Missouri Tour: Part 2

Continuing on with our tour, we went to St. Louis to visit old friends and to hang with my parents.  The weather continued being awesome and (despite allergies) we thoroughly enjoyed it!   

Our first day there we decided to check out all of the hype at the St. Louis Botanical Gardens and see the Chinese Lantern Festival.  It was GORGEOUS...I can only imagine what it must look like at night.   

Seeing our friend Emma at the Botanical Gardens

Blue Water!   

The next day we went to an oldie but goodie...the Museum of Transportation!   My kids (and mom) love this place and we always seem to have a good time.  

That night we met our friends Annie and Julie for dinner and even though Annie and Anna are only days apart Eli and Anna seemed to really get along :)  Supposedly Annie keeps on calling him "Elijah James" and giggling...

We then headed to the St. Louis Zoo to see the new Sea Lion exhibit (and of course see Bailey, Penelope and Arie). 

That night my friend, Emily, graciously invited us over for a yummy dinner and the boys got along so well!   They played with toys, baseball and even worked together digging a hole to who-knows-where in their backyard ; ) 

We all really started to feel under the weather (103 temp for Eli!), and while recovering we had to miss out on seeing some folks and revisiting our beloved church, Riverside.   After getting some cuddle time we were on the road to recovery.   The kids and I ended up staying some bonus days in St. Louis and used that time to recover and see some sights with my Mom.  

Anna on her first Carousel ride

The Butterfly House

Seeing the Magic Tree House (Eli's fave books!) exhibit at the Magic House

 We then rallied on our last morning and met some friends at a playground for an impromptu play date.  

Katrina and Me

Arie selling Anna acorns

Getting some snuggle time with Grandpa

We then headed to Buffalo, MO to see our Nana and hang out on her farm.   It is so beautiful and peaceful out there and the kids LOVE the animals.   Anna would not leave their cat, Radar, alone.   (yes, we are in trouble.)

Feeding their new horse.

Loving on Radar.

While it is always a good time visiting with family and friends, we couldn't wait to get home to see our our Daddy (and Grandaddy).   Apparently, they missed us too : )  

Our 'Welcome Home' sign, candy and flowers :) 

Missouri Tour: Part I

We decided to round out this summer with a Missouri Tour visiting some of our favorite people.   We left Grandaddy and Daddy behind as we loaded up for a 16 day trip : )  Our first stop was seeing one of my oldest/ and best friends in her new(ish) hometown of Lawrence, Kansas.   (Yes, she is the only good thing about that town).   (Ok, I'll be honest.  I actually think the town is pretty cool.)  The kids once again did a FANTASTIC job on our journey and we made it there in record time.  We enjoyed a night of pizza, silliness and politics (yes, we went there) at the Pearson home.  

*I pre-apologize for the quality of these photos.   In the hustle and butsle of leaving I left our camera behind.  So thankful for the iphone :) 

The kids getting ready for bed

Reading a bedtime story

The next morning we headed to Parkville, MO (northern Kansas City) to visit with my oldest sister, Reebs (a.k.a Rebecca).   We had one of our best behaved visits (no peeing on walls or hanging from chandeliers) and thus we (I) enjoyed our time there (minus some minor burns, bumps and bruises).  

Visiting the gym, where our cousin Roman is a STAR. He honestly is going to be in the olympics some day. 

Watching the Lorax.   (You can tell who had seen it and who had not)

Feeding a RELENTLESS Cardinal. 

Playing dress up with our friend Vivi.

Putting on a rock concert. 

Getting a make over from our Aunt Reebs!

Ta Da! 

After a few days there we wanted to check out our Aunt Linny's new house in Liberty, MO  (minus Aunt Linny).   We LOVE it!  

We then headed south to Brookside area where my other sister, Rachel, lives.  Despite the fear of their 2 dogs (who wouldn't hurt a fly, but DID hurt our flip flops) we enjoyed hanging with them and sending them off on their first day of school.  Goodbyes were pretty easy because we get to see them Labor Day weekend :)

Cousin Davis reading to Eli

Hanging at Deanna Rose Farm

I love this pic!  

All of the MORGAN cousins

I was FREEZING!  

Happy first day Twenters!   

After we enjoyed a first day of school treat, we headed on Tour de St. Louis.   Stay tuned : ) 

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I can't believe he's 5!  I just can't believe it.   He is such a treasure (no pun intended...ok, maybe) and I love seeing him become more and more of his own person each year.   He never ceases to amaze me with his intelligence, wit, imagination, kindness and sheer desire to enjoy life to the fullest.   

We (I) decided to get creative with his party this year (no thanks to Pinterest who makes this task even more tangible and annoying all at the same time).   Todd and I truly had a good time with the details and giving our 5 year old a fine good time.  I CANNOT believe I didn't get a picture of the watermelon Todd carved into a shark.  It was pretty awesome.  

The kids' loot (and treasure hunt instructions)  

Pirate Garb

Pirate Instructions

Who wouldn't want an eyepatch and a tat?

This is where we started getting ridiculous....(Ok, the watermelon shark was over the top too) 

Deadmans Punch

Sea Water

Eli didn't want to miss out on the decorating fun

Pirateress

Digging for loot

Captains

After stuffing our faces with Skeleton Bones (pretzels), The Catch of the Day (goldfish), Polly's Crackers (peanut butter crackers) and Pirate Pizza...we decided to ring in the birthday boy.   

I love the "blimey" look on his face in this one! 

Who says pirates can't wear goggles?   

Most of all I loved seeing Eli enjoy being with his mateys AND being five.  I'm excited to see what next year's sails bring in.   

June 2012

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May 2012

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read.cook.grow.realized.

After Todd's family left (minus Holly who joined us for another week of fun!) we set out to set up for my first "read.cook.grow." camp.   The camp all in all was everything I expected it to be: exhausting yet rewarding.

Here are some hiccups I wasn't expecting: (although hiccups in general were expected)

*Forgetting "Harold and the Purple Crayon" which was my first book on day 1.   I realized it was not in my "Monday" bin at 9 am.   The camp began at 9:30 am.   Sooooo I called Todd.   He had the book downloaded on the ipad and in my hands at 9:25.   He (for so many reasons) is my hero!
*Dishes.   Other than buying a mini dish bin to give dishes a quick rinse, I honestly didn't expect the VOLUME of dishes that we would need to clean each day.   I threw them all in a trash bag, brought them home and the kids helped me wash them in the bath : )
*Dough.   Sooooo much dough to clean up without adequate equipment to clean it up with.  Between playdough, pizza dough and cookie dough there were messes on the floor and bathroom that went beyond a quick clean up.   The bathrooms in the Pantry are less then adequate to clean up the kids doughy hands so I'm going to have them rinse them in a tub next time and then wash them in the bathroom sinks.  As for the floors a STEAM MOP is my savior.   I love it.  I can't believe I never owned one when we were in our Maplewood house.
*Spills.   I had some meauring bins full of various ingredients (rice, beans, water) for the kids to practice measuring.  We were located on the second floor of the restaurant and the rice (and spilled water) fell through the cracks onto the tables below us : )
*Tripped breakers/explosions : )  On our pizza day we were preheating the toaster oven and all the sudden we heard a crack and then smoke.   One of our toaster ovens blew up (Sorry again, Misty!).  Thankfully none of the kids were there and no one got hurt.  Once we removed the toaster oven we thought all was well.   Once we got the first set of pizzas in the ovens they all turned off.  So we'd turn them back on, they'd be on awhile and then turn off again.   The kids ended up taking their pizzas home and everyone still looked happy.   Turns out only one small appliance is allowed per outlet...I will need A LOT of extension cords next camp.

On the contrary, here are some highlights I wasn't expecting:

*Falling in love with teaching the moment my first student walked in.   I knew I wanted to get back into teaching, but didn't realize how much I'd missed it.  
*Anytime a hiccup (all of the above) happened, I didn't freak out.   I guess 6 years of teaching prepares you to know that stuff happens and all that is important is that you make everything into a teachable moment and don't sweat the small stuff.  
*My assistant, Lindsay, was AMAZING.   She is the ying to my yang in that she thought of ways to teach a unit, organize our equipment and prepare for the next day in ways I didn't think of.   So glad I decided to hire her!
*I missed my children and our routine.   My children missed me and our routine.   It's sometimes good to get out of your routine to appreciate what seems to be the mundane.  

All in all I am happy to have a break in between camps but am looking forward to another week of fun in a 1 1/2 weeks!

Here are some pics from our "Blueberreis for Sal" day!

Making pancakes

I showed some of the more adventurous campers how to make Mickey Mouse

Making Conversation Jars for their dinner table at home

Making placemats that show the correct place setting

Enjoying their pancakes

My first group of campers

Back at home cousin Holly took great care of the kids!