Happy Easter!

Thought I would share some pictures from our Easter this year. The kids enjoyed dying eggs (and their hands) and then wondered what we would do with the eggs after. I suggested that they try eating one. They all looked at me like I was crazy. (Grandpa, we need you to come and eat all of our hard-boiled eggs!)

After that excitement I had the boys try on their new blazers. They were, surprisingly, pretty excited by this (I thought I would get some moaning at best). Sydney could not be left out of this fun...

Since the Easter Bunny came during the night, the kids had some hunting to do, and as you can see from their game faces this is serious business...

No time to stop for a basket...

Spencer has the game-face down, check out the intensity, watch out Easter eggs... (Can you find the hidden egg in this picture?)

Let's check that out a little closer up...

Sydney let the boys do the work while she ate breakfast, and then charmed them into sharing the eggs with her.

Then it came time to get all ready for church. As soon as I said the word "dress" Sydney ran up the stairs and could wait no longer. She has been playing dress rehearsal for a week and begging for her "princess gown." This is not a phrase I taught her, and I am actually not sure if she is saying gown or crown, nor has she learned it from her brothers, obviously. She begs for her "princess gown" every day, and has even perfected the twirling around. I am a little worried about this...
But, I did have fun dressing her up!

What a sweet little lady...

Picture-taking on Easter morning went just about as well as picture-taking in St. Louis (see post St. Louis Arch and Uncooperative Children). Any suggestions on taking pictures of four children all together?

Gotta love Tyler's expression here. He was doing his best to try and be happy that he was dressed in a shirt and tie, and a suit coat! "Whatever Mom, can we just get this over with please?" or was it "My Mom is crazy, why does she inflict such torture on me?"

You should have seen these boys in person! Watch out ladies!

As Promised... Fitz's Root Beer Floats...

When we were researching places to visit in St. Louis, Steve found this place and was very interested...

Those of you who know Steve know that he loves good root beer.  His siblings would attest to that with one of their favorite stories about Steve..."I wike woot beew too!"   So, Fitz's became a "must-stop" on our agenda.  Those of you who watch Rachel Ray's Tasty Travels may have seen Fitz's on her show.  One of the cool things about Fitz's is watching them bottle their root beer on their bottling line.  The kids thought that was pretty cool.  (Oops, didn't think to take any pictures of that.)

So, before we headed out of town we stopped at Fitz's for some root beer floats of our own.

Fitz's doesn't only have traditional Root Beer Floats, they mix it up a bit.  You can choose a Mississippi Float (chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla) which is what Spencer chose.  If only they were a bit bigger though...

Sam opted for the Mt. Everest float (a combo of vanilla and chocolate).  But the options didn't stop there.  They had orange floats (vanilla ice cream with orange soda) and Cream Soda Floats as well.  Are you drooling yet?

Happy faces all around!

We figured since the Root Beer Floats were bigger than Sydney that she would probably do better with a dish of ice cream...

She was pretty happy with that as you can see...

Look at that empty mug!  Pretty impressive, huh?  Sugar high here we come!!!

Thus ends our St. Louis Saga!  What fun!  There's nothing like getting away from life for awhile and relaxing together!

The Arch and Uncooperative Children

I promised that I would post more about our St. Louis trip.  I know that you have all been waiting anxiously.  It's your classic cliff-hanger, so here is your next installment...

We decided we couldn't go to St. Louis without visiting the arch.  The kids were very excited about this, but once we got there they couldn't figure out how we could actually go up inside the thing.

It was beautiful in St. Louis!  Somehow the Spring Fairy has touched St. Louis though it hasn't visited us yet.  The trees were in bloom and the grass was green, so we enjoyed playing on the grass outside the arch for awhile.  We weren't sure that we wanted to go back to Chicago.

Then it was time to go up in the arch.  We waited in line outside the doors to the tram cars.  When the door opened I couldn't help thinking, "You wanted me to get in there and have you close the door on me and ride up 600 feet?"  The tram cars are tiny, for those of you who haven't experienced the St. Louis Arch.  I never really thought of myself as claustrophobic, but I was feeling a little nervous as we got in those tiny cars.

I was relieved that we made it to the top!  Here are some pictures of us at the top of the arch.  It isn't a very large area, but the view was terrific.

You kind of have to lean against the sides of the Arch in order to look out the windows.  I couldn't help thinking,"Let's not all lean the same direction at once shall we?"  I guess I am more of a wimp than I had thought.

We didn't end up staying at the top very long, as the kids became a little nervous.  And then as we were waiting to get on a car to go down, the car in front of us tilted so the people could barely get out.  We decided to go down on the other side instead, and in the end I was grateful to be down on the ground again!

We tried getting some pictures of our kids all together, but they were not in a cooperative picture taking mode.  Here are a few of our attempts.  Don't expect to see any of these on the Christmas cards this year...

We loved the gorgeous trees near the Arch.  I am beginning to wonder if we will see any blossoms here this year, but we thoroughly enjoyed these.
Spencer, who has been trained well by his father, is offering me some flowers...

Don't worry, the St. Louis Saga isn't over yet.  Look forward to one last installment, where four children tackle mile-high root beer floats...

Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis...

I sat down to download some pictures for a new post and then became distracted (not a surprise) and Sydney decided to go ahead and post the pictures for me.  So, for those of you who saw the last post (just a few pictures and no explanations) now you know why.

Last week was our Spring Break (not very Springy, but a nice break anyway) so we decided to go to St. Louis and see what we would find there.  We really enjoyed getting away and being together as a family for a few days.  Our first find was The Magic House, a HUGE children's museum with lots of fun activities for the kids.  It was pretty crowded, but fun anyway.  The kids enjoyed signing the Declaration of Independence, solving a mystery, climbing a tree, playing with bubbles, shooting off air rockets, playing with magnets and a bunch of other fun things.  How is it that the kids do all the playing, and yet Steve and I were the ones exhausted when we left?  

I must say that Children's Museums are not quiet places.  These seats make music when you sit on them.  With all four kids on them, there was quite a symphony!  The nice thing is, no one gets mad at you if your kids are making too much noise.  
I think Steve enjoyed many of the exhibits just as much as the kids did.  They really have some fun things for them to do.  
Spencer learning Morse Code...
Sydney aspiring to be a telephone operator...
Sydney having a hair moment...
Kelli having an even bigger hair moment...
They had one of those Electrostatic Generators there.  I was the only one brave enough to try it.  I would have loved to see Sydney like this.  My hair is a little too heavy to get the best effect.

This tree went from the bottom floor up two stories.  You could get out on each level, so you could either take the stairs, or climb the tree.  The kids preferred the tree.

The next day we explored the St. Louis Science Center.  Very cool!!  We took the kids to an Omnimax movie.  Sam was very concerned with how dangerous the theater was.  I wasn't sure how Sydney would do during that, but she actually really enjoyed it.  The Science Center also had great hands-on fun for the kids.  

The highlight of the trip (or at least of the Science Center) for Spencer was the Lego Mindstorms experience.  For those of you not familiar with Lego Mindstorms, they are robots that you build with Legos and then program their movements with a computer. (I am sure there is much more to it than that, but you get the idea.)  Spencer has been drooling over these things for at least a year now, so it was fun to give him an opportunity to get his hands on one and see what they are all about.  They only let eight people in at a time, and you had to be over seven, so Steve took Spencer and Tyler there while Sam, Sydney and I went and played elsewhere.  They were divided into teams and got to build their robot and then program it with certain movements.  Their objective was to clear their "anthill" before the other teams.  Steve and the boys came in second, and had a great time!  Here they are with their robot...

More St. Louis to come....