Zoo Day

Our family came down to join us for an afternoon at the St. Louis zoo, so I wanted to photo dump...

It's Shark Week @ the Zoo

Cold water misters, always a popular attraction

Toddler Boy was fascinated with the prairie dogs

This is the first time we've been to the zoo this year.  I realize that sentence makes me into the most neglectful parent in town, considering it's only a 1/2 hour drive from our house and it's free too.  The summer is almost over and this is our first zoo trip (shudder)!  My only excuse, we've had a pretty full summer thus far, and I've been on a two week cleaning binge.  You know the kind, where mountains of trash bags are thrown and/or given away but your house looks pretty much the same.  Frustrating...I'll just leave it at that.

Moving on...since our last visit they have finished the new sea lion habitat, which was really neat.  You got to walk into an underwater tunnel and watch them swim over and around you.

No sea lions in this one...

There they are!!

More from the sea lion exhibit

At least, I think they were sea lions (maybe they were seals)?  I was busy counting heads as we were walking in so I didn't read the sign.  We had eight kids between three adults and three needed one-on-one supervision so we had our hands full today.  I was glad Doug was able to take off work to go with us, I think it would have been a bit overwhelming with just two.

It seems I'm getting lots of pictures of backs...

After checking out the sea lions (seals, whatever), we headed to the bird cage and then went to see the safari animals.

There's some faces!!

Last stop was the always popular reptile house.  Popular with the kids (snakes) and the adults (air condition)!

My beautiful niece!

So glad snakes are in glass cases

Nice hip bump Game Boy is giving his cousin

This is as close as I ever want her to
a water moccasin!!

My main job in this place is just to make sure my herd doesn't run over any unsuspecting visitor trying to enjoy a day at the zoo.  They would be casually studying an exhibit when WHAM, out of nowhere eight kids descend and it's all they can do to escape with their life and all their limbs!

We had hoped to make the penguin exhibit (another popular, smelly, but very cold place),  but ran out of time, due to Game Boy's soccer practice this evening.  Doug ran back to get the van while we entertained the kids and he did a drive by to get us loaded up.  I would like to insert here that I rode to the zoo with my sis-in-law and even though Doug told us we drove in the wrong way we TOTALLY scored an awesome parking spot RIGHT IN FRONT of the north entrance.  Just sayin, we absolutely knew what we were doing when we drove that way.  (Let's be real, I'm giving all the props to God for that cool spot, because there's no such thing as luck when it comes to zoo parking)...

Parting group shot!

When we got home I asked Princess what her favorite animal we saw at the zoo today...

Princess:  the penguins

Me:  We didn't see the penguins today, what is your favorite from today?

Princess:  I don't know, what did we see?

Me:  Well, we saw the birds and sea lions, monkeys, prairie dogs, giraffes, zebras, and snakes.  Which one was your favorite?

Princess:  The lions

Guess another trip is on the horizon!

Weekend with Family

We made a three hour trek north to spend this past weekend with Doug's brother Jon and his family.  We used to spend more time with them when the kids were younger because they would drive down to visit us and the rest of Doug's side of the family.  However, now that all of our kids are older it has become a scheduling conflict.  Funny, you would think that it would be easier to make the drive with older kids, but the opposite is actually the case.  Now that they're older there are school days and when school is out there are sports schedules.  Between our two families the older kids were involved in swim team, baseball, soccer and basketball over this past summer.  That doesn't take into account Boy Scout camp and Church camp either.  Finally we figured out that if we wanted to go visit them that last weekend was pretty much the only weekend we had free before their kids started school and we started another soccer season.

We really wished we lived closer together because the cousins are all close in age and get along so well.  This visit was no different...

We hadn't been in the door two minutes when we decided to head to the local waterpark.

Enjoying the warm weather

Practicing swimming without a lifevest

Game Boy getting a ride from Dad

The weather was cooperating with us, it was actually warm enough to swim and the rain they were predicting never showed up.  I took the little ones around the lazy river and Doug took them down the slide (you can tell which one is the "fun" parent in our household)!  I wished I had the camera to get a shot of Toddler Boy's face on that ride.  He was a bit freaked out but wanted to go down it again, so I guess he liked it.  Princess refused to go with Dad on the slide, it looked to be a bit too fast for her taste.  She enjoyed the big bucket dumping water in the kids play area and she did go down the slide in the baby pool.

After swimming Uncle Jon mentioned they had a new Bass Pro Shop open since we last came to town.  The older kids were all over that...

This was the best group shot I could get
It's like herding squirrels!

They had a huge aquarium with BIG fish...

and big grizzly bears!

The kids also had fun working their mad shooting skills.

Game Boy and cousin playing Buck Hunter

My niece getting in some target practice

Quality male bonding/shopping time
He scored some caramel corn too!

The younger kids got in on the action

The little girls found some horsies
(brother bombing photo with "hand in pants" shot)

Of course, he wanted a pink horse too!

The kids were disappointed we didn't buy the horses, but we made it up to them by stopping to see the fish outside the store.

The next day Jon and Doug took the older kids fishing and out to play a game of baseball.  Amazingly, there were no major injuries to report.  I sent the camera with them but they only came back with one shot...

Fishing spot

I take it they didn't catch anything big or they would have snapped a picture, but the lake was nice.

While they were at the house the kids had fun playing nerf wars and bouncing on the trampoline.

No injuries to report here either...

While the big kids were doing all their activites, I hung out with my awesome sis-in-law Nicole and watched Toddler Boy play with their dog Max.  They had a great game of tug of war going...

Max won, pretty much every time.  But Toddler Boy loved every minute of it.  While they did that and the little girls played together I got to visit with Nicole and pretty much did this...

Me and my cup of coffee

A great trip, thanks to Jon and Nic for hosting us.  Now we get to host them when they come down to visit tomorrow.  Weather permitting, we'll head to the zoo or hang out at the pool.  Another post and more pics to follow!!

Trip home...travelling with little ones has it's perks!

7 Quick Takes - Make Overs

1.  I got a new haircut and color!

Because it's so different I've been feeling a bit like I went into the witness protection program.  Even close friends do not recognize me until I start talking to them.  My kids were a bit shell shocked over the make-over, but now they are used to it.  I love the shorter cut and bangs, it's so much easier to take care of in the summer, especially with all the swimming.  I've never had my hair so black before (channeling my inner Hallie...or maybe Katie Perry)?  Either way, I'm enjoying the new look.

2.  Princess decided to get a new do this week too:

New, shoulder length haircut!

She loves going to Aunt Lesley's to get her hair cut.  Her favorite part is when her Aunt sprays "sparkles" on her hair when she's done.  She has been asking to get her hair cut shorter for awhile now, but I've been trying to convince her that having long hair is fun.  Truth be told, Princess hates me to fix, style, braid, (whatever) her hair.  When she was 2, we had to have her hair cut in a really short bob thanks to Game Boy taking the scissors to it.  I was upset because her hair was just starting to get long enough and thick enough to fix at the time.  However, the bob was really cute on her and Doug loved it because he was washing her hair all salon style in the bathroom sink (the girl has no idea how blessed she is to have him as her Daddy).

3.  The older boys have been gone this past week to church camp, they come home today.  Having two less kids around makes the house seem a bit quieter, we're looking forward to them coming home.  This year we didn't get to do drop off or pick up at the camp.  The church decided to take a bus because there were so many kids from our church attending.  The camp is a little over an hour's drive north of us.  It was more convenient to not make the drive, but as a mom I admit to missing making sure they were settled in at drop off (and making sure they didn't leave anything behind at pick-up).  Firstborn was gone less than 24 hours when this occurred:

Shattered Gerbil Habitat!

Toddler Boy decided to pull the gerbil aquarium off the stand, which then shattered.  Followed by pandemonium as we rushed to put the dogs outside before they decided to eat one of Firstborn's beloved pets.  Then we had to catch the two gerbils, who were running/hopping around the living room.  (Disclaimer:  neither Toddler Boy or the gerbils were harmed in this incident).  Of course, this happened after the pet store down the street closed so Doug had to make a late night Wal-Mart run to purchase a new 10 gallon aquarium.  The whole thing made for an exciting Sunday night!

4.  Princess got to spend the night at Grandma's house with her cousin this past week.  They had a "girl's night" sleepover, complete with nail polish and everything.  My mom raised only daughters and she is such a good "girl mom", she knows how to pamper them!  I'm afraid Princess and I will never instill an appreciation of the more feminine things of life in my boy saturated household.  My apologies to my future daughters-in-law...

5.  I've been spending time pulling our curriculum together for the upcoming homeschool year.  Princess will "officially" join us as a kindergartner, and we'll also be doing grades 8/6/3.  I only list grades as a reference point, because homeschooling is so flexible there is a "range" of classroom work.  Since my oldest will be in high school (yikes!) next year I've been working towards my middle schoolers becoming more independent in their studies.  As for myself, I'm working on transcripts and becoming more organized and intentional on what homework I keep for their records.  As always, surrounding it all in prayers!

6.  Game Boy and I went to visit my Aunt Chris while Princess was at Grandma's.  She's a teacher, and over the summer she taught a kindergarten class and they used tablets.  Thanks to switching cable companies, we're receiving an additional Kindle Fire for our household.  I'm planning to incorporate some educational apps and wanted to see what worked for her kids.  If any of you have any advise of educational apps your kids love, please comment away!

Of course, no trip to Aunt Chris' would be complete without a visit to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, yum!!  Aunt Chris and Uncle Ron introduced me to Ted Drewes when I spent a weekend with them one summer when I was a teenager.  That, and Fortel's Pizza Den.  This may be dating me, but I also recall her showing me something calling a "compact disc", (at the time that cassette tapes were popular).  They were too expensive then, but she swore that this was the direction music technology was heading.  She predicted that eventually the price would come down enough and nobody would even use cassette tapes anymore...prophetic, anyone?

7.  Hats off to all of you bloggers who took up Jen's 7 days of blogging challenge.  You have been keeping me busy reading, love it!  I did not take up the challenge, I know full well that I do not have the ability/time to blog daily (I like reading other blogs too much)!  However, I knew when I started this blog that I didn't have alot of time to devote to it, and I'm ok with that.  For now, I am just trying to capture some memories for my family and keep up with the laundry too.  Blogging is only something I do in my spare time, which I never seem to have enough.  I have to live my "real, off-line life" intentionally first, before I commit any additional time to my poor, neglected blog.  Maybe someday blogging will become less of a hobby and I'll be able to incorporate it more into my life, like many of my favorite bloggers have done.  Baby steps...

Have an awesome weekend and click over to Conversion Diary to see more Quick Takes!!

Five Favorites - Organization

Reading Jen's post on organization has inspired me to do a 5 favorites on what I have found that works for our house (read:  I'm not organized enough to do a whole post on it, but I should be able to pick out a few of my favorite tricks).


1.  Sock Basket

Yes, this is an actual picture of ours

We've tried buying socks in different colors for each child, but it just didn't go over well.  This system works well for us simply because we only have two girls in the family (me and Princess).  Almost all of our socks are white, with the exception of Doug's work socks and our soccer socks.  All clean socks get thrown in the sock basket, done.  If I want to wear a pair of mine that are colored they're pretty easy to find because they'll stand out against the white.  Colored socks make me happy, even if I'm the only one who sees them.  Besides, the newest fashion is to wear mixed matched socks anyway...who knew we were ahead of the curve on this one!

2.   My Homeschool Cabinet

Cut me some slack, the school
year hasn't started yet!

This was a gift from my husband's beloved grandmother's estate, and I love, love, love it.  It makes me happy to be using it for all our school books because Grandma Haege was an educator and I think it makes her smile in heaven to know we are putting it to such good use.  Plus, it's big enough to hold pretty much all our stuff.  At least all the homeschool stuff is in one place, when it starts to overflow I know it's time to declutter the artwork and such.

3.  DVD Binder

Why I need one of these...

OK, this one I haven't done yet, but it is a super idea that a friend of mine uses and I think it's genius and I'm planning on implementing it as soon as I have a spare minute (maybe I'll let the older boys work on it instead).  She has a ton of Disney movies and to keep them organized she takes them out of their original cases and sticks them in a binder labeled "Kids Movies" (with the plastic pages that hold multiple CD's per page).  Then she puts the DVD cases in a box in her attic.  Like I said, genius.  The cases stay nice and all of her movies are in one place so when they go on a car trip she just takes the whole binder so the kids aren't fighting over which movie to take.  I would expand on the theme by putting their XBox games in there too.  The only issue I would see with this is making sure you don't leave the binder in a hot car or accidentally leave it in a hotel room on vacation.  It would be tragic to lose your entire movie/game collection at once!

I still think this is a good idea, our DVDs are constantly getting scratched up because the kids are popping them in and out, and then the cases go missing/break/have cover missing from them (you get the picture).  As you can see above, our DVDs are currently stored on a high shelf to keep the little ones from reaching them.  It would be nice to have all of that combined to one or two folders and clean the clutter up.

4.  My Changing Table

We've received this from Doug's folks when Firstborn was born, my MIL said they used it as a changing table when their boys were little, so it's had alot of use.  We've painted it multiple times to match the decor of the nursery.  I keep the diapers and wet wipes in the top drawer, along with Toddler Boy's pajamas.  Then the rest of his clothes go in the bottom two drawers.  We've gathered quite a collection of those thin receiving/swaddling blankets over the years and I use them as the cover to the changing pad on top.  If it gets dirty I just whip it off and throw it in the wash and grab a new one out of the drawers.  It's not in the shot, but I also have a "diaper champ" diaper pail off to the side.  It's wonderful for keeping the smell down in the nursery, I usually only have to empty it on trash day.  We've used cloth diapers on and off over the years, but when we're using disposables this is what works for us.

5.  Shoes in the Van

I'll end with the comment I left over at Jen's organization post and mention the "shoes in the van" trick, which is similar to the "outfit and diapers" in the van trick I used when the kids were really small or working on potty training.  This summer we started leaving Princess' (5) and Toddler Boy's (2) shoes in the van.  It has been a life saver on my sanity and anxiety levels.  Seriously, we would start looking for their shoes 1/2 hour before we were supposed to leave, we'd put them on...only for them to lose them again right before we walked out the door!!  Even if Princess left her shoes by the door, Toddler Boy finds great joy in wearing her shoes around and dropping them wherever so it makes it impossible to find both of them.  It helps to have shoes they can put on and off themselves (or with their brother's help) rather quickly because chances are they will wait until we arrive at our destination before slipping them on.

The down side of this is they are always, always running around barefoot.  Which means I am constantly cleaning their feet off.  It could also entail a trip to the E.R. if they step on something (like, say a large fish hook with a barb that was knocked down by the dog).  The fact is, my two youngest despise shoes and would be running around barefoot whether their shoes were in the car or not.  At least when they're in the car the shoes are not lost.

Stickers from recent E.R. visit
Princess was so, so brave

(Trust me, you absolutely do not want to see a picture of the fish hook embedded in her foot).  It was not pretty, but I sure am proud of how well Princess did in the hospital.  She scored stickers and a McDonald's Happy Meal from the whole ordeal.

Head over to Hallie at Moxie Wife to see more 5 Favorites link ups!!

Park Days

As everyone else in the Midwest United States, we are totally taking advantage of the fall-like temperatures at the end of July and heading to the park...

Loves smiling for the phone/camera!

Hanging out with Jesus

The kids love going to the "Jesus Park" (which is part of a local Catholic Shrine).  They added a water feature a few years back, which is great on hot summer days.  Not so great for today, I spent some of our park visit warning the kids to "stay away from the water"!

"Sliding" photo, static hair and all!

Totally not centered, but not bad considering I took it with my ancient camera phone, which is known for it's blurry action shots.  One of his favorite activities, he probably went up and down it a dozen times.

Fall, 2011

Today

Other favorite activity, the swing.  What a difference two years makes!  The two older boys are at church camp this week, so I just have the "littles" at home (ages 2/5/8).  Doug and I always find the change in the family dynamic fascinating.  Life moves at just a bit slower pace when we only have the younger ones to parent.  I find myself going to the park more often, feeding the ducks, making sure to be home for nap times, etc.  In other words, things I used to do when I just had little ones (3 under 5).  I enjoy the change up, even if it can be a bit more exhausting because I don't have the older ones to help out and entertain the young ones (say, when I'm cooking dinner or taking a shower).  Although, at 8, Game Boy is a help.  He tends to step up to the challenge when his older siblings are gone.  He takes over the helper and protector role and usually becomes more responsible (if only for the week).

Thankful today for the beautiful weather and the time to cherish my three younger children, praying that my older boys are enjoying church camp, and looking forward to seeing extended family this weekend!