4-H Day With the Cardinals

Grace was so excited to give her family and Gaga and Papa the opportunity to walk on the Busch Stadium Field for her membership in 4-H. She gets the prize for getting my dad; a die-hard cub fan to wear a Cardinal shirt. Good Job Grace!! To make it even better, it was my dad's birthday and he celebrated it with a 10th inning Cardinal victory. Here is a picture from home plate.
#1 Cardinal Fan with his daddy.
Grace decided to hang out behind the stands with Grandma to avoid the heights and enjoy the view of the arch. My mom didn't quite make it in our seats...too high.
Ava enjoyed the game until she crashed to a deep sleep at the end. Here she is entertaining the people behind us. (I truly think she is secretly booing the cardinals. She is a cubbie.)

We celebrated my dad's birthday with a cookout and cake at Jared and Sarah's;my cousins. They cooked out for us and entertained my crazy father.
Here is Albert Pujols; Eli's favorite player.
Wait...which one is Albert? I'm confused.
Ava loves baseball.
Proud Cardinal Fans! (Don't worry Cubbies...He quickly took this shirt off when the parade on the field was over. The next day he wore a cub Shirt and hat to cleanse his body.)

Our visit to the zoo

Here we are at the St. Louis Zoo. The weather was gorgeous and the day was perfect with the family. Grace's favorite part of the trip was making "Kaleigh" at The Build a Bear Workshop. She picked a little carrier to wear her "stuffy" on her back. Eli really loves his Tiger; "Tigeree Baseball Hensley". He sang to him, took his pictures, and fed him all night.


We laughed throughout the day because they all kept accidentally lifting my skirt up for strangers. Nice!
Here is my Dad and a self-portrait.
My Mom and her self-portrait.


Lots of Smiles at the Zoo! It was a beautiful day for lots of reasons.

Ava is "soooooo big". She just left the monkey cages here and was quite excited.
Ava's favorite exhibit were the fish.

Eli's Preschool Concert

Eli's preschool concert was so cute. He was the first on the stage and the first to bury his face during the show. Afterward he told me that "all the people scared me". Braden, his best friend, stood close to him and they often just stared in each other's eyes for long periods of time to avoid looking at the crowd. Eli's biggest concern was taking his Gaga and Papa to get ice cream afterwards. Despite the hail storm, we did enjoy some ice cream. We are so proud of Eli. He was so handsome too (especially with the gel in his hair and the squirt of cologne he sprayed on himself).

"Helper of the Day" for Grace

It was Grace's turn to be "helper of the day" in her classroom. With this came duties such as helping Mrs. Zimmerman in the classroom, leading calendar time, passing out the snack she brought, and bringing a show-and-tell item. Toby was her choice of show-and-tell, which made her quite excited. The night before she bathed and brushed him for his big day. It was a special showing for her because the class was very excited to see and hold Toby. Luckily, nobody was afraid. Grace was so proud to share information about him with her friends.

Big Siblings Just Hanging Out!

Our handsome boy loves to pose for pictures. Grace's new hobby is climbing trees.
We love the freckles on our Miss Grace.
Grace is so proud to pose from the "top" of the tree for me. It makes me a little nervous. I have to play "spotter".
Eli picked the ensemble himself. He wants to look like "Alvert Pujols". I love the stirrups.
Eli loves all sports...especially whatever is in season.

Ava's 1st Haircut

We broke down and had Ava get her 1st Haircut. I really hesitated because I didn't want her to lose her "baby look". She really didn't seem to mind having it done. The car she rode in during the cut must have been entertaining enough.

Ava is more mobile!

Ava loves to push toys and cars around the house and yard, but has been timid to stand on her own. With lots of cheering for her this week, our family has convinced her to stand. As you'll see in the pictures below, she has mixed emotions about the whole idea. However, she does get excited when she is the center and we clap for her. I just don't understand how her little feet can hold her body."Okay...standing is fun!"
"Wow! Standing takes lots of concentration."
"I'm not sure about this. It can actually be scary..."
" Thank goodness. Time to relax. Standing is hard work."