Nails!!!!

Further to the Maggie melt-down about getting her nails painted yesterday, I told her that I had some nail polish at home that I could use to paint her nails.  It was in something Ben won at Hudson and was bright orange!!!  She would not be swayed and I finally painted her nails for her.  She was so excited.  I'm sure she has chewed most of it off in the night though!!!  

When did she get to be so girlie overnight????

Maggie Tales

Maggie's latest obsession is KitKat, although when I think about it, it's been an obsession for a long time.... We used to share them but I haven't had any at all this year. Every time we go to Target or the grocery store, she wants to buy one. Now that Summer is here, she has to eat them really quickly before they melt. Well, that never poses a problem. She can eat one in a few seconds,the problem is cleaning her up afterwards... I told her no more KitKats until the Winter!!!!

When we were in Target, I told Maggie that she needed to get some shoes that she can slip on or off in the Summer.  She found some knock-off crocs in there that she was pretty happy with.  Ben found these flip-flops and she agreed to try them on and even to buy them.  She's been flip-flopping around ever since!!!!
When she got home, she put them on and I said "oh, Maggie, they are so cute".   Ben came running over and gave her a big hug and said "at last, I have my little sister!!!" Maggie just looked at him and said "I don't care what you say, if you buy me make up for my birthday, I STILL WON'T wear it!!!"

Later, Ben was in the mud room playing his recorder and Maggie went storming across the house to him and said "Ben, sometimes you are really annoying. But you know that anyway, don't you?" Finally, I picked Maggie up from her first day of Adventure Club. Now, she usually sulks all the way to the car anyway, but today she was sulking because I wouldn't let her stay so she could get her nails painted. What on earth is going on???!!!!

Science Center

We went to the Science Center yesterday.  Ben loves to go in the lab there, even  though it's not that different to going to work with me!!!!  Yesterday, we did DNA isolation, blood typing and pipetting!!!  We also went to see the Star Trek exhibit, which the adults enjoyed more than the kids-they have no idea what Star Trek is!!
After the Science Center, we went over to Forest Park and had a picnic.  The kids played in their favourite water spot....

First day of Summer

School finished on Tuesday and the kids have nothing until next Tuesday, so they are enjoying a few days R & R.  Sam took them to their favourite spot in Forest Park on Wednesday afternoon. 

Summer has arrived!!!!

Ben's award

Ben won the Presidential Physical Fitness Award this year.  To qualify for this, he had to be in at least the top 85% in 5 categories-curl ups, shuttle run, V sits, 1 mile run and pull ups (I think there were push ups in these somewhere too, but not sure!!)

Since he's not the greatest academically, I am glad that he can feel that he's good at something.

His goal for next year at school is to get all As, so he really does care about his grades.  This year, he got a B+ in social studies, a B- in science and Cs in reading, writing & math.  At least he's still enthusiastic and willing to make an effort

Graduation photos

Anne came to Ben's graduation, he was so excited to see her

This is Ben with his teacher and his best friend.  Ben had the greatest year ever at school and he loved this teacher, she has the same personality that he does and they got along really well

This is Ben saying goodbye to his teacher and his room at Hudson.  He doesn't look too sad to be leaving!!!!

Ben's 5th grade graduation

Ben graduated from Hudson on Tuesday. Some of the parents put on a breakfast for them and the teachers gave them certificates. It was a very nice ceremony. All the tables were decked out in the school colours......

This is Ben next to his best buddy Jalen

The 5th grade kids made this quilt in art.  It will be displayed at the Art Fair in Webster this weekend

This is Ben shaking hands with his teacher, the principal and the gym teacher are standing next to her

The kids all lined up outside the school for pictures

5 K run in Forest Park

We did the "Make Tracks for the Zoo" run this morning. There was a huge number of people there

I did it with Barbara and Sharon-it was Barbara's fist 5 K

We walked most of it, but it was still a lot of fun and we did it in around 50 minutes

growth

I guess Sam and I are very aware of the growth rates of children because of Ben's deficiency.  We are always remarking on the differences in heights in the kids in the Harry Potter movies.  One of the other mothers at school took this picture of Ben getting off the bus after Camp Wyman.  These two boys are the same age!!!!

oh, Cleo!!!

Ben gave me this otter that he got at Little Rock zoo while I was gone.  Otters are one of my favourite animals.  I have it sitting on the blanket box at the end of our bed.  It's Cleo's favourite place to camp out.  Well, I guess she decided she had had enough of it being in "her place" and took him out yesterday.....

Big day.....

Ben came back from Camp Wyman yesterday. He said it was the best thing he had ever done and he had so many stories that it was going to take several days to tell us everything!!!!

We had the school picnic the same day. It was a success as usual. I was worn out after it!! We are losing one of our very active families that have done a huge amount for the PTO, so we gave them a drawing of the school as thanks.

The face painters at the picnic gave Maggie a spectacular moostache!!!!

Having fun with Maggie & Bella

 Took Maggie and her friend to the birthday for the mummy at the Art Museum on Tuesday night.  They ran up and down Art Hill three times, where do they get the energy from?

 Every time I go to Forest Park, I wonder why we don't go there more often.  There is so much to do there and the weather was perfect when we were there.  The kids loved climbing all over everything at the museum, why do they do that?

They had this phenomenal cake there that looked like a pyramid. It was amazing....

Bella made a scarab beetle, Maggie had no interest in doing it though.  It's such a pity Ben wasn't there, he'd have had so much fun

After the party, we went to the Boat House to eat.  I usually get fish & chips there, but had a salad instead.  Sam came and ate with us.  The girls had a great time feeding the ducks and the fish, and even spared a little time to eat.....

Camp Wyman

 Ben has gone to Camp Wyman with his class this week.  One of our friends took a couple of pictures as they were all getting ready to leave.  He insisted that he had to get his hair cur before he left, he's so cute when it's this short.

This is Ben's teacher with some of his friends. He loves his teacher and she has been the best one for him so far. His best friend (the one with the hat on) is standing behind his teacher

His school principal was at the camp yesterday morning and sent me this picture.  Looks like they are having a great time....

Some of my favourites....

Got these irises from Jan years ago.....

I love this spiderwort.  A lot of people don't like it, but I can't see why....

I planted these gazanias on the front, they were left over from the pot that I planted.  They are one of my absolute favourites....

This geranium is spectacular right now. First year I've tried one....

Random stuff

SLU bought the Peveley building and are tearing everything down to build a new doctor's office building.  They are taking the chimney down by hand, which I am kind-of disappointed about because I really wanted them to implode it so the kids could see it from my office window

We went to Trader Joe's last night and Ben said "hey Mum, look"!!!  He spotted this Paleo sticker on the back of this Stop sign-it's really taking over!!!!

Maggie had a great day yesterday.  I let her have soda and I found the last box of mac & cheese in the pantry and I let her have it for dinner!!!  Her plan is to eat the rest of it for breakfast-not gonna happen!!!  After all that, she found the first bugs of the year, especially mum & baby roly-polys!!  She wanted me to take this picture to send to Daddy

This is our "Bentanical Gardens" named by you-know-who.  We've been working on it for a while & now we are done.  I decided to plant in pots and put on the patio this year.  I'm tired of planting in the garden and everything getting eaten or just not growing.  We'll see how it progresses

This is my best peony bush this year.  It bloomed late so escaped the hail last weekend.  Going to cut the flowers and bring inside today because more storms are on their way

Strawberry picking at Eckerts

We went to Eckerts to pick strawberries. They got hit pretty hard with the hail storm last weekend and so it was tough to find good strawberries.  It took us a while, but we got about 15 lbs of them.  Maggie ate a bunch of them, she said "Mum, I'm seriously in heaven with these things"

Ben worked really hard at picking as many as he could find.

We got some pretty good ones but a lot of them had some hail damage.  They taste great, but probably won't last too long.

When we got back from the field, they had a new crop of "buy one, get one free" flats, so we ended up with those too.  I came home and froze all the flats as they were pretty ripe.  Will be great for breakfast in the future

If we were in Florida, I'd be worried

This is what I saw when I walked into Ben's bedroom. He loves that alligator!!!