St. Louis

 Last week we went on a "last minute" vacation of sorts to St. Louis!  My husband was traveling there for work, and since he was driving all the way down this time, it worked for me and the girls to go along!

It was SUCH a great time!  I didn't realize how much my family needed to get away.  It was exactly what the doctor ordered.  We even enjoyed the long car trip that I was worried about taking with a 2 and 4 year old.

I have 142 great pictures from our trip, but so I don't bore you I tried to pick only a couple to share.  :)

 The first afternoon we arrived, Randal had to work so the girls and I just swam at the hotel and got some dinner.  The next day, Randal worked the whole day too, so I took the girls to the St. Louis Zoo (which is free, how awesome!).  Our hotel had a shuttle, so I didn't even have to worry about driving and parking.

 

That night we took the girls to The Magic House, St. Louis' amazing children's museum.  We could have easily spent days here!  Molly and Nora both love acting, so we spent a lot of time putting on shows in the stage room.  It was also a free night, every third Friday night the Magic House has free admission!

 We headed to Fitz's Bottling Company for dinner.  It was a huge hit.  We all loved watching the rootbeer and soda bottles get caps and labels while we waited for our food.  And the HUGE Rootbeer Floats we got free with these coupons I printed were AWESOME!

 I was even shocked that bedtime and naps went great in a hotel.  Both girls feel asleep so well, we must have tired them out!

 The next morning we headed to check out the arch.  Molly was shocked how big  it was, here we got up close. :)  I took SO many pictures out here, the whole area and park around the arch was beautiful.

 Molly showing off some of the park we walked through.

I have a million more fun things I want to share; like spending an afternoon on Grant's Farm, Museums, braiding the girls hair to make curls, to our picnics, but I don't want to overload you with "Vacation Slides..."  hee hee.  However, I will leave you with 2 funny pics that are just cracking me up...

 Molly was shocked the Rootbeer Float was so big!

 And yup, that's my Nora...

Happy 4th of July!

 I hope everyone enjoyed celebrating the 4th!

 

We had a great day, and survived the extreme heat here to head to an outdoor family reunion!

 Molly had a fantastic time making "new" friends, (since she doesn't remember anyone from last year).

 I made these fun fruit kabobs I saw the idea for at Weelicious, the kiddos loved them.  You just slide blueberries onto a bamboo skewer or wood stick.  Then top with a piece of watermelon cut out with a star cookie cutter.  Love them!

I also made these Jell-O Firecrackers from Jell-O.  They took awhile to make, but were actually pretty easy.  And I think pretty stinkin' adorable.  I quick took a picture because I was nervous they would melt in the heat, but they got nabbed up pretty quick.  :)

Good old fashioned Tracing!

I am always looking for easy, fun ideas to keep the kids busy during the Summer so I thought I would pass along one my girls enjoyed! The other day I was running out of energy to plan something, so I decided to bring out some paper and coloring books and see if the girls liked tracing.  I was surprised how much they LOVED this activity.  Molly spend almost 45 minutes on it.  

Since we don't have a light table or anything fancy, and I didn't even have tracing paper, here is our quick alternative.  I had them find a picture they liked out of a coloring book and then taped it onto the slider so the light would shine through it.  Then put a piece of white computer paper on top of it and start tracing.  Even Nora loved trying!  I am definitely adding tracing paper to the shopping list.