Visit from Opa and Sarah

 Opa and Sarah came to visit us in St. Louis! We had so much fun.  They arrived on Thursday, and we met in the Delmar Loop for drinks at Blueberry Hill followed by dinner at Mission Taco.

 On Friday, we had lunch at the Schlafly Bottleworks restaurant and brewery.  Then Sarah and I hit up the wax museum:

 We went to City Museum, which is always a lot of fun:

Saturday morning, we took the kids to Grant's Farm and had lots of fun seeing the land, feeding the goats, riding the carousel and watching the bird show.  And of course enjoying the free beers at the end.

5K for TASK

We love TASK (Team Activities for Special Kids).  Each week, Avery goes and does different sports: basketball, kickball, teeball, etc. with lots of other great kids and adults.  We all love it, and we were happy to participate in this 5K to raise money for TASK.  It was a beautiful day, and Avery and I loved walking (and running a little) the distance and getting coated with colored powder.

Happy Easter, 2015

BFFs and Trip to Fayetteville

We were so lucky to make some good friends already since moving to St. Louis.  Here we are at the Turtle Playground after a fun trip to the Science Center.

Aunt Melanie moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, and we love to visit her and Ralphie!

We spent a very fun weekend going to the park, a fun trampoline center, and an indoor play area with bouncy houses.

Winter in St. Louis

 "Let it Go!" Caleb's preschool holiday concert.  Below: the cutest pajamas ever! Perfect for Christmas.

We are still exploring all the fun places in St. Louis.  We got a family membership to the Science Center and we've been to the zoo and Grant's Farm.  We recently discovered the Incredible Pizza Company -- it's like Chuck E Cheese but bigger, cleaner and without the violence (there has been a shooting and a stabbing at a local Chuck E Cheese within the last month!).  There is glow in the dark mini golf, bumper cars, bowling, go karts and tons of video games.  Avery loves the bumper cars and go karts.  Caleb was excited by a Transformers/Rescue Bots video game.  And they both love the motorcycle/race car video games.

Another place we love is the Magic House.  It's a children's museum full of fun! Caleb loves the hall of mirrors, the Lewis and Clark exploration forest, the giant Beanstalk he can climb, the construction site, and really everything.  On a recent visit, Caleb was exploring different vocations.  He pretended to be a librarian (and loved scanning the bar codes on books!), a grocer, a pizza chef, a pediatrician, a veterinarian, a construction worker, President of the United States (!) and a bank robber.

 

Avery and I drove up to Michigan to spend a weekend with my family to celebrate my dad's birthday.  It was special to spend a weekend together just the two of us, although we would have liked to have Caleb and Carolyn come also.  Avery and I stayed at a hotel with a fun jacuzzi tub and a nice pool.  We enjoyed playing board games, Legos, and eating lots of good food with Opa, Sarah, Chica and Ethan.  As soon as we got back to St Louis, Avery created a "Mii" for Ethan on the Wii so that Ethan can play with Avery when he comes to visit!

October fun - Happy Halloween!

I love October! The leaves change color, Starbucks brings out the pumpkin spice latte, and all I want to do is bake and enjoy the crisp fall weather.

We spent one lovely Saturday at Eckherts farm because Gogo had gotten some free passes from work. Hurray for a free outing!  The farm was so much fun.  There were carnival rides, a hayride, a playground, swings, miniature golf, and lots more. It reminded me quite a bit of Cherry Crest Adventure Farm in Pennsylvania.

Another fun activity in October was just for me!  I spent a fun overnight trip in Ohio for a friend's birthday party and I got to reconnect with these fun folks.  Next time, I'll bring the kids. Maybe.

And how I love Halloween! We carved cool pumpkins.  Avery carved a cool Angry Birds pumpkin thanks to auntie Mel (he got to visit her in Fayetteville, AK!), and Caleb and I made a zombie pumpkin, complete with Mr. Potato Head arms sticking out like the walking dead.  Spooky stuff!  We had a party at Caleb's school, a class party at both Caleb's school and one at Avery's school, plus our very first Trunk or Treat event, so by the time Halloween came, the boys had had plenty of tricks and treats already.  Caleb and I did a little trick or treating in the neighborhood, and Avery preferred to stay home and pass out candy.  Then we went to Dan and Victoria's house for cocktails and for the boys to play with Colin.  That was the best part of the holiday!  Caleb loved being Spiderman (the costume was a birthday gift from cousin Zoey!) and Avery wore his AveryPhone shirt once again.

Happy 4th Birthday, Caleb!

Our little redhead is 4 years old! He is our social butterfly who loves Spiderman, zombies, Frozen, Miranda Lambert, and playing "egg and bad guy" with me.  He makes friends wherever he goes, and he is tons of fun.

We had a party for him at Grant's Farm.  Unfortunately, it was a bit of a cold, drizzly day.  But the rain stopped long enough for us to have plenty of fun.  We first took the tram ride through the grounds and saw some animals.  Then we headed to our gazebo where we got tickets for the carousel and goat feeding and food to feed the camels:

Feeding the very hungry goats! They drink milk from bottles:

 We also got to hold and feed parakeets!

 Cousin fun!

 The cake was beautiful!

Carolyn and I went to Caleb's preschool and brought a snack (Pirate's Booty!) to share with the class. I read the book "10 Apples Up on Top," because they had just done a unit on apples.

More cupcakes at home! This time they were decorated with zombies coming out of them!