Meet me in St Louis

 Trav's parents treated us to a weekend getaway in St Louis, we are truly spoiled by them. Kingston & his bestie Grandpa Im sure talking farm equipment.

Says Nashville met us there which is about the halfway point, and pretty easy to drive over for a long weekend. Everyone made it up in the arch except me and King entertained ourselves down in the museum & gift shop.

A breakfast buffet, pop machine and pool right outside our room, what more could the kids ask for?

I definitely have thrill seekers for children, they love amusement parks & roller coasters, we hit six flags the first day.

The log ride, you will get wet!

A ride for the whole family, the ferris wheel!

Jude did the big roller coasters with the exception of a few he wasn't tall enough for, thankfully there was plenty for the littler ones to do. They rode this Sylvester ride over and over.

We ate at the Brew House across from the Cardinals stadium Sat night, definitely got some good sized brewskys here.

Kingstons pretend ride up in the arch.

We had heard a lot about the city museum & now I see what the rage is about, it is pretty amazing, a very easy place to lose your children with minimal staff supervision.

I love the lady/girl with the knee pads, she came prepared.

Indoor/outdoor slides,  to run, climb up, slide, roll down. I am quite surprised we came out with no injuries.

Lots of outdoor eating establishments, love this with crazy kids.

The BIG ball pit with all 6 kids hidden in there somewhere.

crazy drivers Addie & Roe

 love getting together with these two, even though it is not enough, Happy 10th Anniversary!

and these 2, love them!

6th Grade Transition

 Brady, Egan & Xander in 1st grade

 & 6th grade

 6th grade party at cico with buddies Tyce, Brady, Ben & Xander

 Notice the only kid wearing his tennis shoes in the water, and I thought he made good decisions….

 The transition ceremony couldn't have been more perfect & fun for the kids.  Each 6th grade class made individual videos as well as a class video, it was very laid back and informal. The whole 6th grade, including the teachers & Mr.Nelson ended up in a port a potty on the playground and came out wearing their tye die shirts dancing to the "Happy" song, even the kindergarteners were entertained.

Xander had his life skills essay chosen to read the day of the ceremony, I was impressed

that he seemed relaxed and okay with speaking about making good choices to the whole school and 6th grade parents, I think I would be a lil nervous. 

We love you Xander & can't wait to see what your journey in middle school brings. 

Piano Recital 2014

We finished up another piano season last evening and loved watching these kiddos perform, such talent!

Xander is one of the old kids now, he has been working on Frozen but hadn't perfected it for the recital.

Jude has been taking lessons for a couple months so he played a few songs from his CD's but didn't sing for them:(

Tug of War challenge

 They did a tug of war off for the 4th through 6th grade classes & Mr.Hendricks class won.

I think you can see him coaching them with the green jacket in the background, I wouldn't want to lose either. 

 Xander wouldn't let me take any individual pics so this is as good as it gets, he was a titch excited jumping up and down,  no he is not a foot taller than the others.

 class hug proud of their win, good way to wrap up their last field day:(

 Roe's class was pathetic, I don't think she made a good anchor, obviously.

She ended up in the splits & then there are the 2 boys on top of each other, I don't think they helped either

Action shots

 looking back at my pics I thought it was interesting how similar my big two are in their dramatic catches

 I caught the end of the sprint for pics, if you blink you would miss these races, my big 2 finished well

This one is for Lindsay, I wish I could have gotten a close up of Mason's face, he got some air and rocked this race!

 I think they have learned by this age not to line up with the fast runners

Jude told me he finished almost last in the sack race, I love this pic with Mrs.Sandmann cheering for him, he still visits her daily for starbursts

 Thanks for the pics Kitra

Field day favorites

 wrapping up 4th grade for these good friends

 and the soon to be second graders, I LOVE Jude's class, such great boys

 and he loves the girls as well with 2 of his faves Sienna & Claire

I think you can tell by this picture, Monroe's class has quite the personality

Dance Out Loud

 How is it May already? We wrapped up another fabulous dance season this last weekend. We always go watch the big girls on Friday night & then the littles on Sunday & I am not sad that next year Roe will be on Friday night. Less stress with getting tickets, or maybe Im fooling myself:)
 I do LOVE watching the little girls though!

 After watching the older girls stage faces, these girls were all over practicing them, thankfully they didn't bust them out on Sunday, not quite there yet.
Monroe had a class full of her friends, so that is always fun, she scored with cute costumes & songs this year but I am super excited for her to be challenged next year with the older girls.

Roe's favorite was jazz & was thrilled to show off a little gymnastics in it, I personally have a heart for & love watching ballet.

We are missing Stella in this pic!

 We had a little after recital dinner at Wabash rooftop. It was the most gorgeous night. It would have been more perfect if a couple wasn't sharing a cigar next to us.

King & my dad walkin the ville.