The City Garden 2013

Posted on June 11, 2013 by lauren

Last week, the boys and I revisited one of our favorite places in St. Louis with our friends Elisha, Estella, and Baby January. I had forgotten how awesome this place is! We spent the late morning until lunch time hopping from one water feature to the next, cheering on Emil and January for their first dip of the season, and certainly not their last!

Elisha has quickly become one of my best girl friends here in St. Louis. She is positive, fun, quirky, quick-to-laugh, and one of the sweetest people I know. She has a great sense of style, and I always adore how she dresses herself and her sweet girls. She is amazing with little kids and I’m trying to learn patience from her, because she seems to have an endless amount.

Plus, Oliver and Estella are besties, and Emil just adores January, though he needs much reminding about being gentle. She is not a big brother, she does not like to be tackled, and she does not enjoy a good eye-poke. That guy!

We are enjoying summer to the fullest, and this day was such a good one. Elisha bought the kids lemonade while we dried off in the sun and watched the other kids splashing in the fountains. If you decide to go, choose a weekday and you will practically have the place to yourself! We went on a Wednesday at around 10:30 and there were only a few other people there. Quiet, peaceful, and loads of fun!

These guys are cut from the same mold, clearly. They even run the same way!

Save your energy for the fountains. We dare you to run through without screaming with joy!

P.s.- Check out last year’s City Garden trip here

Jumpin’ Through Hoops

Posted on June 5, 2013 by lauren

These cousins! On the last day of the three-day adventure with family, we hosted a get-together in our overgrown backyard complete with Andrew’s amazing barbecue ribs, tons of food, and… a little-person circus!The best part? We didn’t plan it. The kids asked for us to bring the mini trampoline up from our basement (which, I might add, was the one thing that kept us from losing our everloving minds this past winter) and soon it was outside. After they fished out some musical instruments (including a slide-whistle) and a hula hoop, they were up to all sorts of shenanigans. We adults thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, but the kids definitely provided ample entertainment and so much laughter! And tonight, after a couple of much-needed days of recuperation (and some serious laundry and cleaning and stocking back up on food), Andrew and I are going out to see a show with a couple of friends. Frankly, the entire month of May seems like a blur, so I am so excited about this next month: parties with friends, our big Paris trip, more family adventures, and hanging out at the pool. June is already cracking up to be an amazing month!

DIY Fun: Shapes Jump Game

Posted on April 4, 2013 by lauren

This week’s DIY Fun is so simple and adaptable for different ages. Milo came up with part of the game, and I added some rules and helped with the shapes… but he and Oliver really ran with it!

Materials Needed:

Large open concrete or blacktop space (like a driveway or paved area at an elementary school)
Sidewalk chalk

First, draw several shapes large enough for a child to stand in, and far enough apart that a child could stand on every shape next to one another without feeling too crowded (if you are playing with more than one child). Next, draw another row using the same shapes above the first row. Only this time, mix up the order of the shapes. Keep going until you have several rows (we stopped at 5).

You can play with this pattern any way you want, but here’s what we did. As soon as the after school kindergarten kids Milo and Oliver love to play with came outdoors, Milo asked several children if they wanted to play (I didn’t take pictures because hello, I didn’t have parent or teacher permission to take photos of their kids, let alone post them on my blog). But imagine a child standing on each of the shapes in the first row. It was so cute! Next, I had Oliver call out random shapes. The child whose shape was called had to jump to his or her shape in the next row. And so on and so forth until they all make it to the other side.

Another way to play would be to use homemade dice made from paper with a different shape on each side. That way, the shape calling-out would be fair! The possibilities are endless, and encourage shape recognition, turn-taking, gross motor skills, and listening skills! Hope you try it some time. It was a lot of fun for these guys…

And Oliver ended up with chalk literally all over his face. I can see the spring happiness all over that dirty guy!

Hope you have a wonderful Thursday.

Hoppy Holidays!

Posted on December 24, 2012 by lauren

Well, last night Andrew and I (completely sober, I might add) got a little carried away. It started out innocently enough when Andrew surprised me by presenting me with an early Christmas present- a new flash for the camera!- and we decided to try it out to get the hang of it… and twenty pictures later, you have the above ridiculousness (and many too crazy to even post!). You know you’ve married the right person when you end up acting like a couple of fools and laughing so hard your sides hurt.

Happy 5th Birthday, Milo!

Posted on September 4, 2012 by lauren

Five years ago, this beautiful boy made me a mama.

And suddenly, five seems like such a big number. I think I said the same thing about four last year. Milo. Oh, my Milo!

What five is to Milo:

Going full-force all day every day. Getting frustrated because he wants to read but doesn’t like the process of learning to read (does that make sense?). Climbs everything. Jumps off of everything (nothing has changed there).

22 months old

The day before his fifth birthday

Loves to talk. And talk. And talk.

Me, yesterday: Milo, what do you think will be different when you are five tomorrow?

Milo: Well, I’m pretty sure I will not go to time-out as often.

Me: Why is that?

Milo: You know, ’cause I’ll be five.

Loves everything Halloween-related. Asks for scary stories with blood and ghosts and eyeballs. Wants to be a scientist when he grows up. And a deep-sea diver. And an astronaut. And not in that order. All at once.

Can swing extra high without any help. Can climb extra high and do the monkey bars. When asked what’s the first thing he’ll do in school this year, he responded, “Play spider monkeys with Matthew… if Matthew hasn’t already graduated(!)”

Most common phrases these days: “May I have some apple juice? PLEASE?!” “I’m so glad I’m a big brother/I’m so glad I have Oliver/Emil” “Hey Mom, watch this!” “Can I watch a video?”

Tip on having little brothers: treat them with equal parts torture and kindness

I love this boy more than words. And I am quite simply in awe of him. I know everyone thinks his/her kid is the greatest, but I’m pretty sure that this feisty kid would survive in the wilderness if he were dropped off there. Seriously. I worry more about his feelings than his ability to find food/clothing/shelter in the middle of a forest somewhere…

… now this guy, not so sure…

Happy Birthday, Milo. From all of us. We adore you.

Check out Milo’s birth story here, 1st birthday here, 2nd birthday here, 3rd birthday here, and 4th birthday here! Whew!

Puddle Jumpin’

Posted on September 1, 2012 by lauren

We are in the middle of Missouri’s worst drought in 30 years, despite how it looks in some of the lush suburban lawns in our neighborhood. But trust me, it is bad. All three of our sycamore trees shed nearly 75% of their leaves in July and we were left with what looked like early autumn on our front and back lawns (and much to the chagrin of our neighbors with a swimming pool). It is dry.

But yesterday we waited in eager anticipation for the predicted aftermath of Hurricane Isaac and I smiled as I heard the telltale (and unfamiliar) sound of raindrops falling against our windows and onto our roof. All day it rained on and off, and it should continue to do so for the whole weekend. I took the boys out for 30 minutes in-between downpours just to help them appreciate how important rain is. I think they got it.

I hope that even if rain finds you on this holiday weekend, you can find it in your hearts to appreciate it too! Happy Labor Day! Can you believe it’s September?!!

Weekend Shenanigans

Posted on August 13, 2012 by lauren

We lucked out with some beautiful weather this weekend. Since Andrew arrived home mid-week, and we were both exhausted and in quite a funk on Thursday and Friday, we decided to have a very low-key weekend. Plus, Oliver’s third birthday is tomorrow (!) and my mom sent this awesome joint b-day present for all three of the boys– a play house!

It took Andrew the better part of a morning to put together, but he was determined. We didn’t time it quite right to completely surprise the boys, but man were they excited to watch this thing go up.

We also walked to Winslow’s Home for dinner on Friday and went for a nice long walk in Forest Park yesterday. But that’s it! Here are some photos from the weekend.

These guys have eaten every single meal inside their house since it went up on Saturday afternoon. They are completely obsessed.

Lunch on a stump.

All in all I consider it a success. I have a few projects going on around here (trying to figure out how to turn a few stumps into side tables, if you have any suggestions– and not the old cracked one above! and trying out a few new recipes– including -gasp- homemade cheddar pie crust which I am deathly afraid of messing up). But Andrew’s making the planet cake that Oliver asked for, and I’m sure it will be delicious!

Thanks, Grandma, for the awesome house! The boys love it!

The Last of the Vacation Photos

Posted on July 19, 2012 by lauren

Before we get on with the rest of the vacation photos, thank you for all of your kind words through comments, emails, and FB messages about yesterday’s post. I felt the love! I had a really amazing childhood and was actually very lucky to have my dad in my life for as long as I did, given his constant struggles with health through his short but rich life.

And though you are surely getting tired of the beach pictures, a lot of why I do this blog is to have a place to keep our memories so we can look back on not only the stories but also all the pictures of our adventures as a family. So, if you want to share in this journey, please feel free! I have to warn you, there are a lot of pictures in this post!

The weather for the first two days of our trip on Hatteras Island was blistering hot. I have to admit, I cringed a bit when looking at the forecast. We had been hoping to leave the hot, heavy St. Louis air behind for a week, but arrived to much of the same weather. It was so hot that it burned the bottoms of our feet just running from the house to the water. Luckily, some storms rolled in and brought cooler, more typical beach weather. Plus, the rain didn’t last long and brought beautiful skies with it. We took a family walk before the rain one day.

Getting tired of seeing this dress yet? Every. Single. Day.

Oliver during the heat wave= miserable.

Jamie fed seagulls from our balcony one afternoon. One even ate right out of his hand! (Thanks Mary for taking these amazing pictures!)

And of course, the mandatory pictures of Milo jumping off stuff:

Our daily routine went something like this: Early rising (Emil was up by 5:30am every single day– that’s 4:30 St. Louis time!); breakfast on the balcony while watching the sunrise over the ocean; sunscreen time (I swear this took like half an hour every morning); beach; walk to the pier (the boys enjoyed pretending to play the arcade games); lunch; nap (for some); beach again; dinner; pier for ice cream; bedtime for little ones; beer and laughter for the mamas and papas (and one night Jamie and Andrew took Ben and Milo out night-beaching with sparklers!).

Obviously the pier was a major highlight of the trip. It was the only place we went other than the beach the whole week; a nice place to go for a change of scenery without having to wrangle the kids into a vehicle. It was amazing. The pier itself was weathered and zig-zaggy from all of the storms and hurricanes it had endured. Still sturdy, but crazy to think about!

View from the pier: kite-flying

Oliver asking, “Could I slip through there?” (the crack)

And of course, the main reason for the trip? The popsicles and delicious ice cream treats!

Greta wondering if there might be any extra for her…

… and giving up on it.

My gorgeous bestie.

One of the best parts of the trip was watching Milo, Ben, Oliver, and Greta getting reacquainted. Their friendships (especially between Milo and Ben) grow and become more complex (read: literal head-butting, but mostly sweet tender moments) each time they see each other. Ben and Milo are so similar, both intense and very active and creative. To see what kind of shenanigans they got into was more than hilarious.

Documentation of the only nap Oliver took the entire trip (including the 20 hours of car time!). He passed out on the chaise lounge on the last day of the trip. My friend Allison would call him a neversleeper:

Sleeping as only a true middle child would: hand clenched around his stash of toys so that no one else could play with them.

He looks so lovely and peaceful when he sleeps. Too bad he doesn’t do it more often.

And now, here we are home! We did the entire drive home in one shot, which included a 2-hour stint of basically stand-still traffic 6 hours into the trip during which Oliver half pooped his pants/half pooped on the side of the road. Oh, the misery. But man were we glad to be home once we collapsed at our door at 1:30am. Thanks, beach. Thanks, Mary and Jamie, Ben and Greta. We had a fantastic time and we love you!

***Next week we will get back on track, including an outfit post, a recipe, and a DIY fun activity for the littles. Thanks for sharing our trip!***

Flying

Posted on July 13, 2012 by lauren

We’ve been stuck inside quite a lot lately. Last summer when we had this kind of heat wave, I was pregnant with Emil, and still took the boys outside. We sat on the back deck, fan blowing on us while we played in water. But this summer, Emil is still a baby. He melts in the heat. His little face turns bright pink and sweat soaks the back of his head. He is miserable outside, so we keep him comfortable, which means a lot of afternoons are spent indoors. And there’s only so much library time we can handle. Besides, doing this at the library is frowned upon:

Afternoons indoors make for compromises. Compromises like, Okay, you can jump off the ottoman a zillion times with your super hero capes/bat wings/Thor helmet as long as you promise to stop running and screaming indoors.

One afternoon, they had a flying contest. Insisting they were not jumping but flying instead. And though it took some time, after a while, I started to believe them.

Oliver was a late “jumper.” But now, oh now. He is jumping off of everything! And Milo. Well, you know, he is a seasoned jumper.

Maybe I should get Milo back into ballet?

P.s.- Is today Friday the 13th? Perhaps one should refrain from crazy jumping on a day like today?

Playground Adventures

Posted on July 9, 2012 by lauren

The following pictures were taken exactly one month ago. Hard to believe it was cool enough for us to be wearing sweaters, long sleeves, pants, and even a hat for nearly-bald Emil!

But the essence of the beginning of summer is within these shots. The constant motion, the adventure, the childhood that is happening right before our very eyes. Sometimes I catch glimpses of my own girlhood in my boys: the tree-climbing in bare feet, sweaty breathlessness of constant running through cool grass, dirt up to the elbows and blisters on each palm from monkey bars and climbing fences. It is magical when that happens, and I finally understand what other parents used to tell me before I was a parent. The part about your kids keeping you young.

Before the boys went on their summer nap strike (way back in May and early June), we ventured to the playground half a block away from our house every night after dinner. Usually with popsicles and a banjo or guitar in hand, we pushed or pulled or made the little guys walk down the hill to the new playground behind the elementary school where we plan to send all three of our boys.

And as soon as the wagon stopped (and many times before it stopped), these boys were off like wild bandits, running and jumping and climbing to their hearts’ delight. Shoes never stay on, though we always bring them, for some reason.

Milo is off like a flash, feet barely touching the ground…

… While Emil finds the slide to climb and Oliver finds playground treasures to fill his wagon.

… or hitch a wild wild ride.

And I miss those evenings at the playground, because now those boys are so exhausted by 6:30 that there is no way we can drag them there, even if it’s what Andrew and I really want after all.

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