Bedtime Snack

Every night before bed the kids have a snack.  Usually it is a nice big bowl of cereal.  Like all kids they ask for the cereals that seem more like a treat.  I let them pick this cereal out for their bedtime snacks instead of first thing in the morning. 

 Sometimes it isn't just the kids enjoying a little bedtime snack!

Katy Trail

Saturday morning we loaded the bikes up and headed to the Katy Trail.  I grew up making frequent trips to the Katy Trail as a family and have been excited to go with my family when we moved back.  Especially since you can get on the trail just about 15 minutes from our house.  The Katy trail use to be a railroad and goes across pretty much the whole state of Missouri, the trail goes 1 way about 260 miles.  I think if I remember right there was a time once as a family we rode somewhere around 20 miles one day.  Back in the day we would hit the trail with a new mix tape and our walkman's clipped to our waist ready to ride.

We were excited to experience the trail together.  JJ's first time here as well as the kids. I walked over to the bike rental place to get a map and see which direction would be best to go.  We decided to head on the shady trail.  Agusta, the next little  town was about 7 miles the other way and I knew the kids were not up for a 14 mile bike ride. As I was walking back I saw JJ standing by our bikes calling Garrett's name. I said where is he? JJ said he just got on his bike and took off. He was ready to go and wasn't stopping.  JJ had to hop on his bike and go catch him and tell him to come back.  He was ready to hit the trail! Once we were all on our bikes and ready to go we started off to find a bridge a little ways down the trail.

 My days of flying down the trail with my mixed tape were days of the past.  The kids did great but there were several times that JJ and I looked at each other and thought "do you think we could move any slower?" I am pretty sure we could have walked faster then them and there were other times they were flying.  We took turns being the leader and turns being the caboose. We also had several talks about the riding rules.  The trail was busy being it was a Saturday morning so learning which side of the trail to ride on and what to do when someone needed to pass us was an important lesson.  The kids really haven't had to have rules when riding, they just ride in a circle and not bump into each other and they are good to go.  Garrett is very competitive and so if you got up close to him and he saw you he would ride much faster.   He loves to call himself "Lightning McQueen Boy!"  He was so cute riding and yelling Lightning McQueen boy!

 We stopped to take a break and have a drink, each of the kids took our picture.  Garrett took this one.

 Lucy took this picture. 

 We made it to the bridge! Which was our point that we wanted to make it to and then we would turn around and head back.  I think it was about a mile and a half to the bridge.  We had fun looking for turtles and spotting some fish.  We enjoyed a granola bar and a drink and started back for the car.

 The kids really did so good riding their bikes.  The trail was pretty busy and several people commented to the kids how good they were doing! I think that made them happy to hear a complement.  They really enjoyed getting to just ride their bikes.

 Here is the cute little town we got on the trail at, Defiance.  They had some fun little restaurants and bike rental place just off the trail.

 Our good bike riders, they were worn out and all sweaty from riding so hard. 

Even if the Katy Trail was a little harder to do with my family it was a blast.  I love spending time with my family, even if there are times that are frustrating or they don't turn out to be the best activity.  The important thing is that we went, we had fun, the kids had fun and it was great. We will go often and the kids will always remember the things we did together as a family.  Through the years we will be able to ride faster and participate a little more but we will probably always remind them and tell them the story about the first time we every brought them to the Katy Trail.

Playing at the Park

JJ and I both enjoying discovering fun new places and figuring out those great jewels each city has.  We had fun exploring Memphis for 4 years and we are having fun exploring new things in our community.  I grew up in St. Louis but I have not lived here for almost 10 years.  I also did not grow up in this part of town and would only visit the downtown attractions on occasion.  So in a way moving back to St. Louis brings a whole new adventure.  Thursday we went to a park near our house with some friends from church.  It was a great park, not to far from our house and the kids loved it. Friday after dinner the kids had tons of energy and we decided to head back over to that park as a family.  Right next to the playground they had a fun sprinkler area.  We let the kids wear their suits over and they had a fun time running through the water.

 It was fun to watch the kids run around and squeal and scream as they got all wet.   After they were done running through the water they played on the playground for a little while.  They had a great time playing and were able to get rid of some energy at the same time.  After the park we got a redbox movie and relaxed at home. 

Cake Decorating

Thursday evening my Mom's Relief Society was doing a cake decorating activity.  She invited me to come join them and I was excited to come.  I spent all afternoon baking my cake and making frosting. We all had to bring a white cake and our own butter cream frosting.  They also mentioned they would be showing a demonstration on fondant. I had never used fondant and so I decided to make some and see what to do with it.  So I made a batch of butter cream frosting and then made some fondant.  It was my first time making the fondant and it was a messy experience. I felt like I spent all afternoon working in the kitchen, cleaning and making a mess.  I also made dinner to bring down to eat with my Mom.  We headed down after Garrett's nap and had dinner with her and then played for a little while until our activity started.  JJ headed over with the kids to play with Tyler and Bryan at their house.  We headed to the church and learned some fun things to do with our butter cream frosting.  I tried my hand at making some flowers.  I think they turned out pretty good for my first time.

Here is my Mom working on her cake.  She already knew how to do a couple of the things they showed us. It was fun to learn a few new things.

 We all shared my butter cream frosting and Christy colored it for us. I think she was inspired by her fun yellow top to make the frosting yellow too!!

 Here we are almost all done with our cakes.  

 Here is my finished cake.  I was happy to learn some fun things to do with my decorating tips.  I think I need to get a leaf tip, adding the leafs really completed the cake. I have always just tried tips on and just had fun but now I know a few things to do with a couple of them.  She did a small fondant demonstration but really I didn't need to make my own.  I ended up just giving her my bag of fondant.  I don't know when I would use it and she was so happy to have it. 

 Me with my finished cake.

 Look at those fun cakes, so bright and cheerful! That is a lot of cake to eat!  Everyone did such a good job decorating their cakes.  It was fun to walk around and see what others had done with their cakes. My mom and I were talking saying it would be fun to get together again and practice some more.  I don't think we need a full cake to practice, maybe just some graham crackers.

We finally got around to using Garrett's free birthday tokens at Chuck E Cheese this week.  We drove down and also made a stop at a few other places while we were in the area.  When I mentioned to JJ that maybe we should go that day Garrett said "Lucy did you hear that? We are going to Chuck E Cheese!" I love it when he says that to Lucy "did you hear that?" Garrett had fun picking some games to play and using up his tokens. 

 Garrett was nice and let Lucy have some tokens to so she could play some games. 

 One morning this week we headed over to Zachary's Playground to play in the sprinkler area.  The park is just across the street from our neighborhood and is one of my favorite parks in the area.  I had kind of forgot about the park and the sprinkler area, we have been heading to swim so often.  I was talking to JJ about things to do that day and he mentioned taking the kids there and I was glad he did. The kid really enjoyed it and it was fun to cool off and also burn some energy running around instead of just heading to the pool.  I love that the sprinkler area is connected to the playground, I would have loved to have something like this back in Mississippi!

 We had such a fun time playing in the water.  We will be back many more times this summer!

 JJ has been working for my Dad to earn some money in this weird in between job time.  My Dad and little brother are at scout camp this week and my Dad gave JJ some things to do this week while they were gone to keep him busy.  JJ did take a couple of days off to get some things done around the house.  One of them was finishing cleaning out the garage! Now we can park the van in there, it is a tight fit but it fits.  It is nice to have it a little cooler when you get in.

We also spent a whole day running errands and taking care of things.  We got up and headed to set up a bank account here. We finally found a bank that we wanted to use and got accounts all set up.  We also got everything we needed to get Missouri plates on the cars.  JJ worked hard making sure we had all the correct forms and paper work to head to the DMV.  We had to drive all the way to St. Charles (about 30 minutes away from us) to get a form.  Our GPS didn't know where it was taking us and got us lost on the way there so it took a little longer. We also had to take both cars in to have the odometers officially read and recorded.  By the afternoon we finally had everything all ready to head to the DMV.  When we got there JJ and I split up and he headed to one counter to get the plates for the cars and I headed to get a new license.  They were very quick and efficient, unusual for a DMV.  As they were getting my new information they were able to pull up my license from when I was 16, which was fun to see.  JJ and I swapped counters a couple of times so he could come do his vision screening and take his picture.  We were very impressed to be in and out with everything done in about 20 minutes. What a difference from our experience with taking care of all that in Mississippi.  After this week we have crossed of some major "to do's " on the list.  We are almost all done adjusting everything to living in Missouri. It sure feels good! JJ's should finish up all his projects with my Dad soon, just in time since he should get his MO license any day now in the mail. Then he can look for some fill in work.

One other random thing I thought I should write down to remember about the kids: They love to stand next to things and compare how tall they are.  Anything they stand next to they will say look I am taller then this, or look I can reach this high! I must be getting taller! I think it is funny. Lucy especially likes to do it, I think she really wants to grow and show me that she is growing up and can reach things.

Happy Fathers Day

We had a nice Fathers Day! We love JJ and it was fun to spoil him a little to let him know how much we love him and appreciate all he does for our family.  The kids each got him some new dress socks and wanted to wrap it in a fun way.  They each colored a brown bag and then glued a tie on the front. Garrett was so excited to give it to JJ and even all day Saturday kept trying to get him to open it.  He even told him what it was a couple of times but JJ didn't understand what he said.  I got him a couple new shirts which he really liked.  

 Before church we snapped this picture. We are getting use to our late church but miss our morning church.  It is nice to have some time to relax in the morning and not be so rushed but Sunday's go by really fast now.  This morning I spent getting some food ready to go over to my parents house after church.   They passed out some cute trail mix in a plastic wrap like a tie for the fathers at church. 

 After church we changed our clothes and grabbed the food I prepared and headed over to my parents house.  Here are all the boys hanging out by the BBQ grilling some meat for dinner.

 Garrett went straight for the baseball and bat and played ball in the field while dinner was getting prepared. We had really yummy Mexican for dinner.  I made some lime cilantro rice and we had grilled chicken and a fresh salsa mixture to put on top.  It was so good!

 I made this cake for Fathers Day, Tyler was so funny and kept saying Happy Birthday! 

 After dinner we took a few pictures before it got to dark outside.  

Me and my Dad

 Me, Christy, Dad and Jordan 

 Jordan snapped these pictures of me and JJ, they turned out pretty funny.  Jordan was getting a little crazy with the camera and we were getting a little silly, I think some of them are fun!

The kids always have so much playing with each other.  They love the swing set.  Lucy was so sweet and was pushing the boys, she would go back and forth between them and make sure they were both happy.

 We then let Dad open cards and presents from everyone.  The kids played around and helped Grandpa open everything. 

 We had a nice Fathers Day! I am so glad to have such a great Dad and also so glad to have JJ who is such a great Dad to our kids. JJ does such a good job balancing everything and picking up slack when I fall short.   He is always so helpful to make sure everyone is happy and helps out so much with things. I don't know what we would do without him!