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.

Exploring the Meramec Greenway

One of Allen's new favorite places is the "science trail," his name for the Meramec Greenway Trail.

He got very jazzed one day when I told him that everything we can see around us is "science." "What's your favorite kind of science, Mommy?" he asked me. I told him that I'd have to say body science is my favorite. I'm always telling him about the amazing ways his body works every day.

But his favorite stuff is stuff you can find in nature, and so the river trail is just right for him. It starts out under a rail trestle, where he found bits of coal and taconite pellets. And because the rock is crumbling, he had an excellent time chipping away at the rocks -- we even found a new kind of scary, hairy caterpillar or millipede underneath!


There are lots of bugs and beautiful wildflowers along the trail, and I got to introduce Allen to a childhood favorite of mine, touch-me-nots, also known as jewelweed. The seed pods, when ripe, explode when you pinch them. Super fun!

For more from our two big hikes on the Meramec Greenway (8 miles total), click here.

Outdoor School, before and after

Sure, she was pretty nervous about being away from home... and the first two nights were kinda tough, but there was plenty to keep Emilyn occupied during five days at Parkway Outdoor School.

She learned about mining, stream ecology and Missouri's plants and animals... conquered the rope course... rode horseback... got to hang out in a cabin with a great bunch of friends and one very nice high school counselor... and enjoyed some really excellent food every day in the dining hall. And got a badge with beads that signified each of her accomplishments.

Let me tell you, it was a very strange experience sending your kid off for five days, and hearing absolutely nothing. It was made more weird, I'm sure, by the fact that it's a new school, and new teachers, and a brand-new school year.

But everything turned out great, except for the wasp sting and a turned ankle.

Allen and Daddy's air show slideshow - Scott 2010

You may remember last year's air show, which was rained out... Something we discovered only after after we'd driven 40 miles and walked at least one.

Well, this year, Allen and Daddy had much better luck. (Emilyn and I stayed home to get ready for Outdoor School.) Steve had high praise for the Blue Angels and Tora Tora Tora, but they missed out on the A-10, whose pilot had to head home because his wife was giving birth. Hmph! Daddy and Allen even saw a Navy diver in a tank -- and Allen got to scare that squid with Swimmy! (heeheehee, I wish I had been there to see that.)

Enjoy this latest air show slideshow! For some videos, click here.

Fun day at the Bubble Picnic

One of the highlights of September is the annual Bubble Picnic at the Parkway Early Childhood Center. There's always plenty of indoor and outdoor splashy fun. Allen was blowing plenty of bubbles with the bubble wands... And, what's this? Some early autumn color?

Somebody has entirely too much leg for this contraption...


We saw Allen's parent educator, Miss Julie, and played around with all the great stuff... made some crafts... and hung out on the playground. We even got some bubbles to take home!

For all our shots from the Bubble Picnic, click here.

Bill and Laurie at the Japanese Festival

I mentioned that I got my first Labor Day weekend off in, well, forever... And one of the things I always miss while working is the Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

It's a huge event, and there are always tons of people. I thought Bill and Laurie would like the garden, so off we went.

There are many things to be inspired by... the koi in the lake, the beautiful Japanese garden, the delicious food... and wacky toys and hats!


Emilyn and Allen shopped for real Japanese candy using fake Japanese yen. That was really cool. We got to taste some very odd stuff, like the soda with the glass ball in the bottle that has a five-step instruction sheet to open it!


For the rest of the photos from the garden, click here.

All in all, it was a great visit. I'm so glad they came! We ate a lot of popcorn, a lot of donuts, some excellent pizza (in my opinion) and Ted's finest custard. We crawled in and out of more tight spots than you can shake a length of rebar at. Much Bejeweled was played on the laptop. Much fabric was purchased. Many trains were ogled. And Aunt Laurie provided Allen with lots of "input." Come again any time!

Sunset at Jefferson Barracks

On Friday morning, Laurie and I walked Main Street St. Charles (no pictures, but she liked it). We visited a bookstore, a fabric store, a counted cross stitch shop and other gift-y stores looking for Halloween stuff.

Friday evening, we needed a place to go... So I figured a drive through the cemetery might be fun! heeheehee

OK, not really. But it was a cool drive, and very peaceful. The deer certainly thought so! We saw dozens.

We walked up to the Mississippi River overlook to get some views of Illinois... And saw this cool fence made of cannons and rifle barrels! As Dad would have said, "Ginchy!"

As much St. Louis as you can fit in a day

Well, so far we've been to two fabric stores... Allen's rock shop... Hobby Lobby... and the Poptions popcorn store (where Laurie bought entirely too much popcorn).

But today it was time for a real taste of St. Louis. The one place that was guaranteed to knock the socks off both Bill and Laurie, City Museum.

We got there pretty late, because we had to wait for Emilyn to get out of school (no way were we leaving her behind!), so the parking lot attendant let us park for free. Good start!

Since we parked right underneath MonstroCity, the place made an immediate impression on our guests. Plus, from blocks away, the had seen the giant praying mantis, Ferris wheel and school bus on the roof!

Inside, Steve and Bill shot up to the roof, while Laurie, Allen, Emilyn and I checked out Art City and Toddler Town. Laurie sat down to do some kirigami, Japanese paper cutting. We met up with Bill and Steve outside in MonstroCity, then converged on the roof again for closing time, where Steve and I got the last ride of the day on the Ferris wheel.


So many great pictures! Big hits were the roof fountain, complete with stepping stones, and the ball crawl! And I think Bill and Laurie would like to go back and see everything they missed!

At 5, the museum was closing, so we headed down to Joanie's Pizza in Soulard. A little thin-crust action for our visitors... even though Bill had a calzone. Laurie wasn't too impressed with our local product, which is not a shocker. Many New Yorkers can't get into St. Louis-style pizza.


Down the road further still, the quintessential St. Louis eatery, Ted Drewes frozen custard! Mmmmmmm. Bill and Laurie both had a Great Pumpkin, which is basically an entire piece of pumpkin pie whirled into a custard concrete. It was fun to hang out on old Route 66 and watch a real Midwestern storm roll in. Now that's life on the prairie!

For all the pictures from this St. Louis-packed day, click here.