Our Friends!

In the middle of October we had some of our bestest friends come visit us up here: George and Bryn and Kevin and Emilee. Friday, Kevin, Emilee, Caroline, Baby Helen and Aunt Emi, who lives in St. Louis, came over and played while we waited for Spence to get out of class.

When Spence was done we went to the Magic House for the kids to play.

Curious George was there, too! Maddie went thru a little phase of watching Curious George on PBS. It was really interesting to watch it with her to see how the writers write the stories. George is usually trying to figure something out like how the apple cider machine makes cider out of the apples or how to make a hat that's as perfect for him as is "The Man with the Yellow Hat". But they narrate it so well, stating and explaining each step he takes to get to the conclusion. Maddie was just mesmerized by it.

Well, anyway, back to the childrens' museum

The water table . . . and Baby Helen trying to figure out how there are so many of her.

All of us trying out a new hair do.

Spence and Kevin playing. (They are such good Daddy's!)

This is Katie singing her favorite song "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" for Aunt Emi.

It was the Magic House's 30 birthday so the girls got to decorate and eat cupcakes along with decorating a birthday hat.

On Saturday we met up with Geoge, Bryn, Elizabeth and Hattie in St. Charles for the "Life Is Good" festival. Kevin and Emilee met up with us a little later.

The girls with Lewis and Clark outside of the festival.

The girls got to do lots of fun stuff . . .

. . . picking up balls so they could be dumped on their heads (it's amazing what excites them), face painting, bouncing, parachuting, we got to eat festival food, ball tosses, etc.

Maddie's photograhy of me and Katie. A family photo by some girl who didn't know to tell us when. My four year old did a better job! :)

We ended our weekend with a birthday party for Elizabeth who turned 4. I forgot my camera so I have not pictures! But the girls all had such a good time. Bryn cooked us all dinner, decorated pumpkins with them, they got to color with markers on big sheets of paper, eat birthday cake, and watch Cinderella.

We had a great weekend with our friends and were so glad they could come up to visit us!

Baby's Birthday

On one of our free Saturdays in October we took a trip to Target for two things. We ended coming home with cake, plates and cups for Baby's birthday. Spence baked and decorated a cake for Baby with the girls and then we sang "Happy Birthday" to her and had cake. The girls had a blast and Baby enjoyed her cake . . . .

We just never can figure out how this baby eats the food put in front of her!

Up Close and Personal

At the end of September Grammy and Grandaddy came for a visit so we took a quick trip to the Zoo. It was quick because it started to rain. But . . . we had fun anyway and got to see lots of animals. The penguin house was all I took pictures of. It was really neat. We really got to see the penguins up close. I was shocked at how not afraid of people they were.

Balloon Glow - September 19

This is really cool! St. Louis every year sets off a whole bunch of hot air balloons from Forest Park. This year there was over 65 balloons. Spence was working Cardinals Game so the girls and I went with one of the other Seminary wives and her two boys.

This is Jess, Noah, and Hudson:

We got to be right up front to see a good view of them blowing the balloons up and taking off.

Our beautiful little girls watching the balloons fly away . . .

We had a blast! It was an amazing site.

Then we spent two hours in traffic trying to get home . . . praise the Lord for DVD players and Noah not minding watching Cinderella.

Magic House

Back in September, one of the Presbyterian churches rented out St. Louis's children's museum for a Sunday evening. One of our upstairs neighbors (Melissa, pregnant with # 2 due at the end of November, and Ella) are members and invited us to go with them. We had lots of fun!

The girls enjoyed the pizza parlor: taking orders, serving and running the cash register.

And of course, grocery shopping. What's more fun then being able to grab all the stuff off the shelf!

The water works table. I guess maybe playing in water could be more fun??

Rockbridge Weekend

Every Labor Day weekend we spend with Grammy Vicki's side of the family, the Gareys, at Rockbridge, MO. It's a trout fishing ranch.

First, we have to fish . . .

Then we get to play . . .

Daddy's great at both!

The girls love both, too!

Along with me having to pack us up, Maddie has started folding and packing her baby doll clothes when we go trips.

The Cook!

Maddie loves to cook! She saw this recipe on Playhouse Disney from ZeFronk.

Very simple . . . cherry tomatoes, cut and gutted, then filled with cottage cheese and sprinkled with sprinkles. She did an awesome job making them but then didn't want to eat them. She liked them, but didn't want to eat them.

Maddie's First Day of Preschool

Maddie started school on August 27 . . . the same day as Daddy!

This is the class pet: Janie the Rat

Spence is a little disturbed by it.

Apparently the teacher picked it because rats have good social skills.

Maddie's 4!

Maddie's birthday was back in August.

The morning of we opened presents . . . .

Rode the carousel at the mall . . .

Sang "Happy Birthday" and enjoyed some cupcakes!

After a restful afternoon nap (yeah, right!) . . .

Grammy, Grandaddy, Mammie & Popo all came for the weekend to celebrate with us!

This explains it all . . .

For dinner on Saturday night we took the grandparents to Guido's at The Hill. Baby had to sit with us at the table. Little did Maddie know how hungry Baby was . . . she ate all the bread Maddie gave her. The look on Maddie's face was priceless!!

We can't believe our little preemie is already 4!