It never gets old.......

In an effort to entertain the kiddos prior to going back to school, I took Ben and Maggie to the Science Center to see the Tutankhamen exhibit.  It was all reproduction, but still very good.  They really liked it.  I bought a SLSC membership again-it always seems like it's worth it if you only go a couple of times each year.  We ended up eating lunch and then went to explore the new exhibit outside.  Funny, they never seem to grow out of doing some things....

We survived a week without Dad......

Sam went to a meeting in Vancouver last week. He hardly ever travels whereas I feel like I am gone all the time. I don't know how he copes!!!!  I spent a huge amount of time cleaning up after the animals (cats and birds), watering the garden, and running around after the kids.
Ben and Maggie were very cooperative.  I had to drop them off and pick them up every day, so I did a lot of running around.  I had meetings that I couldn't avoid, so Ben had to stay late at SLU a couple of days.  He took his Anatomy book with him to read, and was still reading it sitting on the porch at night!!!  Maggie is curled up with her phone as close to the wall outlet as she can get!!!!!
We love this porch.  We have been sitting on it every night since it was finished.....

Apparently, the week was just too much for Ben.  Oh, the life of a teenager!!!!

It has been hot and dry so I had to water every other day.  My beds are doing really well, although I suspect I have over planted as usual!!!!!

Cleo is obsessed with Sam and I'm not sure she left the front door the whole time he was gone!!!!

Maggie's glasses came in, so we went to get them.  She says everything is amazingly clear now

The cats are also obsessed with Ben (especially Ferdy) and will not leave him if he lets them in his room.  That's fine until you hear "Mum, Ferdy threw up on my bed" right before you are walking out the door

We went to see Shakespeare in the Park on Thursday night.  They are doing Winter's Tale this year and it was absolutely fantastic.  We only made it to the interval though as we were all so tired.....

August goes by......

The garden has held up pretty well this Summer.  I'm so happy that I turned the birdbath into a water garden. The birds weren't really using it and it has stayed clear and full all Summer.  Two of the water hyacinths bloomed on the same day-lovely

We have had a quite a bit of wildlife in the garden.  We have started to see some swallowtail butterflies on the lantana and some monarchs on the blood flowers

We have LOADS of humming birds this year

We went to Eckert's to pick apples and peaches.  The peaches have been better, but I will probably cut up most of them and cook them down for cobbler in the winter

Maggie and dad on the wagon

Ben loves apples, he will probably eat most of what we picked!!!

Maggie goes with us, but rarely picks the fruit and never eats it!!!!

Sam and I ran the "I Love Forest Park" run on Sunday, it was incredibly hot and humid and we walked a lot of it....

Marie bought me this flower vase in England.  This is my first attempt at putting flowers in it.  It's hard to find something small enough.  I'll keep trying.....

June has just about gone by

The first month of the summer is almost over.  We are all in the "June routine".  The Muny started and we have season tickets again.  I have managed to persuade Ben and Maggie to go for another year. I think Maggie's likely to bow out before Ben.  The first show was Wizard of Oz, and both Ben and Maggie went.  They loved it.  Ben came with me to see 42nd Street this week, but Maggie had a softball game and chose to go to that rather than the Muny!!!!

Maggie is still going horse riding every Tuesday.  Our new routine has been that Ben and I go to Starbucks after dropping her off.  It's about the only time of the week that we get to spend time together.

June is probably one of the best months for growing in St Louis and we have spent a lot of time with our new garden this year.  Sam's pet hate is the conifer in next door's yard that grows over our driveway.  I had a go at cutting it back the other day.  Unfortunately, once you cut the limbs that are over the driveway, all that is left is the dead underneath!!!!

It has been a good basil growing year so far.  I have already made one big batch of pesto and it's almost time to make another one

This is my version of the Botanical Gardens mint tableau.  I think it's doing pretty well so far

I replanted my coal shuttle as the herbs in it were looking pretty punk

My gazanias are doing really well

I planted these blood flowers, hoping to attract butterflies

This is my June picture of Caduceus on the SLU campus.  Their flowers are doing well

This is my colleague at work.  She SLU left this week.  I had to take the picture of her because I thought her choice of desk was hilarious!!!

And the Summer begins......

Summer break seems to come earlier and earlier each year.  Even with an extra 2 days of school to make up for snow (what snow?), they were still out before Memorial Day.  This is shaping up to be a major pool year.  It's become Ben's latest obsession and they have been there almost every day since it opened.  At least we should get our membership's worth this year!!!!  I think they spend most of their time on the diving board, I wouldn't know because I have dropped them off most days.  Ben is moving into the era of hanging with the chickies.  I think Maggie is somewhat cramping his style though!!!!

Maggie is ALWAYS happy to go to the pool, and she is super-tanned already

We went over to see Jan last week too.  The ramp they have in front of their house is quite spectacular, so I thought it was worthy of a picture!!!!  She is doing fine.  Can't really get around very much though.  She is pretty much confined to bed because of the 7 fractures in her pelvis and can't put any weight on her legs for 8 weeks.  That essentially means both Jan and Julie are tied to the house for almost the whole Summer.

Trip to the City Museum

First week of Summer freedom.  We went to the pool a lot, plus went to the City Museum.  We haven't been there in several weeks.  The roof is now open, which is a whole new reason for celebration.  Ben ran up all the stairs, I took the elevator.  How come he still looks perfect???!!!

Rare picture of Ben (somewhat) smiling at the camera

Maggie is always smiling!!!!

Ben sat up on this cage overhanging the roof

It was this far down......

If my brother can do it, so can I.....

Being in the caves reminds me of how much I hate heights!!!!

Ben doing what he does best these days.....

Slide the City

We did Slide the City on Saturday. A great idea in theory but the execution of the event was horrible. Maggie and I spent 90 minutes on Friday night queuing up to get the wristbands, then we spent another 90 minutes waiting to get on the slide.  Still the kids seemed to really enjoy it and didn't even complain about having to wait 

This is a rare picture of Ben smiling!!!  Ben said it was the most fun he had ever had, but neither of them wanted to go again....

Still, life is good when you have Dippin' Dots and a soda!!!!

Maggie jumped in the Fire Dept hose, the wettest she was all day