Fall Break! The City Museum - St. Louis

When I told the kids and Jim that we were going to a museum for fall break...they were not very exciting...untill we arrived!



When we drove up to the City Museum which is housed in a 10 story former shoe factory, this is what we saw outside. An amazing playground of metal structures for the kids and adults to climb through. There were two airplanes suspended in the air and a school bus hanging halfway off of the top of the building.



Inside there was one room after another full of random, but exciting adventure. This is a picture of us in the cave system. We took a spiral staircase up the caves 10 stories and as we went there was a huge pipe organ playing music. Once at the top we took a spiral slide all the way down....10 stories!




There was a room full of thousands of sponges. The kids spent an hour building and knocking them down. There was a room of pin ball machines, room full of the largest bug collection you have ever seen, a craft area, an underwater feeling area full of more tunnels and mazes, a room full of huge skateboard ramps with a maze under the ramps (we played chase in there for an hour!) There was even a one ring circus and a lady making the most intricate snowflakes you have ever seen...we made dragonfly, monkey, prairie dog, and dolphin snowflakes.

It was so random and so fun!

Then there was the roof....



The kids were able to climb up a huge dome all the way to the top where there was a cage to hold them in....crazy.

On the roof there were more slides, a faris wheel, several water fountains, more metal structures to climb in, a school bus hanging off of the roof that you could climb into, and a huge metal praying mantis.



Here is Emma climbing up to the top of the slide. Id you are interested in seeing more of our pictures from the museum see my facebook page.

Everyone in our family loved this place...and agreed it was the funnest day ever!!

First Day of School

Emma was excited for the first day of school to show of her new earings (she got her ears pierced on Sunday.)

Lauren was excited to get to know her teacher... she loves school

Josiah wasn't the least bit excited and wanted to know why he couldn't stay home with me and his Dad.

Abbey was excited...but worried about everything you can think of as she entered 6th grade.

Jim and I were excited!! We decided to celebrate by going to lunch at Trader's Point Creamery. Delicious! And the atmosphere was very unique. It's nice to have our Monday date afternoons back!

A Few Trip Highlights...

At the Badlands there was an Indian Heritage festival where we saw a lot of dancing and Indian crafts.

Emma bought a drum from one of the men and before he gave it to her he and several others played her a song and told her when they met again she needed to learn the song.

On the way to SD we saw many signs for the Corn Palace. Josiah decided that the Corn Palace was one place we couldn't miss. So we decided to stop and see what all the excitement was about. It was amaizing (get it...ha ha)

The murals you see above are all made from corn and they have changed them every year for 100 years! It was actually very cool. Inside there is a gym and a stage...they play basketball and have concerts there.

Devil's tower was also very cool!

This was our only family picture...where is Heidi when you need her!

Puppies

We went to Nashville to visit with some of Jim's cousins. I didn't get any pictures of the cousins because the kids spent all of their time with the puppies. The bad news is Jim said we could take a puppy home in 5 weeks....if the kids keep up with their chores. I don't really want a puppy, but I am tired of being the bad guy...always saying no to the "joy" of a puppy!


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Yes they are very cute!

Josiah's Tooth

Josiah lost his first tooth!

Mission Adventure Camp Doctor Video

The Doctor Skit

Starring: Emma, Micheal, Ambrose, and Angelica

Mission Adventure Camp

Look Mom no training wheels!

It did take a little bribing...the promise of an ice cream cone and a webkinz...actually he bargained for TWO Webkinz! Now we need to get him a boy bike. When He was riding around the block a few boys made fun of him riding a girls bike. He told them that his other bike had a flat! (Officially that isn't a lie. He does have a beginner bike in the garage with a flat.) Maybe we will just get him a little license plate to put on the back of the sister's bike "My other bike has a flat!"

Cardinal Talent Show

Wow...I'm tired!

It has been a crazy, but fun two weeks. Here it goes... Mom and Dad came out to see Jim graduate...

Jim Graduated...

Now he is Doctor Jim....

We Surprised him with a Graduation/40th Birthday party....

Saw Emma read her winning Essay about why her sister Lauren deserved the HONOR award...

Went to Shipshewanna with good friends...

Made some impressive purchases (see Heidi's blog for this picture).....

Went to Man Camp...

Wow... I'm tired....

No Rhyme or Reason

These are just some misc. pictures from the month of April.

I love this one taken at the Space and Rocket Center in AL

Who can guess where this picture of Jim and the bear was taken?

This is a picture taken at the Indiana State Capital. I had never been there before a few weeks ago. It is a beautiful building.

Pinewood Derby

What a fun day at the Awana Grand Prix. The kids asked Jim to cut their cars for them this year. So being the good Dad he is he went out and bought a saw and spent hours this week making them perfect.

Lauren designed her car with blue and pink with polka dots.

Josiah asked for an alligator. He received the second prize in the Sparks division for most creative design!

Emma asked for a pencil car. She called it the Pencilnator. She received 2nd place for speed in the TNT division.

Abbey researched on the internet for fast car designs. Jim cut it to her specifications, she painted it and called it the Hippie car. She received overall grand champion for speed! She even beat the two adult entries!!

Last year our cars didn't even cross the finish line, so they were pretty proud! (So was Daddy!)

US Space and Rocket Center AL

Pretty neat place. Although I am glad we didn't spend $1000 for the girls to come to Space Camp. They have had fun, but not $1000 worth.

Jim even found Darth Vadar

A Lunar landing

Rock Climbing on Mars

It is interesting staying in one hotel room with 6 of us....we have had to do a little rearranging of the room to fit two air mattresses in. Josiah managed to use the desk and chair anyway.

Challenger Learning Center Fieldtrip

Abbey had a field trip at the Challenger Learning Center in Brownsburg last week. They went on a mission to Mars and I decided to tag along. The Challenger centers were created as living memorials to those who died in the Challenger explosion. There are 49 of them in the world and Brownsburg has one of them! The class divided into two groups. One group was stationed on Mars and they were in charge of monitoring the space ship that was coming to Mars. They each had different jobs that would exist on a space station, and in order to accomplish the mission each one of them had to fulfill their tasks. Abbey was on the Med team and had to record all of the medical tests that were being run and monitor the health of those on the space ship.

Here is a picture of Abbey at her station on Mars.

The other team was on a space ship heading to Mars to take the place of the other team on the station for two years. They had the same jobs on the space ship and also had tasks to complete. Half way through the mission the space ship landed on Mars and the crew from the Mars station got on the space ship to return back to earth.

On the space ship Abbey had to take the vitals of all of her crew mates and record the data. Here is a picture of Abbey tesing the radiation levels of one of her crew mates.

Number One!

Abbey had her basketball tournament last Saturday and they came in first place. Her team won every game all season and the last game was no different - final score - 28 to 18. It was a fun season, but we are all looking forward to having our Saturdays free for a while! At least until Soccer season begins!