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.