Archery and More

Here are a few shots from our day yesterday.  The boys have SO enjoyed archery, and having two friends there makes it all the more competitive fun.  They've progressed each week and have had fun with games like tic-tac-toe, popping balloons, shooting farther distances, etc. 

Are these two little braves cute, or what?  Ami and her neighbor friend have so much fun together.  They've loved having swimming lessons together for the last two weeks, too.

Sports

Our family isn't super huge on sports, but by the look of things recently you'd think differently. 

Ami is our last one still in swimming lessons.  She is doing great and the 17-foot deep diving well at MU hasn't intimidated her at all.  The best part for her is that we happened to sign up for the same session as the two neighbor girls that she plays with a lot.  Hopefully they are all paying attention to the instructor and not trying to get each others attention across the lane markers!

The boys are loving their archery class and want to continue through the summer.  Awesome for them....we happened to sign up for the same session as some friends of ours!   Benjamin and Aiden are really hitting the mark!

Elijah and Isaac are progressing nicely as well.

 

Ami and Johanna have started back up in gymnastics after being off since we left for Japan.  They are getting better and better on the balance beam.  Ami does these cute jumps while having to hold a bean bag between her knees.

One more sporting fun event....Chris's group at work had a day off for paintball.  He returned home quite sore and a bit spotted!

STL

We always try to make the most of Benjamin's appointments in STL, so this time was no different.  After a full day here on Thursday (swimming lessons, archery, gymnastics), we picked Chris up early from work and headed out to celebrate the end of the school year. 

We had booked a suite in a hotel where we have enjoyed staying in the past.  They even had dinner as part of the package!  After dinner the kids braved the pool (heated, but still not quite warm enough for the low 70 temps).  Even after a warm shower, Ami was still cold and had to snuggle in bed for a bit!

We splurged on junk food and enjoyed a movie night.

After Benjamin's appointments on Friday morning, we did a short walking tour of The Hill, STL's distinctly Italian neighborhood.  We bought deli sandwiches at an Italian grocery store for lunch.  Oh, so yummy.

This Catholic church is about 100 years old.  Neat statue of Italian immigrants out front.

This place has become a habit on STL visits.  Oh, so much mouth-watering goodness!

Not all of that was for us, we took home some goodies to our neighbor.

After The Hill we went to the zoo.  We hadn't seen the new sea lion exhibit and show yet, so we took that in.  Now we are well informed on the difference between seals and sea lions.  Fun stuff!

Chris's favorite, and slight obsession, was the capybara exhibit.  They are simply huge rodents.  Just sayin'.

We always love this hippo exhibit.  So fun to see them swim right by.  We can never seem to ignore the Madagascar songs that run through our heads while at the zoo.  Love all those characters!

We ended the day with a quick dinner at our favorite chicken stop before driving home.  Benjamin felt his day was complete..... cancer-free news, officially taller than Mom, treats on The Hill, Chick-Fil-A.  It doesn't get much better than that for a teenage boy!

I do have to say that I sure missed Michaela.  Family road trips and celebrations just aren't the same without everyone there.  Hurry home, Michaela!  We love and miss you!

School is Out!

Well, we're mostly done!  Poor Michaela will have a bit more chemistry to finish up when she gets home, but it shouldn't take too long.  We will do some reading this summer, and possibly a bit more review for one kiddo, but we're calling this school year complete.  We now have a senior, freshman, eighth grader, seventh grader, and second grader!

We're moving on to some fun summer activities like swimming, hiking, archery, horse care, gymnastics, and lots of free time.  Woo hoo!

Last week after archery class we went to a nature center with friends for a picnic lunch and enjoyed a hike.  It was hilarious trying to get all eight kids up on the rail at once.

Unfortunately when you don't stay on the paths....you can end up looking like this.  :(  Poor kid learned the tough way not to tangle with poison ivy.  Chris had to run him to the Urgent Care Sunday morning while I was out of town.  The swelling is down, but he's still resembling a chipmunk a bit. 

New Adventures

The boys started an archery class yesterday!  They had so much fun and were grinning ear to ear the whole time.  Their immediate discussion, as soon as we were in the van heading home, was about saving up to buy their own equipment.  This summer session is only four weeks long, but I have a feeling we'll be signing up for continuing classes.  Cool stuff!

(Yes, we have a lefty and a righty!)

School Days

Now that the holidays have passed, we are just plugging away at school.  When it's so cold outside (such as the days that don't make it above freezing!), it's nice to work in the family room with the fire going.  But there are still days when we have to run around and deposit the kids at their different activities. 

Despite the hum drum of routine, we do have spring to look forward to, and an exciting spring it is going to be.  We are headed to Japan for seven weeks!  Yes, you read that right, seven weeks.  Chris will just go for three weeks, because someone has to work and hold down the fort here.  And actually Michaela is going to stay for a total of three months!  More about that later, but for now we have good reason to be working away at making sure our school work is getting done.

This was just a little chemistry experiment gone awry earlier in the week.  Pyrex can be replaced, the cook top was not damaged, and thankfully no glass shards were found imbedded in Michaela!

I really am proud of Michaela and the way she has independently handled her high school work.  For one she is not a science lover, as her brothers are, but she has done a great job of working through labs and other requirements.  It's hard to believe that she has less than a year and a half left before graduation!

In other events of the week, Johanna and Ami continue to thoroughly enjoy their gymnastics.  Their skills have improved greatly and they would spend hours at the gym if time and money allowed.