My Birthday is Over, Now I'm Just Older

First of all, a big happy birthday to Great Grandpa & Aunt Sharon =) Hope you both had wonderful days!! Also, thank you to everyone who send me cards & birthday wishes. I won $100 on a lottery ticket from my mom and $9 on one from Kate. Woo Hoo I'm rich! Now I can put gas in the Envoy =P

We went over to Sedalia this weekend to check out the happening Missouri State Fair. The weather was pretty perfect, not too hot, not too cold. I don't have any pictures because I left the camera in the car and didn't want to go back and get it, but it was your basic cow, horse, smelly animal fair lol. There was one really sad giraffe in the "petting zoo". Ethan said he was sad because his mom & dad were gone :( They also had a zebra, scary ass emu, albino camel, a cute baby donkey & some others. Ethan strictly feeds them with the provided shovels, he's not about to let them eat out of his hand...just like mommy ;)

He also got a wristband for unlimited carnival rides, and definately got his money's worth! There were almost no lines, and several rides he didn't even have to get off of, just stayed on for 2 or 3 rides at a time. There was a ride called 'Granny Bugs' that were these old lady ladybugs..but he didn't like that one because it was too noisy. He also decided to pass on the ferris wheel, which I was glad of, because I really didn't want to go on it with him.

We also saw a crazy vantriliquist (SP?) rainforest singing guy named Bixby. He had hair like Mike Mills used to, and I kept thinking of him as this guy was singing with a toucan puppet on his arm...made it even more amusing that it was to begin with.

All in all, had a good weekend, even though Bill is gone and FORGOT it was my birthday. He should be back in a few weeks. Also, Ethan loves soccer now. He had practice tonight and at the end ran up to me and said "I had a great day at soccer!" so yay, he likes it :) He can't wait to have a game, and neither can I, it's going to be so cute & funny...none of them know what they are doing LOL

Strawberry Shortcake

While at the grocery store the other day, I asked E if he wanted to make Strawberry Shortcake with me. He asked what it was, and I told him, it's cake, strawberries & whipped cream. He said ok, but he doesn't like whipped cream (yeah right).

So last night he helped me make the cake and we were waiting for it to cook. When it was done, I said, E the strawberry shortcake is ready now, and he came running out to the kitchen and said "Where is she??"

He was looking all around for the cartoon Strawberry Shortcake, and was mad that she wasn't at our house! LOL

He did like it though, after he got over being mad. He was slurping the whipped cream off - funny since he claimed he didn't like it 3 days ago!

First Day of School

E had his first day of 4 year old preschool today. He goes Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 12:30 - 3:30 which doesn't sound like a ton of time, but those 3 hours dragged on for me today!

He didn't want me to leave, but I told him I had to, gave him a kiss and left. He just sat at a table by himself looking so sad :(

When I got there to pick him up they were singing songs, and I could hear him talking & singing along, so I think he likes it.

He told me that he did a big puzzle with some other kids, played on the computer in the classroom, they had story time & song time, but didn't get to go outside (it was raining) and for some reason didn't have a snack. I think he likes it, but he claims he doesn't :P

He ran and jumped up and gave me a huge hug when I got there :) There is a cute little blond girl named Bailey that he keeps trying to talk to but she is shy, so maybe there is a friendship waiting to bloom there. He said all the kids & his teacher are nice, and no one is naughty like the boys at his old school LOL

Here's hoping for a good year and lots of new friends!

One Fish Two Fish Three Fish

We went on an "E-venture" today. We decided we were going to go fishing & try out E's new pole he got for his birthday. Luckily one of Bill's friends from work knew where we could go, because last time we tried to fish we drove around for like 4 hours and never found any water :P

So we get into the middle of no where (aka 5 minutes from our house, although it took us 20 b/c we got lost several times going down the dirt roads) and get all our stuff unpacked, and all E wants to do is eat. He sits down on the blanket and informs us that he's not fishing, he's only eating. OK, E.

Bill gets the poles ready to go, and sets to cast out the first one - into a tree. Lost one bobber, hook, line, whatever. Ethan thinks this is hilarious as there are like 10 bobbers hanging in this tree and he thinks it's a bobber tree LOL

Round two - about 20 minutes go by with no bites, nothing. E is still eating his lunchable on the blanket, and Bill finally has his pole ready to go after the tree incident. Casts it off, and catches a fish in like 2 seconds. No fair!! Ethan thinks this is disgusting, and will not go anywhere near the fish.

About an hour into fishing (and eating and drinking a ton of juice), I finally catch a little bluegill. Again, he won't go near it, well neither do I, but aren't little boys supposed to like fish & bugs & worms? Ethan is so not feeling the worms or fish, or the bugs flying around. He did like the dragonflies b/c they had pretty colors though.

A while later E wanted chips, so I give him the pole to hold, and go to the car to get him chips. I come back, and he says "I caught a big fish!" Bill says, no it's just a plant, so I go to pull it up and he has the cutest little baby fish on the line. Woo hoo! E caught one! And since it was a baby one, he let me take his picture holding the line.

Two hours and lots of sun, and E hooking us both once (me in the arm, Bill in the finger) and we each caught a fish, so we were happy. Now we're home and the Envoy needs a bath from the dirt roads.'

Oh, and I almost forgot, E got to pee on a tree today which we had to talk him into for about an hour, but then once he did thought it was fun and wanted to do it again....

And also, Happy Birthday Uncle Paul! Ethan said you like fishing, so he didn't have to take any more pictures today :)

Just like his Uncle Nate...

Ethan had his first soccer practice tonight. He went out there, was doing the little exercises, and then they had to run with the ball....he ran straight to me and told me "I don't like soccer. There is too much running and kicking". Now mind you, we are 5 minutes into his first practice and he hasn't even done anything yet!!

Eventually, after about 20 minutes, he let me walk out there with him and he participated and made some goals. Then took a "break" because he was "too tired" to play. The coach's daughter who was about 12, was playing with him and helping him, and then he was fine. I'm not sure if it's because he's being shy, or because it is hot out or what.

Hopefully next week will go better. He has practice twice a week, and starting in September, games on Saturdays. They have a little banquet at the end of the season and get trophies too. So cute. I really hope he gets into it more as the season goes on.

Tomorrow is a busy day, we have orientation at preschool where E gets to meet his teacher(s) and the kids in his class and we get to see what a typical day will be like for him. Hoping he loves it there as much as he loved Trinity. He's hoping for a girl named Maya in his class.

Happy Birthday Granny & Aunt Tiff!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Granny & Aunt Tiff, Happy Birthday to you. Hope you both have a great day!

Dickerson Park Zoo

Bill's brother, Cory, is down to visit for the weekend, so we headed out to the zoo in Springfield today. I did enjoy the free parking, until I discovered that they allow the nasty disgusting peacocks to roam free around the parking lot. Not cool!!!

The actual zoo was nice (aside for the peacocks, peahens and peachicks!). It was very woodsy, and mellow. There was a little station by most of the major animals, were if you put a key in, it would play a song about the animal & tell you a little about it. E loved it!

The river otters were E's favorites, they are so cute, and the song talked about how they never grow up and play games all day. E liked to watch them go down the water slides & play follow the leader :) He watched them play for a good 10 minutes.

He also got his face painted (he picked a bee, as usual), and we fed the giraffes which was cool. E actually did it himself this time! They had 2 cute little baby ones, but they weren't tall enough to reach the platform, so he fed the "old" one he named Granny.

They had pretty much every animal you could want to see, except for penguins. It was a decent sized zoo, not like Racine zoo with its 10 animals. We would have headed over to the St. Louis Zoo since it's free, and bigger, but it's an extra hour drive (one way), so maybe sometime next spring.

We also stopped at a mall (woo hoo!!) on the way home, but they didn't have what I was looking for. But now we know (sort of) where we can find one. And the GPS didn't get us lost today, that's kind of a miracle.

Meramec Caverns & Crazy Zoo Place

Took the Envoy out for a drive today. We set out to go to the St. Louis Zoo, but it was raining, so we stopped at the Meramec Caverns which is about half way between here & St. Louis. It is the place where Jesse James used to hide out after he robbed trains apparently. Can't really imagine what it was like being pitch black in there back in the day with only a lantern. It has electricity throughout now. It was still really cool though. Ethan says he was scared, but he wasn't at the time. There were some very cool formations. The last one was the oldest one in the world I do believe he said, it is 75 million years old!! And very cool looking.














On the way back, there was this run down shack looking thing that said they had live aligators. So we pull over (since E didnt' get to go to the zoo) and it ended up being some crazy farm type thing with a lion (yes a grown male lion that our "tour guide" let lick her face!), 2 tigers, goats, emus, an entire room full of snakes that you could pet or hold, baby gators you could hold (E pet one, but didnt' want to hold it), tarantulas, turtles, frogs. It was crazy! And the people there were actually crazy. Our "tour guide" was some girl with piercings all over that was in love with snakes and for her birthday wanted to be bit by one.

E's favorite animal was the chickens, they were just runnign around loose. He was hoping there would be peacocks (evil child!), but there wasn't. Have to admit I was worried for a while when all these crazy animals were just popping up. Can a small aluminum fence hold in a lion??

Introducing...

Our brand new (to us) 2005 GMC Envoy! Woo hoo! We got our loan through a military program that had a lot of requirements on what vehicles we could buy. IE - had to be no more than 5 years old, less than 65000 miles, and had to not depreciate in value a certain percentage per year. Well the mini van apparently loses value really quickly so they wouldn't let us get it. We agreed on this Envoy. Doesn't get as much mileage as I woudl have liked, but had the 3rd row seating I wanted, can go to 2 wheel or 4 wheel drive for the winter, sunroof, all power windows, etc. We all really like it :)