I'm Dreaming of...

...a white Halloween?

Jack-o-Lantern Smile

She's been losing teeth just in time for Halloween.

Love this girl and her jack-o-lantern smile!

Truth

I love our neighborhood with all the old houses, big yards, and mature trees...except during that month of the year when those trees seem to drop all of their leaves into our yard.

Welcome to fall!

Fire Safety

Briggs has been learning about fire safety at pre-school over this past month, which has led to some amusing home conversations.

Briggs:  "Today I learned what to do if my clothes are on fire.  I stop, drop, and roll."
Me:  "That's right, buddy.  Can you show me how you do that?"
Briggs:  "I don't know how.  They didn't show us what to do it.  They just told us."

I guess he must be a visual learner.

Briggs was talking to my mom about our hotel from our St. Louis trip.  He told her, "Our hotel room had our very own kids room.  It had bunkbeds and our very own tv and our very own table and our very own smoke detector!"

Only Briggs would notice and be excited about the added safety features in the hotel room.

Love this cautious and safe little boy!!

St. Louis

We just returned from a long week-end family trip to St. Louis.  I can't think of any better way to celebrate Columbus Day than by traveling away from home to discover new adventures.

We enjoyed our first new adventure when we arrived in St. Louis and headed straight to the City Museum.  Although Zach and I had been here before, it was a first for our kids.  If you've never been to the City Museum, it is nothing at all like a museum.  It is more like an adventure playground on steroids.

Although it caused me a little stress, the kids loved it!!

The City Museum is full of things to climb, slide, and explore.  There are caves, tunnels, mazes, and slides everywhere.  When you enter a hole, you're never quite sure where you will come out.  And since some of the holes appear too small for this Mama to navigate, it was a little unnerving to watch my kids disappear down a hole without knowing where they might end up.

Not surprising, this little gal was my most adventurous one when it came to slipping down an unknown rabbit hole.

And this was the one who most wanted to try out the fast slides.

Briggs was more cautious than his sisters, but did his fair share of exploring and sliding.  He liked it best when Zach or I would go with him or when he knew that we would be waiting on the other side of the tunnel when he came out.  He did find a few tunnels that became familiar and he did those over and over again with his sisters in tow.

The skateless skate park was a big hit with all 3 kids.  The girls loved the warped walls and these rope swings.  Briggs found a little tunnel maze in this area that he kept wanting to do with Zach or I over and over again.

This little train was the absolute highlight for Briggs.  He rode it no less than 7 times.

We spent over 5 hours playing and exploring the City Museum.  It was a great start to our St. Louis week-end adventure.

We followed up our play time with dinner at Bailey's Range downtown.  It advertises burgers and shakes.  And that is exactly what it serves.  Very good burgers and shakes.

I love how my kids can entertain themselves while waiting for their food.

Our hotel room might have been one of the true highlights of our trip.  We stayed at a Holiday Inn out by the airport where we got a good discount through Zach's work. Our room had the added bonus of a kid's suite complete with bunk beds and a little kid size table.  We also had a great view of the airport where we could watch airplanes taxiing along the runway, the interstate where we could see cars and trucks and semis, AND a good view of the Metrolink track where we could watch trains coming and going from the airport.  I mean, seriously?!  Does it get any better than that???

The girls loved the bunkbeds.  Briggs loved the view.

The hotel also had a yummy free continental breakfast and a swimming pool.  Score!  The girls enjoyed a little swimming time the next morning.

We all slept well after our day of adventure at the City Museum.  After our big hotel breakfast and a little swimming, we decided to spend the rest of our second day at the Magic House Children's Museum.

We were too full from our big, late breakfast to have a true lunch, so we took the edge off with some smoothies before enjoying our afternoon of Magic House fun.

The Magic House is always a favorite for the kids, but when we found out they were having a special Thomas exhibit this month, it became a must-do.

The girls always list the climber as a favorite.  Even after all the adventurous climbing and exploring the day before, they still enjoyed this much tamer version.

The bubble room is always a hit and the village is always a highlight.  Adelie listed her favorite activities as the climber and fishing in the village.  Staley really enjoyed the math area this time.

And Briggs?  Well...I probably don't even need to write down what his favorite area was.

We filled our entire afternoon until the museum closed down, and no one was quite ready to leave.  But we enjoyed a yummy dinner at Pi, drove downtown to see the arch all lit up at night, and then went back to our awesome hotel for a good night of sleep.

We slept in a little on Sunday, enjoyed a hearty hotel breakfast, packed up, and then headed out to enjoy a beautiful day at the St. Louis zoo.

We met up with my friend, Jenny, and her family for the morning to enjoy some zoo fun together.

We spent the morning with them looking at animals, visiting, and ended our time together with a carousel ride.

After our friends had to leave, we spent the rest of the day at the zoo.  We visited some of our favorite animals.  We rode the carousel again, played at the Children's Zoo, pet some sting rays and sharks, watched the sea lion show, and snacked on big pretzels.

And, of course, we took a couple of rides around the zoo on the zoo train.

We left as the zoo was getting ready to close, played briefly at Turtle Park, and then stopped at Fountains on Locust for a yummy dinner (and the World's Smallest Hot Fudge Sundaes) before heading for home.

What a fun family week-end get-away we had!

A Tale of Two Field Trips

Both girls had their school class field trips this week.  Adelie's field trip was on Wednesday and Staley's was on Friday.  I went as a chaperone on both field trips.

Adelie's class

Staley's class

Adelie went on a field trip to Peoria.  They had too many parent chaperones to fit everyone on the bus so I "had" to drive myself.  Staley's field trip was to New Salem, which is an hour and a half away.  They did have room on the bus for me for that trip.  I must say, my 30 minute drive alone in my van to Peoria was much quieter, smoother, and more relaxing than the 1.5 hours in a school bus full of third graders. Travel winner:  Adelie

Checking out the zebras at the zoo

Adelie's field trip was to Glen Oak Park in Peoria.  They split time between a playground, the zoo, and the Peoria Playhouse.  Staley's field trip was to New Salem where Abraham Lincoln lived prior to his career as a lawyer and politician.  Location winner:  Staley

New Salem

I was in charge of a group of kids for both field trips.  For Adelie's field trip, my group was Adelie and one other little girl.  Both girls stayed together, played together, listened well, and spent long periods of time looking at the same animals or playing with the same things at the museum.  For Staley's field trip, my group was 5 girls.  Two of them seemed determined to leave the group behind the entire day.  All of them seemed to move at a different pace with different interests.  Keeping them together as we walked around New Salem made it hard for me to actually enjoy what we were doing.  Group winner: Adelie (by a landslide)

Adelie's group

Staley's group

Adelie's field trip ran really smoothly.  The 4 classes were split into 2 groups with a nice rotation so that the zoo, playground, and museum were never too overloaded with kids.  It was a nice amount of time at each location.  Staley's field trip was a huge influx of kids mingled in with at least 2 other large school field trips all  haphazardly making their way around New Salem.  We got there relatively early (9:30) and there were only 1 or 2 volunteers dressed in historical garb sitting in the houses/buildings and providing interesting facts and tidbits, which was by far the highlight as opposed to just looking into houses through locked door gates.  As we headed out of the village for lunch, we noticed at least 3 other people heading into the village dressed the part, so it appeared that we missed the prime time for our tour.   To top it off, part of the field trip was that the kids could bring money to buy souvenirs at the New Salem gift shop.  Nothing like trying to keep track of 5 girls in a super crowded gift shop while also trying to help them figure out what they could and could not afford with the amount of money they had.  Logistics winner:  Adelie

Zoo fun

My kids always want me to come on their field trips.  And if they want me there, I want to be there.  I love seeing them with their friends and enjoying their day and experiencing something new.  Adelie had a great time on her field trip.  Staley, unfortunately, got a little bus sick on the way to New Salem and felt pretty rotten for the entire day.  She almost cried about having to get back on the bus to head home and spent the entire evening in bed or on the couch after we got home.  Although she enjoyed bits and pieces of the things we saw and experienced in New Salem, it definitely put a big damper on the day.  Enjoyment winner:  Adelie

Field trip fallout

Two field trips in three days have me worn out.  Adelie's field trip was the clear winner this year for a variety of reasons.  Hopefully next year we have a closer competition.

A Lesson in Fairy Tales

Adelie wrote and illustrated a book entitled "Steps for a Prins"

Page 1:  "the prins kisst hr."   The illustration on this page showed 2 sets of lips

Page 2:  "asc bufor you kiss me!"  The illustration on this page showed a princess yelling at a prince.

In this day and age of consent and female empowerment, I'm glad my girl is getting the message.