Spring break with the super fun Auntie Jodi

My sister Jodi came to visit for ten days. We had seen her just last year so it was a real treat to have family visit from Australia again. Jodi had come to the states for the wedding of a good friend and made time for us afterward. It was by chance that her trip coincided with the kids spring break, we had a lot of fun together and the children are really missing their Auntie Jodi as am I! St Louis has so many great things to do. This is the City Museum although Jodi couldn't figure out why it was called that since it was mainly an incredible playground for children built from recycled materials. We had a blast! Jodi says the burger was representative of her time in America and that she is going home to be a vegetarian, or something along those lines!

If you look closely you can see people crawling through the wire cage bridge suspended high above the ground, Rick and the kids went through, Jodi and I were happy to just observe that activity.

You do not want to mess with these three, no really you don't, they do mean business!!

Ammon is probably about to intervene in this apparent moment of Ricky forgetting about girl cooties!

Okay we are officially exhausted!

Simon is never ready to quit playing.

Auntie Jodi sees her first American snow, it was only a dusting but she thought it was cool nonetheless.

Go Bridgette, gotta love those bumpers.Bowling was great. Auntie Jodi had a rough start when she tried to bowl the ball backwards and injure bystanders, we had a good laugh at her expense but she made us all look bad by the end when she gave us a good thrashing on the scoreboard.

Ammon is a serious bowler. The pins run for cover when they see him coming.

What is this? The professional league? Please stop making the rest of us look bad.

Ricky resting from his intense bowling strategy of using a precise ping pong method with the help of the bumpers to get a respectable score and even a strike!

The St Louis Zoo

The kids loved the hippos as the fish in their enclosure were biting the poop off the hippos bottoms. Unfortunately the photos we took of this practice didn't work out, please contain your disappointment. We are so classy!

Auntie Jodi loves the zoo, the weather was perfect. It reminds her so much of our home!

"A Midsummer Night's Dream"

A friend of mine named Erin decided she wanted to put on a play so her children would enjoy learning Shakespeare. She found an adaptation of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for children ( no running naked through forests etc). What was meant to be a small production became, well, a big production. I volunteered to do the costumes and though there were some late nights it turned out to be a lot of fun. Our friend Erin directed and the children went to rehearsals for about six weeks at her home, she has a large home so it was also the venue for the play. Bridgette was a fairy and Queen of the Amazons (how fitting!!). All the children had a wonderful time and Bridgette can't wait to do another play.I have included some great shots of Bridgette. By the way these photos were taken by the same great couple that took our family photos in the fall, Becca and Ben Munson.

Ricky, man of a million faces.

Ricky is the man of a million faces. He is a great big brother to Simon. These potatoes were huge and we just had to get a picture. He always makes us laugh with his funny sayings and goofy looks. His latest saying is "my word" in front of everything, e.g: "My word, you look smashing in that outfit!"

Ammon the Artist

I wanted to show everyone what a good little artist Ammon is becoming. He found the picture of the crab claw and then drew his mechanical impression. Ammon tells us he wants to go to art school as soon as he can.