Texas: Jane's House

It needs to be said that this whole family reunion thing would not have been as enjoyable or as successful without the hospitality of my wonderful Aunt Jane and Uncle Dave. I counted 13 children at the reunion and countless adults (I'm feeling too lazy to count them all). Thankfully we all had a comfortable, spacious place to get together and catch up. My family is located all over the US (with one family in London), so getting everyone together is very rare.

Perhaps the most popular attraction at Jane's house is her in-ground pool. It was perfectly shaded each afternoon and was a crowd pleaser for kids and adults alike. After an initial near-drowning episode with Amelia, she warmed up nicely and was difficult to pull away from the water.

Second cousins--Miles and Amelia

Sweet, beautiful Maeve

Amelia with Papa John

As if the pool (and all the toys that went with it) weren't enough, my aunt has transformed her attic into a "Bunkhouse". In other words, a cowboy-themed playroom. And it is the coolest thing ever! I could hardly capture all of its glory, but suffice it to say that she took care of every single detail.

Amelia loved every bit of it!

And back outside, there was plenty to do besides the pool. My uncle spotted this little lizard and Amelia took a great interest in it. After observing it for awhile, he told her that he would give her $100 if she could catch it.

She looks a little frightened here, but she really did like it. I swear.

In the end, the lizard was no match for Amelia. Not that she was really that interested in $100. I, on the other hand....

There was also a seesaw and a horsey tire swing to play with outside. Very popular with the kids!

The company was great, the food was delicious, and the drinks were flowing! Although the weather was a little hot, it was totally worth it for such a great time with my family who I certainly do not see enough!

My cousin Laura with the youngest reunion attendee--Janie Bug

Some of the fam

Some more of the fam.

"baby" Jake--such a sweet face!

Miles trying to get some of his grandpa's birthday cake.

Didn't I say delicious food?

Amelia wanted to snap a picture of Jason and I before they headed out to the rodeo.

One of my favorite pictures of the trip. Amelia and her second cousin, Evan.

Texas: The Drive

Well, I have some serious blogging to do about our trip to Texas (among other things). Instead of doing a day-by-day recap, I think I will just devote one blog post to each notable, blog worthy event. The first post (this one) isn't exactly exciting enough to be characterized as "blog worthy" but I feel the need to include it for future reference about what works for lllllooooonnnnngggg car trips!

I retrieved this dry erase pad from the depths of the toy bin. Paired with a set of dry erase markers and an eraser, it killed several hours.

A bit of a last minute, impulse buy, this $10 lap desk from Target was a HIT! It made everything way easier, although she did complain of it making her hot a time or two. I'm not sure what got into her on the way home, but she colored and drew for over an hour straight.

After seeing a similar Bingo game in the newspaper one day, I created two kid-friendly versions for this particular trip. It was more of a scavenger hunt than Bingo, really.

She enjoyed this, although it was definitely a MISS at first. We were on the highway where most of the pictures I chose were more likely to be seen during city driving. She kept the ideas in mind, though, and we found pretty much everything on both sheets while driving around Texas.

Another bit of an impulse buy was a huge book with Where's Waldo-type seek-n-finds. The book had tear out pages so she could mark up the page. There were several items to look for on each themed page and a box to mark it off once it was found. This bought us about 2 hours off and on. There was more than enough for Amelia so she shared them with several other cousins in Texas. We still have more than half of the book left for the next road trip. It was around $7 on clearance at Barnes and Noble (luckily I had a gift certificate).

These were the "winners" I think. We also tried a book on CD for the first time. I chose "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" from the library and she enjoyed following along with her copy of the book. I will definitely try that again and bring more than one. There was also the DVD player, books, and plenty of snacks to keep her occupied.

We stopped in Joplin both directions (approximately halfway) and the kids really did amazing! I'm not saying I want to do it again anytime soon, but 22 hours in the car is a lot for anyone! I am pretty sure the kids did better than Jason and I.

Lucky Seven

Well, despite my best attempts at slowing things down, here we are at month number seven already. After just reading over the month 6 update, it is easy to see how much things have changed in a month.

At his six month check-up, the dr. gave the go ahead for puffs and cheerios and other chunkier foods. We've done chunks of peaches, avocados, bananas. carrots, whole peas, cherries, biter biscuits, and even pizza crust. He has grown more finicky with his appetite--sometime gobbling down two containers of food in one sitting and sometimes barely getting through a half of one. I think he definitely prefers chunks of food and feeding himself (he would eat Cheerios, puffs, and yogurt melts all day if we let him). He has gotten pretty good at drinking from the sippy cup--as long as the valve is out, of course.


One thing we've learned quickly, however, is how much Henry LOVES his food. The second he hits his high chair, he starts screaming. We try to have everything ready before we snap him in, for the sake of our hearing! If he is really hungry, he will scream in between every bite. Oh, and he usually starts screaming again when he is done, too. Mealtime if very loud around here!

With the exception of the screaming, the little man seems pretty easy going. He PREFERS to be held, but likes to be on the floor moving all around, too. He always moves the quickest when he is headed to the dog bowl.

He loves ALL THINGS WATER and its not only the dog bowl! From the second we enter the bathroom for his bath, he is squealing with delight. As soon as he hits the water, he splashes the ENTIRE bath time. At the pool, he splashes himself, whoever is holding him, and anyone else in a 3 foot radius.

He has begun to pull up on things and has found the stairs, our bathtub, and the fireplace. While we were on vacation, he took his second spill off a bed and would up with a nasty little rug-burned nose. He continues to adore both his dog and his sister.

And although we have yet to spot a single tooth (Jason and I BOTH saw two coming in on the top during our trip, only to check again a few days later and see NOTHING there at all), the boy loves, loves, loves to stick out his tongue!

A LOT!

Si or no?

His favorite place to escape to after exiting his room is right across the hall to Amelia's room. And under her bed is the best. place. ever. Of course, Amelia can't resist getting under there with him!

Henry added two more states to his list this month. I think he is up to 7 now and he hasn't even been to Illinois yet! Other exciting highlights were his first 4th of July, many more trips to the pool, blueberry picking, and the 11 hour drive to TX!

I don't have any measurements from him this month, but it certainly seems like his growing has slowed down a bit---at least I am not switching out clothes every month or so. In fact, the 12 month onesies I put him in at the start of summer are still holding strong.

Oh, and did I mention that Amelia decided he was going to be the Tin Man for Halloween? His costume came awhile back (Thanks Ebay!) and he is pretty ecstatic about it. I can hardly wait until October 31!

Seven Months

The Little Gymnast

I still remember the Mary Lou Retton picture I had hanging on the back of my door as a child. I don't exactly recall where it came from--I know my dad got it for me, probably from work--but it was autographed with the message: "To Jodi, Keep Smiling! Mary Lou". I loved gymnastics as a kid and was excited to sign Amelia up for her first class as well!

We did a quick 6 week session through our local park district. Amelia (and Jason and I) immediately fell in love with her gymnastics teacher. She is young, smiley, and soooo good with the energetic 3 and 4 year olds.

Amelia ended up missing the very last class because of our trip to TX. The teacher had to cancel one class so the session got pushed back a week. So, I snapped a few pictures on the last night of her class. Of course, I forgot my camera and ended up using my phone instead.

She was feeling a little extra giggly--probably because I was snapping pictures of her.

Here she is mid-backward roll!

Practicing different ways to jump and hold her legs. This is "pike jump".

I was actually a little surprised that she could get her little body around the bar--with Miss Emma's help of course!

I think we will be trying this class again and if she is still really interested, I will sign her up for the real deal!

Muffin Tin Crayons

While preparing some old baby clothes and toys for the upcoming winter consignment sale, I went on a decluttering mission around the house. I decided enough was enough and spent a good 30 minutes sifting out the many broken crayons from our overflowing crayon box. While doing this, it was Amelia who suggested turning the broken crayons into some new ones.


Because this was a bit impromptu, I didn't have anything ready to use as the mold. I did some quick looking on the internet and decided to use one of my old muffin tins. I didn't have any liners in the house, but because the tin was old and gross already, I decided to use it anyway. I sprayed the tin with vegetable spray and then Amelia and I peeled the paper off of each crayon and broke them into smaller pieces. I asked Amelia if she would like to separate them by color or make rainbow crayons this time. It's no surprise she chose rainbow!


I set the oven at 275 and put the muffin tin in until the crayons looked melted (about 30 minutes I think). After they cooled, we popped them out easily and got to coloring! These crayons are especially fun because with one swipe of the crayon, we could make many colors appear on the paper.

Needless to say, this method worked so much better than my last attempt!

A Meeting at the Muny

Since we had such good luck taking Amelia to see "Annie" at the Muny last year, we thought we'd give it another go. Given the fact that "Beauty and the Beast" was showing this year, you'd think we would have taken her to that one. But, she has seen that musical three times now, so we decided to given the "Sound of Music" a try instead. We've seen the movie a handful of times and luckily that was enough to keep her interest!

We got there SUPER early (my fault), so we had lots of time to kill goofing around.

Amelia really thought she was something with her fancy dress and accessories (all chosen by her, of course). Check out the large-donkey-from-Shrek-watch she is sporting in the first picture.

She did amazingly well during the show and we stayed for the entire performance! Part of it was bringing the right combination of snacks and drinks, but for the most part she was genuinely interested in the action on the stage. Several people sitting around us commented on how well she did and what a "joy" she was to listen to. There was lots of giggling and loudly whispered questions. But my favorite was during the "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" song. Amelia said (in her stage whisper voice), "Just like I'm 4 going on 5!".

What a fun night! I will be shocked if Amelia doesn't end up on some stage at some point in her life. She is still singing "A Few of My Favorite Things" almost daily--or at least the few words of it she remembers.

On Fire

A couple of weeks ago, I arranged to have Amelia's 4 year pictures taken at the City Garden. Little did we know when we scheduled it that it would be a STEAMY St. Louis July day. The temperature was hovering near 100 degrees and the heat index was a number I am sure I don't want to remember. Perhaps picking a time where the sun is most cooperative (4:30 PM) wasn't the best idea.

I haven't actually seen the pictures yet, but I assume the photographers got some good ones of Amelia and some of Henry too. I just hope their cheeks aren't bright red in EVERY one of them...

We loved our inaugural visit to the Garden, but I didn't snap a single picture--I left that to the professionals. Amelia loved checking out and climbing on (and IN) and sculptures, climbing on the rocks, playing in the fountains, and swimming in the pools. She did great--except for when she decided to berate me for not bringing her goggles--what was I thinking?!?

Afterwards, we were in need of some food so we headed to Layfayette Square--home to some of our favorite restaurants. We noticed a newer place called Lafayette Fire Company and decided to give it a try.


We enjoyed the decor (check out the firefighter hat lights) and the food was fair, but on a Saturday evening, it wasn't as kid friendly as I'd like. They had a great kids menu to color but no crayons to offer. Really?

But it was good for cooling off and filling up and the kids both enjoyed the visit.

Amelia took a few (hundred) pictures--including this good one of her dad!

We had planned on having a nightcap at Ted Drewes, but after doing a quick drive-by we realized the kids would not be able to handle to wait. The lines looked to be about 20 people deep.

No fear, though, we went to our old stand-by, Steak-N-Shake, instead. We capped off the evening in style with some delicious chocolate shakes!

I'll be sure to post the pics from the City Garden when I get a hold of them!

A(nother) Day at the Zoo

I may have mentioned before that we are St. Louis Zoo members. We love it there and the membership easily pays for itself (especially since Jason's company foots half of the bill). We visit pretty often. Our membership is up in September, so we thought we better head out there and spend some tickets!

It wasn't exactly Henry's first trip (he joined us for the zoo 5K a few months ago), but it was his first trip actually enjoying what the zoo had to offer. Including the carousel!

He also enjoyed the train ride quite a bit, although I got no picture of that. Amelia and her friends enjoyed the Zoomagination area as usual. We seriously LOVE that place and just got word that they are going to move it downstairs and expand!

Hunting for bugs is one of my, er Amelia's, favorite things to do there.

She's also very serious about properly caring for the animals. On this visit, there was a very sick elephant.

We only lasted until lunch time, but I am happy to say that I survived with both kids! Granted, I had a few friends along on the ride for support, but they had their own little ones to care for. There was only one brief moment where I was questioning my judgment. It went so well, in fact, that if it every cools down we may just try it again!