Staley's Birthday

When I asked Staley what she wanted to do to celebrate her 9th birthday, she said, "Exactly the same thing that I did last year."  Exactly the same thing included inviting her friend Lilian and her cousin Lila to join her for some rock climbing, movie watching, and sleepover fun.  And so we did.

We kicked off the fun with rock climbing at Upper Limits.

All 4 girls climbed better and higher than they did last year.  And they climbed for over 2 hours straight.

It's so fun to see my girls embrace an activity that gives them strength, confidence, and an opportunity to overcome fears.

And just like last year, we followed up our rock climbing with a meal at Culver's.  

Tired from climbing and full from dinner, we headed home and all 4 girls fell asleep pretty quickly and slept well all night.

In the morning, the girls played and ate breakfast.  Lila had a basketball game, so Staley, Lilian and I took her to the game.  We slipped out partway through the game so Staley could go get her ears pierced.  Although anxious about it, she did great and now LOVES having pierced ears.

After basketball and ear piercing, we had lunch and then returned to our house for a cozy afternoon movie viewing of 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.'  A full almost 24 hours of birthday fun was had by all!

As if that wasn't a full enough birthday, the fun continued.  Lila stayed and Uncle Rob came with Olivia along with both sets of grandparents and cousin Elliott (who was staying with Grammie and Grandpa) for Staley's birthday dinner.  There were birthday gifts like CDs, books, craft items, earrings, and running hats.

And when Staley requests her birthday dinner be hamburgers on the grill, Daddy says, "Sure" even when it's in the middle of a snowstorm.

#fatheroftheyear

And no family gathering is complete without an original production performed for the rest of the family.

Staley's birthday was full, fun, and everything she had hoped it would be.

This is what 9 looks like!!

Interview with a 9 Year Old

Favorite color:  Blue
Favorite food:  Cheeseburgers and cheeseburger soup and tacos
Least favorite food:  Vegetables
Favorite restaurant:  Lulu's and The Donut Hole (both in Destin)
Favorite dessert:  Uncle Bob's ice cream
Favorite toy:  Pogo stick
Favorite stuffed animal:  Teddy (formerly Yellow Bear)
Favorite animal:  Sloth and monkey
Favorite game:  Stratego and dodge ball
Favorite movie:  The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Favorite sport:  Basketball
Favorite activity:  Stage Kids
Favorite thing to do at home:  Read
Favorite thing about school:  Reading
Favorite place to go locally:  State Farm pool
Favorite place to go on vacation:  Disney World
Favorite thing to do with Adelie:  Go to Stage Kids
Favorite thing to do with Briggs:  Listen to 'The Pond'
Favorite thing to do with Mommy:  Go running
Favorite thing to do with Daddy:  Go fishing
Favorite book:  The Charlie Bone series and 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'
Favorite princess:  Jasmine and Mulan
Favorite superhero:  Batgirl
Favorite outfit:  My purple shirt, purple vest, purple pants, and purple socks from Uma
Favorite pajamas:  My monster pajamas
Favorite play you've been in:  Frozen, Jr.
Favorite play you've seen:  Wicked

What are you excited about doing when you are 9?  Getting my ears pierced, riding in the van without a booster seat.  (Her mother says that has more to do with height than age, so we'll see.)
What are you scared of?  Vegetables  (insert mother rolling her eyes here)
What's the best thing about you?  I'm awesome!
What are you good at?  Everything!  I'm good at acting, singing, dancing, reading, doing math, playing sports.  (Obviously confidence and self-esteem are not issues for this one.)
Who is your best friend?  Lilian and Josie and Katelyn
What do you want to be when you grow up?  An actress

Happy Birthday, Staley!

Yesterday was Staley's 9th birthday.  How can it be that 9 years have suddenly flown by in the blink of an eye?  How is it possible that my baby girl is already 9?

Blink!

Blink!

Blink!

Blink!

Blink!

Blink!

Blink!

Blink!

Blink!

Blink!

And just like that, my baby is 9.  I am so proud of the person that she is becoming.  I love her kind heart, her big ideas, her sweet nature, her confidence.  I can't wait to see what this year holds!  Happy birthday, baby girl.  I can't believe how fast it has gone!!

Good-bye, Christmas Break!

It is with sadness and reluctance that I say good-bye to Christmas break as the kids resume school and activities starting tomorrow.  We have had a wonderful 2 weeks + 1 day off from school and extracurricular activities.  Apart from our Christmas activities and our week-end in St. Louis, we have otherwise spent most of our days at home.  Many of them have been spent in pajamas.  A majority of them have started after 8:00 in the morning.  And it has been altogether lovely.  I take lots of photos in my everyday life (obviously), but some of my favorites are those that just purely capture the day to day moments.  And so here are some of the normal, everyday moments that have made up our Christmas break.

There has been lots of reading.

There has been lots of drawing and coloring.

There has been lots of puzzling...

...and train playing...

...and building.

There has been writing and drawing.

There has been lots of family game playing and family movie nights.

And lots of sweet moments of sibling togetherness.

Including Adelie patiently sitting still while Staley tried out some new hairstyles on her.

We did have several play dates with friends.

(Including a few play dates and a rockin' New Year's Eve (that ended at 10:00) with my friend, Christie, and her family home from the east coast that again resulted in no pictures.  What is wrong with me?)

And we enjoyed one outing with friends to see a final showing of 'Frozen, Jr.'...

...featuring one of the girls' favorite 'big kid friends' from Stage Kids as Elsa.

But for the most part, our Christmas break was lazy and cozy and relaxing and fun.

And I, for one, am not ready for it to end.

Good-bye, Christmas break.  I miss you already!

Go Team!

Adelie has informed us that she no longer roots for the Bears.  She has decided that she wants to root for the Dolphins because she likes dolphins.  As we were discussing this at dinner tonight, Briggs said, "I wish there was a team that was named the Trains.  If there was, I would root for them."

Photo of the Day

When the hotel doesn't offer a step stool...

you improvise.

#resourceful

#sisteroftheyear

#mynewfavoritephoto

St. Louis Christmas

We ventured to St. Louis the week-end after Christmas to give the kids their gift of family fun.

We had initially planned to head down on Saturday for an evening at the Wild Lights event at the St. Louis Zoo.  A rainy night put a damper (pun intended) on those plans, so we instead checked out Our Lady of the Snows drive through light display, ate dinner at Eckert's Country Restaurant, and then drove to our hotel.

We stayed at the kids new favorite St. Louis hotel by the airport.  The kids room with bunkbeds is pretty great, but the excitement of watching planes take off and land and seeing the Metrolink train heading to and from the airport makes this the best. hotel. ever!  Hours of entertainment for one certain member of the family.

The next day was an unseasonably warm December day.  The rain stopped and we headed out for a fun day at the St. Louis Zoo.

The zoo train was closed for refurbishment.  Briggs took the news heroically.  I was very proud of him for the way he handled his disappointment without drama or tears.  Although he had been talking about the train all morning, when he found out it was closed he just asked, "We can still ride the carousel, right?"  And yes, we did.

We had one of our best zoo days ever.  The weather was really nice, the zoo was pretty empty, and many of the animals were more active than usual.

Although we didn't get to see the zoo lights in all their glory at night, we got to enjoy all the decorations and photo ops around the zoo.  By early afternoon, they were starting to turn on some of the lights so we got to experience a little of what we had missed the night before.  It was a great way to spend the day.

We went to the Hi-Pointe Drive In for a quick late lunch/early dinner before heading back to the hotel to prepare for our evenings out.

We dropped Briggs and Zach off at Union Station for their ride on the Polar Express.  Zach found the experience a bit underwhelming, but Briggs enjoyed it.  He got a cookie and hot chocolate, a bell from Santa (although apparently he politely declined a picture with Santa), and most importantly, got to go on a fun 45 minute train ride.  However, the highlight might have been riding the Metrolink train to the airport, riding escalators at the airport, and taking the hotel shuttle bus from the airport to our hotel.  Apparently Briggs told Zach that was even better than the Polar Express.

While Briggs and Zach were riding the Polar Express, the girls and I headed to the Fox Theater to see Wicked.

The girls had been listening to the soundtrack obsessively for the past month, so I was so excited to give them the opportunity to see one of my favorite musicals in one of my favorite theaters.

The girls loved the play, although Staley found the crowded theater before the show and the insanely long bathroom line at intermission a bit overwhelming.

The girls also enjoyed munching on big oatmeal raison cookies and the world's best gummy bears as snacks during the play.

It was such a fun experience to share with my girls!!

After a good night of sleep and a big breakfast, we then headed to the Science Center to spend a few hours before leaving for home.

We stopped at the Hofbrauhaus St. Louis for lunch on our way out of town.  It was a beautiful restaurant, but the food and service were a little underwhelming.  I'm sure the atmosphere is more fun in the evenings then at 2:00 on a Monday afternoon. 

It was a great little family get-away and a fun way to round out our Christmas celebrations.