March Snow?

We received our annual March snow and took full advantage of it.  This year we decided to play a little house by creating our on snow house.  I couldn't get the kids to stay too long in it but they sure liked the idea.  We also made a couple snow men and even a snow dog.  We finished our day in the snow with some nice hot chocolate!  Gotta love family time.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

St. Patrick's day brought with it the cold cold weather!  However, we still ventured out to enjoy the parade at Cottleville.  This is a parade we attend every year and is very impressive for the most part.  We lasted about a two hours before we decided to leave early due to just being too cold!  We all had several layers one but the cold eventually got to us.  We were towards the end of the parade line this year and so several of the floats were out of candy by the time they got to us but everyone seemed to have plenty of beads!  It is a St. Louis thing.  Even still, Brooke and Brindi both ended up with about 8 or 10 pieces of candy.  We love this GREEN holiday.

Katy Trail Ride/Hike

Today was so incredible that we decided we better take advantage of it and get outside.  Celeste had a great idea to take a stroll down the Katy Trail and have a picnic for dinner.  The Katy Trail is pretty impressive as the longest rails to trails project in the United States.  It starts just north of St. Charles and runs almost all the way to Kansas City running along the Missouri River.  Anyways, we packed up Brindi's bike and Brooke's tricycle and headed out for a little family adventure.  Brooke gave up on the tricycle before we even hit the trail head so it ended up back in the van.  Brindi did great on her bike and enjoyed the ride.  We only went about 1/2 mile before we stopped and ate dinner.  We found a cache at our picnic site that Brindi was really excited about.  After we ate we headed back to the car.  The kids had a great time and the weather was awesome.  We are getting excited for spring!

Chicago Conference

I headed to the American Camp Association's Mid-states Conference in Chicago again this year and Celeste decided she wanted to join me.  I was thrilled with the idea and so we made arrangements for Grammy Hancock to fly out and watch the girls while Levi joined his mom and dad for a little time together.  We made the drive and tried to enjoy the best Chicago had to offer in March.

One of the most stops was the Field House Natural History Museum.  This place is amazing with all the history of Egypt, Africa, and the Americas.  I was really excited to go here ever since I watched "The Ghost and the Darkness" about the two lions in Africa that killed over 140 people over a 9 month period.  CRAZY UH?  You can see the two lions above.  Celeste was more excited to see the T-Rex bones.  We were both impressed and spent a lot of time in the Egyptian portion of the museum.  It was fascinating to learn about their mummification process and what they believed in the after life.  I found some very similar beliefs to those of the Mormons.  I love making those connections.

Our first night in town we headed to the Sears tower to experience the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and to venture out on the Sky Deck.  The sky deck is a ledge made of complete glass that extends off of one of the highest floors.  You are able to see straight down!  It was scary to say the least and I did not want to step out on it.  I actually had to just look up as I stepped out on the ledge.  I am deathly afraid of heights!  Celeste obviously is not scared and enjoyed sitting down on the job as you can tell from the pictures.  Very cool experience but very frightening!

We also took the time to enjoy some classic Chicago eateries by stopping by Giordano's Pizza.  Chicago is famous for their classic Pizza Pie.  A thin crust on the bottom then the fixins and another thin crest and then the pizza sauce on the top.  Basically a stuffed pizza with sauce on top.

The trip was a blast besides one small part...Levi.  He was a terrible sleeper and was up almost every hour.  Celeste took the brunt of it as I had to go to the conference during the days.  I felt kind of bad but it did take a toll on both of us.  As for the conference, it was very good.  Several sessions were flat out incredible!

Brindi's Dance Recital

Brindi had her dance recital for the year.  It was sad because she usually will have two recitals but this year they decided to do just one recital for the year.  So there were some Christmas routines mixed in with all of the other dances.  There are several age groups all performing their dance recitals for one evening.  On the plus side of finishing dance early we will be able to explore some other activities as the Spring begins.

We love our little dancer as she practices around the house.  She is quite the rule follower as you can tell from the dances.  You are always suppose to be on your spot!  Celeste did say she did a lot better than in the rehearsal.  Besides her constantly looking for her spot and her being a little shy, she does quite well.  She also received her single rose from her parents at the end.  We are proud of our little girl.  Enjoy the videos.

MPRA Conference

Every year I take some students to the Missouri Park and Recreation state conference.  It is a great opportunity to network, learn about current trends in the industry, and find potential internships and jobs.  This year the conference was at the Lake of the Ozarks.  I only had 5 students go but they all loved the conference.  I only wish I could get the other students to realize the benefit of going.  In addition to the education sessions, there were free socials every night and on the last night, some of my students challenged me to bowling.  I have not bowled in a couple years but all I have to say is it seems the students have not yet become the teacher:)

Snow Day

SNOW DAY!  We love our annual snow day in February.  This year, as with all the years we got a huge snow storm for the area.  Sadly though, the snow was an icy snow and would not cooperate with our idea of building family snowmen.  It just wouldn't stick together.  But we still didn't loose the opportunity to play in the snow.  We all got bundled up and headed out to roll in the snow, some more than others:)

 Celeste decided to show the kids how to make snow balls and continued to instruct them to practice throwing them at me.

 My revenge came shortly thereafter as indicated by the picture above.  I wonder why Celeste is covered in so much snow?  WHITE WASH:)

 We proceeded to the backyard and started to create snow angels.  Brindi thought this was a pretty cool idea.

 Following the leader, the leader, the leader.  Following the leader where ever she may go.

Front Room Camping

Brindi has been asking to sleep in the front room for the past few days and keeps trying to negotiate by saying she will go to bed early the next night, or she would give up songs at bedtimes for that night.  She we negotiated her kindness for a night in the front room.  To make is more interesting I decided we could all sleep in a tent.  We needed to pull it out anyway for its spring cleaning.  The girls loved the idea.

Mom decided to sleep in her own bed as she was on baby duty that night.  Brooke couldn't decide where she wanted to sleep and kept going back and forth between the tent and our bed.  She finally came to the tent to stay at about 9:45.  Bedtime is usually 7:30.

January Fun

 We had a couple days that we enjoyed each other and took a few good pictures.  This posts highlights a few of those fun moments starting off with our handsome little boy.

 We absolutely love when are girls get along.  They do play so well together at times and than they are at each others throats.  Today was a good day and they are so cute together.

 They love their little brother and often try to play with him.  They haven't tried to dress him up but he often has to sit on their lap or be pushed in the stroller.

 Brooke is such a character always doing funny things and seems to live a life of fun.

 One of the few times Levi seems to like the swing.  He obviously was having a good day.

 We love these pictures of him right out of the tub.  He hates taking baths, but loves to be naked, but loves to be wrapped up.  Can't quite figure him out but we love his dimples.