Garden update

I finally got around to planting the new plants that I bought at the weekend. Actually, I have very little room to add anything new, the whole garden is getting pretty overgrown. I bought some steppable plants to put between the paving stones on the front. The soil between them gets washed away constantly so I am hoping that will stop if we can get something to grow there and stabilize the soil.  I just bought a few of them to see if we can even get them to grow there....

Even though we don't have a bunch of colour in the garden, I love the way that all the plants have grown together and support each other.  It really helps with the watering too as it's been so hot and dry this year

The "Bentanical Garden" is still doing pretty well, even though I have to water it every day and some of the annuals are starting to go over.....

I bought this citronella plant at the weekend.  I have had one before and I really like them.  I'm hoping I can bring this in the house in the Winter and get it to survive.  I'm also hoping it will keep the mosquitoes away from the patio....

Ben's room update

Ben's bedroom has turned into a major project. We went to Target on Sunday afternoon and bought a new bed cover to go with his room. I really like it a lot and it introduces his favourite colour (red!) into the room. The blinds were installed yesterday, they are very nice and Ben loves them. The painter came and looked at the walls and has decreed that they need another coat of paint. So, that means that we have to move all the furniture out from the walls again. Thank goodness we hadn't moved too much of his "stuff" back in there!!!!

Even though I am very happy with the room, all Ben cares about is his new desk. He loves to sit at it and do things under his little desk light. We'll see if he tires of it once he starts having homework every night!!!!

Day Trip to Clarksville

Jan and Julie decided a while ago that we should stop swapping gifts at Christmas and Birthdays. I can see their point. Every time I walk into their house, I can see things dotted around that we have bought them over the years and we really have run out of ideas. They decided that we should go on a day out for my birthday this year, and we went up to Clarksville on Saturday. We stopped at a great nursery along the way and bought some native plants, now I've got to find space in the garden to plant them!!! The best thing about them was the price, it's amazing how much cheaper they are than here in the City. We had lunch at Overlook Farm.  They have a lot of locally grown produce and lunch was very nice.  They had a wonderful arbour with wisteria growing on it that provided perfect shade for sitting outside-now I really want one at home!!!!

After lunch, we drove up to Louisiana and looked around the pewter foundry there and then we walked around the stores in Clarksville, they have some very interesting and talented people set up there.  It was a great day out....

School garden

We did the school garden plot again this year. we used our plot for Maggie's girl scout troop to plant some things.  We had some seeds from the Botanical Gardens that had been given to Ben & Maggie-cucumbers & peas.  We planted those, plus some broccoli and these huge things (we think they are sunflowers but we have no idea who planted them!!)

We got quite a lot of peas off the planted before it got too hot.  We have also had broccoli & now these cucumbers are starting to do well.

Now,what to do with them???!!!!

Quite a successful year so far....

Our latest house project

We are having Ben's room redecorated. It was originally supposed to be done for his birthday, but that but that never quite happened.  We finally got some painters to come and paint the ceiling and walls (just don't have time to do it myself).  We had to move most of his furniture out of his room and move his bed into the middle of the room.  Ben and Maggie helped us clean everything on Tuesday evening and we got the room ready for the painters.  They were great about cleaning all the woodwork and the furniture.

Ben got up on his headboard to clean the ceiling fan...

But of course Sam had to clean it properly afterwards!!!!

On top of Ben's room being pulled apart, the laundry room is taken apart since the washer is leaking.  Sam is going out of town this weekend and I will be trying to take care of all this until he gets back.  It could be a long week.....

Weekend update.....

After our trip to the Botanical Gardens on Friday night, we had a wedding on Saturday. It was one of the graduate students at SLU. We didn't take Ben and Maggie with us, I thought they'd have much more fun with Anne and of course they did. Anne and Megan took them to see Madagascar 3, they loved it.
Melissa had these flashing glasses for everyone to wear when the bride & groom got to the reception.  Best wedding favour ever!!!!
Of course, we brought ours home for the kids

They also had a photo booth with lots of props, Sam was happy to find the moostaches!!!!  We all piled in to get our photo taken....

I ran a 5K with Molly on Sunday morning.  It was from Kirkwood to Webster YMCA and either flat or downhill the whole way, so pretty fast.  Molly & I ran together and finished in 33:42.

We were still smiling at the end and we all went to breakfast at First Watch for Father's Day.

The kids were happy to see Anne and Megan again. Great weekend for everyone

Pictures from the lantern festival

Lantern Festival

We went to the Lantern Festival at the Botanical Gardens last night. It was spectacular and the kids loved it. Ben said it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen!!! There was a huge number of people there, it was the most popular exhibit that I have seen there. We stayed there until the bitter end. Ben did not want to leave, but Maggie was tired of it by the time we left.

Ben & Maggie did wishes on the Wishing Tree, you had to hang or throw the wishes on the tree...

....and then hit the gong

Maggie was really into hitting this drum..

A moment of brotherly-sisterly love!!!!

Stadium seating.....

We had a very busy day yesterday. Ben & I went to see the Visa Championships at Chaifetz arena in the afternoon.  We went to see the senior men's competition, which decided who would be on the National Team for the Olympics.  I got an opportunity to take a picture of Ben with the Billiken (SLU's symbol)

The performances were amazing and we had fantastic seats.  Ben absolutely loved the whole thing and he took it all very seriously.  John Orozco won the gold medal for all-around, which was amazing because he didn't win a gold medal for any individual events.  It just shows that you have to be consistent rather than good at one thing.  It was fun because he won on the last 2 events.  His floor exercise was amazing-it's here on you tube http://www.youtube.com/usagymnasticsorg

We all went to see the baseball game at night.  Now, this is truly Maggie's deal, she loves baseball.  Look at the big smile on her face

We got tickets on Groupon, so they were a good deal, but we were sitting right in the sun and it was ungodly hot

This is Maggie's look of disgust when there was (to her mind) a bad call, she was outraged!!!

It was a great game and the kids watched the whole thing. I guess they have finally reached an age where they will watch the game and not spend more time running around or buying food!!!!

Aliens!!!!

Sometimes your children change so much in a very short time that you feel like they've been abducted by aliens & replaced with someone else.  Of course, it's more likely that they are just growing up, but I'm not ruling out the alien theory just yet.

Maggie has started to embrace the fact that she's a girl.  There may be some magic in those flip flops we bought from Target the other week.  It may also be that one of the big events at Summer Camp is to paint the girls' nails.  The teachers have an enormous box of nail polish in the room and Maggie loves to participate.  She has blue sparkly polish this week.  Unfortunately, she eats the polish off her nails, especially the fingers that she sucks.  I'm going to have to ask them not to do her nails, hope it doesn't break her heart.....

Jan & Julie bought her a necklace for her birthday and she loves it.  Of course, she is still wearing Ben's old clothes and will go through the clothes in the laundry room to find exactly what she wants.  I can't blame her, they are way more comfortable that girlie clothes for anyone!!

Ben has definitely turned into a pre-teen.  He's so much more aware of what his buddies are doing, wearing, etc.  He has been obsessing over Nike pool shoes ever since the pool opened.  He says all the guys are wearing them.  I found some on Amazon for him and they came on Thursday.  He hasn't taken them off since they came.  Now, he insists that he needs Nike socks to go with them.  He's walking around in those shoes with knee length black socks!!!!!

On Wednesday night, he was busy texting two girls at once on his phone.  Now, he insists that he needs another phone with a keyboard so that it's easier to text!!!!!  He's also starting to hang out with the kids from school more and will ride his bike over to the school to be with them.

Shakespeare in the Park

We went to Shakespeare in the Park with Jan and Julie last night. The weather was perfect and we found a great spot to sit (this is our view of the stage).  They are doing Othello this year and the production was really well done.

Ben had a good look through the program before it started!!!!

They both did really well.  Ben watched the whole thing and really enjoyed it, Maggie slept through most of the second act!!!!

Maggie's 8th birthday

Maggie turned 8 on Tuesday. We did our usual routine, we ate at Mongolian Grill. Jan & Julie met us there, and Arline came with us this time too. Maggie didn't really eat much at all. She may have been too excited, or just not feeling that great. She's been off all week.

When we got home, Maggie opened her presents.  I think she had a pretty good birthday.