Time for school

Yesterday Kaden and Luke had open houses at their schools. Kaden is at a different school because the Pre-K classes are only offered at a select number of elementary schools and ours is not one of them....bummer) Because Samantha (my cousin) is here with me I was able to take the boys individually to their school to meet their teachers. It was wonderful! Thank you so much Sam, you have no idea how much you have helped me!

First Kaden and I made the trek over to his school, it's about 12 miles from our house. We met Ms. Marcie and her helper whose name is completely escaping me, sorry. The room was decorated from floor to ceiling---literally! What a fun class. Kaden made quite a showing by finding his own name on both his cubby space and the folder we had to take home. He was saying his alphabet and yelling out his colors. He was so excited to be there. It was really fun to see Kaden that way. I think he will really like school, well when he finally gets used to the whole listening part of it anyway. I bought Kaden a school t-shirt and one for Michael and I to share (seeing that he will only be there for one year) and I got a PTA membership as well. What a good parent I am :)

Afterwards I took Kaden home and then Luke and I ran up to his school, just 1/2 a mile away. We met his teacher Mrs. Gann. She seems wonderful as well. Luke talked her ear off and she knows all about our family now. The Kindergarten classes have a western theme this year, pretty cute. Luke is going to get to ride the bus to school and then I will pick him up when class is over. I joined PTA again and bought 3 shirts at his school, they are super-cute. The front has the Superman S logo on it, Luke and Michael got navy shirts and I bought a pink one for myself. We'll be stylin'.

Both boys are SO excited. School starts on Tuesday. I just cannot believe it. WOW, 2 kiddos in school, what will I do with myself? I am looking forward to having this special time with Gabriel, Josie still sleeps a lot in the mornings and so it will just be the 2 of us which, as you can imagine, doesn't ever really happen. I'm happy about that too!

(Luke's red sign says "Yee Haw! Welcome to Kindergarten!" though you can't see it)

Day 75!!!!!

Can you believe it? We've reached 75 days of Daddy's deployment! Some days it didn't feel like we would ever get here but time kept passing and we are fairly close to his return. I am sure you can imagine how happy we all are about that!

Here is Josie trying to eat Daddy's #75 link. (and no I did not let her actually put it in her mouth)

The happy boys at dinner time cheering for Dad. We love you Daddy!!!Look how little our chain is! (This is just an approximation of when Michael gets to come home, nothing is for sure until he is in my arms!) And I had to share this one, here is a fun pic Mike sent me of when he went shopping. Can you imagine how much room that chair would take up in your house??? I don't know what that face is about, he said he had a great time shopping (and I've got the credit card bills to back that up!!!)I miss my hubby. Hurry home babe!

Yummy

What can I say? Gabriel certainly enjoyed his dessert. It was graham crackers with chocolate frosting on them. These pictures are basically TOO adorable for words!

Cardinal crazy!

The Cardinals have had some fun games to watch lately, we beat the pants off the cubs on Thursday night 11-1 (a grand slam in that one!!!) , then beat the league leading Brewers twice on Saturday, one by scoring 3 in the bottom of the 9th! Then yesterday we came from behind again, scoring 5 runs in the 8th inning! Very exciting considering the truly dismal and injury-prone year the Cards have had. I went to 2 games last week.
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The first was GREAT company and seats but a terrible game. Becky took me to the Cards-cubs (gag!) game last Wednesday. (thanks SO much to Aunt LeeAnn for watching my kiddos for me so that I could go!!) The outcome was less-then-favorable but Becks and I had a good time together! Here is the view from our seats and the Cardinal fanatics we had sitting in front of us. Father-son red mohawk duo, with dad's Cardinal tattoo right on his skull---um, ouch!!


On Saturday night I was able to attend the 2nd game of the double header (Grandmom and Great Granny were the appreciated sitters that night!) My gracious, wonderful, lovely Aunt Debbie sacrificed her ticket so that I could go and sit in the BJC box at the stadium! (BJC is the hospital my Uncle Don and cousin Mel work for). There was Uncle Don, Ms. Josie, cousins Mark, Emma, me, and Mel:

I decided to bring Josie to her first Cardinal game and she was a hit! Everyone wanted to hold her. Even people from the neighboring box came over "We just have to see that baby!" Josie was perfect as always and everyone was amazed by that! And all LOVED her Cardinal t-shirt (thanks Becky!) Here was our view from the box, not too bad I have to say:Sweet, sweet baby! And here are some quick pics from the inside of the box, where they have all all-you-can-eat food and drink selection (hot dogs, brats, all the fixings, chicken strips, brisket, pizza, cookies, veggie tray, popcorn, chips and dip...WOW) There was also a plasma TV in there so you wouldn't miss any of the action as you sat on the leather furniture. Pretty incredible!

My token Dave McKay photo and the boys celebrating their win:

Let's hope the Redbirds can keep up this inspired play for say oh, the next 30 games or so!
GO CARDINALS!!!!!!

Can you feel the love tonight??

On Thursday I took my cousin Samantha to see The Lion King downtown at the Fabulous Fox! It was amazing! I cannot even tell you how much I loved it. I loved the movie, I have it memorized and this show was almost word for word! There were a couple of extra songs added for Broadway. My favorite part by far was the costuming! Whoever designed them was a genius! The animals are just spectacular. I was in awe the whole time. WOW! I LOVED IT!!! Thanks Sam for being my date :)
Just look at those giraffes!!!
Rafiki
Simba

Marco!..........Polo!

Last Saturday we went over to the Gienke's neighborhood pool. The boys had a great, great time! The boy Gienkes and Grandmom joined in the fun! Kaden would have stayed in there ALL day. He did not want to leave, he's truly a waterbaby. Gabriel played mostly in the kiddie pool and had a blast, but he did make it to the big pool. Here he is jumping in to his Great Uncle Todd:

And can anyone guess what Ms. Josie did while we were at the pool? Nope, not a trick question, she slept soundly. What a gorgeous baby!

Children's Zoo Photos

More fun pics of our day at the zoo. The kiddos had so much fun! Thanks to the Gienke kiddos, my cousins, Samantha, Ben, and Jack for playing with my boys!

The snake picture was taken espeically for Daddy! And the naked mole rats are for you Karri, I remember how cute you thought they were! They were a big hit with all the kiddos!

I LOVE THE ZOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!