A Litte Too Clever?

My DS walks home from school every day because we only live three houses away from the school's back gate. A few times lately he has come home frustrated because some unknowing teacher has told him that no one is allowed to walk out that way (they are just trying to keep him safe and don't realize that he really lives right over here). Anyway, the poor guy ends up having to walk three times further when they make him go around the front of the school.

Now to the funny part of the story--the part I don't want to forget. He came home one day and said that another teacher had stopped him and tried to keep him from walking through the back gate. He said that he ended up doing it anyway. I said "How did you manage that?" and he said "I just said to her "Look! A kid is running across the street!" And while she was looking the other direction, I ran!". I was totally laughing because what he had done was so unexpected and clever--and naughty! I told him that it isn't ok to trick teachers like that and I went over the next day to talk to the director about how to solve the problem. I wonder how he thought of that? My guess is that he saw it on tv! Speaking of which, springtime is coming and I want to set some tv guidelines and get him outside playing more often. Wish me luck on that one!

More St. Louis Stories

I finally got the rest of my pictures from my trip off of my camera. After we spent a couple of days with my dad and step-mom, we went to my mom's for a bit. One of my favorite places to eat in St. Louis is Steak and Shake. They don't serve steaks really, just steak burgers. They are soooooo good. They are thin and yummy and crispy on the edges. Their french fries are super skinny. The shakes are great. What more could you want? Here is a pic of my mom with DD #1 and a picture DD drew of the three of us while we were waiting for our food.

When we walked into my mom's house DD walked over to this lamp she has in her living room and touched it and said "This lamp is impressive!" We thought that was hilarious. I just had to get a picture of her with the lamp (and Great-Grandma's cane)We also went to see Enchanted together. I love that movie! My mom likes to make jewelry (as do I) and she took us to her favorite bead shop called LadyBug Beads. She had DD choose beads and a charm to make her own bracelet. I ended up making some things for myself, too. Here's Nanna and DD making the bracelet.

After that, we went by a place called ABC Trading Company. It's a Chinese-run costume jewelry place that also has purses and belts and all of that kind of stuff. Everything is really inexpensive. I got some CZ earrings along with some sparkly hair clips for the girls. We decided to get some lunch on our way to the airport, so we headed down the street. It turns out we were in a China town of sorts. Chinese lawyers, dentists, accupuncturists, food markets, and lots of restaurants. I love Chinese food and so do DD and Nanna, so we picked a cute one and went on in. Warning: this is not for the week of stomach. The menu was very authentic. They had tendon, stomach, intestine, and beef penis (yes, you read that right) on the menu! Oh, my gosh! We ordered from the more Americanized section of the menu and got Sesame Chicken and Fried Rice. It was delicious!

I'm ready for spring!

I saw Kari's new banner on "My Sweet Life" and just had to make a new one myself (so who's the copy-cat this time, Kari?). It was lots of fun to make. I love coming to my blog and seeing something so cheerful. The kit I used is called "Hunny Bunny" by Mindy Terasawa and you can find it at Designer Digitals. The alphabet is from the new FREE kit from Shabby Princess.

I haven't done any digital work in a while because I was all caught up with pictures. Now that I'm back from St. Louis, I'll have some new ones to work on. I was going to post some new pictures today but my DH is gone with his laptop (which I use to download my photos) so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

St. Louis adventures

We're having a great time in St. Louis. Lots of new adventures. Last night on the way home from the airport we stopped to eat at Shogun (like Benihana's). We were all very entertained and the food was great. DD#2 was startled when the chef lit the grill on fire, but she recovered quickly.

This morning we woke up and drove out to the Butterfly House in Creve Couer. It was soooo cool! There were butterflies everywhere! For those of you who watch "Go, Diego, Go!" with your kids, you've heard of the Blue Morpho Butterfly. That was the most common type of butterfly in there. So beautiful and big. There were a lot of other smaller types too. We took along my parents' friend Ann and her granddaughter Marci. Haylee had a lot of fun playing with her. We are definitely being spoiled!

It was really, really, warm and humid in there because of the butterflies. That's why this picture is so foggy! All the excitement is wearing DD out--this is what I found when I went to bed last night:
Awwwww. What a sweetheart!

Off to St. Louis

We are off on a whirlwind adventure to St. Louis to visit my family. Two weeks ago I was looking at fares online, hoping to find some tickets for an April trip. Instead I got tickets for this weekend because they were so inexpensive. So, DD#1 and I are off tomorrow until Monday. Because of the cost of tickets and the frustrations of traveling with a bunch of little kids, I've started going by myself and rotating through the children. It gives me some great one-on-one time with whoever I'm taking, too.

Nothing else new to tell--I'll be back with pictures in a few days!

Ahhhh...warm weather!

At least it feels like it after this awful winter. I hear that we're expecting snow on Saturday and Sunday though. A couple of days ago the girls and I spent a couple of hours outside. The girls rode bikes and I laid on a blanket in the sun.

I also spent about a half hour scooping a whole winter's dog poo (it has been months since we've even seen the lawn because of all the snow). The upside to that was that all that squatting was good excercise and I woke up with sore legs the next morning!

DD#2 and DS both have pink eye today, so we're just hanging out not doing anything. I need to get dinner in the oven--corned beef and cabbage (yum!). I went to get my croc-pot out this morning and realized that it's still at my MIL's house. I left it there when we had our Christmas party--I can't believe we haven't seen DH's parents in that long. Shame on us!

My dad sent me some really cool Easter facts today that I thought I'd share. Interesting!

EASTER is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Vernal (Spring) Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.Based on the above, Easter can actually be only one day earlier (March 22) than it will be this year, but that is pretty rare.Here's the interesting info. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier! Here's the facts:

1) The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).
2) The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

Stamping fun today

Are you guys ready for spring? I think I'm in denial that it is still winter. I find myself going out in flip-flops without a jacket on just because I refuse to accept another cold day!

Nothing much is new here. We had a relaxing weekend. Saturday the weather was actually pretty nice. We went out for a yummy dinner at Taco Bell, took the kids to a park, then went to see "The Bee Movie" at the dollar theater. The dollar theater is really the way to go. I need to take advantage of it more often even though it's not very close.

Today one of my packages came from Stampin' Up and I had fun playing with it all. I am starting to put together the cards we will be making at my Stamp-a-Stack in March. I'm posting a couple here and the rest can be found on my stamping blog. Kari, do you recognize the idea of the one on the left? I should have them all done tomorrow if my second box arrives tomorrow. Oh, Christina, I forgot to tell you that I'll have your "blog candy" ready soon too!