Labor Day weekend in Michigan -- road trip with Caleb!

Caleb and I took a road trip over Labor Day weekend to head up to Michigan to visit Opa and Sarah.  We ended up making the most of the weekend and also saw my uncle Paul and cousin Katya, friends Mark and Christy and Matt and Chuck, and of course Sarah's family, Chica, Ethan and the dogs and cats.  Caleb thinks that Ethan is the coolest big boy ever -- and he's not wrong!

Summer 2015 comes to an end: City Garden and First Day of School

We are still exploring St. Louis.  City Garden is an interactive park downtown that has statues and, best of all, fountains and pools to play in. On a hot day, the boys stripped off their shirts to enjoy the cool water.  We then walked over to the St. Louis arch, several blocks away and watched the riverboats.  We'll have to take a boat ride one of these days.

First day of school! Yet again, school starts early in Missouri! Caleb started his second year of preschool at Affton Early Childhood Center, and Avery is in 3rd grade at Bayless.

Indian Hills Swim Club

Of course this is our favorite place in St. Louis during the hot summer months.  We joined last year, after our move, and they generously let us join at a discounted rate since it was the end of the season. This year, we didn't hesitate when it came time to join.  It's a great pool complex, not fancy, but clean, comfortable, and safe.

It was a great place to spend the 4th of July:

Weekend in New York

Carolyn and I spent a long weekend in New York.  It was great.  We went to Genevieve's wedding in Brooklyn and then spent a couple of days up in Westchester to visit our old Sarah Lawrence friends and colleagues.  The kids stayed behind but had a fun weekend in Fayetteville, Arkansas with Melanie and Gogo (and Ralphie the dog, of course).  Carolyn flew up from Florida, where she'd been working.  I flew in a day early to visit Kim and Jess in Queens:

 Gussied up for Genevieve's wedding:

 Natalie and Curtis:

Josh and Jason (who are living in our old apartment!) and Valerie:

 The Slonim gang! Alex, Pat, Denise and me:

And Miss Belen! We love her so much:

Avery is 8

How is it possible?! Carolyn asked him how he could be 8 and he said "I think it was all the stretching, exercise and peanut butter."

3 years ago, Carolyn asked him the same thing about turning 5 and he said: "You really loved me and I growed. Like a plant."

Happy Birthday to our Amazing Avery!

We celebrated with cousins and best friend Nick at the Indian Hills Swim Club (our favorite summertime spot!.  We also had a birthday dinner at Avery's favorite restaurant (Steak n' Shake) and I took cupcakes to his summer school class (it was also the last day of school!) and read "Good Night St. Louis" to his classmates, who enjoyed finding the red cardinal on each page.

Avery helped decorate Angry Birds cupcakes for his school party:

A Visit from Mark, Christy and Holly

 My college buddies came to St. Louis for the weekend! We had so much fun! We enjoyed swimming at Indian Hills Swim Club, taking the kids to Grant's Farm, eating BBQ at Salt & Smoke, and boozing it up at Urban Chestnut, Fuzzy's Tacos ("the drinking joint with a taco problem") and Affton Cafe.

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