The Boathouse

Last night we were able to go with our friends, the Hartmans, over to a place in St. Louis' Forrest Park called The Boathouse.
We rented paddle boats for an hour and headed out on the lake.

It was 6:30 in the evening and still 95 degrees.

I guess if that didn't put me into labor nothing will!

Dylan was excited about the boats but was very unsure about getting his life jacket on and then actually going out on the water.

Tyler was of course in heaven and loved being our "captain". He sat in the middle and steered for a while and then decided he was going to paddle.

After we wore ourselves out on the water we had dinner (a very late one) at their quaint little restaurant.

Despite the sweat that was dripping from all of us it was a fun, pleasant evening. And on the way to the car fireworks started going off so we stopped to watch.

First "Day" of School

It was a very short two month summer break. We kept busy and had lots of fun. And while I wasn't completely sad to see it end, I wasn't exactly happy either. But it will be good to get into a structured routine just in time for the baby to come. So our day started out bright and early with Tyler getting up at 5:51am and managing to wake up the entire house (or it was his loud doors fault according to him). Needless to say we had plenty of time to get ready for school. And we started with a completely nutritious, special breakfast, of waffles and donut holes since those are their favorites.

(Yes Tyler was excited and picked out an outfit of plaid shorts and this striped sweater - have I mentioned the heat index is over 100 degrees this week?!? I guess I need to work with him more... I thought he had matching down). Anyway...

Brynn was actually in a happy cheerful mood which was very pleasant. PJ was home long enough this morning for me to be able to drive her to school and help her find her 1st grade classroom and meet her teacher, Miss von der Linden - who is new to the school and this is her first year teaching. But she was very nice and Brynn seemed to like her. She even had a couple of friends from kindergarten in her class which was good to see.

While she was in a good mood she still didn't want me taking any pictures and I tried to be nice and obey her wishes...except for this one...

She also got off the bus very cheerfully (she was excited she had the same bus driver) and I think this will be a good year for her.

Tyler was sad he didn't get to go on the bus like Brynn today and patiently waited for her to get home...

...and then knew it would be his turn. She got home around 11am and then Tyler had his Pre-K meet and greet from 12:30 to 1:30. He is so proud that he is now at "Brynn's school".

And he and I had a fun time exploring his new classroom and meeting his teachers.

And he was finding "T's" all over the place. Here is a little random sampling...

Unfortunately he now has to wait until Monday (this will be a really long weekend for us) to ride the bus and do his regular day at preschool. But tonight we celebrated our new school year with a movie, picnic dinner in the living room, and bus cookies...

I wasn't cute and fun enough to get a back-to-school cake made but the cookies did a good job in its place. Here's to a great school year ahead of us!

Sweet Love

Ah sweet love...

...of money really. I mentioned to Preston, a few weeks ago, as I huffed and puffed my way through doing my toes, that that would be the last time I'd put myself through that. And he had no interested in helping me out. But when I mentioned recently that I would be going to get a pedicure all of a sudden he found his motivation. And while it didn't involve an ankle massage or anything, he very sweetly painted my toes the other night... and while I'm sure he tried his hardest (and it was his first time ever) I'm thinking I'm probably going to have to still go get a pedicure :) Unless he wants more practice ;)

Caterpillar Nightmare!

My garden has been beautiful. In fact, on Friday I bought more jars and pectin and had big exciting plans for trying out a new peper jelly recipe Monday because I had a ton of gorgeous yellow, red and green pepers and more jalepeno's. Well I watered my garden Saturday morning before we left for Indiana, Sunday night I noticed that it was looking a little sad but decided I would just wake up and water it in the morning since I was tired.

Well when I went out yesterday morning I could not believe my eyes. I practically had NO garden! I mean we are talking the plants had no leaves, no fruit, no life, no nothing. I went out to inspect and about lost my mind. See my problem...

Everything was covered in these HUGE, ugly, green, obviously MEAN caterpillars. In a day and half they managed to eat my whole garden. Who knew yucky caterpillars loved hot jalepeno's so much??!? And that they could take over SO quickly. Well I guess I do now. And I'm sure with some tender loving care and hard work things could have been fixed and recovered. But I was disgusted and creeped out and my men came to my rescue...

Yes, I made them rip out the entire garden. PJ wasn't thrilled since it was my baby, my project. But I couldn't handle it. I needed it done and gone and away and no where near me and I couldn't do it. I'm a little psycho right now seeing as I'm less than two weeks from my due date. But I just couldn't handle it. So they were wonderful and handled it for me.

I was very depressed about it. All the time, the money, the big plans. But I guess I've learned my lesson about gardening here. Pesticides are going to be my best friend next year... if I can get over what happened this year.

Anyway... as I mentioned I'm very pregnant and don't sleep well anymore. And last night was even worse because I kept dreaming/imagining/feeling caterpillars (in the mean, green, yucky variety) crawling all over me. It was a long itchy night...

TRIP to the THOMAS'

We were SOOOO excited when we found out our good friends from Arizona, the Thomas', had matched at a Residency program over in Indiana. They stopped by our house on their move out a few months ago. But yesterday was the first time we drove over to see them in their new place. It is just over a two hour drive which isn't bad at all. We drove there in the morning (when PJ got home from his OB night call), spent the day there, and then drove back that night.
It was a fun filled day, spent mostly playing at their house (aka making a big mess) and at fun water park. Sadly (and so unlike me) the only pictures I took were at the water park and this is the best "group" shot I got. And as you can see it only includes Jeff, Gracen, Summer, Brynn and Tyler...
There was lots of fun to be had there and the kids had a blast playing with their old friends.

Tyler saw the huge water slides and couldn't wait to go on them. We weren't there for more than a few minutes before he convinced PJ to march him up the hill to the top so he could ride down.

Only, very sadly, he was about an inch and a half too short :( But we aren't sure what got in to Brynn because she actually went down them several times. And all three of the older kids (Brynn, Tyler, Summer) had a great time jumping off the diving boards.

Dylan wasn't loving the pool but was thrilled with the splash pad area...

Great day. I'm sure it was just one of many trips we'll be making back and forth!

4 Year Well Check

Tyler had his 4 year well check (and school physical) appointment today... only about a month late but who's counting.

He did what Brynn did... his height and his weight were the same. My kids have a talent and it always seems to impress the doctors.

He weighed 40 pounds which (according to my calculations) puts him the 80th percentile for weight.

And he measured 40 inches which should put him in the 40th percentile for height.

He had to get two shots and the nurse kept telling him it was going to hurt and that he would probably be a little mad at her. Brynn had to leave the room because she didn't want to see Tyler get a shot and cry. But I told him I knew he'd be brave. And sure enough he sat there and watched her intently and didn't budge or make a peep. And when she was done he exclaimed, "Hey! That's not so bad! I'm super brave!" Yes, he was. Brynn even came in after the first shot to find out why he wasn't crying yet. And so she watched the second one - and hopefully realized you don't need to freak out about shots.

For his bravery he got a sticker, a sucker and two alien bandaids. He can't wait to show his dad his bandaids and tell him how super brave he was :)

Doctors and Daddys

I had my follow-up ultrasound today. Everything looked great. Her kidneys were ever so slightly dilated at 6, and they don't worry about them until 8, so that wasn't a concern. Fluid levels were fine. She has hair. And she weighed in at 6lbs 5ozs which means she's gained 2 pounds. She had her faced buried and would not show it to us! So I got a cute picture of what else?!... her ear...
Not your typical ultrasound picture but the tech thought it was cute so there you go. She also was very stretched out and had her feet up so high they couldn't see them either. That didn't surprise me. She seems to always be everywhere and its so comfortable ;)

Yesterday we went swimming like we do quite often. The heat index was 124 degrees yesterday!! Anyway...Tyler broke his last pair of cheap goggles so I finally let him use PJ's nice Speedo ones. After a while it looked like he was getting sunburned just under his eyes, which he seems to do a lot right there, even though I'm a sunscreen nazi. But by the time we got home I noticed that all around his eyes were very red and swollen. His eyes kept running and he kept telling me they hurt. We started wondering if he had an allergic reaction to the different goggles. Here is a picture of him this morning after having Benadryl before bed last night...

Anyway... the point is... Last night PJ was working late and didn't make it home in time for dinner. It was Tylers turn to pray. He was struggling and I wasn't sure what was going on so I asked...

Me: Tyler are you OK? Are you going to say the prayer?

Tyler: Yes but my eyes hurt and they can't close. Can I keep them open?

Me: Yes, that would be ok tonight.

Tyler: Mom, now the water won't stop coming out of them.

Me: Its ok. Just say the prayer and daddy will look at them when he gets home.

Tyler: No!! Not daddy!

Me: What? Why not?

Tyler: Cause daddy will cut my eyes off and I don't want him to. If he cut my eyes off then I can't see! I need my eyes!

Me: I'll talk to daddy. I promise he won't cut your eyes off. OK?! Can you say the prayer now??

Oh my goodness... My dad always said that to me. So it seems only natural when PJ tells the kids he'll cut stuff off when it hurts. Natural...but may not the nicest or best idea. Is there some dad rule that says you have to scare your kids like that?