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Welcome to our family website. We hope you find this a fun way to stay in touch and find out what is going on in our lives.
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September 13th, 2008
1st Annual Cousins Reunion - Six Flags '08
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June 2nd, 2008 ~ Boy Scout night at the Cardinals Game
We had a great time at the Cardinals Game! The Cardinals sponsored a night for Boy Scouts and we were able to get great seats in Big Mac Land as well as a really cool patch to remember the evening by. Riley and Ciara each brought a friend with them and they feasted on Soda, Nachos and Cotton Candy. The girls had a great time dancing to the music while the boys were a little more serious about the scores and stats.
We had perfect weather and the only small bummer was that the Cards ended up losing the game.
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May 27th, 2008 ~ Last Day of School
The last day of school was fun but bittersweet. We had the annual parade and then the R.A.H. Assembly. Riley was recognized for perfect attendance and straight A's for the entire year. Ciara also had great grades the entire year but they don't have formal grades in Kindergarten.
We took pics and said goodbye to two excellent teachers. We begged them both to move up a grade level so they could stay with our kids. They assured us they would love to but couldn't. So in a few short months we will have a 4th grader and a 1st grader.
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May 24th, 2008 ~ Ciara's Piano Recital
Ciara has been taking piano lessons once a week since January. She is quite a good little piano player and requires very little prodding to get her to practice. In fact she often plays without being asked and whenever we go somewhere where there is a piano (church or the place where Riley takes guitar lessons) she jumps right on and plays a little song.
Her teacher Lynzee arranged a recital for her students. Our dear friend Margaret was gracious enough to offer up her home so the kids got the special treat of performing their pieces on a beautiful baby grand piano. Ciara played two pieces "Henry the Cat" and "The Alley Cat's Meow." (Anyone sensing a theme here?) She did a wonderful job and it was really fun to watch her play.
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May 22nd, 2008 ~ Talent Show
A few weeks ago Ciara's school sent home a flyer announcing that they would be having a talent show. The kids had to audition and they were going to pick 25 acts for the show. Ciara surprised us by saying that she wanted to audition. We encouraged her to do so but cautioned her that she might not get picked. She wanted to do it anyway. She auditioned on a wednesday and we anxiously awaited friday's arrival to find out if she had made it into the Talent Show. We were all so excited when we found out she had been selected.
The night of the talent show we were a little nervous as to whether or not she would actually go through we it. See, her track record is not that great. We didnt' get to see her perform on the final day of gymnastics class, we didn't get to see her dance recital and she often refuses to sing during the group children singing performances at Church. But when her turn came she went right up to the piano and played her song "Henry the Cat." When she was done she took a really quick bow and went back to her seat. The principal said can you believe she's only a Kindergartener? We were soo proud of her, as was her piano teacher who made a special trip to see her.
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May 2008 ~ Ciara's Birthday
It seems like every year the birthday celebrations get longer and longer. On May 13th the actual day of her 6th birthday, she took cupcakes to school to celebrate with her classmates. That night we had her requested dinner of Spaghetti and her favorite: Rice Krispy Treats. The following Saturday she had a birthday party with a few of her little girlfriends. They did some craft projects, painted their nails, had snacks and drank sparkling apple juice out of plastic martini glasses. They decorated cupcakes and everything was covered in pink and purple. When the final coat on their nails dried, we went out the the awesome playground at the kids school! She had a great day. The next day, we had family over for a big Sunday dinner and she got to open more presents and celebrate yet again.
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Mother's Day ~ May 11th, 2008
Every year the kids have a writing contest at school. It is entitled:
"I LOVE my mom because........."
Ciara:
"She makes our dinner. Because she loves us and she helps me clean my room because it was a big mess."
Riley:
"She makes me happy by giving me siblings and great food. She also gives me the best presents like Video Games and Lego's. She also let's me go to school. She's the main reason I can read too! She takes me places and she loves me great!!"
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March 16th, 2008
Happy Birthday Riley! Hard for me to believe, but friday was Riley's ninth birthday. For his birthday he wanted an electric guitar, so we took him to Guitar center and he picked out a really cool blue fender. He will start lessons the first week in April. Because he picked such an expensive present it was his only present from us (Nanny Norah and Grandad Ron chipped in too!) and we kept the birthday celebrations kinda low key.
To celebrate with his class at school he took 2 Cookie cakes. We over estimated how much we would need and there was almost an entire cookie cake left over, so Riley went around the whole school offering friends and teachers a piece. (I don't think anyone turned him down!) After school three of his friends came over and we had pizza and they played outside, played lots of guitar hero and settled down for the night somewher around 1 am. Of course they were up by seven! We had a big breakfast and headed out to see Horton Hears a Who. Very cute - if you haven't seen it, its worth the million dollars that a movie ticket costs nowadays. All the boys seemed to enjoy it. Next week he has another fun night in store when he goes to spend the night at the St Louis Science Center. Grandma Mari's birthday present was a fun overnight stay there for Chris and Riley for a camp in called "Night at the Museum." He is really looking forward to it. Of course it will be Easter that weekend and also the Pinewood Derby for his Cub Scout Pack. Hmm.............I suppose we should start building his car.
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March 5th, 2008 - Yet another Snow Day.
At about 10 pm last night the phone rang yesterday. It was the phone tree from the school district calling to tell us that school would be closed today due to inclement weather. I had assured the kids that I did not think school would be closed and once again Riley was very dissapointed. His class was supposed to go on a field trip to the Philarmonic today. So to get them out of the house we decided to go to the Mills mall and get some lunch and let them play in the play area.
There is a new thing there called Extreme Web. It is a trampoline coupled with bungee cords and the kids love it. They even brought their own money along to pay for it. They had a blast jumping and Ciara was really close to doing a back flip.
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March 4th, 2008 - Another Snow Day
In the eight years we have lived in St Louis I have never seen this much snow. The most snow days we have ever had since Riley has been in school is one and some years we never had any. This year we have already have four or five. It started snowing about 8 o'clock this morning and I took these pictures around noon.
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They predicted the snow would end around 3pm. At 3:15 pm its still going strong. We stuck a ruler in the picnic table in the back yard and as you can see 9 inches of snow already.
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March 2nd, 2008
Is it really March already? February was a busy month and just flew by and it look likes March will be more of the same. Easter is just around the corner and before we know it summer will be here.
Yesterday we attended the Blue and Gold Banquet for Riley's Cub Scout Pack. Chris is cubmaster, and he along with his assistant were in charge of the event. His assistant did an incredible job, decorating with blue and gold plates and table coverings and she cooked the majority of the food. I don't know what other kids eat at their banquets, but our kids were served chicken, shrimp and crab stir fry, fried rice, and homemade crab rangoon. There were all sorts of accompaniments such as mac 'n' cheese, rolls, salad and rigatoni. For dessert (which I was in charge of) we had cake, cupcakes and ice cream. Many of the boys had worked really hard and earned a lot of awards so it was a really fun time for them to be recognized and I think everyone had a great time! Be sure to check out the "Blue and Gold" page for pictures of the banquet.
Today I got to spend the entire day at home with the girls while Chris and Riley went to church. Ciara was not very well. At first we thought maybe she was faking because she was supposed to give a talk in primary, but when she refused to eat breakfast and then later threw up, we knew she was really sick.
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February 26th, 2008 - Robinwood Science Fair
If you have ever helped your child with their Science Fair Project you will know exactly what I talking about. About three weeks ago, we found out that it not only was it mandatory for third graders to do a project but it would also be the majority of thier science grade. So we started looking for a fun project to do. I thought it would be fun to do a consumer project. My idea was to test popcorn to see which popped the best and which one left the most kernels behind. But that did not strike Riley's fancy. He wanted to test water to see which was the safest to drink. He was soo passionate about it, that I decided to just let him run with it.
So.....we ordered a testing kit and collected some water samples and put together a project. Big homework assignments have a way of turning out to be homework assignments for the parents too. Not to mention that the board that the project goes on is huge and we had to continuously move it to keep a certain 18 mos old baby out of it. But it all worked out in the end and not only did Riley get an "A" but he won 1st place. He was so excited he called from school to let us know. Congratulations Riley!!
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February 21st, 2008
Snow Day
Those of you with more than one child can relate to this but this really cracked me up this morning. When we went to bed last night there was a winter storm advisory, so the first thing I did this morning was check the school closings and sure enough our school was closed.
Riley who is an early riser, was already up and out of bed and watching the morning news to see pictures of the lunar eclipse that happened last night. So I went out to the living room and told him that school was closed for the day thinking he would be overjoyed and I would just climb back into my warm bed for a while. Boy was I wroing. Riley was not a happy camper. When I asked him why he said "Three Reasons. One: The Science Fair is today" (He has been working on his project for three weeks and was really excited to turn it in.) "Two: I wanted to see if any other kids saw the lunar eclipse." (He was out in the freezing cold looking at it with his telescope last night.) "Three: It's Thursday!!!" (Not sure what he meant by that other than the fact that like me he seems to do better when everything goes according to plan, and in his mind, it is a school day and the plan is messed up.)
Ciara on the other hand is still snuggled in her bed. She is an extremely deep sleeper and hates getting out of bed in the morning. She loves school but will be thrilled that it is a snow day. Today is library day for her class and she had checked out the book "Polar bear, Polar bear what do you hear?" She loves the book and did not want to return it today so she will be thrilled to get to keep it another week.
The Lunar Eclipse
Those of you that know Riley well, know that he loves anything educational. Yesterday his wonderful teacher, told us there would be a visible lunar eclipse around 11 o'clock at night. Of course Riley would be asleep at this time, but I promised I would wake him up. I was at a meeting with the Superintendant of schools and I was coming home around 8:30 pm I noticed the eclipse had already started. I called Riley and told him and when I arrived home I found him on the front porch with the telescope. We tried to take a picture but we don't really have the right equipment so they didn't come out very well. Around 9 pm his teacher called (did I mention we LOVE her!) to tell us that she was wrong about the time and the lunar eclipse was already happening and she was afraid Riley would miss it. She said she knew that out of all her students Riley would be the most interested in something like this. Mrs. G, what do you think about moving to 4th grade next year?
Great Teachers
As I mentioned I was at a meeting last night with the Superintendant of Schools for our district and some of the parents and teachers from Probe. (The gifted program that Riley attends.) After the meeting I spent some time talking to Ms. Best, the director of Probe. She mentioned to me how wonderful she thought Riley was and praised me for my parenting skills and involvement in his education. While I do believe that parents have a huge influence on their children as far as education goes, I can't take all the credit. We have been blessed with wonderful teachers for all our children. I was so impressed to see Ms. Best and Mr Rahlman fight for the interests of the probe kids when it would have been ten times easier to just let the issue go.
Riley loves his teacher and classroom. His teacher is a wonderful bright young woman who truly cares for each and every student. Rather than leave Riley to his own devices as some gifted students are, she challenges him in her classroom. It is because of this that he isn't bored in class and contines to love school. Last week after I spent the afternoon there doing the Valentines Day Party, she said "I owe you big time for this." No Mrs G., we owe you big time! We hope you know how important you are to us and how comfortable we are entrusting one of our most precious possessions to you for six hours a day.
Ciara also loves school but in a different way from Riley. She loves to socialize and even though she is a good student could care less about perfect attendance and whether or not she got a hundred on the spelling test. Her teacher is also incredible. She was also Riley's Kindergarten teacher and set our expectations for teachers high. Ciara thrives under her teachings and is learning to read and write at what seems to me an amazing rate. Those of you with kids know that dealing with 15 five year olds is no easy feat.
At 18 mos old, Ella participates in Parents as Teachers. This is a wonderful program through our school district. A teacher that specializes in Early Childhood Education visits our home about once a month and spends 45 mins with us. She plays with Ella and makes sure that she is on track developmentally and answers any questions that I might have. Ella loves this one on one attention and I think it helps ease the eventual transition into preschool.
Okay, I'm getting of my soapbox now and I'm going to go snuggle and drink hot chocolate with my kids!
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| Lunar eclipse on Feb 20th, 2008 |
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