A Staycation of Sorts

Our preschooler will be off to kindergarten next year and, with that in mind, Dennis took a couple of days off this month so that we could visit some local attractions before schools were out and places got too busy.

First stop, the City Museum! If anyone is ever in the St. Louis metro area, this place is by far my favorite museum of any that I have ever been to. Everything in the place is repurposed or recycled. It's fun for kids but it's an adult museum. They are even open VERY late on weekends and have a bar. Danny absolutely LOVED the ball pit and Cameron was a big fan of all of the tunnels throughout the museum!







Next stop, a day for Cameron alone with Mommy and Daddy at Six Flags. It never even occurred to me that Cameron might be tall enough for some of the roller coasters but he was and he loved every minute of it!




Now, can you see how this ride not only spins but it also goes UPSIDE down? Guess who road it twice and had to be talked out of going a third time?





Congratulations to our preschool graduate! I'm not sure what you actually have to do to earn a preschool diploma but Cameron got one . . .



Our staycation is over but how can you not smile when your day starts with this?

I Have Been Locked Out Of My Blog!

And just got back in today. This post is from 2 weekends ago - look for additional updates soon now that I can get back in!

We made a trip to the zoo on this lovely May morning where Cameron got to participate in a children's fun run.

In preparation, both boys loaded up on some sugar. They were handing out Popsicles at 8:45am and Danny is very fond of Popsicles . . .



Cameron was all smiles before and during the race, with the exception of about 20 seconds 10 minutes before the race when he was looking rather serious. When I asked him what the serious face was about, he told me that he was concentrating on how fast he was going to run!




The fire department turned on a fire hydrant during the race so Cameron had a blast running through it after the race. He got soaked and was literally the last kid to leave the water spray . . .




We ended our trip with a nice ride on the train. After every stop, Danny yelled "All aboard choo-choo!"



Yesterday, we went to a local strawberry festival where Cameron got to ride a camel. Unfortunately we only got one picture as it was a rather short ride. At $5/minute, this camel charged more than many lawyers I know!



Now, can you hear my screaming at the snake around Cameron's neck! I'm not very fond of snakes. Some well-meaning but rather misinformed individual saw my face while Cameron was holding this snake and told me that Cameron would respect me more if I held the snake as well. Uh, NO!!

Three Birthday Parties?

Danny is only 2 but we celebrated 3 times!! A few weekends ago, while Dennis' brother Michael was in town with his daughter, we celebrated Danny and Alexis' birthdays because they are only 8 days apart. The princess and conductor were happy to share the celebration . . .

















Then, last weekend, we got to celebrate again with Grammy, Grandpa, and Aunt Catherine. I must say, this kid really knows how to eat cake!













Depite all of the celebrating, we couldn't pass by the real deal without having MORE cake. However, lucky for everyone tired of seeing cake pictures, our memory card was full!!

What Do I Do All Day?

Do you ever wonder what a stay-at-home mom does all day? Almost anything ridiculous that you can think of . . .








And in case if you ever need to know, toothpaste and a scrub brush do remove Easter Egg dye!!

Where Does The Time Go?

Cameron turns five this week and I have to say that the past five years seem to be a flurry of excitement that passed in the blink of an eye. It's hard to believe that we brought him home as a tiny baby just days before Easter five years ago.



To celebrate the big occasion, Cameron had his first big boy birthday party with friends at a local children's gym on Friday evening.

I love this photo. Can you see the look on my face in the mirror behind Cameron? If you are wondering why I am making that face, check the hand in the bottom right-hand corner . . . that's Danny with a ball of cake and frosting!

Cameron also had a soccer game on Saturday with Coach Dennis. If you are wondering where Cameron is on the field, he is the child with the shirt covering his face; he apparently found this far more entertaining than the game. Perhaps he'll take to running or swimming instead of team sports!

Cameron's First Road Race

Cameron has been asking to run a race for about a year now and today he finally got his chance. He ran a 1/2 mile fun run and he is VERY proud of himself. He's been wearing his medal all day!

You might also notice the cut on his head. He had a little accident on the playground at school. The result was about 5 hours in the ER for 10 minutes of glue once he finally saw a doctor. I think we need a frequent flyer card for the Emergency Room - this was our 2nd trip in 2 weeks and our 6th since we moved here!




And I just can't resist a couple of cute pictures of Danny!

The Blizzard of 2011

First, I confess that I didn't post anything in January. The truth is that I had a couple of years worth of continuing education to catch up on for my license so nothing exciting happened!

However, this past week the boys and I headed to Kansas City to be housebound with Grammy during the great blizzard of 2011. Grandpa and Dennis were both going out of town for work and it looked like school would be cancelled for most of the week (it was). We got in the car on Sunday afternoon in order to beat the storm which arrived on Monday. My parents got about a foot of snow in one day with very high wind speeds so that the weather service called it a blizzard. The boys had a blast playing with Grammy though and we all survived with smiles on our faces. We returned home on Thursday afternoon to find that we had gotten a couple of inches of ice on EVERYTHING and that our garage door was frozen shut! Dennis missed the entire storm while he was getting some sun in Tampa, however, he paid for it as he spent 45 minutes chipping ice off of his car at the airport when he returned home yesterday!





Cameron and Grammy performing surgery on his stuffed ladybug. Just in case if you need to know, rubbing alcohol works wonders on band-aids that get stuck on stuffed animals!

It's amazing how much fun a bath can be on a snow day!



Check out what Daddy taught Cameron to do . . . can you hear me saying YUCK!! in the background??