Happy Birthday to Drew!

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We spent Drew's 3rd birthday (that's right, he's 3!) in Kansas City at the Great Wolf Lodge www.greatwolflodge.com/Locations/Kansas/. We had such a great time, we're already planning our next trip back.
We took the Amtrak there, and it was a great idea, at least on the way down there with the bad weather we were having. When we were supposed to return on Sunday, however, the train had shut down because of the ice storm. Luckily, we had rented a car, and were able to drive that back to St. Louis.
Wolf Lodge has a huge indoor waterpark, and the kids had a great time. Drew even went down all of the big waterslides. He liked everyone but the yellow one because it a part where it was really dark for quite some time. "Yellow, bad." One of the slides starts and ends inside, but most of it is outside the building. Pretty neat (but not cold, the water keeps it warm), considering the snow and ice we had that weekend. Blake enjoyed getting dumped on by the big bucket, but I think Uncle Don may have enjoyed it more.


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We also visited the T-Rex Cafe to have a birthday celebration. www.trexcafe.com
We built dinosaurs (think Build-A-Bear except it was dinosaurs) and also enjoyed the dinosaur show. Uncle Don and Aunt Beth joined us as well as great uncle Ric and Chris.


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All in all, it was a great weekend despite the weather! Saturday was a particular busy day, and the kids were out cold in their Wolf Den in less than 5 minutes.


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Check out more pictures here. Just click on them to make them bigger.
Saturday, January 13, 2007

Happy holidays . . . a little late

Happy holidays to all a little late. We all had a great Christmas here. Everyone actually managed to remain well for a change. Usually, we have some kind of sickness going through the house. I got strep throat the week before Christmas and was sure one of the kids would come down with it at a convenient time, like Christmas Eve. Some how they managed to remain unscathed . . . so far. Scott has now come down with something and is headed to the ExpressCare Center as I write this!
Scott and the kids spent New Year's Eve at home while I went to work. Blake was ready for it two days before. We had just put him to bed on Friday, and he came downstairs, saying, "Hey, I didn't get to yell Happy New Year!" We told he had to wait two days. On the night of New Year's Eve, Blake decided he HAD to stay up until midnight. Scott tried changing the clocks in Blake's room and the kitchen, but Blake pointed to the one in the living room, way up by the ceiling and said, "It's when both hands are on the 12 right?" Why did we teach him to tell time!?!
He almost made it. About 11:45 he said he was "just going to rest his eyes." We woke him up 15 minutes later for a half-hearted, "Happy New Year." And then put him put him to bed.
On the school front, Blake wrote a book for a Young Author's contest. He had to write it and illustrate it. And he did a great job. I leave on this site, a poem he recently wrote. We've been reading a lot of Shel Silverstein poetry ("Where the Sidewalk Ends" and "Falling Up"), so I think that is what inspired this. So without further ado, here it is. Enjoy!

I'm tired of eating just cereal.
So I opened a can of bubblegum.
The bubblegum said,
"Hey, we were trying to sleep
until you let in the light.
Do don't take one and close it up tight."
But I took one of them and closed the lid.
And put it in my mouth.

King for a day . . . or at least an hour

I can't let 2 months pass without posting. I've been a slacker lately.
Blake was in the Christmas play at church and played Wise Man #3. Everywhere we've went this season, he wants to see the wise men. Then he wants to know, "which one is number 3?"
He had a 3 lines, and did a very good job delivering them. He even had to say "frankincense and myrrh." The only problem came at the end when everyone was singing "Joy to the World." He was dancing around, which I thought maybe he was getting into the spirit. But then he mouthed to us, "I have to go to the bathroom!" I think we have him mouthing it on videotape. He did make it to the end of the performance.
Future torture for later years in his life to remind him that before any big moment, he must go to the bathroom! We can show it to his prom date, before his wedding . . .

Go Cards!

Blake sings "Take me out to the ballgame"


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Now this is scary! Maybe?

A vampire with pink teeth. Scary? No.




A "Blair Witch" vampire with pink teeth. Scary? Sort of.




An out of focus Drew giving his best scary vampire look. Well . . . It's as scary as Drew's going to look.


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'I'll get you Captain Hook!'

And here's some of Drew doing his best Peter Pan.

A scary dinosaur and a scary? Peter Pan

A sneak peak at Blake and Drew's Halloween costumes. As soon as we decorated our yard, they wanted to put them on. Blake is an iguanodon.




Blake does his best dinosaur roar, and Drew thinks he's scary, too.

Shiver me timbers!

My Dad's family (the Wilkes) had a pirate hayride this weekend. We get together on various holidays, and this was one of our get togethers. Blake especially enjoyed calling everyone a "bunch of scalliwags."

'where's my bus?'

Drew started school today. He's in the toddler class at the YMCA two mornings a week. He has Mrs. Burns just like Blake. It's hard to believe I was pregnant with Drew when Blake started Mrs. Burns' class.
When we brought Blake out to the bus stop this morning, Drew wanted to know where his bus was. I told him, "See that van in the drive-way." I'm not ready for him to get on a bus yet!
It was a great first day. None of the kids in his class cried until the end of class. I did capture that kid on film as you can see from the picture of Drew walking out of the door to his classroom. Just glad it's not my child this time. Blake screamed and cried every day when I left for the first three weeks of class.
Drew told me Mrs. Burns called him "Andrew" and he said "I'm not Andrew. I'm just regular Drew!" He giggled when he told me about it.


Wednesday, September 6, 2006

He might be contrary, but he's not stupid

I visited Blake's school on Tuesday and spoke with his teacher for the first time since school has started. She said Blake was doing really good in school. I said, "Yeah, he told me he got in trouble a few times for talking and had to move to the yellow light." She kind of laughed and told me he got really upset the first time he had to move his clip to the yellow light.
Blake yelled, "I'm not moving my clip to the yellow light!"
She said, "Yes, you are."
Blake yelled, "I'm not moving my clip to the yellow light!"
She said, "Then I'll get get up and put it there. And if Mrs. VanVooris has to get up and move your clip, it's going to the red light."
Blake yelled, "I'm not moving my clip to the yellow light!"
Mrs. VanVooris got up to move his clip. Blake jumped up quickly and moved it the yellow light.
Yes, our kid has attitude.

'Look mom, no training wheels'

The site finally has video. Watch Blake ride his bike for the first time. And also Drew show off that he can pedal!





We took Blake out to a parking lot at SIUE, so there wouldn't be many cars around. He stalled leaving the house and just getting into the truck to go over to the parking lot. He looked terrified on the drive over. It took us about 10 minutes of stalling when we got there to get him on the bike, and then he really didn't want to pedal, and certainly did not want Scott to let go of the bike. We didn't think we would get anywhere. But Scott finally was able to let him go, and Blake was OK with it. He rode a pretty good distance as you can see from the video. It's amazing how proud you can be of your kid -- even when it's something people do every day. Drew just learned to pedal his tricycle on his own this week, so he had to show off, too. Lance Armstrong look out!

A girlfriend at age 5

Last night Blake told me in the car that he "made a girl friend" at school.
Me "Really what's her name?"
Him: "I don't know. I liked her shirt."
Me: "What did her shirt look like?"
Him: "It was pink with black stripes on the sleeves and had a big white word on it."
Me: "What did it say?"
Him: "I don't know. I couldn't read it."
Me: "Did you talk to her."
Him: "No, but we played near each other a few times."
Me: "Ahh, that's nice."

When I relayed the story to Scott, he told me to tell Blake that's stalking! Not a girlfriend.

I thought it was cute.

'Everybody stayed on the green light!'

Blake went off to kindergarten for the first time today - a half day. And thought it was great. "I love school!" he told me later while we were eating lunch. His first comment to Dad when he got off the bus was, "Everybody stayed on the green light!" They have a stoplight system for discipline. The students get one warning, and if they get another, they have to move their name to the yellow light. If they get in trouble again, they have to move to the red light, and then a "red light note" gets sent home to the parents. If they stay on green the entire week, they get to pick out of the treasure box on Friday. "3 more days until the treasure box," Blake says. Maybe this will actually keep him out of trouble. He's already made a bus buddy, another kindergarten student who lives around the corner from us. And they sit in the back. Isn't that where the troublemakers usually sit? Anyway, at least he has a friend on the bus. He didn't really remember anyone's name from his class yet, but said he played with several kids.
And just in case you're wondering, I did manage to keep my tears in check. Though it was kind of a sad but happy day.

Mrs. Sippi?

One of our babysitters asked Drew who is teacher was going to be at school this year, and he looked a little confused. So I said, "You know who it is. It's Mrs. . . ." Drew pipes up "Mississippi." He did eventually come up with the right answer.