Older pictures, but it's been a while

I've heard some (ahem) feedback that we haven't been the best blog updaters.  That may be true, so here are some recent pictures that we have that you may find interesting:

That's Francine holding a slug.  Yes, a slug.  She doesn't seem that mortified - big surprise. 

 This is Francine playing with something VERY messy at school.  I don't know for sure what that is, but it looks like it shouldn't come home.

Here's a picture that Walt drew.  The Big Question asked at school was something that grows in the jungle and something that lives in the jungle.  On the left is a palm tree complete with fronds and coconuts.  On the right is a gorilla, and he signed it as well.

Sorry for not having more, but things have been pretty busy around here.

We had some extra fun at G-ma and Papa's house today.  We had originally planned on leaving this afternoon, but decided to stay an extra day.  These are pictures of the kids playing in a leaf pile with their uncle Troy.

Lost tooth.

Walt lost his first tooth this afternoon. Here is the aftermath...

after rejecting the first and 10 more tries...

This was Francine's first school picture.  We hated to do re-takes but honestly the first one was horrible....  She  is so cute though, but it was awful. :)

Great Weekend

Saturday the tempertures reached into the 80s so we decided to head out West to our favorite park.  (sara also suggested it so she could go shopping at Von Maur) The kids love to play together and I think that the tire swing was the highlight of the time at the park. 

After park and shopping we met up with the Kendalls for a yummy lunch.  Nanny and Poppie stayed with us last night so the kids loved seeing them and sharing all about our fun day!

Zoo Morning

The kids were off school today for teachers' Professional Development, so I took the day off.  We spent the morning at the zoo.  It was a bit chilly, and many of the animals had been moved indoors for the winter, but we did get to see a few, and also were able to ride the carousel 3 times.

Blue Angel Jet

Walt and dad went to the Science Center today.  A new piece that they have is an F-18 from the Blue Angels.  Here's Walt:

Dress up/Early Halloween Fun

Francine (and Walt) loves to dress up. Tonight she saw her Halloween costume sitting out (dumb me for not putting in a bag) and she HAD to wear it, which would be fine if we didn't have a messy dinner and she wore it through dinner (I know that one is on me as a parent).

Anyway, she also loves to spin and spin, so here is a little of Francine the Pirate, and the end  is walt trying to scare her.  (which he loves to do)

Sleepy Francine

I'm not saying that Francine put herself to bed, but I will say that she took her own initiative in selecting her sleepwear after we closed her door....

Pumpkins 2012

Bob was not too interested in carving the pumpkins, but they turned out great. Walt requested a bat which bob hand drew, and Francine wanted a Happy Pumpkin. 
So tonight we lit them on our newly painted enterance.  (we just had all of the trim around our windows and in our enterance painted, wow what a difference it makes!)
Making roasted pumpkin seeds tomorrow. 

The kids can't wait to go to Gavin and Zoe's for Halloween!

Walt Playing Hockey

This past Sunday was Walt's third session of this "season".  He's definitely improved over last year, and you can tell that he's better on his skates.  He's also having a lot of fun playing and we all enjoy watching him go.  We have two videos, and in the first one, he's taking the puck and trying to score (he gets foiled on his first attempt, but that doesn't deter him) and eventually does with a pretty sweet backhand, and in the second, it's just a skating drill where he's going around some cones/tires on the ice working on his turns.  In both the videos, he's in a red jersey (just like most of the kids), and has a black helmet.  I try to keep him in the center of the frame while recording, so it should be somewhat easy to follow.  Good luck, and enjoy...

Soccer Season 2012

Walt joined the soccer team again this year.  Tommy and Bob were coaches for another season out in Fenton.  Walt has really improved a lot and really loved going to practice and the games.  Last year if you remember he would cry because he hated the games, but this year he was happy to go, but this year the competition got a little harder so a couple games he came out of the game crying because he knew that his team was going to lose.  Even though they really don't keep "score", most kids know that if you don't score you don't win.  So that was a little tough lesson for him to learn.  Francine LOVED going to Walt's games, and for the most part she was great.  I think that she will be a great soccer player some day.

Boo at the Zoo 2012

Ok, so i am pretty embarressed that it has been so many months without a post.  I have a lot of excuses ready for you, but in the end, I (we) just didn't get it done.   I think that we are back on track. In the next few weeks we are going to try to update from some of the exciting events that you missed. 

But something from yesterday.  We went to the annual event at the zoo called Boo at the Zoo.  The zoo is open at night and they decorate the trees and there are some fun animal shows in the theater.  It is cute.  The kids are going as Pirates this year (walt did go as a pirate as well last year, saving on another costume) :)  They are so sweet to each other, it is pretty cute that they want to be the same thing. 

Swimming with Nanny and Poppy

Diane and Wally have a great swimming pool just about 10 minutes from their house.  Diane has taken walt and baxter there, but our whole family has not had the opportunity to go.  We had a great day. 

Fun with Nanny and Poppie

We decided that we needed some Nanny and Poppie time.  So we headed south to Jackson to spend the weekend with Diane, WAlly, and Bruno.  We went to the amazing water park that they had there.  The kids LOVED it.  I wanted to stay on that lazy river all day long.  We didn't take the camera to the pool so i have some pictures from after while Wally and bob were bbqing  Love the pictures of the 3 generations bbqing!

Tree Hugger

So we went to Francis park on Thursday morning.  We stopped at McDonalds first and all got a yogurt parfait.  (Much to Walt's dismay, I think that at 9:45am he still would have had a "fish sammy")   We found a picnic table and we were enjoying our yogurt, when Francine said (out of the blue) "OH NO..... tree"  and she says it with a sad face.  I look over and see that there is a giant tree stump. :)  i told her maybe she should give the tree a hug.  Then the kids and went to play on the tree.  It was another beauty of a day in St Louis. 

Getting Ready

So getting shoes on and clothes on some mornings becomes a challenge.  On Wednesday she ran and hid and then tried to use a foam noodle to fight me off.  :)

Zoo with Playgroup

It's Tuesday so it means that it is another playgroup.  Today we met at the zoo.  The carosel is free at the zoo for the first hour that it is open, so we got there just in time to ride THREE times in a row.  Francine and I were done after 1, but walt loves that carosel. 
Then it was off to the chimps, rhinos, anteaters, HIPPOS, and Elephants.  The hippos were swimming all over their pool.  Usually they are just chilling in the water, but not today.  It was a very exciting area today.  Francine sleeps with a purple hippo aka 'Po (thanks Auntie Amanda), so she was excited to see her favorite animals. 

Saturday....

It felt like a Sunday yesterday because bob took off Thursday and Friday.  It was awesome to have those extra days with him.  We decided to take in one of the many park concerts around us and went to Lafayette Park to see the Ralph Butler Band.  It was great.  THe kids especially liked the sno-cone tent that was set up!

Country Mouse

Friday we went to Wentzville/Lake St Louis area to hang out in Todd, Paige and Hadley's area.  First we stopped at Zachary's playground.  It is a fun park.  Then it was off to put Francine down for a nap and grab lunch.  After lunch the mom's went shopping at the 5 min away Von Maur (sara's favorite store) and the dads and kids played outside.  Then we thought we would go to the pool even though it was chilly.  We were denied, I guess it has to be 72 degrees.  It was 70.  And it was too late to go bowling, so it was a night of more playground and friend fun outside.  The dads bbqed for the moms and it was a delicious dinner!

 Francine was devastated that we could not go into the pool!!!

 Paige and I bought matching pjs for the girls, walt was a little sad he was not included!