Back in Wonderland

This last Wednesday I took the kiddos back to the Botanical gardens. They are free on Wed. and Sat. before noon. This time we tried out the children's garden. It was so fun. I found a new plant I like called an urn plant.

From Mo Bot Garden

 The children's garden has a water park that Lizzy loved. There is a pollination play area too.  Lizzy tried to climb up the tree house, but got scared. It was quite high. A nice girl helped her down. We spent another 3 hours there and I still haven't seen much more then the first time. I need to go back and see the Japanese garden sometime. Lizzy picked up a cactus and got a needle in her finger. I had to enlist the help of another patron to hold her down so I could remove it. Poor thing, she was hurting. Then as we were walking out a lady stepped in front of her and Lizzy said, "Hey, excuse you!" I am glad the lady didn't hear her, but it was funny. 

Arr you ready to Party?

From 2011-06-11 Lizzy's pirate birthday

 Lizzy was ready for a pirate party! We were at Sioux Passage Park. Nearly every table was already reserved, but we found a few near the playground and set up. Daniel was quite annoyed with me since I hadn't reserved the pavilion, but I knew it would be fine. All of the kids got a sword and eye patch and I set up the bubble machine and let them go. It was so fun watching their antics.  Daniel helped me with the cake. He did the icing. I think it looked great, but it tasted better! We had a treasure hunt which Lizzy ruined by making a beeline for the treasure chest, so everyone just raced after her and they were so excited to see the gold!  Then we had lunch of Hot dogs and fish! Gold fish and Swedish fish that is. What's more piratey then that? Lizzy loved her gifts and had such fun. I think we all had a good time (even Daniel). I had made clothes for us all, but Daniel didn't put his on so I took a picture of his at home later. Lizzy picked this outfit and I tried to adapt it: I really liked how Charles'outfit turned out.

OK Recap 1.0

So after much deliberation over what to do for Daniel's birthday I decided that we should go to the Lewis and Clark days in St. Charles. Have I ever told you how much I love St. Charles? NO??!?! Well... I do! It is so quaint with specialty shops and gas lamps and a party nearly every weekend. Why didn't we move there? Hmm. But I digress...  So off to the festival we go. We arrived a bit early, but since it was a hot day that was ok. We saw some Newfoundland dogs, apparently Lewis took his on the expedition. They are huge!

From Lewis n Clark

Then we watched some people make paper. That was fun. We chatted with a parson who was writing his sermon for Sunday. He had a ton of religious quotes from the founding fathers. He was very nice, but unfortunately he sliced his thumb just as we met him and he was trying hard not to bleed on anything as he showed  us his collection. We ran into the Elders who each won a wooden sword for helping a vendor put up their tent. They were quite jazzed. It was fun.

 Then it was off to Kansas to visit. Cynthia and Marty had returned form Germany and we took advantage of the time to see them and as an added bonus, Tina and Nathan came up too. Tony and Susan graciously allowed us to stay with them for a few days.

From 2011-06-06 Bart reunion and Ephram's baptism

Susan took us to Antioch Park. It is huge! Lizzy had fun playing. The water lilies were real pretty. Daniel and Dad worked on cutting out the lenses for our goggles. I worked on Mom. Then on Sunday after church we all met up at the temple site, the construction has progressed well. We had lunch and of course took pictures. Then we drove home. The next Sunday we went to Columbia to witness Ephraim's baptism. It was wonderful. Now Lizzy keeps telling me about when she gets baptized. I'm glad that she is excited to follow her cousin's example.  And finally an update on Charles: He is almost crawling, he wants to so bad. He can really get around on the bed. I've had to catch him before he crawls right off quite a number of times. 

From 2011-06-06 Almost crawling

He is getting so big!.

Recap

So much to share! So as I mentioned before, we went to the Bellefontaine in Bloom. It was drizzling sightly, but still nice enough out. Lizzy carried the umbrella.

From Bellefontaine

She was super cute! There were actors of some of the famous people buried there. They told about their lives. They had food from the Joy of Cooking. Since the author is buried there too. And there were carriage tours. Sadly, we had to get home so Daniel could go to work so we missed the tours, but it was fun! Next we have a bag race, do click it is fun.

From Playtime

More to follow... Dom da domm....

The Morning Routine

Sung to the tune of Billy Joel's the Piano man
Ahem,
 It's 6 am this Saturday, and Lizzy shuffles in.
Seems her night is over and she's ready for the day to begin.
She says, " Mom it's time to get up, I want to watch some pink."
And I know she is ready so I take her to the potty and then I get her a drink.

Chorus:
 "It's time to get up Mommy. The day started an hour ago.
I need milk in my sippy and I think maybe some cereal in my bowl."

Da da da da da dad daaa....

 It's still early this Saturday, and I groggily get to my feet,
since firefox's broke I need to use chrome to find some episodes of pink.
And Lizzy is sitting there waiting a sippy and bowl in each hand,
She ready for the day, so lets get up and play.
Who knows what we have planned.

Da ada da daada da dada daaa...

Repeat Chorus

The movie is running perfectly. The sound is turned down low.
I feed Charles his morning meal and hope he's ready to go.
Maybe if they're distracted I can take a shower,
As soon as I'm gone, then some one yells, "Mom"
And I know just what they're  after.

Repeat Chorus

It's a pretty good day for a Saturday,
Every one's home just now and we just can't wait
to take on the day, look out, were coming out now.

Da da da daaa da ada adaada  etc...