Won't you stay for tea?

Playgroup was at our friends the McGowan's house today. They have 5 girls and one boy, so their house is not short on tea sets and princess dresses. Reese spared no time taking advantage of both. I had to convince her that if she was going to invite her friend Noah for tea, that she should share the dishes with him. She really loved these dishes and I will put them on our "wish list" (are you listening, grandparents?). In fact, we loved them so much we picked them out for our cousin Breleigh's birthday present.

Reese finally shares the tea set with Noah. I hope it is decaf because they will both need naps in about 2 hours.

My friend Erin's attempt to teach her kids the value of money by saving it in this giant jar. Reese kept pointing to it and saying "mon-eee" over and over again. She was also pointing to the other random items in there including a plastic spoon and a few toys.

Noah can't figure out how to get the money out either.

Reese loved the dollhouses. Erin introduced me to "Groovy Girls" dolls, which will also go on our wish list.

Aidan learned a hard lesson today. His friend Maddoc has a lofted bunk bed with a glow-in-the dark solar system hanging from the ceiling. Aidan broke a few of the planets and to say that Maddoc was not happy is putting it mildly. Aidan and I had several talks about how it is not nice to break our friend's toys and when we do that our friends will not want to play with us. We later purchased a replacement on-line and when I asked Aidan what the card should say he said this, "Maddoc, I'm sorry I broke your planets." Short, sweet and to the point.

A complete 360, PLEASE!

Dear complete strangers, when you get get candy from the machine, please put your quarter in and make a complete turn. My kids are following behind you like an old lady in a casino waiting for you to leave your post. They almost never leave empty handed.

Another gymnast?

Reese takes gymnastics on Saturday in her own class. We wanted to make sure that she had something of her own instead of tagging along with Aidan. Poor second child.

Aidan, however is in his second year of taking gymnastics and is a little more advanced. His class is on Thursday.

His instructor, Ms. Louise helps him across the balance beam.

He loves to swing on the bar.

He's the only one in his class that can pull himself up on the bar. Before you start contacting the Olympic judges, there are only two other boys in his class, so as proud as I am, let's get serious.

The class favorite is this "hamster wheel." Aidan is pushing while his classmate Arsital rolls around inside it.

At the end of class, this is Aidan. Despite being completely exhausted after 30 minutes of gymnastics this does not guarantee a nap.

Truly Magical

I'm catching up on my blog after realizing that my last entry was almost a month ago.



One of our faves in St. Louis is the Magic House. We became members this fall and we've more than paid for our membership in visits since then. Here are pictures from a recent visit with our friend The Rappaports and The Starks.


This red door opens up to a mouse in the wall with a fully furnished room that is decorated for the season. Reese checks on it every time.

I think the song "You're So Vain" was written for Reese. She loves to look at herself in the mirror. She's gorgeous, so I don't blame her, and you can image that Reese really loves this spot.

Aidan is always ready to help a lady in need.

I love these giant Legos!

This really sweet girl tried to help Noah reach the light switches. She tried so hard to pick him up and they almost fell over at one point.

Another of Reese's "must visits" at the Magic House. We can't wait to get our own dollhouse, or perhaps Daryl can build one resembling a loft or Brooklyn brownstone.


This is the dollhouse version of Hoarders.

This is the last week for the Curious George exhibit. We've logged a lot of hours in this exhibit.

Abe and Reese trying to stuff scarves into the pipes.

Mr. Gourley goes to Washington...Aidan and Abe love to visit Barack Obama's office. We always stop by the legislative branch and the judicial branch too. We really wanted to do karaoke in the legislative branch so we could hear Abe sing "God Bless America," but the machine was broken.

Can't wait until our next visit, which will probably be next week.

A gymnastist is born...

Reese had her first gymnastics class today at the YMCA. She was the only one that showed up, so she had the full attention of both instructors.

Getting ready to start our class.

Reese explains to her teachers that she does not want to roll down the mat.

Reese loved the balance beam. After each pass she said "AGAIN, AGAIN!"

Such a natural. Can't wait until next week!

Fly me to the moon...

We spent the day at the Planetarium. It is attached to the Science Center, but we usually never cross the bridge over to the Planetarium because we must check in on the dinosaurs every time we visit the Science Center. There is a triceratops and a t-rex on the lower level that got in a quarrel and the t-rex won (shocker). The triceratops is bleeding, but still breathing. Aidan wants to check on these guys every single time we visit. Yes, they are still there, yes the guy is still breathing. It would take a very large Batman Bandaid to help this guy.

Anywho... after checking on triceratops, we met Jenn, Abe and Jude and then made our way over to the Planetarium. The kids played for a very long time on this rocket and then in the shuttle elevator. We got tickets to a show and then crossed the bridge again for a snack. Our plan was to snack, see our show and then head over to McDonald's. Even the best plans do not always turn out exactly the way you plan them.

We ran into our friends the McGowans during our snack. I held my friend Erin's new baby and took in as much "new baby" smell as I could possibly handle before I would want one of my own. It's funny how tiny a new baby feels after picking up 20 and 30 pound kids. When I picked the baby up, I felt like I could have tossed her across the room, by mistake of course because I picked her up with the same force I use to pick up Reese.

Our ever growing group headed back to the Planetarium for the show and then found the play area with the Legos. Between Erin, Jenn and I we have enough Legos at home to build a small village, but here we were playing with them at the Planetarium. We stayed for while and had to leave because the kids were starting to blow up.

Erin & Company stayed for another show, Jenn backed out of the McDonald's plan and I started to head home. Then I changed my mind. I am no match for the beckoning call of McDonald's french fries and Coke (Coca-Cola just tastes different at McD). On my way to McD, Rebecca called me. She was downtown and wanted directions to the nearest McD. She ended up meeting me and we enjoyed our snack together. She couldn't stay long because she had to get back to work. I let the kids play on the jungle gym and then we headed home.

All this fun secured me a very long naptime. What a day!

Crossing the bridge to the Planetarium.

Reese & Aidan fighting over the telescope

The cutouts on the bridge look down to US Highway 64/40.

Jude checking out the traffic below.

Our crew on the shuttle elevator.

Adios 2009...

We celebrated New Year's Eve at the Rappaports' house.

We let the kids play in the playroom unsupervised and this is what happened...

Reese is in there somewhere under the rubble. It's kind of like a "Where's Waldo."
It's just so much easier to let them be free and then clean up later. Just to be clear, we do make the kids clean up. You would think at some point they would figure out how hard it is to clean up and they wouldn't do such a good job making a mess.

The grown ups played our own game.

I've never played before and did not know what I was getting into. There was charades, blind artistry, and clay sculpting. Team Gourley won! Woo Hoo!

Checking to make sure that Brian kept his eyes closed. He did a pretty good job drawing with his eyes closed.

Don't check your calendars, it is not Halloween again. Jenn brought out the bin of costumes and Aidan loves dressing up as a fire-fighting dinosaur!

All the kids enjoyed watching Toy Story. Reese and Aidan love any excuse to eat Popcorn!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Hello 2010, please be better than 2009. Thank you!

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

Less than a week after Christmas my mother-in-law, Diana and I started taking down the Christmas decor. This project lasted a few days.

Day 1 - we took the ornaments off the tree. When Aidan woke up in the morning he said, "Mom, you're the Grinch! You stole Christmas!"

Reese helping us pack up the tree.