The Magic House Children's Museum

We met up with my friend Matt, his daughter, my friend Cabell, her two kids, and her folks at the Magic House in St. Louis. I'd never been and it was neat, but the kids all ran off in opposite directions as soon as we got there & we didn't get to do much grown-up catching up.

James was fearless & climbed all the way to the top of the Jack and the Beanstalk climbing feature.

The water zone was a hit. 

I didn't even get out the camera (due to child-chasing) so Sam got these on his phone. 

There was so much to do & see, and we didn't get to half of it. For example, Cabell scored these awesome buttons with pictures of AJ & Bryony and we apparently didn't even make it to that part of the museum. 

Bicycle

Amelie got a bicycle for her 5th birthday. She named it "Rocket." She's been practicing mostly on the basketball court at our neighborhood park. All the rain this summer has thwarted us, but hopefully we'll get some more practice in. She's taken a few spills even with the training wheels on, but nothing too serious.

These pictures are also courtesy of Sam's phone. Updated to add another. I mean, don't you also take a break in the middle of bike-riding at the park to read a book? Who doesn't? 

Independence Day, II

We're about to have a series of several posts from photos Sam has emailed me from his phone. (Thanks to Grandma Mary for passing along her old smart phone!)

I have two more weeks of teaching my night class, and then my full-time job will at least seem very easy & maybe I can be more regular about updating the blog again. (Or maybe not! Ha!)

I took the camera to the Fire in the Sky celebration downtown on the fourth (& made a blog post about it), but Sam also took some photos with his phone of the festivities before the fireworks started.

There was a bounce house that the kids went through twice.

Last year, we got to the park just before dusk and they deflated the bounce house right in front of our eyes.

I mentioned before that Sam made caramel corn.

Yum!

Amelie Artwork (now with updates)

Amelie did Kindergarten Kickoff for 4 weeks through the public school this summer. Her drawing has really taken off. I photographed a few of the piles and piles of things she brought home. She's been signing some things "AM" instead of writing out her full name. I'm pretty sure this is a ship:

Updated to add: I was reading Amelie this blog post, and she added, "Yeah. It's a pirate ship with lots and lots and lots of pirates on it. They're having a pirate party."

Robot? Updated: "No, it's an airplane."

I like the rainbow effect on this one. They did worksheets like this for each of the letters. Amelie says, "That's a rainbow town."

They also did several of these color-by-number things, which Amelie liked a lot. Amelie says, "That's a rainbow umbrella."

"Can you say that that is a picture of a dog that has white and brown on it? That red stuff is dirt and that's a bone that he's going to bury in the dirt."

She told me a big story about this one, involving climbing a mountain and putting up a flag. Updated: When I asked what it said at the bottom, she said, "It says what it is; it says mountain."

Sam was very impressed with this person (look at they eye lashes!) Updated: "That's me, too."

Updated: "That's Frosty the Snowman."

Here are some of Amelie's earlier drawings/writing/painting for comparison:

• From February: a birthday card
• More from February: class work
• These are some of her first people from about a year ago: first people

Independence Day

The Buffaloes have had a fun-filled 4th of July weekend. Sam & I were both off on the 3rd (though he had to go in on Saturday the 4th to make up for it) and we took the kids to St. Louis to meet up with friends from college & go to the Magic House (post to come, I hope - the pictures are on Sam's phone).

Then we went to the big municipal show in downtown Columbia on the 4th (and I have a few low-quality photos of that here!) We got there a little after 8 and had caramel corn and fruit snacks (that we brought from home) and the kids did the bounce house twice before they deflated it.

We had a potluck at church today & they went out to their grandparents to swim & have bratwursts tonight.

I bought packages of sparklers and poppers, but I'm not sure when we'll get to those!

 James looks a little concerned in this picture, but he loved it (I think this was right after the first one). This is Amelie's 4th year going. We ran into Shauna and about half of her bunch & got to put our blanket right next to theirs.

I tried out my camera's "fireworks" setting for fun. Ha!