C and R

Sibling love

Doggie

Claudia is our resident dog expert and loves nothing more than helping take her four-legged friends for walks. Rhys wants a guarding dog -- a really BIG dog and so we have been looking at Great Danes and St. Bernards and Irish Wolfhounds online -- just for fun. A dog - and not a super giant dog - may be in our future, one day when the kitchen floor has been changed out from white to something that doesn't show every single drop.

Sibs

Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet. - Vietnamese Proverb

Does this mean you are close - or you aren't close...hmmm...a proverb that leaves you thinking. I think it means you can be close -- your  hands can touch your feet and vice versa -- but there is also a lot of body in between.  Your take? 

Enjoying ice cream sandwiches on the front porch.

Carnival

It's Carnival weekend! No, not the Brazilian kind -- but the ThurtenE, Wash Univ kind.  (It is nostalgic to note that Dom and his school friends would attend the ThurtenE fair when they were wee lads - oh so many years ago.).

We had a great time at the carnival watching the children's eyes light up with glee at the rides. The sorority/fraternity skits were entertaining, however, I should have known better than to fall from "free" face painting hawked by college students.

R was very excited to try out bumper cars for the first time and C loved going up, up, up in the helicopter! Yes, I am sure they were quite safe...and we stayed until we ran out of tickets. 

In other news, Rhys is riding his bike without training wheels. I fear a motorcycle might be in his distant future.

That's C in the back in the copter.

Friends

Rhys and Jamie - friends for four plus years!

As much as I miss Chicago (and for that matter I miss Washington DC, Oak Park and Bloomington, Indiana -- what can I say, I am a bit sentimental about the past), I am beginning to settle into St Louis and make friends and connections. I have started (with a friend) a "Ditch the Sippy Cup Club" to plan monthly outings for moms we like to hang out with. I also get to see a few college friends here and our neighborhood is very social. But, there is nothing like friends who have known you a long time ...

Heather and Sheila (and Aoife) - friends for 10.

Eggs

Our backyard is not only fun for us, but is home to a variety of local wildlife (don't get me started on the squirrels).

A robin mama chose our magnolia tree as a home for her family...we found out when one little egg fell out...but the good news, is that we have two healthy robin chicks living just about five plus feet from the ground. The children and I are enjoying checking on their progress daily.

The two remaining eggs - unhatched in this photo. today, they are fully formed, feathered birds. Just need to get close enough to take a pic without mama bird getting too upset.

Talker

Some recent Claudia sayings...

"Duke Sad, Donna Work." -- talking about her favorite chocolate lab across the street.

"Delicious" - when asked how her ice cream sandwich tasted.

"I love you" --  Oh, how I adore this two-year-old!

Claudia is 50th for height and weight at her two-year check up.

Easter Week Part 2

Our good friends the Nolidans (one day that last name may actually stick!) made the trek - for the second time no less - to St Louis to spend three days with us. We had hosted a family of four and a family of two in our new playroom/basement area but were a little nervous about a family of five. But we all fit and - as Sheila noted - we are all still friends!

It was heartwarming to see Jamie and Rhys rekindle their close friendship, Claudia making friends with Patrick and Sheila, Nico's big smile and love for the big boys, and Aoife being the sweetest almost four-month-old around.

Playing in the China exhibit area at the MO Botanical Gardens -- just before we lost Rhys briefly at the Children's Gardens. Another story for another day!

The lane put on a good show for Easter and all the children enjoyed coloring eggs at an Easter egg dying party and participating in the annual neighborhood egg hunt on Saturday morning.

Sheila and her side-kick captures the crew.

New friend Patrick helps Claudia with her egg hunt.

Neighborhood friends and Rhys resting with their spoils.

Yum - an Easter cupcake.

After all this fun "kid stuff" - the adults got to choose and we all headed out to the Missouri countryside for a stop at a local winery for lunch, dancing (for the children, please!), and running around the vines. Following lunch, a few mosquitoes couldn't stop the fun at the Daniel Boone homestead. We still aren't sure what Boone actually did but we did enjoy the one horse, the rooster tales from Patrick and two sleeping sheep.

Happy Easter!

Easter Week

Our busy Easter week began with a visit from Aunt Laura via Amtrak. She visited yummy breakfast spots in St Louis with Claudia and me, spent an hour at the Gardens and watched Claudia so I could get some work done. In addition, she played bear attack for hours in the basement!

Ah...how nice is it when family visits?

New Bike

Rhys on his new bike -- he earned it with more than 30 stickers from his sleeping chart. Yes, we will resort to almost anything for a decent night's sleep. Not that we actually get a good night's sleep most days -- Rhys woke up last night at midnight talking about the new bike. And this morning, he was riding it by 7 am in the back yard after a quick bowl of cereal.