Fizzy, Foamy Science

Thanks to Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa for sending Allen the Fizzy, Foamy Science kit! It's safe to say that our little lab rat loved it. (A lazy little lab rat. You may notice that he's been wearing the same pajamas for days...)

The reactions mainly involved mixing an acid (citric acid) and a base (baking soda) for fizzy, foamy fun. One cool, volcanic experiment involved red dye tablets and vegetable oil. It was like making our own lava lamp!

We also grew some "yeastie beasties" in a plastic bag and watched them expel carbon dioxide.

For more pictures of our scientist at work, click here.

Steve vs. van: Merry Christmas from Travelers Insurance

Well, it only took a year and three months, plus, but we've finally settled with the insurance company of the guy who hit Steve with his candy van.

So I guess this will be the last entry tagged "Steve vs. van"! Thanks to Mike Sweney, esq., and his staff for getting the whole thing done fairly. At least, we think we were taken care of fairly! We've never done this before!

Steve and his shoulder are getting along fine this year, and so are he and his bike. So grateful this didn't turn out to be nearly as bad as it could have been.

Christmas dreams come true

Ho-ho-ho and Merry-Merry from the Crabbe Trap!

A beautiful Christmas morning after a day full of snow on Christmas Eve. Even Allen was good enough to wait until 8 to bust out of his room and see what Santa brought. Emilyn asked to be woken up early, too, so she could join in on the fun, even though sleeping in is one of her favorite activities!

Well, Santa delivered precisely what Allen had asked for: Giant plush microbes E. coli and the flu. Boris the talking tyrannosaurus. And his friend Ned the brachiosaurus. Boris and Ned have sweet technology that allows them to sense and talk to each other. Coooool! But, oh, those microbes... Allen is in love.

Steve is showing off his Elvis jumpsuit/boot stocking, which lights up and plays "Blue Christmas." Emilyn was happy with all her gift cards, Wii games, a book she was dying to read, new clothes and a snazzy pair of purple earrings.

Thanks to everyone who sent gifts. All are appreciated and are being enjoyed!

I'm dreaming of a . . .

... Well, you know!

And we got a doozy. A full day of snow on Christmas Eve. Steve said it started to snow just as his last plane of the holiday season pulled away. Picture-perfect! And since we had no place to go, as the song says, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Even Allen suited up for a walk through the silent night -- and didn't even spoil it by whining about the cold. (Although he did have sore feet after once around the block.)

More snow for the turkey made for another delicious holiday meal. The rest of the evening went toward making cookies for Santa -- and the inaugural Crabbe family hand-sculpted gingerbread! (Weird, but so tasty when paired with Steve's homemade icing-that-wasn't!) Perhaps we ought to invest in some cookie cutters...


Anyway, eating so much kept Mommy up for much of the night, but I cannot report a firsthand Santa sighting. It's safe to say, though, that the snow and home and hearth made it a very happy holiday for the Crabbe Trap. Hope yours was just as full of joy!

Emilyn's athletic exploits

Allen got a cold that made the rounds and hit Emilyn last, right about the time she was supposed to have two big basketball games. She sat out the first one but felt well enough to try to play the second one, this one at Lindbergh High School in South County.

Allen and I got there just as the game was ending, but Grandma managed to capture a couple of nice action shots, one from warm-ups and one from the game.

Emilyn was tired and sick and worn out, but she did a great job trying. She really does get better every time she takes the court. And I hear she just missed making a basket in this game. Aww! Better luck next time, kiddo.

Emilyn's musical interlude

It was a big week for Emilyn, musically.

On Tuesday, she and the Crescendo Singers performed with the other choirs. Their highlight was a jazzy rendition of "Put a Little Love in Your Heart." Great job! They almost outdid "Car Wash."

On Wednesday, an ice storm cut short the all-school orchestra show. This meant that Daddy got hosed out of hearing "Greensleeves." Bummer!

But the holiday favorites that we did get to hear were really awesome and put us in a great Christmas mood. Grandma and Mommy and Daddy agreed that the Pearl River High School orchestra recitals were never this good! Great job singing and playing, kiddo. You really are a musical star!

Getting a jump on Christmas

Man, I really treasure my vacation in December.

I always try to take a week off just before Christmas, to help offset the extra hours that Steve is working, trying to get all the packages to the good girls and boys.

But really, it's my one chance to get the house exactly the way I want it -- and concentrate on getting everything ready for the holiday.

This year, the first few days of my vacation involved a little more resting and lounging than usual, but the cleaning blitz eventually did occur. All the toys were put away -- to make way for Santa's new ones -- and the Nativity scene and tree went up, followed by the bells, Christmas cards and stockings.

And Allen is, of course, just at the right age to love everything about the holiday. A great run-up to Christmas all around.

Some photos from Emilyn's camp

Emilyn's teachers just got around to sharing some shots from the Explorers' outdoor school in September. You could scroll through hundreds of pictures of kids you don't know... Or you could be grateful that I've done the work for you! heeheehee

These are the best two, but you can see the others that feature Emilyn and the great things she saw, by clicking here.

Boo-been pancakes !

Allen's Sunday-morning wish? Granted! That's because he has the best daddy in the universe.

Hmmm... They were much greener before they were browned. Anyway, whatever the color, they were darn tasty.

Christmas card photo shoot

Wow! The Christmas card photos came out really great this year. Thanks to my beautiful subjects, as always. Allen, in particular, was a very good boy and deserved the sugar mice he got in return for his cooperation. Actually, he deserved a lot better than sugar mice! Ick.

These include some outtakes that didn't make the card but easily could have. For the whole lot, click here.

We had a nice lunch first at the Trailhead brewery, and then watched the Main Street St. Charles Christmas parade... It was very Victorian and really got us all in the spirit of the holiday (even though it was pretty darn warm out!).


We met some nice ladies on the porch of the wine shop who volunteered to take some shots of all four of us... so rare! In return, I took pictures of all four of them -- with all four of their cameras!

A trip to the English Shop for candy (including the aforementioned sugar mice) rounded out a very successful day.


Merry Christmas, everyone!

Thanksgiving snow

We ought to have snow every year... because the turkey came out awesome!

Maybe the cold and wet made the fire burn even more slowly. Who knows?

We had all our usual fixings, and everything tasted great. So much to be thankful for!

All-Orange Lunch Day

Mmmmmmm. Monochromatic!

Many of Allen's favorite foods are orange... so you can imagine how happy he is on All-Orange Lunch Day. Pork chops in red-pepper glaze, carrots with butter and soul food seasoning, and Velveeta shells and cheese. Orange juice makes the perfect pairing!

And, as you can tell by his attire, it was darn warm outside, too!

Getting 'Gross' with my boy

We had the day off school, so Allen and I decided to take in the "Grossology" exhibit at the St. Louis Science Center.

Subtitled "The Impolite Science of the Human Body," the exhibit teaches us about all that great stuff: Farts, burps, snot, scabs, barf... Things that 5-year-old boys love to titter about in abundance. Here Allen is, crawling on skin. The handholds and footholds represent the various blemishes that mar our bodies...

We even walked through a giant nose, and Allen took my picture cozying up to the septum!

Elsewhere in the Science Center, we studied some fossils and checked out a truly amazing mummified baby. Up on the bridge, we checked the speed of the cars going by -- perhaps they were going too fast, because an accident had gummed up traffic for us on the way home!

To see all of the photos from Grossology, etc., click here.

Lunch at Tiger Town

Something you discover in sixth grade: Mommy is not really welcome at school. Certainly not when she's going around calling herself "Mommy." OMG!

So, when you get an invitation... to actually come to school... when there's actual kids around... you know it's a big deal.

All sixth-graders take a rotation of classes that are kind of like the "home ec" and "shop" that we remember. FACS stands for Family and Consumer Sciences. The big finale of the class was making a mock restaurant. They named theirs "Tiger Town." (Mizzou's mascot is the tiger.)

Emilyn was the hostess... She needs to work on her people skills, though, because she hustled me out to wait in the hall! ("We're not open yet!!" Maybe she wouldn't have done that to someone who wasn't her "Mommy." heeheehee)

The menu consisted of pretzel sticks (in three flavors), pizza (cheese or pepperoni) and chocolate-dipped pretzels (white or milk).

Everything was very tasty and very filling. Our water glasses were always promptly filled. They anticipated an overflow crowd, but really didn't get one. So I wish Daddy and Allen could have come along. I brought them a doggie bag of chocolate-dipped pretzels.

For all the shots from my lunch at Tiger Town, click here.

Meet the Crescendo Singers !

What's the worst night for the child of a "news Mommy" to be in a concert?

You guessed it! Election Night! And I was most distressed because I knew I would be sitting around doing basically nothing but waiting for election returns while Emilyn was on stage and knocking 'em dead.

So I hatched a plan, and my very sweet bosses went for it. I came in early and stayed late, but took a 2.5-hour break in between to drive home, watch my girl sing, and drive back. And it was so worth it! Great job, kiddo!

Scary BOO-tiful !

Sometimes the perfect costume just makes your Halloween! This year, I think we got two of them!

Emilyn spent most of her night trick-or-treating with friends, and brought home an unbelievable haul. Allen and I just made the rounds of our block -- and his great costume really brought out his personality, because he was slaying our neighbors with his joke-telling:

"What's a vampire's favorite fruit? NECK-tarines! Why did the ghosts go to a bar? Because they wanted some BOOOOOS!"

(Joke-telling for treats is a St. Louis thing.)

For more spooky photos, including shots of a truly frightening amount of candy, click here.

Best picture from the Fall Party

Allen's Fall Party at preschool was kind of a fracas... There are lots of little kids in his class, first-time preschoolers, and the usual, well-oiled party plan just fell apart.

So, my annual "pumpkin shape faces" craft project kinda went over like a lead balloon... I did manage to get this great picture of Allen eating a cupcake. (Notable in particular because he seems to have gotten over his aversion to icing!)

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Holy cow. It's hard to believe, but Steve gave all these models -- and more -- to CRM Hobby Store to sell for him. He filled up the trunk and the back seat of the Taurus.

Kinda like a midlife crisis in reverse, I guess... He just realized that he had a lot more models than he had the time or inclination to build. Wow!

Emilyn's big spa birthday

Well, my big girl is getting bigger, and all she wanted for turning 12 was a "spa day" for her and some of her friends. She's doing so great in middle school, of course she deserves some pampering! Thanks to Go!Spa (and MasterCard) for making it happen!

Emilyn and the girls got each got a manicure and a facial. Look how relaxed that birthday girl looks!

I even "manned up," as it were, and got my very first massage -- something I was always too scared to do. It didn't hurt as much as I expected... until the next day! Yikes!

Then it was time to head home for cupcakes... Mint chocolate, pumpkin, peanut butter cup... Then the shiny and polished girls proceeded to play basketball and lie around on the driveway. What the heck did I take them to the spa for?? Heeheehee.



To see all the pictures from Emilyn's big day, plus assorted other weirdness, click here.

Our annual visit with the Hartmans

But I was so sick, I could scarcely enjoy it!

And Allen was pretty uncooperative when it came time to take the annual picture under the bush... But look at these three beautiful smiles!

Allen did have lots of fun playing with Cecilia. And there was much jamming on Rock Band 2.

Because I was so sick, I missed the traditional trip to the pumpkin farm. But Pete, bless his heart, took plenty of pictures. You can see them all here.

Celebrating Allen's birthday at school

The day after his big, rockin' fifth birthday adventures with Mommy and Daddy, Allen got to celebrate all over again at school, with ice cream cups and gummy bears -- a personal favorite -- and his friends and teachers all signed this awesome banner in honor of his special day.

It has a place of honor, hanging in his room!

For more pictures from Allen's classroom, click here.

Allen is . . . FIVE ? Let's rock !

Five! His favorite number! And he gets to be it for a whole year... What could be better than that?

A trip to the rock shop, of course!

They have such excellent specimens there. Grandma bought him five, naturally!


Then, it was time to head off for our main desination... an encore trip to Meramec Caverns. Considering how excited he was, and how long it takes to get there, and how much traffic we faced on I-44, he was pretty good in the car!


And what a great day to go. A Tuesday morning in late September!? It was about as empty as it looks in this picture. Our tour group was us three and four other people. Nice! And, oh, the wondrous gift shop!

Allen got a T-shirt (with a matching one for Grandma), rock candy and some citrine crystals. We also picked up some earrings for Emilyn. Because it was off-season, the Meramec Mining Co. was closed, but we spent some time down by the (freakishly green) river, throwing rocks in.


But the rock bash didn't stop there. At home, no birthday cake this year... It was dirt brownies with lava icing and chocolate rocks! (I knew he would think it was cool... I also knew that he'd never eat it. Too messy. But he had fun making it!)

For more pictures and video from Allen's big birthday, click here.

Allen . . . playing with friends !

Well, all we wanted out of preschool this year was some practice playing with other kids... And here's photographic evidence!

Allen is playing "fish sticks" with Mazin and Aditi. They feed the clothespins to Swimmy the shark. Each color is a different kind of fish. Red is tuna; white is mahi mahi, blue is bluefish... yellow is angelfish. Of course.

Ms. Kim says he's getting along really well with his classmates this year. Yay, Allen!

(Our boy is also no longer using a bedtime diaper. Thank you, Daddy, and also Fleet PediaLax chewable tablets, for making it happen!)

Hoop dreams

As you may have heard, our girl has joined the sixth-grade basketball team!

She is officially a Future Lady Patriot, playing on a feeder team to the high school program. She practices twice a week with the girls and her coaches and so far is having a lot of fun.

Daddy fixed the Asilomar hoop, which was run over by a garbage truck, and we got her a basketball to practice with. She'll be getting a real uniform and everything -- and has requested No. 24! More pictures will follow when she gets into her official duds and authentic game action!

'' Dragonfly in the Night ''

The latest piece of art from our preschooler. Tell me you don't see it! I think it's just brilliant. As did several of my friends on Facebook!

I especially like how one wing is under the body, and the other is over.