Barbie I Can be President!!!

I thought this was funny....doesn't she look like Hillary?

Pumpkin

I made my first "good" carved pumpkin this year. Here it is: Stormtrooper pumpkin. What do you think?

Bullying response

I recently posted a link to the video of news anchor Jennifer Livingston’s response to a bully on my Facebook page.  This is the response I received from a friend:

“This woman needs to get over it and realize people have opinions she won’t always agree with.  It’s up to her whether or not to share a personal email with the rest of the world.  She could of just deleted it along with the 5000 other spam emails we all get everyday.”

While I am a firm believer that everyone has a right to their own opinion, I wholeheartedly disagree with this one.  As a mother who’s third grader has already been subject to severe bullying at school, I applaud any effort to get the message out that this kind of behavior is unacceptable.  The fact that Ms. Livingston had the courage to publicly address the issue that she is overweight but that this kind of treatment of people is bullying and is not acceptable is to be commended.  I plan on showing this video to my daughter to drive home the point to her that bullying is not to be tolerated and that she can find the courage to stand up and call her tormenters out to the world.

I am finally finishing up about our trip to St. Louis.

Yes, I know I'm slow.

We went to Grant's Farm on the last day.  It's owned by Anheuser-Busch and admission is free.

They have Clydesdales, a safari that you ride through, and a small zoo.

They also have a petting zoo...Emmett didn't want to feed the goats.

 I put this next picture up just because I love the expression on Paul's face.

And that's really it for the St. Louis trip!  Maybe now I can get on with some real day-to-day blogging!

I had some requests for a copy of Katrina's new "chore chart" so here it is.  It is working very well for us so far.

Boba Fett

Taking a break from the vacation photos to say...he's so cute! I just had to have him!

St. Louis Day 3 part 2

After the Anheuser-Busch tour we took the kids to the St. Louis City Museum.  We had been told that the place is awesome.  The people who told us this were not exaggerating.  It was nothing but a giant playplace.  We were there for seven hours and still didn't get to see and do everything.  It was well worth the money and if we would have known how awesome it actually is we would have dedicated an entire day to only this museum.

 The view of the outside area from the parking lot.  All of this stuff is either to climb on or a slide.

 More of the outside area and some of the roof.  Katrina was at the top of the spire at one point and you can pretend to drive the bus.

 Can I order one of these for at home?

 Emmett and Paul on the 3 story slide.

 There's also a small aquarium inside the museum.  This is the kids inside the tunnel that goes through the shark tank.  I like the reflections in this one.

 Hubby and kids on the giant hamster wheel.

 I like this one because they're both actually smiling!!

 Deep sea diver Emmett.  I love his facial expression.

 Deep sea diver Katrina.

The roof....I did not get a good picture of the ferris wheel that's also on the roof.  Or the alternative to taking the elevator back down...a ten story spiral slide.  Need I say more?

St. Louis Day 3 part one

To start off our third day in St. Louis, we decided to do something more for the adults and less for the kiddos.

Tour Anheuser-Busch!

I didn't think they would...but they actually have Clydesdales at the distillery in St. Louis.  I didn't get any good pictures of the stables, but they're nicer than my house....

  I loved the old architecture.

 Paul and the kiddos in front of an old copper tub.  Notice Emmett's "smile".

 I like this guy.  I bet he'd be cool to drink with, if only I could get up there...

 They make you walk downhill several blocks on the tour, but when you get to the end they bus you back up the hill.  I thought that was a nice touch, especially as hot as it was when we were there.

 At the end of the tour, everyone gets free pop and pretzels...

 ...or the adults can each have 2 beers.  You have to bring your own sleeping toddlers though.

We were there for a couple of hours, so we were able to do something for the adults but it wasn't so long and boring that the kids were climbing the walls.  They did try to drive away in the antique beer truck, though!

St. Louis Day 2

And finally...day 2 of our trip to St. Louis.  We went to the zoo but it was so hot we didn't get to see it all.  We mainly tried to stick with the cooler attractions.  But the St. Louis Zoo is free!

 Emmett at the splash pad.  I do recommend spending the $10 per person to get the Safari pass so that you get into the "extras" and it saves money if you do them all.

 Katrina at the splash pad.

 Katrina and one of their goats.  The guide in the goat area knew all of the goats' names.  Emmett wouldn't touch them.

 Emmett on the carousel.  I think that was his favorite thing.

And after a long hot day at the zoo...I wanted to be like this guy!

St. Louis Day 1

We went on a short vacation to St. Louis last week, and I thought I would post some of the pictures and highlights on here for anyone who might be interested.  We drove into St. Louis from the east and, of course, the first thing we saw was the arch.

We went to the fair that was going on in the park around the arch and had a good time.  We had purchased tickets in advance for the arch to make sure that we were able to go up in it but there were plenty of available tickets.  We got our tickets from www.stlouisarch.com and they have several other activities that you can purchase at the same time and save money.  The kids got a kick out of going up in the arch and looking out the windows, although I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who's severely claustrophobic!

The ride up...Emmett's like "um, Mom....".

 

All in all the arch was a good time.  We wandered around the Museum for a little while and the kids looked at the animals and statues.  Paul was a little disappointed, though, because the gift shop doesn't sell shot glasses so he couldn't add an arch shot glass to his collection!

Also, for the other geeks out there....the arch's skin is made of 304 stainless steel.  I asked the ranger.

Overprotective

I am, apparently, an overprotective parent. I do not let my 8 year old ride her bike around the neighborhood alone. I also see no point in my 8 year old having a Facebook page. Am I in the minority? I ask these things because I see them happen on a daily basis. My daughter has friends who show up on our doorstep on their bikes wanting to know if they can play. If we are home, they come in and play and don’t have to call their parents to say where they are, or let them know that we are home. They have a curfew, but don’t wear watches and don’t have a cell phone. I wonder what they do when they stop and we’re not home. Do they ride their bikes around for the next hour and a half? Do they stop by other friends’ houses to play? If they don’t go back home, how do they know what time it is? My daughter is still learning how to ride her bike down the street without getting run over, so I cannot imagine just letting her run free. I also don’t understand what an 8 year old has to do on Facebook. Her friends don’t need to know what she’s doing. She doesn’t take a lot of pictures. She doesn’t have a phone with internet. So are her friends actually on Facebook? Or do their parents run their pages to share pictures and stories of their children? If so, why can’t they just share stuff on their page? I can’t imagine my daughter having a need for her own Facebook page yet, let alone having the time for one. I also don’t have the time to sit and police what she does on Facebook. And you know I’d have to police what she does on Facebook because I’m so overprotective. Am I?

iPhone

I just found out I can post from my iPhone!

Squidy Girl: Let's Play a Game Part 2: Women vs. Tropes + Trolling Felicia Day

Squidy Girl: Let's Play a Game Part 2: Women vs. Tropes + Trolling Felicia Day

I was playing with my daughter's guinea pig, Noodle, and had some of my Star Trek figures and, well you see the results.

Another week almost over.  In my effort to make my life simpler (ha!), I've been trying to sleep train Emmett.  Considering this was only night 2 I'm impressed that it's going as well as it is.  We'll see if I have the same sentiment in a week!

We went to the drive-in (yes, we still have those here!) this weekend and saw The Hunger Games.  Was anybody else disappointed that they had the wrong color of cat in the movie?  I mean, really, with all of the cats that the studio probably had to choose from they couldn't find a yellow one?  That just set the tone of the entire movie off for me.  Anyone else?

Emmett, my darling (lol) 2 year old was helping me wash the dishes last night when....he decided that my iPhone needed washed, so he grabbed it out of my pocket and threw it in the dishwater!  After a split second of panic I grabbed it out and dried it off with a towel.  It actually took me a minute to pry my (awesome) Star Trek Engineering division cover off of my phone, but I was able to dry it off and it seems none the worse for wear.  Hopefully Steve Jobs is smiling at me from nerd heaven and will keep it that way!