The passports are in !

In case you haven't heard... Emilyn and Daddy are going on a big summer adventure, to historic and beautiful Prague in the Czech Republic.

Steve's grandmother and grandfather are both 100 percent Czechoslovakian, so this is a big deal for Steve... and the trip coincides perfectly with his 40th birthday on June 15! Big thanks go to Steve's mom for paying much of the tab for Emilyn and Steve. What a great birthday present it will be!

So, first order of business was... passports! And now Steve and Emilyn are official U.S. world travelers.

Now, maybe the euro will go in the tank, and everything will be cheap as heck!

Emilyn's strings concert

We all got dressed up in our fancies and posed for some pictures by the lilac bush, before it was time for Emilyn's musical performance. Look how pretty and big she is!

Then, it was time for the show! Here's my favorite ("Titanic" theme!)... You can watch the rest of the clips here.

Under construction !

If you're just dropping by, you may notice quite a few changes around here! Well, the excellent blog designer April Durham is hard at work, making The Crabbe Trap as beautiful as it is fun. So, bear with us... in a few days, your screen will be oozing awesomeness! (Meanwhile, don't we look h-o-t in our custom illustration!! Yessss!)

Morning at the Botanical Garden

Spring was in full bloom during our visit to the Missouri Botanical Garden.

I had never visited the garden this early in the year. I can't believe I never knew all those bushes I've walked past in June and September were azaleas! But that's the magic of the garden... everything designed and planned to look breathtakingly beautiful all year round.

We went for the azaleas and rhododendrons, but boy were we pleasantly surprised to see so many tulips! And in every imaginable shape and color!

A dinosaur exhibit opens May 1 in the Climatron, so we'll have to go back! We're glad Grandma had a great first trip to the garden.

Here's a slideshow of all we saw and did on a beautiful morning. (You may have to click the big "play" arrow, then the little "play" arrow that appears below to get it started...)

Take me out to the - very long - ballgame !

Look at them! They had no idea what they were getting into!!

We were there to see the Cardinals play the Mets, a nice Saturday day game... and for Emilyn to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" with her school choir. Of course, it ended up being a 20-inning odyssey... We only stayed for 13, though. Our day game turned into a night game and, though Allen did really well, he couldn't really be asked to sit still for more innings!!

Still, it was a beautiful day, a very memorable game, and the choir performed just wonderfully. (Emilyn is the third kid from the right, front row.)


For more photos, click here.

You can't argue with the little bugger

When Allen got out of school today, a car alarm was going off in the parking lot. So, he wanted me to explain what a car alarm was, and why you would need one, and why it was going off. "Wait," he said. "Did you say 'going off'? When you talk about an alarm, you say 'going off,' but you really mean it's going on. I'm just gonna say 'going on.'" Can't argue with that, buddy!

A little colonial "Common Sense"

I paid a visit to the Colonies today (in the guise of Mrs. Ketteman's fifth-grade class), where I listened to the lively debate of patriots vs. loyalists in Emilyn's print shop. I'm proud to say she was a rabble-rouser, selling copies of "Common Sense"!!

One of her lines was emphatic: She was a patriot, not a troublemaker, and she served loyalists just as well in her shop as she did her like-minded colonists. And here it is, in black and white, on the sign: "Open to all but influenced by none." YESSSSS!


Grampy was a big fan of Thomas Paine, and he would have been very proud of the girl today. After the skits, we discussed the motives of the colonists... risk everything for freedom? Or stick with the safety and stability brought by the king? It was a fun way to explore the birth pangs of our nation. To see more photos, and a video, click here.

Spring's big bang

Spring sort of exploded into being last week, because it was so darn warm here. We had days near 90... even a record high last Wednesday I think.

So, all the trees burst forth with flowers and leaves at once. I swear, it happened so fast you could almost watch it.



Not good for the nose, perhaps, but great on the eyes. Well, not good for the eyes either, really. When you get past the itching and watering, though, it really is sweet for the soul.

This still cracks me up

...so I figured I'd better immortalize it here... I thought this picture I took of Steve and Allen looked like it belonged on an album cover. That started a conversation over on DropShots...

Laurie: hmmmmm, I am seeing angst and disinterest!
Jennie: Bingo. You must know these guys.
Steve: what about the plastic hermit crab
Steve: hey, that's a great band name
Jennie: There you go. We have the band and the album: Plastic Hermit Crab: "Angst and Disinterest." Featuring such hits as "I Never Want to Go to Bed" and "Melamine Apocalypse."

That's one polite ghost !

Allen had a blanket over his head this morning, pretending he was a ghost. He was saying, "OooooooOOOOOOOOooo." Spooky! Then, when he wanted to get around me in a tight spot to get out of the bedroom, he said: "ExcuuuuuuUUUUUUUse meeeeeeeee." Ooooh, scary! But so polite! :)

Happy Easter !

My kids are "hopped" up on chocolate after the Bunny hid a couple dozen plastic eggs in the back yard yesterday... Filled with Hershey's Eggs, Nestle Eggs and Whopper Eggs! Mmmmmm. (This egg-hunter looks like he's trying to remain anonymous... but he actually was just fighting the morning sun. And he really doesn't like getting his picture taken!)

On the dyeing front, we colored a dozen and a half, using the Paas Tie Dye kit and the traditional kit -- but double the dose of color tablets, on the advice of Steve's doctor, Dr. Houston! Here, Emilyn models a pair of the tie dye eggs (and in a tie dye shirt! Groovy...)


We've got the cooking down pat, but the peeling is another story altogether. Plan to have some particolored, mutilated egg salad very soon.

Hope your Easter was filled with family and surrounded by signs of spring. For more pictures (and some egg-hunt video), click here.