WE SEE-REX A T-REX!

Tuesday found us at The St. Louis Science Center, where of course, the kids about had a dino wanting to make a Build-A-Dino. Mouth started to pick up another penguin (he informed me it would have been his TENTH) but instead chose an owl and named it "Hoot". Sullen got a dino and named it "Fierce". Wee One went for the velvet puppy that is like his velvet teddy bear he made for his first birthday. Since the first birthday one was named "Ba Ba Bear" in honor of his "ba ba" that he was giving up (bottle)... and the second one made LAST year at this same Build-A-Dino was named "Acky Dino" in "honor" of his "acky" (pacifier)... this one was named "Dipey Dog" in honor of dipies (diapers) which he'll be giving up sooner than he knows LOL!

One of the special exhibits at the Science Center was about polar animals. The kids got to play a video game (of course), slide like penguins, walk across penguin tracks, see information about polar bears and see what is happening with the melting polar caps.

The biggest hit seemed to be the "Discovery Room" where they got to play with a water table. This was the second one in 3 days (they played one at the Indy Kids Museum) and at both, Sullen got SOAKED. (You can see his little wet shirt....) Anyway, it's a cool feature at the Science Center where you can get a timed ticket for a 40 minute session in the "Discovery Room" and there are only 50 people allowed in at a time (including the adults). The kids can do water table, hold hissing cockroaches (lovely), play with magnets, experience a wheelchair, do experiments, art stuff, blah blah blah. Let's just suffice to say that it is really cool, and even though it is supposed to be for up to 8 year olds, the 9-3/4 year olds were bummed when it was time to leave!

And, of course, we saw a T-Rex! The "Sue" exhibit from the Chicago Field Museum is at the Science Center. The kids actually spent a lot more time in there than I had anticipated! They got to see the different ways dinos saw, made some dino crafts, got stickers & discount coupons for the Build-A-Dino.... They also worked in the "Dino Prep Lab" where they got to whittle away at plastered fossils.

UP, DOWN & ALL AROUND

Our first day in St. Louis we went with the recommendation of "everyone" -- as in "everyone says how great Creve Coeur Park" is. This resulted in a comedy of errors because when I googled "Creve Coeur Park" I ended up with SEVEN different parks in the CC area... when in actuality, CC Park is NOT *IN* Creve Couer. Go figure. Anyway, the very helpful gal at the front desk of the Drury (LOVE the crew at the CC Drury Inn!) printed me some Mapquest directions to the park "everyone" talks about and we took off.

Now, the main thing I'd like people to realize is that I am NOT a "jump in the car & head out" type of gal. To be in a strange location, with full responsibility for the three spawn by myself, and to just "go somewhere" is TOTALLY OUT OF CHARACTER for me. That is just NOT the way this Momma rolls! But everyone has to stroll out of their comfort zone every once in a while and to prepare for mine, I asked Gramma & Papaw if I could borrow their GPS for this trip. (Is there something to be said for asking to borrow something you've purchased for someone else??) Well THANKFULLY I had the GPS or it would have been a HUGE FIASCO!

Unfortunately the Mapquest directions I had took me to a restaurant after a 25 minute drive, but no playground equipment in sight. I drove up & down the same couple-mile stretch a few times & finally found a park map on a bill board. I saw where the playgrounds where but still couldn't figure out HOW to get there. The good news was that I had marked down addresses of two of the Creve Coeur area parks, so with a few dings into the GPS, off we were!

The day turned out okay after all - we ended up at a place called Millennium Park which was an AWESOME park!

I took this picture so that we had proof of the Wee One pushing someone else in a swing... Sullen & Mouth had fun climbing all around & asked if we could go back.

That night we took advantage of "Kids Eat Free" at Applebees which is connected to the hotel. Convenient, especially since at the Drury you can get 3 free drinks at their Happy Hour :) !!

SIGNS ALONG THE WAY...

STAR WARS

And they're off & running! Yep, it's the annual vacation / staycation, depending on your perspective ~ since we're hanging with The Man at his work location, the Arch City! On the way out of the Buckeye State, we stopped at the Indianapolis Children's Museum to see what we could see.

First thing on the kids list was to see the "Star Wars Clone Wars" exhibit. They had fun posing with the wall cut-outs from the exhibit and seeing some of the costumes and weaponry from the movie and cartoons.

Of course, their favorite part is always the top floor where they have the waterway, construction site and the carousel! We spent a few hours there letting the kids blow off some steam and explore new exhibits since we'd been there last, such as the area where you could pretend you were visiting Egypt (to go along with their King Tut exhibit, which we didn't ante up the extra $$$ for on this trip) and then we hit the road for the four hour drive on to St. Louis...

BALD BABY TURNS 8...

This past Wednesday was Hannah's EIGHTH birthday (can you believe it)??? Even though my kids know I like the dog best, this is the first year that we haven't had a "cake" or anything special for just her -- mainly because the spoiled older brats that live in the Momservant's house were given a sleepover party for end-of-school-year.

Well, Gramma & Papaw rectified all that. She got her present when they came to visit this weekend, stuck her head right in & pulled out the birthday cookie! Granted, we had to take it out of the actual box (although with her track record of eating "stuff", I wouldn't have put it past her to just EAT the box) for her but she really enjoyed it, and her new duck!

Now, lest you think that I shorted my "favorite kid" -- Wee One & I did take her to the pet store on her birthday & she got a birthday "donut" treat, plus a new (yellow) squeaky tug rope toy (note to "Dad" / Dan -- not real keen on those straw type squeakers -- they seem unreliable???)... then we drove her through Starbucks so she could get her cup of puppy whip. She got some extra lovin' from the baristas at the window since she was a birthday girl!

LAST DANCE CLASS

Wee One recently had his last "dance class", so we made a little poster with his friend for his teacher, Miss Milea. It had pictures of the two of them on it from throughout the year, and then the Momservants traced their feet & cut them out of construction paper. It came out REALLY CUTE!

Miss Milea gave both the boys little ball blower things (you know, the little pipes where you blow & the ball bounces up in the air above the little basket thingy) and then played with them for the last time this school year with the puppets. Wee One is already asking when he goes back to dance class & doesn't quite get the "in the fall" thing LOL!!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES...

Here are the bubbas on the first day of school (3rd grade) in August 2008....

... and here they are on their LAST day of 3rd grade (being dropped off at the front door - what service from the Momservant!)...

Yes, we now "own" fourth graders!

Everyone keeps asking me when school starts up again, and can you believe that I haven't looked it up yet? Well, they have only been home for 2 days.... so I'm sure by about Tuesday I'll be circling that date on my calendar!!

BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID.

ASPARAGUS YING-YANG

Asparagus makes one child happy.....

....and KILLS the other one!

BALD BABY'S BIG BROTHER

also titled as...

"DAVID, COME LOOK AT THIS!!"

(Which is what I imagine Gramma is screaming to Grampa about right now....)

Yep, the "girl hair", as I called it, is GONE.

I had enough the other weekend & we took the kids for haircuts. Patrick ended up with a buzz due to a miscommunication between the stylist and me. (Oops!) Anyway, *I* really like it and he's used to it, and I think he's appreciating how much cooler he's going to be this summer.

Now if I could just get him to clean his glasses, all would be better LOL!

OUT, DAMN SPOT!

I don't remember what prompted the action, but the other day I did Lady MacBeth to Kevin, quoting the "out damn spot, out"... and it was disconcerting to me that the child didn't recognize the quotation. Guess I need to start figuring out if anyone has done any Shakespeare into a graphic novel... ??

Spots often end up on my mind when it comes time for Fluffy Girl to become Bald Baby. See about halfway down on her side? It's normally hidden by all the fluff, but Bald Baby has a spot. A dark brown patch of fur in her otherwise normally whitish-golden fluff. My personal theory is that is why the breeder was so willing to sell us Fluffy, because she has that spot in her coat & they didn't want it passed down through the Matter lineage. Guess I've also had spots on the mind lately because of having the breeder on my mind, as we'd ("we" as in me, Mouth & Sullen) would like to get on the list for next summer for a male puppy. (Just wanted to throw that out there -- Gramma has been too complacent lately & needs something to get wound up.)

SIGNS OF SPRING

Okay, so Spring is well established here now -- it's actually so far into allergy season that sometimes it looks like snow is blowing around here with all the allergens in the air -- but here are pics of our daffodils from this year!

INTERNATIONAL FEST

We recently attended the local version of an International Festival for lunch. Mouth got his kimchee... Sullen ate sweet & sour chicken (eyeroll) .... and Wee One ate all the shortbreads I bought. They did a passport thing (you can see it on the bottom of the last picture) where at each booth there was information about the country & the kids had to give them an answer to a question to get a stamper put into their passport. It was a really neat process & we all learned something new -- did you realize there were women pilots during WW2 that flew missions only in the US?

WEE ONE

Today was Day One with the Wee One.

Yes, he's still alive.

Barely. (More on that later.)

We hung out at the house; unfortunately our afternoon plans got cancelled because our friends had a sick one at their house so I decided not to risk it. Ran out to the library and when we got back, The Man, Sullen & Mouth were finishing up packing up the truck and off on their way to camp / play paintball (they'd stopped to grab lunch & change after doing grave decoration for Memorial Day).

We then made up some popsicles to freeze during naptime.... so here he is enjoying his creation!

Now, back to the whole nap time thing. Unfortunately, naptime has been elusive in this household. This is how he occupied his time while he was supposed to be napping. Notice the proud look on his face. (He wasn't looking so proud tonight at bedtime when he had to clean it all up....)

I don't know why this third child had to be an early achiever. Walked early... and now he's turned into Demon Spawn early. I thought I still had a few more weeks left (when he turns 3) !!

Maybe I'll have to start calling him Demon Spawn instead of Wee One....

Like I said above -- he's still alive.

I even took him to Friendly's for dinner and we ran an errand at Target. And now I'm sitting here ignoring the HUGE mess he's made in the house. Bald Baby (aka Fluffy Girl) is having a difficult time finding a spot to rest, though LOL!!