week seventeen

...

Elise:  This week was all about "Tillman Town" at school.   The entire second grade helped to set up and run a mock town in their classrooms.  They earned money, paid taxes, took turns running shops, and had the chance to be consumers/tourists as well.  Elise helped to run the Squiggly Slick Sweet Salon with a few of her classmates.  They offered hand massages, manicures, up dos, mohawks, facials, tattoos and a Cool Whip shave!

Caleb:  We were invited to come to Tillman Town as tourists and Caleb got to leave his class and come with us too!  He was so careful about spending his money that when the town was closing for the day he had to hastily purchase an icing topped donut so he wouldn't "lose" the rest of his money.  Fortunately, it didn't seem to be much of a hardship!  (He also managed to purchase a pretty awesome book about Greek Mythology.)

The Big Three:  I'm not sure who was responsible for this idea, but it was quite sweet to wake up to these three eating breakfast while thoroughly involved in a game of Monopoly Empire.  I think I'll take the cereal mess and the thirty extra minutes of sleep again sometime, please!

Lucas:  Isn't it just the sweetest when your kids are immersed in play together?!?  Eden is just chatty enough these days that these two have started to be quite a duo!

Eden:  Totally intrigued and terrified by worms lately...she came running in and crying one day this week because she had touched a worm with her shoe, but then here she is on a worm hunt with Lucas...

week sixteen

...

Elise:  First Cardinals game for all of us!  We cheered for a certain "red team" and had a blast!

Caleb:  Can't remember the last time he took a nap, but we found him sound asleep on the couch when we called him in for lunch on Sunday.  

Lucas:  I loved this moment.  We'd walked from the Metro station all the way around the stadium, up countless stairs and ramps and this was what we walked out to when we finally arrived at our seats.  His eyes got so big and he waited there for ages taking it all in.  

Eden:  This one danced, clapped and cheered her way through the entire game.  ...and Caleb is just so dear with her!

#2 - Their second Daddy date.  

week fifteen

...

Elise & Caleb: 5,000 students from 250 area schools. One mile, one act of kindness, and one book read - each week for 26 weeks. They've been going to school an hour early every Wednesday since November to run with the team from their school. Today they ran their final 1. 2 miles around Forest Park with all those kids from all those schools - it was awesome!!!

The Bigs -"Teamwork makes the dream work!" Especially when they're cutting limbs to put into the fire pit so that we can roast marshmallows after dinner!

Lucas: Lucas, Eden and I began attending a local church Bible Study earlier this spring and it has brought Lucas such joy. This week he and his classmates performed five songs that they've been working on for the past month. "I have my very first, very own concert" he told us over and over again!

Eden: This week has brought an explosion of words to her little (but growing!) vocabulary. It seems to finally have clicked that using words helps other people understand what you need and want!!! Here are a few of our favorites (quite a few context clues are still needed, but we don't mind!):  

De-jus (Jesus), ee-we (kiwi), blue, purple, help, stuck, self (sneaky little rascal likes to pretend to get stuck and ask for help "stuck, stuck, help" and then declare "self" with a big grin as she wiggles herself free!), Otay (Sote'), dook (book), roll roll (any kind of bread)

We are also loving her attempts at counting -"two-a, two-a, two-a" and  spelling "a, a, a, a,"

Can't help but remember back to when Elise's very early words included mom, dad, eyebrow, and banjo!

week fourteen

Elise:  Our lovely leading lady!

Caleb:  The highlight of his weekend was the purchase of a tackle box to go along with the fishing rod he got from Grandma Judy and Grandpa Sam for his birthday.  Next stop, the pond at Tilles Park!

Lucas:  Super excited to be in charge of prepping the dye for our Easter eggs.  He had been waiting for days and days!

Eden:  Our trip to the Botanical Gardens on Saturday was made even sweeter by the opportunity to participate in a flower arranging activity for kids (hosted by the Greater StL Daffodil Society).  They had painted recycled "vases" and had buckets of flowers at the ready for kids to enjoy making Easter bouquets.  Since we ended up with four bouquets we decided to take some to share with our neighbors.  Eden got to help with the deliveries!