The Thanksgiving with the Dinosaurs and the Pool

We made a trip to St. Louis for Thanksgiving this year to visit Uncle Dave and Aunt Kim who are residents at a hospital there.  He works in the ED and she is a pediatric gastroenterologist.  Very cool to know you are covered if your kids get any mystery illnesses while out of town, but unlike pretty much every other trip we have taken with the kids, there wasn't even an ear infection in sight, much less the trip to the ED we had when Davey visited Chicago last year.  Not that I am complaining.

Thanksgiving morning was odd because the kids were in the pool and there was zero food prep to do.  We all had dinner at a local restaurant, so our only job that day was to show up on time.  It was fun to try something different, but I have to admit I kinda missed the whole cooking thing (just didn't miss the dishes at all!)  We all decided that next year we would cook at home again.  We did get to watch the annual surgeons versus ED docs football game, which was played in the snow this year, complete with a doc in shorts on a cold and snowy day.

St. Louis was so much fun.  We saw the holiday lights at the botanic gardens, the zoo lights at the St. Louis Zoo and spent a day at the amazing children's museum which connected to a space museum.  I even got to sneak away to see the St. Louis art museum, which had some gems, especially two works by Van Gogh I had never seen before.  And there was a special exhibit on Polynesian art that was fascinating.  My favorite part may have been seeing Forest Park where the World's Fair was held.  Meet Me in St. Louis is a family favorite movie.

The most memorable moment, though, by far was seeing the black mamba snake at the zoo.  My brother used to talk about that snake when we were little, and something about it terrified me.  Maybe it is the fact that it can jump through the air and, according to my kids, is the only snake that can rise up high enough to bite a human in the face. It did not help that Uncle Dave told us before we went about how the ED docs go to the zoo to do drills on administering the anti-venom to zookeepers because they have to clean the enclosure where it is kept once or twice a year.  That snake was mesmerizing and horrifying, like my worst nightmare.  It rose up to eye level behind the glass and just looked so evil.  I still shudder when I think about it.  The kids were fascinated and delighted, so I tried to hide my fear.

In a little bit of serendipity, I saw a post of one of my dear childhood friends on Facebook saying she was headed to St. Louis for Thanksgiving, too, and we were able to meet up at the zoo to see the zoo lights together.  I had never met her youngest son, and it was fun after seeing so many pictures on Facebook to see her boys in action.

For a Song and Dance

Julia had her friend birthday party this weekend.  We had a little bit more of the shenanigans that we had when David's friend party was a few weeks after his actual birthday.  Julia excitedly said to her brothers this morning that she got to choose her balloon first because it was HER birthday and David (remember Mr. Dramatic?) said, "Julia, it. is. NOT. your. birthday!" Julia sobbed and said "mom, David says this is NOT my birthday party, that it is someone else's birthday party...waaaaah!" So I explained that while it is not her actual birthday, it is her birthday party and so we will pretend it is her birthday today.  To which Julia said, "then I am turning five today and I get to chew gum whenever I want!"  Very reminiscent of this conversation...It's like groundhog's day around here.

I think I have coordinated around 15 birthday parties now and this was one of my favorites.  My criteria is that it is easy for the parents (I don't want to be the one entertaining all of the kids for 1.5 hours) and fun for the kids.  Added bonus points if it is at a place we haven't been to 15 times already, but then again, we have had some fun parties at very popular places when the kids simply insisted they really, really wanted it there.  (Pump It Up, I'm talking about you, here.)  This party was at the Pied Piper Music Studio, which offers KinderMusik classes and piano lessons on a piano purchased for $75, painted yellow and affectionately known as Goldie (wish I had a picture to share here, because it was awesome.)  Julia was super excited about this party and seemed to love every minute of it.  She got to play a drum, strum a guitar, string a necklace and (my favorite) pretend she was cleaning (see those pink dusting mitts in the picture below?...I think we will be getting some for our house.)  Here's to four, in all of its glory.

Look Who's Four!

 Well, can you believe it? Look who's four!  She was delighted by this development.  Remember when Julia turned two and she started out smiling when we sang to her but cried toward the end?  Well, that was definitely gone at four and Julia was ecstatic at all of the attention being on her.  David was our photographer and took all of the photos in this post.  I think he got a great one when we sang "Happy Birthday, Dear Julia!" and she threw her hands over her head in glee (see second photo above.)  The four candle that looks a little worn had been rattling around in my drawer for about 20 months since David's birthday, and I believe it was used on the cakes of all three kids at this age.  I was a little bit nostalgic when I finally threw it away but excited to be in the age we are in with the kids when they are learning to read, ride bikes, going to school and loving learning about the world.

The dress Julia is wearing is one of her two birthday dresses that Grandma Francie chose for Julia from one of our favorite stores in Park Ridge, Camp Willow.  It is fun to see Grandma Francie and Julia share a love of dresses.  This one has been worn to church, to school and all around town already.  The blue fingernail polish was picked up by Papa specially for Julia from Walgreen's when Julia was invited to a princess birthday party and just HAD to have blue fingernails to match the blue Elsa the princess dress she had borrowed for the party.

The things I want to remember about Julia at age four include the way she loves to color and draw and will sit at the table for an hour at a time, her adoration for her best friend and excitement at seeing her each day at school, the way she marches into her preschool classroom without looking back to wave good-bye as she is so excited to start her day, the way she throws her arms in the air and shakes her head when she is feeling silly, her love of all animals, especially the cats, her independent (if slightly sassy at times) personality, the way her eyes light up when her brothers pay attention to her or use one of her ideas, the way she holds my hand and still wants to be picked up and cuddled when she is tired or not feeling well.

A Visit from Grandma and Papa

We had a great visit with Grandma Francie and Papa during a late October weekend.  I don't think Grandma was in the door more than 10 minutes before Julia decided that she had to bake cupcakes with Grandma and use the pink sprinkles, please.  AJ and Papa got to play some catch and everyone was able to watch AJ play soccer and football.  The kids love that Grandma brings brownies and new books to read.  At one point, Papa was reading to AJ and Grandma was reading to Davey and Julia in the other room.

My favorite part of the visit was watching the kids with Grandpa and Papa.  The relationships between grandparents and grandchildren is one of my favorite things in life.  We are lucky that we have another date to see them on the calendar already soon.