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.

The Great Critchlow Road Trip rolls into town

My brother and sister are here!

I knew for a while that Bill would be coming... his narrow-gauge railroad convention is in town this year. I got several days off in a row for the occasion. When I found out that he was coming by himself, I dropped the suggestion that Laurie should come with him.

Well, because Laurie was scheduled to be in South Fork the weekend before, it really worked out just right. Bill, who had spent a week traveling in DC, Maryland and Pennsylvania, picked up Laurie in South Fork, in his brand new Subaru, and the pair of them headed here -- straight through! Stopping to shop for quilts and candles, of course...

Festival of Nations

Daddy had technical difficulties with his bike, so we decided to head down to Tower Grove for the Festival of Nations, a celebration held every year by the International Institute of St. Louis.

They have dancers and storytellers and musical acts and crafts from dozens of countries, but the really big attraction is the food. Food booths featuring the cuisine of some 40 different countries.

We had dishes from Africa, the Philippines, India... Sweet empanadas from Mexico... You name it. Senegal, I think, had the longest line! We had some great chicken from there. Allen really loved the mango juice we got from an Indian booth. Here, of course, he is pictured enjoying a good ol' American lollipop, provided by Boeing.

The park was totally packed, making for some memorable shuttle rides! But everything was really delicious, and we had a lot of fun. Let's hear it for exploring the flavors of the world!

Swimmy goes to school

It's Allen's favorite day of the year! Stuffed Animal Day!

He gets really excited about Swimmy getting to go to school. This year, a few days before, he asked me if I knew how it felt to be so happy about something that you felt like crying. Yes, I do, buddy. "That's how I feel about Stuffed Animal Day," he said.

Many of the boys in Allen's class had Build-A-Dinos from the Science Center... But none of those were quite as huggable, in my humble opinion, as that floppy little shark. Love you, Swimmy! Hope you had a fun day at school!

Makin' it and bakin' it

When we went to Hobby Lobby, I decided to check and see whether they still made Makit and Bakit, the challenging craft from our childhood where you pour tiny plastic crystals into a metal suncatcher, then bake it in the oven until the crystals melt.

Well, sure, they still make them! And Allen and Emilyn had a good time with their creations... Much less frustration than I remember!

Allen got a planet (of course), and Emilyn got a butterfly with flowers. Technology has advanced since I was a kid... Emilyn's crystals had sparkles, and Allen's glowed in the dark! Coooool!

They were pretty proud of their finished products!

Grasshopper PDAs

Sorry, but I just can't resist a good nature shot... And they let me get so close!

Hey, if they wanted privacy, they shouldn't have been doing it on top of the air conditioner at Spirit of St. Louis Airport!

Last hurrah at Manchester pool

Last day before school starts... The weather is simply perfect. Let's go to the pool!

Trouble is, the Ballwin pool has already gone to their school-year hours. Bah! So we headed to the Manchester pool instead. For a few dollars more (nonresident rate), it was well worth it to have one last hurrah of summer.

We were there for about three hours... plenty of time for Emilyn to get a very pink face (she forgot to sunscreen it!). Allen just has red blotches on his face where he wiggled when I applied sunscreen. Aloe gel all around!

It really was a perfect day. Emilyn and Sarah spent much time going down the slides... Allen and Daddy played "crab" and "barnacle" -- and Daddy, wearing his Blue Angels shirt, with another Blue Angels shirt dry in the bag waiting to change into, actually saw the real Blue Angels flying over the pool. Sounds about right!

The future sixth-graders got their pick of a late lunch... McDonald's, of course!

School starts tomorrow. It really was one amazing summer.

Friends - new and old - at preschool

Preschool open house was Friday morning... It was great to see our teachers and some old friends: Ava, Seda, Aditi and some others are making the return this year with Allen.

But we met some new friends, too! And Nick (pictured above), I must say, shows great promise. He likes the science center, and was wearing dino Silly Bandz! He's a good talker and a good sharer... And, it appears that he just might get his hair cut at the same place as Allen! (heeheehee)

Allen found his new cubby, a few down and over from the old one, and saw that Ms. Kim had given him some graham cracker snacks and a bottle of bubbles. Of course, the bean table made its appearance... No place like the sensory table for breaking the ice among preschoolers. Allen also reacquainted himself with the reading and writing centers...


There are 18 in the red class this year. An early concern: A couple new, really little kids. I get the feeling they'll be making quite the scene as they try to get adjusted to classroom life. I have no doubt we'll be hearing many stories about those guys and girls!

When it was time to go, I told Allen to go give Ms. Kim and Ms. Marlene hugs... and he actually did it! Wow. You could tell they realized what a rare and special moment that was!

First day of preschool is Wednesday.

Getting to know Southwest

It's been a busy week, getting ready for school. On Thursday night, we attended the open house for parents of incoming sixth-graders.

Emilyn and Allen came along, of course. We heard the principal and the PTO give their spiels. Then we went off to spend a (very) few minutes in each of Emilyn's classes with each of her teachers.

The cavernous Commons area at Southwest Middle.
It doubles as an auditorium and a cafeteria.
Mr. Bradley seems like a good guy... and very funny. He talked about the Advisory program, which is time at the beginning of the day in a small group (Emilyn's is 11 kids) where he kind of mentors them one-on-one in all their subjects, and they talk about whatever character/growing up issues happen to be on the kids' minds. It seems like a great idea -- and a really good way to ease into a day that, let's face it, starts way too early. Emilyn's school day is 7:05 a.m. to 2:16 p.m. Yes, you read that right!

First period starts about 7:45, with Mr. Bradley and math. Next up is science, with Mrs. Cerutti. Then two periods of language arts, one reading and one writing, with yet another rookie teacher, Ms. Lautenschlager. World geography with Mrs. Brauss... Health and PE with Ms. Stricklin... Future Pathways class is a rotation of business, home economics, visual arts, drama, technology... Emilyn starts off with business. And then orchestra, with Ms. Lueken, rounds out the day.

You can get a good look at all the Explorers teachers here. (And check up on Emilyn's homework for the week!)

Then, on Friday, Emilyn went back for a morning of orientation, which included her first bus ride to Southwest. The stop is all the way down at the bottom of our hill. I was not allowed down there, but I did lurk halfway up the hill, behind a tree.



Pretty! Stylish! Smart! Confident!
Normally, the bus will be coming at 6:56. Eeeek! The route takes them up Cleta and out to pick up some former Oak Brook kids. She met her Advisory classmates and got her locker... No. 37!

She's ready to go. Tuesday is the big day!