New Year's Resolution

One only has to glance at my post count for 2008, 2009 and 2010 to realize that 2010 was NOT the year of the blog. But I vow to be back on track this year and hopefully back fill when I can. So hound me if I fall behind!

Family Tree Project

2010

2008

It's something I don't love working on (inevitably it gets finished in the wee hours of the morning), but I love having the final project. Charlotte's preschool teacher does an "All About Me" book in September, part of which is the Family Tree. I have experience with exactly this project from when Nicholas had Ms. Sally in 2008...so I knew what I was in for when Charlotte brought this literacy bag home! Despite the digital age we live in, it's amazingly hard to find pictures of all the cousins in family groups, aunts and uncles by themselves next to each other...and pictures of Tom and me without sunglasses! I'll have to keep that in mind next summer as I prepare for Family Tree 2011!

Our House

Assignment - "Draw a picture of your house"

This is Charlotte's interpretation. My personal favorite part is the "big, tall bear" on the left side. I asked her about that and she said "Oh, that's just for pretend."

We Have a Kindergartener!

The first day of school was upon us today. McGrath Elementary here we come!

Nicholas fairly willingly does his "Mama-needs-to-document-this" duty before school.

Charlotte can't resist getting in on this. Notice the backpack...and empty lunch box that she carried in solidarity.

Daddy went to work late so he could go on the inaugural walk with us. McGrath is about 10 minutes away.

Nicholas has Ms. Opel as his teacher this year. He also has Katie, a Fontbonne University student (seen in the middle of the picture) as well as an aide. Considering there are only 15 children in each of the two Kindergarten classes, we feel pretty happy with that ratio!

Nicholas gave us all a hug goodbye and went right to work!

Charlotte thinks she's ready already!

Charlotte and I went grocery shopping and had the first "girl-lunch" of the year (since Nicholas goes until 3:00 every day). I had been dreading working her nap in before picking him up, but she woke on her own at 2:47, 3 minutes before we needed to leave. Perfect! I popped her in the stroller and headed off. When we picked up Nicholas, he just wasn't himself. Super clingy, a little upset. I was so surprised, since he'd really been looking forward to going to school. I got him home to take a rest on the couch...and realized he had gotten a fever. 103. So apparenly I'm the mom who sends her kid sick to school on the first day to infect the class! Ugh. He was asleep by 6:30 and slept until 7:45 the next morning. We had a quick visit to the doctor for a strep test (surprisingly negative) and we spent the rest of Friday on the couch resting up.

We'll hope for a better school experience on Monday!

Bye-Bye Summer!

With school starting tomorrow, I let Nicholas choose one last activity to round out the summer. He picked the zoo. With projected temps in the high 90s, plus serious humidity, we headed out early.

This melts my heart! Nicholas gets really concerned at the railroad crossings...and wanted to protect his sister!

For the first hour it's open, the sting ray exhibit is free. Nicholas touched tons, and even Charlotte took one tentative little touch. This is a total role reversal since she's my animal lover. I think it's the deep-ish water and her little 2 1/2 year old arms. I do have to basically suspend her right above the water so she can reach...

By 10:30 it was warm enough and we were headed back home. Good choice Nicholas!

Can't believe Nicholas will be in school at this time tomorrow!

Cave State Take 3 - Meramec Caverns

Missouri may officially be the Show-Me State, but unofficially it's the Cave State. Although slightly edged out by Tennessee, we have the second most caves of any US state. Over 6000. We've toured a show cave each of the last two summers (they're perfect on those horrible Midwest summer days). This summer's cave.....

Meramec Caverns is a privately owned and operated cave less than an hour from our house.

Besides being used by Native Americans and as a saltpeter mine during the Civil war, the cave is famous for being the hideout of Jesse James and his gang. Our tour guide told us about how Jesse and his boys would lead their pursuers to the cave, but could successfully evade capture by getting into the back sections of the cave where the entrances were blocked by water. The sheriff and deputies would ride their horses inside, find a bunch of horses near what they thought was a dead-end...but no men or loot. Later the gang could sneak out a waterfall exit on the other side once the coast was clear.

Sweatshirts on...we're going in!

Here's why I hate the privately run caves. This picture doesn't even do justice to the cheese-factor here of fake Jesse. It was really, really lame. There were also a lot of colored lights instead of just white (a major pet-peeve of mine).

Our guide

Off topic - How long do Charlotte's legs look here??

Meramec has a huge room of these grape-bunch-like formations (called the Wine Room). Apparently some of the best in the world. The room at one time was completely submerged underwater, since that's the only way these are formed.

Also in the Wine Room is the world's rarest cave formation. I know. It's impressive. :)

Nicholas could care less about rare formations. But he does love doing "silly pictures". It's tough to get a good smile out of him these days!

The largest drapery formation in the world. It goes several levels above and below what's visible here. Amazing. Yet somewhat ruined when they sat us down in front of it to play God Bless America with a colored light show projected onto it. Is it not beautiful enough on its own??

What was Charlotte's favorite part? The bathroom visit. Why?

The bat sighting. We saw no activity in the actual cave, only attached to a ceiling tile outside the ladies room. Go figure.

We had a fun (and cool!) caving adventure. New this year at Meramec (I told you it was commercialized), they've put up a zipline across the river. The kids longingly watched people do it. Someday, guys... On the way home (it's a really pretty drive) Nicholas pointed at the trees and said - "Look! It looks like tons of giant broccoli!". And it did.

Stay tuned for more King family cave adventures!

Tagalong to Grant's Farm

I love this picture because "New Baby" (boy do we have creative names for babies in our house) is 1) wearing a onesie that Nicholas wore in his first few weeks of life and 2) seems quite interested in touring Grant's Farm!