Happy Mothers Day!

I forgot my camera yesterday! One thing that I love about my blog is that it forces me to take pictures. The bad thing is that when I forget to take my camera, I have to use someone else's camera and then steal their camera card!

Mother's day was yesterday and since I didnt get any pictures on here earlier. Here they are. My mom, friend, giver of advice and the one I love to talk about my books with! We love to read and mom is the only one that understands when I call and tell her how proud I am that I spent the morning cleaning out my laundry room!

Cale's mom. She is also good at giving advice. We ask her alot about health questions and of course she is our wonderful babysitter that allows us to have a life without our kiddos sometimes!

Cale, his mom and the boys on Mother's day!

I thought that this would be a neat picture to have too! Teresa with her mom. Don't they look more like sisters than mother/daughter??

Happy Mother's Day!!

Graduation

Well, my firstborn graduated from Kindergarden this past week. He is so big and it makes me cry to think that we made it through his first year of school.

I love this picture! Little brother is always watching and looking up to big brother!

Inside the building waiting on the ceremony to begin.

Mrs. Bowen's class before the ceremony.

E with his teacher, Mrs. Bowen.

During the ceremony Mrs. Bowen presented each child with a character award. These were things she had noticed in each child or a character that she had seen the children develop over the year.

E was presented with Enthusiasm.

This is E getting his diploma. Notice that his hat is on sideways. I am think that he must have taken it off while he was sitting down and when he put it back on it was turned the wrong way!!

Mrs. Russell gave each child a flower to give to their mothers. Moms have to work really hard to teach their children in this kind of environment!!

This is how L spent some of the ceremony. He was up and down quite a bit. Nanny had M&M's so that helped to keep him quiet.

This is the class after graduating!!

Class of 2022!!

Failure

I am not a very adventurous cook. I usually wait until one of my in-laws tries a new recipe and then I steal it from them, claim it as my own and take it to my side of the family. My family thinks that I am this wonderful cook!! But honestly I am not. I steal!!

So recently I received an offer from the Taste of Home magazine to purchase a one year subscription for only $6.00!! It was a great price so I sent in the money and not long after got my first magazine in the mail. I was determined to try several recipes! I did and several of them were good. I made some green onion and cheddar biscuits that were wonderful!!

This next thing was not a success I am sorry to say. I was trying to find a recipe that would encourage the boys to try something new and to try something that included lots of veggies.

It also had Capers in the recipe and Cale loves Capers. Win Win right??

WRONG!!!

This recipe was terrible!! I ended up throwing the whole thing away. Unfortunately the boys didn't even get to try it because Cale and I didn't like it. I was left with a problem after cooking this because it was supposed to be our dinner.

So we decided to throw some turkey and cheese on the bread and toast it. You cant go wrong with Turkey and Cheese!!

Not every recipe that I try is going to be a success. I know this and I know that I need to keep at it. It is really hard though when something does not turn out like you hope!!

My newest Taste of Home has some wonderful looking desserts! I am hoping to try some of them soon. You cant go wrong with desserts, right???

Lots of Pictures!!

Last week we went to St. Louis for E's annual check up. It was good over all and we spent most of our time in St Louis doing other things besides going to the doctor! St. Louis has a wonderful hands on children's museum called the Magic House. The kids are able to touch everything and they learn alot while they do it!

We started out in a section that is just meant for 1-6 years olds. It was perfect for us. There was this slide for the kids to go down.

This is a puppet center. The kids can put their hands inside the bottom two holes and look through the top hole and they will see.....

that they are actually controlling the puppets. E's hand is inside this toy alligator and he is moving it around.

This car was a favorite for L. He could use the gas pump beside it and fill it up with gas!!

Of course there were tunnels to climb through.

And sections to walk across.

And water to play in! We stayed at this section for a long time!

In the front of the museum there were musical toys that were really fun!

They all made different sounds.

And there was a maze in the front gardens for the kids to go through.

E is standing in this circle and we are trying to get the bubble to go over his head. It was a little challenging.

This was a bubble piano.

The fishing exhibit was one of the most fun things! The kids each had a fishing pole with a magnet on the end of it.

They would try to "catch" one of the fish in the pond.

Once the caught it they could walk to another area of the Magic House and throw their fish back in the water.

Then they would watch it swim or race another fish back to the fishing hole. If you look in this picture of E you will see the little river that the fish swim through. The kids enjoyed watching the fish under their feet!

There was also a mechanic area where L could work on cars. You could use tools to work on the engine or change the tires!! He loved it!

The ice cream cart was a favorite too! Inside it were scoops of ice cream in different colors and the boys would pretend to get different kinds of ice cream and put it on the cones.

This electric ball was alot of fun too! E really wanted to see this but when the time came he chickened out on me! I had to cut his upset face out of the picture!!

This is another bubble project.

The beanstalk was one of the last things that we did. L could not wait to get on this thing. E was determined to do it even though we were not sure that he would be able to.

I think that L climbed up and down it twice in the time that it took E to get up to the top.

But E worked so hard! He was so proud when he made it to the top!

It was a very fun day! I would recommend that anyone go and see this place! There was so much to see and do. We did not get to read all of the history behind this house which is something that Cale and I could have done all day! We love old houses. But it was the home of George Lane Edwards who was the first president of the A.G.Edwards company. He had a wife and two children that lived in this house with him. It also used to have a pool in the back and a golf course next door. There were also secret stairways inside the house! Very fun!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!

Technology and Traveling

We recently took a trip to St. Louis to see a doctor with E. We made it into a little mini vacation for the family and we all had a great time. One of the things that Cale and I were noticing while packing for this trip is all of the technology that we thought we "had" to bring with us. We laughed about the fact that when we were kids we usually packed a pillow, book, and if we were lucky a walkman or a gameboy. Dad would grab the atlas and off we would go.

Well, welcome to 2010 people!!

As we were packing we wanted to make sure and get some pictures of some of the fun stuff that we were planning to do so we put the camera in the van. Of course do not forget the DS so that E will have something to do while L naps in the car. L will want to make sure that all of the DVD's are packed so he can watch something and help take up the time of the 6 hour car ride. Cale will need his XM Radio to listen to Radio shows, comedy channels, talk radio and of course the MLB updates. We didnt want to distract the kids with television in the hotel room while they were trying to sleep at night so we brought along the laptop. (The hotel had free WiFi) It would be something quiet to do while they were sleeping. (We also brought books!) At the last minute our friends offered us their GPS to take so that we could find our way a little easier. I would not want to travel without that ever again!!! It was amazing and will get a post all on its own!!

We brought on this trip a laptop, a XM Satellite Radio, an MP3 player, a GPS, a DS, and the camera. That does not include the DVD player and cordless headphones that we have in the van. That is craziness if I do say so myself. The funny thing is that we used every bit of this stuff! How did people travel without it?? What? Just a pillow and a book??

This is one of the places that we visited on our trip. The Magic House. It was AMAZING!! It was origionally the home of George Lane EDWARDS. The very first president of AG Edwards. Ever heard of that company??

There were special areas just for the kids to climb through tunnels...

And go fishing....

And climb up the beanstalk!!

The boys loved it and I would recommend going if you are ever in the St. Louis area. I will post more pictures from this trip later. Have a great day!!

Sewing Class

I try once a week to get together with some friends and learn how to sew. Some of my friends are much better at it than me and have much more experience!! But it is fun and we get alot of visiting/talking/sharing/encouraging done and maybe a little sewing too! We are all stay-at-home moms of young kids and so this night also serves as a way for us to keep our sanity.

The other night while I was at my sewing class working on this skirt...

that will later be sewn together with this top....

to make this little dress for my niece, Brynlee, Cale and the boys were at home working on another thing all together!!

They made a house!! And these are the little faces that greeted me when I walked through the door!!

They wanted daddy to help them build a house and this is what they came up with!! All week long it has been in our living room and they have played with it every day. E has even colored the "bricks" and "walls" on the inside. They added play food and a mailbox on the side (that Cale even wrote a letter to each of them and put in the mailbox) and even a blanket!

That night Cale also made homemade chocolate chip cookies and gave the boys baths! I was so impressed that I called him "Super DAD" all night! He really is a good daddy and works really hard to do special things with the boys. If they grow up to be just like their daddy that would be wonderful!!

Sewing class not only helps me keep my sanity it also gives Cale a chance to bond with his boys!!