10th Anniversary

A snip of the night for now.... My Anniversary gift from Bob.  More to come later.

This is the painting commissioned for our 10th anniversary. It was painted by an artist from our old neighborhood Cbabi Bayoc (http://www.sweetartstl.com/bio.html) and is our girls playing in the water fountain at Tower Grove Park in our old neighborhood.

Things I LOVE about Steeple Hill

1. The attached garage!  We didn't get wet in the rain!
2. The nice sidewalks for walking and hopefully soon for running!
3. First floor master.  This took some getting used to, but I am already sleeping better.
4. The big screen that came with the house.  It is like having my own theater.
5.  All of the nice neighbors.  They have all come by and brought us baked goods.  The number of kids is overwhelming.  The girls have had so much fun playing with others already.
6. The calm.  It is quiet, calm, and seems to be a slower pace.
7. The walk in closets.  We haven't even set up dressers in the master bedroom yet and it all fits in the closet.  The girls use their closets as a reading room.
8. The HUGE patio.  We have a corner lot and see a lot of our neighbors out walking and talking.  They stop and chat and our patio draws them in.  I can't wait for patio furniture!
9. Location Location, Location!  We can ride bikes to New Town, we are a few minutes from Old. St. Charles.  All highways are close.  The girl's school is close.  The riverfront and Katy Trail are a hop, skip, and jump away.
10.  Recycling bins are larger than the trash bin and we don't have to sort anything!!!!  Yeah for recycling!
11. A huge finished basement.  With Tornado sirens last weekend the girls didn't even know there was a storm!
12.  Bob's new pool table.  OK so I am not as excited as Bob, but it will be great for entertaining.
13.  Grass and landscaping.  I know I will probably like it less in a few months, but right now it is real grass instead of weeds.  We didn't have to figure out landscaping either because they had professionals do it with the previous owners.  I have always been overwhelmed at what to do with a yard.
14.  Friends.  So many of our friends and the kid's friends were from the girl's school and now they are close.  So close they have already come over once and are coming again this weekend.  Birthday parties are much closer now too.  We do miss our distance friends though!
15.  Windows that open easily with one finger!  Even the girls can open them.  AND they don't rattle and have to have socks stuck in them to keep them still!!  The breeze through the house has been so nice!

Dinner with the Directress

Anybody who knows me, knows I am in LOVE with Campbell Montessori School.  So much so that the decision of where we bought our house was based primarily on how close it was to the girl's school!  This year they have started a Dinner with the Directress (Montessori term for teacher) where you go into the classroom and watch your child do work they have learned and do each day.  Cecelia's room had their day today and I was floored once again at how amazing the school really is. 

I watched another little girl who just turned 3 and started this year.  She had beautiful curls just like my Cecelia and she was doing the graduated cylinders, the first task Cecelia ever did in the montessori room.  I actually started to cry.  In 4 years Cecelia has turned from that innocent 2 1/2 year old toddler with a loving smile to an amazing 6 year old!  She used to wear a locket with our pictures in it her first year so she could keep us with her all day.  Now she walks into the room with confidence.  Her concentration and focus were so apparent when her tongue was hanging our.  Her pride show through at the completion of each task from the multiplication table to the decanomial cube.  Her love and commitment for her friends was so deep.  I am saddened the 4 years in Mrs. Jordan's room have flown by so quickly, but I am thrilled to see where the next 8 will take us in our journey with Campbell leading the way.  Thank you Campbell Montessori School!

Excitement!

Buying a house is kind of like having a baby, you think it will never get here and when it does you are not as prepared as you thought you were. The house is officially ours!  We moved in on Saturday and had a group of friends over Saturday night after the Campbell auction (more about that later)!  Despite having movers, Sunday we spent the day moving even more things and we still have a few loads left!  Sunday night we finally got to celebrate the closing f our new home as well as the closing of Ron and Lucille's new home.  Monday my mom took the day off to help me unpack and we worked all day, yet only managed to get the kitchen and basement livable. 

It has been a busy week so not much more has been unpacked.  I think we may be in boxes forever!

Brrrr

We went o the St. Patrick's Days Parade Downtown with Ben, Aimee, and Reagan.  It was sooo cold!  The girls loved seeing Kathryn, Darlene and Greg though!  All in all it was a fun time.

Have your cake and eat it too?

So in the last 3 weeks we have moved out of our house on Russell and are living in my mom's second house. (Thanks mom for having an extra house lying around for us.) Until this week we did not have internet (thanks Dale for the new wireless in your second floor window)! It was rustic and now I am woefully behind in blogging so I will start with today and work my way backwards.

Today was April Fool's Day and the girls were so funny. This morning Bob did the "You have something on your shirt" bonk the kids in the nose thing to Cecelia and Lydia. They both fell for it! When he got to Sylvia she wouldn't look down and and just smiled like "I got your number fool"!

This evening after school, I took the brownie mix out of the box and re-taped the box. Then I called the girls in to make brownies. Cecelia opened the box and right away started laughing. Then Sylvia went to crack the eggs so we could really make the brownies and they were hard boiled. She just looked confused. Cecelia being the big sister of course thought she would be able to do it because she was stronger! Hehehe... April Fool's!

While the brownies were baking I sent the kids outside to play. I took a cereal box and iced it with pink icing and sprinkles. After dinner I told the girls they could eat brownies straight from the pan. Below is the video of them trying to eat the box brownie! Cecelia said she knew before she ate, but you can tell by her face she didn't!