Here are the few sample shots from my exciting day at home unpacking and doing laundry:

Do they look better?

Setting up the trains with Grandpa

Putting up Christmas Lights

The day after Thanksgiving, Grandma had Grandpa on the roof hanging Christmas lights. Our kids asked if they could get on the roof so B finally agreed that he'd go up with them one at a time. They were a bit nervous, but mostly excited.

Birthday Celebrations

On Princess Sparkley's birthday, Sunday, we had cake with grandma and grandpa, aunts and uncles and lots of cousins.

Then on Monday, the girls (plus our little family) went to Jilly's Cupcake Bar for cupcakes.

The Magic House: St. Louis Children's Museum

On Monday we went to The Magic House. Our kids have been a couple other times when we've visited Grandma in St. Louis. B had never been and was expecting some sort of lame, magic themed kid attraction. I think it proved him wrong... he just wants them to change their name now to downplay the magic part. The kids and the cousins had a blast. We could have spent all day there... a few hours doesn't cover everything you want to see. AND, they're adding on. It's going to be almost doubled in size in a few months.

River City Rascals

Most of the M family went to a River City Rascals game. It's nice because it's like a real baseball game, but on a smaller scale.

The hot dog beat a taquito and an egg roll in a race. Go hot dog!

B and Buddy cheering for the Rascals (who lost horribly).

Dinosaur Exhibit at the St. Louis Zoo

Princess Sparkley hearts mud. Buddy does not.

We're in St. Louis with all of B's family and this was the scene last night:

Some how running in the rain progressed from this...

to this...

to this...

to this.



Meanwhile, Buddy looked like this:


he stood in the rain and got wet.



Then he helped hold the house for Grandpa while he hosed off the muddy grandkids.


So clean!

Wiggles

This is how I found Buddy Sunday morning when I went to wake him up at Grandma's house. He was on a sleeping bag and under a sleeping back in the room with Princess Sparkley. Notice in this picture that he's parallel to his pillow and his head is under the one sleeping bag. I almost didn't see him at all.

Lazy River

We tried out Grandma M's city pool last summer and it's awesome. So we went again this weekend. It's huge, but last year it was so crowded. This year we went on the 5th of July, after dinner. They were staying open until ten the 4th and 5th but just about no one knew that so it was pretty empty.

Their favorite part is "Lazy River."
You just float around in these inner tubes, through a tunnel of mist and some squirty water.
Baby X even got in but I didn't get a picture. B and I traded boys so when Baby X was in with him I had to get wet and go around Lazy River with Buddy.

Here are me and Baby X before we got in. Photo by me.

Buddy turns blue the easiest and quickest. So he's
always the first one out due to blue lips and shivering.

Princess Sparkley and B took turns being the wolf chasing the three little pigs. Again, this is with my digital camera so there's no sound. Personally, it sort of reminds me of the old movie projector films my parents used to play for us from the late Seventies to early Eighties, the poor quality of the film, no sound, etc.

4th of July Weekend in St. Louis

Missouri State Capitol

We took a more southern route to St. Louis this trip through
Jefferson City, MO and stopped at the Capitol.

Princess Sparkley's New Look

before

after

Baby X does this new thing where he sort of hangs out on his side, I tried to capture it in some of these pictures. Princess Sparkley also made him her "baby" in her doll stroller. And Buddy's gigantic car city. Plus a Magic 8 Ball water tower in Tipton, MO.

4th of July
Neighborhood parade at Grandma's.
Fireworks from the mall parking lot.