The Monkey Madsens

We had a great Memorial Day weekend in St. Louis with my family. We drove out on Friday (the girls did great, and we made great time), hung out, went swimming, went to the temple (except Russell didn't get in; we forgot to renew the temple recommend, doh!) and stayed up too late playing silly games (Munchkin).

Saturday, we went up the arch (well, others went up the arch; I stayed down. Note to self: the arch at 9 a.m. is not nearly as crowded.), hung around by the river (I missed the wind, believe it or not), went on a boat ride (lousy lunch; vegetarian sandwich does NOT equal lettuce and cheese on bread), drove to Grant's farm (mini-zoo funded by beer money, but it was worth the $8 per car), went swimming, and stayed up too late playing silly games (Killer Bunnies).
Up the arch... without Mom or Kristen

Uncle Wayne was trip photographer...

Kill those bunnies! (Sorry Jessica, about the fuzzy head...)

Sunday, after church at 8:30 a.m. (yawn), we played a great home-made family Bingo game, ate lunch, went to the St. Louis Art Museum, Russell and I stopped in to visit friends (the girls, except for Kristen, went with grandparents and aunts and uncles), visited, and stayed up too late playing silly games (Killer Bunnies, again).

What Uncle Victor's good for: being a human punching bag. (He swears he doesn't mind!)

Monday, the drive home was a bit rougher than the drive in, but we still managed to make good time.



It was fun to see everyone! As always, more pictures are over at Flickr.

Gettin' A Little Culture

A while back, I mentioned culture, and Megan asked what it was. I came up with: "art, music or dance that is from a civilization". Not bad for spur of the moment. Anyway, we got to talking about being exposed to culture, and I mentioned, off hand, that we ought to expose the children to different cultures as well as our own.

Check.


It's an African drum/storytelling/dance program that we stumbled on to at the St. Louis Art Museum. Russell and Catilyn got to participate.

Fifth Grade Graduation

They put together a nice little program. Here's the bit about Megan.



With her teacher, Ms. Pot, afterward


And with her friend, Alex, who also got the "nose in the book" award


There are more last-day-of-school pictures over at Flickr.

One Thing I Like About School Ending

Is that all the assignments and work they've been hoarding at school finally comes home. Megan brought home her poetry unit yesterday, and so now I get to put up her poem that she didn't want me to a couple months ago.

I am the person
I am the person who reads a lot
History, biographys, autobiographys, fiction
But what I love the best are myths and fantasy
Ella Enchanted, Harry Potter, Flyte, Percy Jackson
are some of my favorites.

I am the person who is
early to bed and
is early to rise, eat, and
do my morning labor.

I am the person who
is almost always cold
so wears jackets and long shirts and sweat shirts
but is still cold.

I am the person who's parents
say is gifted.
Has been tested and
will be tested soon, again.

I am the person who
wrote this poem,
by hand,
in my own words.

I am the person
who is sad that this
poem is over.

And then going through the packet, I found two more!

Authors
What is an author's favorite time?
When it's rest time.
Where do they write non-fiction?
In the kitchen.
Do they write fiction there as well?
Yes, Mell.
When do they get their relaxation?
After the publication.
How do we help them?
By saying that I wrote this poem!

My Sister
My sister is annoying and creepy.
She's silly and sleepy.

Sometimes she is mistaken,
She is often overtaken.

My sister has beautiful hair
but doesn't give it a thought or care.

She says she is tall
but I think she is small.

My sister is never really grim
So she seems kind of dim.

I know I'm being mean,
So I'll make this the ending.

Scenes from Riverfest

We had a decent time at Riverfest yesterday. The girls rode rides (but didn't do the bungy jumping, because it closed)


Splashed (don't know why Megan's looking like she is), but then the cops told them to get out.


(There's a couple more over at Flickr.) But we didn't stay for the fireworks (one cranky one-year-old trumps one unhappy three-year-old and one disappointed seven-year-old). And we didn't take any picture of Kristen. So here's one from Nursery on Sunday:

Riverfest Bathtub Races

Megan took a little video...

A Garden! A Garden!

Russell thought we needed to have a record of our first "real" garden.

Our Peculiar Aristocratic Titles

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Viscountess Megan the Lachrymose of Praze-an-Beeble Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Venerable Lady Caitlyn the Free of Greater Sodbury Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Noble Excellency Alison the Unhyphenated of Old Throcking in the Hole Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Empress Kristen the Expensive of Lesser Cheese Winston Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

It's not like it's exactly fair... you can do it over and over until you get one you like!

Better Left to the Professionals

So, I turned my back for a few minutes (reading or something along those lines), and when I turned back I found this:

No, it's not a dead rat. It's a chunk of Alison's hair.

I said: "Alison, is that your hair?"
She said: "Yeah."
I said: "Why did you cut your hair?"
She said (pointing): "The scissors."
I said: "You know, you should let hair cutters cut hair."
She said: "I know."

Sometimes a surreal conversation is the best thing in situations like this.

So we had to do damage control.

First Taste of Summer

The weather finally cleared up and it was warm (well, if you can call 85 degrees warm) on Friday, so when Alison asked (like she has most days) "Can we go swimming in the pool?" I said yes! She was very excited. I put Kristen in her swimsuit, but honestly I didn't think she'd get in. So, I was very surprised when she did. They swam for about an hour before hunger drove us inside for lunch.

What's for Dinner?

Wax Museum and 5th Grade Program

The 5th Grade at Megan's school has been studying the American Revolution and for their final program decided to do a wax museum.

Here's Megan as Abigail Adams:


And here's the little speech she gave when you pressed the button:


They also had a music program. They sang quite a few very amusing songs (one from Schoolhouse Rock!), and did the Maypole Dance.


It was a fun afternoon.

Another one bites the dust

She lost this one at school yesterday (finally!) (And she was quite disappointed when the tooth fairy forgot about it and she woke up with the tooth still under the pillow. Bad tooth fairy.)

It's May Day

I think for the past three years, it's been yucky on May Day. What gives? This year, we actually celebrated on April 30th, the first being Tuesday and Russell's last night class of the semester. It wouldn't do to have May Day without Daddy, so we moved it. That, and the girls were out of school...

Anyway, here's some pics.





There's a few more over at Flickr.