Family Night!

Once school starts, we rarely get a Saturday where there are no sports events or practices at KC and nothing else on the calendar.  When we realized today was one of those days, we took full advantage of it!  After nap time, we loaded up and headed to the St. Louis Zoo.  The kids went earlier this summer with Nonnie and Poppy, but we hadn't got to go as a family yet.  It was pretty hot out, but we filled up a big water bottle and made the most of it.  We saw lots of animals out and the kids had a lot of fun.  I love that there is so much to do in St. Louis and that we are just a short drive from it.  Here is our only family shot of the day.

 Hannah, of course, wanted to pose by herself -- even if she is being photobombed by her brother!

 Our last stop was the River's Edge area.  Cam got up close & personal with Mr. Hippo!

 And a little sibling love before leaving the zoo.

Once we left, we headed to the Loop for dinner at Fitz's Root Beer.  It was the kids' first time there and they loved the fresh orange soda!  So glad we had an empty day to spend as a family!

It's Time for School!

It's that time of year...time to head back to school.  Today is my first day back and Hannah will start right after Labor Day (which she is so, so excited for!).  I remember taking a "first day of school" picture every year with my mom and dad.  I now have one every year with my kids on my first day.  It's been a fun memory to pass onto them.  I love being home with my kids in the summer, but I also love starting a new school year.  I truly feel that teaching is God's calling for my life and I think of my classroom as a mission field each day.  I love being a teacher and am excited to meet my "other kids" that I have this year.  Here's to a great school year!

One Last Hurrah

Today is the very last day of summer before I go back to work tomorrow.  We planned on heading to a local petting zoo/farm with my mom and dad this morning, but realized shortly before leaving that it wasn't open on Tuesdays.  We were already up and dressed so decided to change plans a bit.  The weather was going to be too beautiful to be inside.  We decided to make a quick picnic lunch and head to Grant's Farm in St. Louis.

Oh my...these two crack me up!

After riding the tram through the deer park, we made it to the Tier Garden part of Grant's Farm.  A few years ago, we first learned about the "Fun Pass."  This allows you to get two bottles of milk for the goats, a carousel ride and a snow cone.  A pretty good deal -- spend $5 instead of $7.  I bought one for each kiddo and away we went.  We started with the goats.  This is a favorite of most kids when they visit Grant's Farm.  We didn't go inside the pen, but both kids seemed to enjoy feeding the goats through the fence.

When the milk was gone, we walked to the carousel for our ride.  The kids picked their horses and even named them.  Hannah named hers "Hannah" and Cam decided his was named "Panic"...have no idea where that came from!

We missed the Animal Encounter show, but we were able to make it to the Elephant Encounter just in time.  We had a lot of fun playing "Bud Says" with the Asian elephant, Bud.

We walked around a bit more before taking a break with our snow cones.  Hannah chose blue raspberry today and Cam wanted "yellow," but settled for lemon-lime.

When we left this area, we went back to the car for our picnic lunch.  They have some nice tables right outside the Clydesdale area.  We ate, then walked over to see the beautiful horses.  I love seeing the Clydesdales whenever we can.  They are such beautiful horses!  We saw several horses, then took one more picture outside this antique carriage.

What a great last day together.  I have loved every minute of our summer!

A family that runs together...

grows together.

Earlier this summer, I was at the local hardware store when I spotted a race flyer.  It was here in town and supported the high school PBIS program.  I grabbed two because Tim and I are always looking for local runs to be part of.  I was extra excited to see they were not only offering a 1 mile fun run, but also a 400 m dash for kids 5 and under.  Hannah loves talking to us about running and says she wants to be a runner like Mommy and Daddy when she gets big.  As we got ready to sign up, Tim realized he had to work that particular Saturday.  Bummer!  The kids and I still signed up and were super excited for the day to arrive.

Here are the runners before we left the house.

My mom and dad came to help with the kids while I ran the 5K.  They waited for me at the end of our street to watch me run by.  It was fun to see my family and kids cheering me on.  While I finished the race, they walked up to the high school to the finish line.  It was also great to see them all towards the end of the race when I was starting to get a little tired.

We had quite a while to wait until the kids run.  The kids were starting to get antsy, but we held them together until their race.  Here are my two future runners waiting for their race to start.

And the little runners making their way around the track.

And all of us at the end.  Each kid received a medal which the kids thought was really neat!  It wasn't a very big race and I even got a 3rd place medal for my age group.

I was so glad we were able to do this race together.  I love that our kids see Tim and I exercising and want to mimic us in that area.  I hope we continue to show and teach them how to live a healthy lifestyle through exercising.

Mommy & Hannah Dates

Twice this summer, I was able to spend some quality one-on-one time with my sweet girl.  I loved getting to devote a little bit of time just hanging out with her and building our relationship.

The first night, Daddy and Cam went to look at a car, so Hannah and I went to Tropical Sno.  We ordered a Barbie flavored snow cone to share.  The weather was awesome and we just enjoyed sitting outside and eating our snack.

Then, at the end of the summer, we had a date to the salon.  Hannah was in need of a hair cut and we also treated ourselves to polished toes.  Then, we went to Bread Co. for a mid-morning snack.  We finished our time together with a trip to Target.  Hannah picked out a cute new headband to wear when her hair is down.

I love this girl so much and thank God daily for allowing me to be her mom.  I look forward to many, many more opportunities we will have to spend together on these Mommy & Hannah dates.  I love you, Hannah!

Mascoutah Homecoming

One of our favorite end of the summer events is the Mascoutah Homecoming.  It is three days of animals, rides, food and parades.  Saturday morning, we went up to the park to see some of the animals people bring to show.  Cameron is loving farm animals right now so we thought he would really like seeing the goats, rabbits, chickens, pigs and cows.  It definitely didn't disappoint.  He approached every animal the same way..."Hi ____ (pig, cow, etc.)!  It's me!"  He really, really wanted to touch them and even ride a cow, but he couldn't.  I love how much he is into animals right now!  Then we checked out some of the BIG tractors that were out for display.

That afternoon, we went up so the kids could ride some of the rides.  They do half price rides from 1-4 so it is perfect for our two.  We met Joe, Emily, Emma and Jack up there and the kids really liked riding  most of the rides.  I was so proud of the girls because they even rode a spinny panda bear ride by themselves!

 (Cam is also way into guns right now so this next ride was right up his ally!)

When our tickets were out, we grabbed some food and made our way to our chairs and blankets for the parade.  For a small town, they have an awesome parade both Saturday and Sunday night.  Here's another shot of the boys at the parade...and I promise, Jack really doesn't mind getting a hug from Cameron! :-)

The parade was a lot of fun and we had tired kids on our hands when it was over.  It was a fun day and a great way to begin the end of our summer.