Back to School

This is our first year with both kids in school! Jane has started preschool and Charlie is in second grade.

His mouth has been keeping the tooth fairy busy and I love his smile. He is liking his teacher so far.

Some old and new faces at the bus stop. Charlie and his friend Roman are in the same class this year again and they both are super happy about that. 

 Jane goes to pre-school for three hours in the afternoon Monday-Thursday. She also loves her teacher.

 After meet-the-teacher night, Jane came home and drew hearts all over both sides of this piece of paper. On the first day of school she took it with her to give to her teacher.

As for me, I'm planning on spending more quality time with Marvin (my cello) now that I have time to myself. :)

Sarah Saves the Day

When we heard the exciting news that Shawn and Sandra were going to be married in the Mexico City LDS temple we were thrilled. Of course both Keith and I wanted to be there to support them and to visit Mexico. It quickly became clear though that unless someone was found who could take on Charlie's school schedule and PKU diet, I wouldn't be able to go. I racked my mind for the longest time. All of my friends here had kids of their own that needed to get to school as well, none of which went to Charlie's school. Further more I couldn't see asking any of them to take on Charlie's diet. My parents are in Ghana, Liz just had a baby, and Sarah had two small kids of her own. However, she seemed like the best option and I knew I could trust her completely to take on it all especially Charlie's diet.

So I called her fully expecting her to turn me down. Much to my surprise she said a very enthusiastic yes! We planned for some "fun" days before we left for Mexico and had a great time introducing them to some of the main attractions of St. Louis. Those days were also used to prepare her for the task ahead. We meal planned (including Charlie's meals and lunches), went over school schedules and bedtime routines. I explained to Charlie and Jane multiple times that Aunt Sarah would do some things differently while we were gone and prayed that it would all go well. Or at least that Sarah wouldn't have her bags packed and ready to catch the first flight home once we returned. 

The doctor kit is always a hit with these two. They got along splendidly.

The butterfly house!

The Blue Morpho butterfly is Jane's favorite. Usually they are difficult to take a picture of because as soon as they land they close their wings exposing the underside which is mostly brown. This one is the first I have seen that kept it's wings open. They only live for a few weeks so there is a good chance that it was just old and tired.

Across the hall from the large glass butterfly room is a small room where there are various activities for kids to do. They change frequently so we popped in to see what was there. One of the activities was pretending to be an entomologist and sort "chrysalises" by shape.

Night time stories with Aunt Sarah were big hits. For several days after Sarah left, every time I read to Jane she would stop me and ask me to do a certain character's voice "the way Aunt Sarah does."

No visit to St. Louis would be complete without a trip to the zoo...

(Braids courtesy of Aunt Sarah.)

...and the science center! This was the activity Charlie requested we save to do on Saturday when he could come. So even though he evaded the camera, he was there. :)

Sarah the engineer designing a nuclear power plant.

The Discovery room is great. Among other things, it is completely contained. That means that for the hour we are in there I can relax a bit and turn off my high alert mommy mode that is constantly on in crowded places. The kids like it because there is a limit to the number of people in there each hour so they get to play with more things. It is also focused more on little kids so it is Jane's favorite part of the science center.


Grant and Jane quickly went over to the space center. Jane picked up the play astronaut helmet and plopped it on Grant's head.

Jane is very particular about her outfits these days. She wore her butterfly shirt to the butterfly house, her "zebra" shirt to the zoo, so she wanted to wear a "sciencey" shirt to the science center. Her shape shirt fit the bill. Her desire to coordinate clothes with activities rubbed off on Grant so he wore his dinosaur shirt.

Last, but not least, Sarah brought the ties that my mom had picked out in Ghana and shipped to Sarah to distribute to the male members of the family. Keith, Charlie and Grant all wore them for the first time to church on Sunday. Charlie thought it was pretty neat to have a real tie that ties like daddy's, as opposed to a clip on tie. They were a big hit!

And the next day (and all too soon) Keith and I were off to Mexico!

Winter in St. Louis

We have been keeping busy this winter. Here is a photo dump of some of what we have been up to...

Paul and Jenae and family spent a day with us shortly after Christmas on their way to Arizona. It was super cold so we took them to the science center. One of the places in the science center the kids tend to always go is the Mars Rover room. Specifically the place where you get to build your own.

Then you give it a test drive.

 Keith made one for Jane with a bit of her help.

One of the things Charlie has wanted to do for the longest time has been to ride to the top of the Arch. Keith had time off after Christmas so we decided to go.

Waiting for the little door to open so we can enter our tram "pod" that will take us to the top.

Only 5 little seats per pod. It was like being inside a large egg with a glass door so you can see out into the inside of the arch. The engineering behind the whole process is fascinating to me. The actual engineers in the family would think it is pretty cool.

Little windows at the top!

One of the things that was a big seller for Keith in our house was the basement that is almost completely unfinished. He worked in construction and this was a blank canvas that made him giddy. The part of the basement that is finished is fairly small and we really wanted to open it up more to give the kids and their friends a bigger place to play and go crazy without driving me crazy. So we are finishing a section of the basement and will knock out the wall in between it and the original finished section. Keith has enjoyed having a project, especially during the winter.

Molly likes to follow me down and sniff around the construction area while I am there. Whenever we send her out she is right there on the other side of the door waiting for us. The framed in box looking thing in the corner goes aroung the sump pump. However, the sump pump pipes aren't that tall so Keith framed in a raised floor for a reading nook that will have little steps going up to it. It has been fun to brainstorm various ideas of how to make the space fun for the kids.

The kids get so excited when Keith has a job that they can help with!

The flu season has been bad across the country this year and we didn't escape it. It hit some of us twice! It melts my heart to see how kind Charlie and Jane are when a family member is sick. They run to get their favorite stuffed animal or doll and give it to the sick person to help them feel better. Not long ago Keith and I were both sick at the same time. Ugh. Jane took her two most loved dolls and gave one to each of us so we could sleep with them instead of her. They draw pictures, cover the person with their own blankets and tell them over and over how very sorry they are that you are sick. Charlie likes to help Jane feel better by reading her books when she is sick. 

 Charlie had a birthday!!! 7 years!!! Can you believe it? He is such a kind-hearted, inquisitive, energetic kid. We love him to pieces.

 Speaking of which, he read in a book one day about a neat way to see the patterns that salt makes as it melts through ice, so naturally we had to do it. You sprinkle salt on ice then add food coloring which lets you see the veins of water left behind by the salt crystals as the melt deeper and deeper into the ice. It looks more impressive in real life and with clear ice, which we didn't have.

 We also made slime for the first time. It was more fun making it than playing with it! Or at least I think so.

 We added glow in the dark paint to ours as well. :)

 We don't have many days where we are going out in public so Jane has been choosing her own clothes with little say, if any, from me. This particular day made me laugh. She was wandering around obviously frustrated about something when she found her cat ears. She got a huge smile on her face, put them on her head, and proclaimed: "Perfect! Now I'm a princess!!!" I'm not sure what cat ears have to do with being a princess, but then again I am not a 4-year old.

And last but not least Charlie is doing great in school. They recently celebrated the 100th day of school and he got these glasses. I don't know how well he could see in them but he managed to complete his spelling words while wearing them!

Let the good times continue! (And I will try not to get too far behind...)

Halloween 2017

Ever since last Halloween Charlie had wanted to be an octopus and Jane a cat (just like she was that Halloween). Month after month the whole year round it never changed. So October comes and I ask Charlie what color of octopus he wants to be. Turns out that he didn't want to be any old octopus. No, he wanted to be his favorite animal, the Pacific Mimic Octopus. This octopus changes color, shape and texture to camouflage which apparently was why he wanted to be it for Halloween. When I told him that it just wasn't going to work for me to make him a shape-shifting, color-changing octopus costume, he reluctantly decided to settle for his second favorite, the Mexican Red-kneed Tarantula. It was easier than his previous request so I agreed. (As a side note: it was surprisingly easier to change his mind this year than it was the year when he was bound and determined to be one of those baboons with the red bottoms that he saw at the zoo. He thought the red butts were awesome and could not comprehend why on earth I wouldn't let him go as one.)

Jane wanted to wear the same "costume" as last year. It was pink sweat pants with a pink jacket that had a cat face on it. Not really a costume but she sure loved it! Unfortunately she had grown out of it. Jane was crushed. So we went to Walmart to see what we could find. We first went to see if there were any cat costumes still available. There weren't and I was starting to dread the idea of making two costumes, when we turned down an isle of princess costumes and Jane exclaimed that she wanted to be Rapunzel for Halloween. Done. One french braid with flowers, dress and she was Rapunzel.

The turtle is subbing for Pascal, her chameleon.

I was pretty proud of my french braiding skills.

Armed with a photo of a Mexican Red-kneed Trantula and materials to make one, I spent the next several evenings watching shows and sewing (I don't have a sewing machine so it was done by hand). It was a labor of love but seeing his face light up when he saw it made it all worth while.

One day Charlie's class wrote what they were each going to be for Halloween. In case you are rusty on your "reading 6-year old writing without spaces"skills, here is a translation: "My costume is a spider. The spider is a tarantula. Tarantulas are hairy. Tarantulas have stinging hairs. My mom is making my costume. I love bugs."

His school also had a costume parade and he was thrilled that we came to see him in it.

In the past Keith has braved the cold and taken the kids trick-or-treating while I stayed in the warmth of the house handing out treats to kids. That didn't work this year since the missionaries are supposed to be in a member's home that evening. We have elders so Keith got to stay and pass out the play-doh while I took the kids. I admit that I enjoyed it though. It was fun to see the smiles on the kids faces, the costumes of neighbor kids, people passing out candy as they sit next to a fire on their driveway. Not to mention the house directly across the street that has Halloween lights synced to music that plays in the street on Halloween night. It was a street party in the cul-de-sac! (It also boosted my ego a bit to over hear parents and kids talk about how cool and unique Charlie's costume was.)

 Two little pumpkins and our jack-o-lanterns.