Photo roundup

This is where Miss G slept last night:

She and her brothers built the "fort" last night and when I got up this morning, she was still there!

Friday after school, we went to the library:

Is there anything better than licking the beaters after making frosting?

(I keep telling him that if he acts goofy while I'm trying to take his picture, I'll post the results!!)

Friday was kindergarten water day:

Do you think she likes her Popsicle?

When school was done on Friday, I asked her how school was. Every day since school began, she has told me, "AWESOME". Today was no different, but after a small pause, she solemnly informed me that, "Today may have been the best day of my ENTIRE LIFE!"

We were blessed to have our dear friend Tracy visiting from DC this weekend, and when Miss G had a slight cold on Sunday, they stayed home from church together. When we came home, they had made "Best Girl" awards!

Wow, an entire post without pictures of the little guy! We'll have to rectify that soon!

First Days of School...

Here come the 6th grader and kindergartener!

Then I went home and faced the mess of the summer:

Miss G loves her new class:

Then we came out of school to find a little surprise in front of our parking space:

I thought Big Guy would think he was too cool to take a picture with a big rubber ducky.

I was wrong.

In the Merry Old Land of Oz

On Saturday, Little Miss went on a road trip with me and my Mom. Have I mentioned how happy I am that my Mom came to visit?? Yay, Mom!

We headed to the charming town of Wamego to visit the Wizard of Oz museum:

Yes, those are in fact Wizard of Oz troll dolls.
I couldn't resist the knitted Tin Man!

And Little Miss got to have her picture taken with Toto!

St. Louis, Day One

Sunday after church, with loaded cars and dozy children, we hit the road for St. Louis. We ended up staying about twenty miles outside of the city, in a hotel I've used previously (for Time Out for Women last year). We had a nice, big suite and there was a salt water pool which the kids loved (well, they loved the pool-ness of it, not so much the salt water part!).

The next morning, bright and early, we headed into the city:

After a pleasant few minutes in the underground museum, we took our places in line for our ride to the top of the Arch. Due to technical difficulties, we had to wait awhile:

Forty five (brief!?) minutes later, we found ourselves climbing into the "egg"(as the kids called the little elevator cars which take visitors to the top), and all was forgiven!

Quarters were tight but the ride up and down was a huge hit! The top of the arch itself, however, was something of a letdown. "Okay, Mom, this is nice. Now can we get back in the egg?"

So we walked down to the riverboat dock and had a little lunch. We boarded the boat and were captivated by river travel.
For about five minutes.

Did I mention that it was very hot?

Big Guy: Why are we on this boat?

Mommy: For fun.

Big Guy: Are we having any fun?

After a few more minutes of taking in the scenery, we found tables inside, and I sacrificed my electronics (iphone and camera) to the amusement of the small children.

Oh, and did I mention the popcorn?

The little ones spent about half of the trip taking pictures of EVERYTHING. The insides of their hands (note Sam's photographic technique in the above photo), the really attractive underside of my neck, the popcorn, random strangers, etc. (I spent an amusing fifteen minutes deleting the vast majority of them that night; I was tempted to post many of those pictures, but I figured they wouldn't be nearly as amusing to anyone else but me!!)

Peace, restored at last. The cost was merely a little air conditioning, some popcorn, and some smeary fingerprints on my personal electronics.

After that, we decided we'd had enough of the big city for the day and headed back to the hotel for pay-per-view movies, more swimming, and dinner at my favorite chain restaurant (California Pizza Kitchen, in case you couldn't restrain your curiosity). Once again, the camera was sacrificed at the altar of toddler amusement:

We will quickly pass over the tale of how our nights were spent, and simply say that we will not be staying in a hotel again until Little Guy is much, much older. Much older. Like twenty-five. And boy, how much do I love my Mom for making this crazy trip with us???

At the Magic House (St. Louis, Day Two)

On our second day in St. Louis, we decided to forego the Zoo (it was really hot outside) in favor of the children's museum, The Magic House. First of all, it is HUGE! Second, it is CROWDED. Third, LOUD! But lots of fun, regardless. All three kiddos had great fun, though unfortunately, they often wanted to have fun in three different places at once, and there were only two adults! But we persevered!

One of the favorite parts of the day was the discovery of Jack's Beanstalk, which is a three story climbing structure (from which it is almost impossible to retrieve unwilling children):

While little guy liked it, he was even more pleased with the Beanstalk that was more his size:

The big kids had lots of fun in a hands on art and science room:

Then we went to Trader Joe's to load up on our favorite goodies (mandarin chicken rules!!), said a sad goodbye to big brother and Gamma, and then the little ones and I got into the car for a LONG drive home through St. Louis traffic and thunderstorms!

A rare sighting in the wild

With Big Guy off to Florida for the rest of the summer (tales of our adventure in St. Louis to follow), the little kids and I headed to the Zoo today. While there, we had a rare sighting of our favorite creature, the Parentis Daddymanus:

Not, of course, to be confused with the more garden variety Parentis Crunchyconmommyus, who is commonly to be found at the zoo:

We were surprised and pleased to get a sighting of this rare creature outside of his normal habitat of office, home basement or gym, especially on a Friday morning!

Thanks for the surprise!