St. Louis

Sorry I have no control over exactly where on the page the pictures end up but here is our STL trip in 30 secs or less :) We got in late Saturday night (after the recital) and most of the family was at mom's on Sunday afternoon. The kids got to play with their second cousins (my cousin Scott's kids Derek and Colin) while the adults visited. T found a new pet worm that we eventually convinced her would like to live in Grandpa's garden. It was my cousin Maggie's birthday so we sang to her and had cake! Monday we went to the zoo and Scott, Jamie and the boys met us there. We saw the new dinosaur exhibit and Scott got quite the workout pushing 3 of the kids up Historic hill in the stroller. Wednesday mom and I took the kids to the local water park- G had her first big water slide experience and she and E spent quite a bit of the day on the slides.

Thursday night Uncle Ted had babysitting duty while Mom and Kath and I went out with the girls- Fritz's for dessert YUM! Friday we (me and the kids, Josh and Kath, and Ted) headed out to Six Flags- it was a bit rainy but cleared up later. I have a couple pictures from the beginning of the day and a couple from the end. My camera spent most of the day at under the Ninja (note to self don't go on roller coasters that go upside down with your camera in your pocket) but on a positive note I highly recommend the Olympus Stylus because it survived falling form the roller coaster and siting in the rain all day! G was quite adventurous this trip- she went on the Ninja, the Screaming Eagle, the Highland Fling, and the Mine Train- she was very disappointed that she could go on Batman!

So that was much longer then 30 secs but...

G's Dance Recital

Boy June has gone by fast. G had her dance recital early in the month and then we went to St. Louis for a week. We were back just in time for Fathers Day and then I worked at VBS while the girls were at VBS and E was at Scout day camp. This week E is going to Karate Camp and I am tutoring in the afternoon, I have also been volunteering on Tuesdays to read with kindergartners at a community center in the city- summer is just as busy as the rest of the year!

Anyway, G enjoyed her recital and didn't have any stage fright :) I think she was a bit nervous her first dance because she did much better on the second one. You can see the videos on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/debrahas, the first one was What Would Paris Be, their second dance was Funky Ballerina. There is also a short video of the Finale with all the kids in the recital. T also had her own private performance :) it is a bit hard to see since she wasn't on stage- but it is cute- its called Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

WOW it's June!!

I can't believe it is June already- things have been busy around here, nothing exciting though (praise the Lord).

Genie graduated from Kindergarten, apparently I haven't even downloaded the pictures yet, I'll try to add some later.

W's mom and dad where here last week. J and W worked on the house, the kids played with Grandma and I got as much studying done as I could. I passed both my subject area and professional exams so I am officially ready to student teach in Jan.

I am working on the first part of my thesis- conducting research on using untrained parent tutors to improve reading.

Next week we head to St. Louis to see a bunch of family- my Aunt, Uncle and cousins will be in town as well. When we get back the girls and I have VBS and E has boy scout camp. Busy, busy.