California Dreaming ... Disneyland

Pictures from our recent trip to the left coast!

Face painting was the first order of the day.

Mallory's current favorite saying ... "That's not yours, it's Mines"

It was not a great day for group pictures

Daddy and Keira on the Pooh Ride

Got to see the Mouse

Sometimes they love each other!

Snow White

Mallory was very confused about how they were suppossed to pose

Autotopia ride, Keira loved it!

We didnt' get a whole lot of great pictures, but we had an excellent day at the park.  The temperature was very mild and the lines were short!  Like crazy 10 to 15 minute wait short.  It was really great.  Keira was feeling a bit under the weather, so we didn't stay late like we planned, but we rode lots of rides, ate lots of junk and had a great time!

Happy Easter

The girls spent almost all day playing outside!  The weather was great.  We started the morning with an easter basket hunt that made Keira think the Easter Bunny was crazy!  Then headed to church. Then home to play outside.  Then a big family meal where Wade smoked a turkey for the first time.  It turned out delicious!  The girls got new bathing suits from grandma and papa, so they paraded around in those for awhile too.  Not too many good pictures from today ... they are just at a bad age for looking at the camera ... both of them!!

Don't forget ...

to check out my new blog.  I am giving away a free pair of Drymax running sock.  Contest open until friday, 5 PM CST.  Go check it out!

http://www.tryoneitsgoodforyou.blogspot.com/

Made our own Sidewalk Paint

We made our own sidewalk paint the other day as a fun spring break activity.  The girls both loved it and loved painting with Daddy's big brushes!  I had never tried it before ... so thankfully, it did indeed wash off!



In other spring break news, Keira had her first sleepover.  And it went great.  She stayed all night at the neighbor's who lives 2 doors down.  No middle of the night phone call to come get her.  And it seems a good time was had by both girls!

Something new ...

http://tryoneitsgoodforyou.blogspot.com/

A friend and I are starting a blog .. I know, that is sounding like a broken record on this site, right?  But it's for real this time :)  It's called Try One ... It's Good For You.  We'll be talking food, fitness, and fun! 

Check us out!

Fun Easter Activities

Our church had an Easter Fun Day for the kids this weekend.  Face Painting, crafts, egg hunt, games, you name it, they did it!

Mallory was suprisingly patient while getting her face painted.



Cute little bunny!



Cute little bunny take 2!

Hula Hooping like a champ!

Mallory didn't quite understand thatyou could only pick 20 eggs, so Wade followed behind her throwing out the extras as she put them in.

Keira very meticulously counting her eggs.  This year she learned the find and replace option ... See one you like better laying on the ground, throw one out and pick that one up!

Mom!  There are eggs everywhere!

Bounce house fun!

Cupcakes

I took a cupcake decorating class last night and the girls enjoyed the training devices!

Peanut

Just because she hasn't made an appearance on the blog in quite some time!  Despite eating things that you cannot even imagine, she is still alive and kicking.  And has lost 12 pounds since being put on her thyroid medication.  Mallory's latest favorite thing is to make 'Nutty shake.  She doesn't quite understand that when Peanut is laying down, she is too lazy to get up to shake hands!

Have a great weekend!  We have a busy one planned - easter egg hunt, lowe's build clinic for keira, lawn mowing, long run, and hopefully a child free dinner out for mom and dad.  Enjoy!

Weather

We have been having particularly awesome weather lately and have been playing outside a lot!  I made a sandbox out of one of the sections of the swingset and teh kids love it.  I am not loving it so much as now there is sand all over my basement floor, but what can you do?

We even got the pool out one day last week!

A Leprechaun visited our house

and left a big MESS!  Keira got off the bus friday all excited talking so fast that I couldn't understand what she was saying.  When she finally calmed down, she informed me that we had to go home immediately and build a trap to catch the leprechaun that was going to come to our house that night and steal all our shiny things.  OK then, let's do it.  She came home, found some old boxes and decorated them and put shiny things in them to set the trap. 

I ran to target after she went to bed and bought green balloons and green streamers and blocked her doorway and filled her room.  I left a note on the door that said, "Hee Hee Hee, you didn't catch me. --  The Leprechaun. 

She thought it was pretty funny!

My Little Leprechauns

We made Leprechaun beards today.  Happy St. Patrick's Day a little bit early!



The tooth fairy strikes again

The tooth fairy is going to be broke, soon.  Keira lost another tooth this weekend.  This one was off the bottom too, so she has quite the gap going down there.  Wade pulled this one out.  Still grosses me out. 

In other news, I started a new blog.  It is mostly for me, but you can read too!  I'll be posting my obsessive compulsive behaviors over there ... ya know, all those things I do to fill up my time when I am bored (well, not really bored so much as I don't want to clean the house).  You know, like last week I baked granola bars, vanilla wafers, and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins all in one day.  Crazy, yes, yet that is what keeps me sane :).  So if you are just interested in the kids, this is the place you want to be.  If you are interested in my crazy antics, check me out over here at

 She Has Ants in Her Pants

That's all folks!

Hacker Family Day of Fun Part 2

Ok, so where did we leave off??  I think our next stop was Crown Candy Kitchen.  This place is an institution in St. Louis.  There is always a line out the door, or so we have heard.  And in fact, there was a line out the door when we go there.  The Food Challenge guy has visited this place.  The challenge is to drink 5 milkshakes in an hour.  Wade and I each had a milkshake and I can say I couldn't finish one in an hour, let alone 5.  The milkshakes were delicious, very rich.  The great part about this place is that you can carry out your ice cream and skip the line, wahoo!  So that is what we did.

The kids played in, on, and around these circles while daddy went in to get the ice cream.  It kept them entertained!



Both of the girls got chocolate.  The portions were very generous! 



Next we headed to Turtle Park.  Which is basically a little park right next to the highway that has turtle sculptures for the kids to climb on.  If it hadn't been so cold, I would have enjoyed it more.  The kids did not seem to mind the cold at all.  Really, we were just killing time before we went to the arch.  I had bought tickets on line to avoid the line and we had a little extra time that I didn't have planned out.

  



After playing here for a while we headed down to the arch.  We were still a little early, but they let us in line early, so that worked out great.  If you have never been, it is pretty neat.  You go up the arch in this little elevator car they call an egg.  It is very small and they shove 5 people in it.  I, really, am not a fan.  It is small and hot.  It takes 4 minutes to go up and 3 minutes to come down.  The kids didn't mind it.  At the top there are small windows that you can look out over the city or over the dirty river, whichever you prefer.  Keira really thought it was neat. 

The view of the city.

The View from the other side.  I thought the shadow was neat. 

The view from outside, directly under the arch.

The girls looking out the little window.

After this, we headed to Build A Bear workshop to finish up our day.  Keira had been begging to go to one for months and months and there isn't one super near the house, so that was how we ended the day. 

Overall, it was a lot of fun and totally exhausting.  Mallory did really well up until the very end.  For a two year old with no nap and hopped up on sugar, she did great! 

I am already planning Hacker Family Day of Fun, Take 2!

Hacker Family Day of Fun

Stomach flu be damned, this family was going to have some fun!  We had big plans last weekend of heading out of town for a weekend of fun and friends, but those got spoiled when Wade woke up the day before we were suppossed to leave with the stomach flu.  We had some disappointed people in the house, so this weekend we decided to make up for it.  I named it, "Hacker Family Day of Fun" and boy was it a full day of fun!  And what better way to start out a day of fun ....

Yes, thats right, Donuts for breakfast.  I figured we were going to be eating crap all day anyway, why not start out all sugared up?!?  Ha. 

Our first destination was The City Museum.  http://www.citymuseum.org/  This is quite a crazy place.  It if filled with slides, tunnels, skate ramps to run up and down, a miniature train, ball pits and all other sorts of unique things.  Keira's favorite part was the 10 story twisty slide.  It was a long walk up, but a very fun ride down. 

Inside the mouth of a whale

Next to an elephant

There were dinosaurs!

Lots and lots of slides and places to climb.

Another slide .... This one was my favorite.  It was super fast!

Ropes to swing on.

There is also a large outdoor area that we didn't get to see as well as a rooftop part for climbing.  It was pretty nuts.  It is definitely great for wearing kids out, but what I didn't like was that there were lots of small tunnels and climbing areas the adults couldn't fit that they kids could sneak off into.  Very hard to keep track to the munchkins.  But we had fun and I counted this as my cross training workout for the week because of the amount of stairs we climbed!

Next we headed to Fitz's Rootbeer for Lunch.  http://www.fitzsrootbeer.com/  A restaurant where they bottle their own root beer.  The root beer was really good.  I let the girls have pop for the first time ever.  Both chose orange.  Mallory loved it, but I think Keira was a little disappointed.  She didn't drink much of hers.  I think she thought it was going to be great and then, not so much.  But she put on a great face.  Food was average ... burgers and wraps.  We did get to see the root beer being bottled, so that was cool and kept the kids attention for a bit.

Mallory with her Orange Pop, which she finished!

Keira with her Orange Pop ... Putting on a good face!

Mallory looking a little too happy to be shooting her sister!

Keira loving her grilled cheese, she would eat grilled cheese every day if I would let her!

Stay tuned tomorrow for more of Hacker Family Day of Fun ... we visited the Crown Candy Kitchen, Turtle Park, and the Top of the Arch!