No wonder I'm coughing

According to the American Lung Association, St. Louis & surrounding area are #17 on the worst cities for ozone pollution in 2009
St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, Mo./Ill.
(Metro Area)
Total Population: 2,890,593
Pediatric Asthma: 63,982
Adult Asthma: 184,766
Chronic Bronchitis: 75,542
Emphysema: 37,992
Source: American Lung Association State of the Air 2009

Letter writing

Ben's class have been practicing writing letters to each other. They have all been pretty good and creative until the one he got last night. This one read "Hello Ben, you are a great friend" (they all seem to start out this way). Then it went on, "you small (maybe should be smell) like a pig. A goat peed on your head. You eat dog poop". I wrote to Ben's teacher to ask if he ever read any of them. I suspect not!!!!

The first email I have ever received from my son!!!!

April 29, 2009
Mom,

I missed my recess today because I have been looking for someone to play with in class.
I was throwing pencils back and forth with Zach. I have been trying to listen in class, but I am
still being silly.

Your son,
Ben

Ben's attempt at Alex the lion

Maggie does Madagascar 2

Baseball

We went to Ben's first baseball game yesterday. He's the only boy on the team that hasn't played before, so this is still new to us. It was a beautiful day-sunny, warm and dry. He was very excited to be able to wear his uniform. Here he is standing in line for practice, pictures like this remind me of just how small he still is compared to the other boys on the team (but he's catching up with some of them!!). Here's Ben trudging out to left field (he's #1!!!). He got his first hit yesterday, we were all very excited. When we got to the game, the other team were already there practicing. They obviously take it VERY seriously and I thought we were going to get killed by them, but our team won-Go Hawks!!!!!

Life according to Ben

Ben & his friend were sitting in the back of my car yesterday talking about how everything is made in China these days (where do they get it from?). My mother commented that she wasn't made in China, she was made in Scotland. Ben replied "I was made in Ukraine. My mum grew me in her belly and then she took me to the orphanage. She couldn't keep me because she was drinking too much. Daniel's mother drank too much and that's why he was so loud. She was my real mother" I must be Ben's fake mother.....

Blue & Gold banquet

The day finally arrived & after months of planning, we were finally ready for the banquet. I'm convinced this took more planning than our wedding. However, we put our wedding together in 3 weeks & the church was locked when we got there. Luckily, the church was NOT locked yesterday, primarily because there was a plant sale in there before us.

We had heavily stuck to the blue & gold theme and had blue/yellow tablecloths, napkins, utensils and plates. We made the centerpieces for the tables from recycled materials.

We had tables set up for the boys to display what they had done for the past year. Ben had the plant pot he made for his teacher, his bird house, pinewood derby car, assortment of other things he'd made, his collections and a photo album of the events he had participated in over the past year.

He got plenty of awards, including his wolf badge, 10 arrow heads and 7 new belt loops. Now all I have to do is sew everything onto his shirt!!!!

Trip to the gardens

It doesn't matter how often you go to the gardens, there is always something new to see. On this trip, the irises were just starting to bloom.

The Japanese garden was looking particularly peaceful

This is the new clock that they have just completed

Not babies any more....

We think that our babies grow up too quickly, but not as quick as some. The Amur tigers at the zoo will have their first birthday on Tuesday and we have watched them grow over the past year. They are getting huge, but are still very playful with each other. They are always fun to watch

Life according to Maggie....

Ben was watching SpongeBob this morning. Mum, Sam & I are in the kitchen when Maggie drags herself downstairs and plonks herself in front of the TV. Sam said "Maggie, it would help your cause if you came and said Good Morning to the people that feed and clothe you". Maggie replied (while never taking her eyes from the TV) "NO...."
Add to the pile of "Things to make a parent proud"

A sign of the times?

The economic crisis has changed life for many people, but do we really need to lock up our TP now?

Zoo trip

Ben had an early dismissal day this week and so we all went to the zoo to see what was going on. It was a beautiful day, sunny but cool, the perfect weather to see the animals as they are usually moving around. However, we still found a couple of sleepers. Mum & Dad went in the penguin & puffin coast, but Ben & I skipped it as we were barely warm as it was!!! We went to the insectarium of course, so that we could see the butterflies, one of my favourite exhibits at the zoo. There weren't many around yet, but I got some decent photos anyway.

Science Center

We went to the Science Center yesterday, along with the rest of St Louis. It was a rainy Sunday afternoon & I could not think of anything else we could do that was inside. We had not realized that this was the start of Earth Week and that there were events going on everywhere. We had been surprised with the number of people at the Botanical Gardens on Saturday, but it was nothing compared to the Science Center!!! They had a huge Eco Exhibition going on that turned out to be an added bonus, although there wasn't too much for the kids to do. The highlight was that they got to decorate tiles that Habitat for Humanity had reclaimed and are going to decorate the wall of their office with. Some of the designs were great. Ben did a flower that was being watered by the rain. Maggie amazed me at how well her artistic skills are developing as she never brings any art home from school. I thought she was still at the scribbling stage (she was at Christmas). I wish I could have brought them home with me (the tiles, not the kids!

Ben & Maggie have already conned Granny into sitting with them (all in one chair of course) and watching early morning kids TV. Bet it doesn't last!!!!

Are these tulips?

We went to the Botanical Gardens yesterday at Ben's suggestion. We were lucky to dodge the rain-not as lucky at Ben's baseball practice in the afternoon. No matter how often you go to the gardens, there is always something different to see. We haven't been at this time of the year for a while & apparently they are into planting some of the newer varieties of tulips that are so different from the originals. The have the luxury of planting huge beds of them and they really do look spectacular.

Ben on TV

One of the local TV stations did a segment on the YMCA Summer Programs that was aired last Wednesday. Ben got to have his 5 seconds of fame, expressing his opinion on day care. He forgot to mention that he complains about going there every day, but then complains that we pick him up too early at night!!!!

Happy Birthday to Ben

Ben turned 8 yesterday and he had a huge day lined up for him. His PE teacher made birthday treats for his whole class and he was allowed to take 3 friends into the gym with her for an extra half an hour. There was a little snafu there because apparently there were some kids in his class that he was not allowed to pick because they had been talking and so he had to choose from the other 2nd grade class. I'm still not sure exactly what went on there. We had dinner at Fitz's last night with Jan & Julie, this is Ben's favourite place to eat dinner when it's a special event. Jan & Julie had brought his presents to the restaurant & so he was very excited to open them. I think the thing that Ben likes best about Fitz's is that they bring him a free ice cream float on his birthday, that thing was huge!!!!After dinner, we came home and set off a bunch of fireworks that Dawn had brought for Ben. They were much bigger, louder and smokier than we had expected, but luckily the neighbours didn't complain!!! I'm not sure what Ben liked the best, but he said it was the best birthday ever!!!!

Dyeing Easter eggs

Our friend Arline came over for dinner on Easter Sunday. Easter is her favourite holiday & so it was relatively easy to con her into dyeing eggs with Ben & Maggie!! They made tie-dye eggs by wrapping a paper towel around them and adding the dye through a straw, we had never done that before.Maggie was much more interested in eating eggs than dyeing them!!!!They made some great efforts between them and at the end, we had to have a judging event to decide which was the best one. I like the yellow tie-dye one, but I was outvoted by the others and the blue/red one was the winner!!!!

Visitors

There is big excitement in our household at the moment as my Mum and Dad came to visit us on Wednesday. Ben and Maggie haven't seen them for 18 months. Ben and I went to the airport to meet them and he was so excited to see them. The excitement hasn't worn off at all yet and he's just hanging out with them and trying to get them involved in all his dreams and schemes. Last night, he even stayed at home with them while Maggie and I went out. He sat on the floor and made a huge space station out of Lego, I think he played with it longer last night than he's ever played with it before, all times combined!!!! Maggie has been a little more hesitant, but she doesn't know them as well as Ben does, in fact this is only the third time that she has seen them.
We have a busy weekend ahead of us. Sam is out of town all weekend, he is going to Las Vegas for a submarine reunion, he'll be meeting old friends that he hasn't seen for 20 years!!! It's Ben's birthday today, he's turning the big #8. Dad's birthday is tomorrow. One of the reasons we chose to adopt Ben was because his birthday was one day before Dad's, I saw it as an omen of something good and I was right!!!

Easter tradition-St Louis

We always go to church with Jan & Julie on Easter Sunday. At the end of the service, we all go outside to sing the last 2 verses of the final hymn and then we let balloons go to symbolize the resurrection. Most years, it is cold & we forget to let everyone else out first!!! Most years, a lot of the balloons end up in the tree too!!!!

Easter tradition-Loughborough

At my parents' church, they convert the Christmas tree into an Easter Cross. The symbols of the crucifixion are placed on it during the weeks leading up to Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday, the symbols of the crucifixion are removed and everyone brings flowers to decorate it. Quite a moving transformation.

Spring has still not sprung

I always think Spring takes for ever to arrive in St Louis, but this year seems to be particularly challenging. The high was 47 degrees today, it's hard to believe it's the middle of April. At least I have had some daffodils in my garden, but that's been about it up to now.....

Mystery solved.....

Ben is on the verge of not believing in the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy or Santa. However, his level of skepticism is directly related to my commitment to each of them. Coming from a Country that does not have a large rabbit distributing eggs, I have never been able to accommodate the story too well. As a consequence, Ben has not believed in the Easter Bunny for quite a while & this year he was quite happy to acknowledge that it is the adults around him that lay out the eggs. This year I spread some eggs around the garden as usual. Of course, being a mother, I spread them around in areas to minimise walking on the wet grass and dragging mud into the house. When Ben got up, he decided I hadn't hidden them well enough and he went outside and redistributed them, including putting them up in the tree and in the bird feeders!!!! After he'd rearranged everything, he was happy to come back in the house (it was barely above freezing) and wait for Maggie to get up. Poor Maggie, she wanders downstairs dazed & confused as usual and is met at the bottom of the stairs by a very excited Ben who is telling her that she NEEDS to come outside because the Easter Bunny has left eggs. I got her dressed and we went outside. I noticed that there were 2 eggs up at the top of the garden & I asked Ben if he had put them there, but he said no. I wondered if Sam had done a little rearranging of his own (no) or if a friendly neighbour had helped the bunny out (no). My last suspicion was that a garden creature had stolen them from their original location and left them there (unlikely). Ben and Maggie had a great time hunting for eggs, Ben was very good about helping Maggie get the same number of eggs as he did and was excellent at keeping up the bunny myth. After they had collected all their eggs, they sat on the concrete to lay them all out (did I mention it was barely above freezing?).

Back to the mystery....Maggie & I went to the top of the garden to get the two escapees and I found that both of them had been chewed open and there was foil strewn all of the vicinity. Obviously, our squirrels like Easter chocolate in addition to the bird seed!!!!!