Love

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.
That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business.
What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy if anything can.

Thomas Merton (1915 - 1968)

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Aunt Judy's and Uncle Chris's Wedding

After our fun morning out at the Magic House, we high-tailed it back to the hotel to eat a quick lunch and get all dressed up for Aunt Judy's wedding.  Owen took extra time to wet and comb his hair before wielding his laser to be the most dressed up Jedi ever.

After we got to the church, I was snapping pics while seeing which lens would work best in the low light.

Welcome to our family, Uncle Chris!

Chris's son Bob warmed up his guitar to play three songs and sing during the wedding.  He was wonderful!

While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, our kids ran circles around the sanctuary.

And they danced.

Judy pretended she was a coat rack.

Conner pretended he was monster coming after Owen.

Owen didn't seem terribly scared.

Judy was excited, but not because she had a gigantic white and teal tail coming out of her hair.

I love weddings when the bride and groom can't wipe the smiles off their faces.

You may kiss the bride.

I would like to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Becklean.  CoNgRaTuLaTiOnS Chris and Judy!!!!

The new family with all the kids.


Everyone else was supposed to ink in a mustache like Erica's tattoo, but it didn't happen.

Good thing Erica was willing to share her mustache with her mom!

I love this picture!

The Finneys with their new brother/son-in-law.

How happy do these Finney women look?  It was a gorgeous day for a wedding!

Thank you Judy for inviting us and asking me to play wedding photographer!!!

Our Trip to St. Louis

We took off Friday to drive up to St. Louis to see Kelley's Aunt Judy get married on Saturday.  We saw beautiful fall colors throughout our drive!

We waved to the 'Bat Building" as we drove through downtown Nashville.  That's the other name for the old BellSouth (now AT&T) building.

Chloe actually passed out and took a nap in the afternoon while we were driving.  Naps are goooood for the girl child!

Owensk just chilled, spending much of the drive reading or watching movies.  He barely played his DS on the drive up!

I always love driving by all the big farms with tall silos and big, red barns.

Our sweet boy!  

Saturday morning, we went to the Magic House in Kirkwood so the kids.  Todd had accused me of fabricating the wedding just so we could go to the Magic House (he was missing a major tennis match that morning), but we all had sooooo much fun at this children's museum!

This was a gigantic instrument that played notes when the kids pressed the large, dark wood pedals with their hands.

There was a pulley attached to a hula hoop resting in bubble liquid.  When Owen pulled down on the rope, the hula hoop was raised and a ginormous bubble surrounded the kids.

They learned that if the rope was pulled slowly, the bubble sucked inwards and would pop on their legs.

But if the rope was pulled quickly, the bubble would grow taller than them.

Can you see the bubble popping here?

This was a piano that when played, created bubbles in the water tubes above it.  Owen really liked this one and played this piano for a looooong time.

Here is the static machine that made their hair stand on end!

They each got two turns because the film/polaroids jammed in the camera after the first try.

They were not sad to try it again :)

Chloe wasn't tall enough to stand in the right spot and place her hand on the big metal ball, so Todd touched the ball and held her hand to help her hair stand out.  She thought it was pretty cool to do it with Daddy!

The kids had fun going down a three story spiral slide.  Multiple times in a row.  They weren't at all bothered by running up the two flights of stairs to go down it over and over.  And over.

This was hard work lifting Chloe because the rope went through only one pulley at the top.  But she was able to raise herself on the third one which had several pulleys at the top and made easy work of lifting oneself when pulling on the rope.  Such cool science experiments for kids to see hands-on how things work!

This is a cool shadow room that really is very dimly lit and with a green wall.  Three counts after a buzzer sounds, there is a flash and then your shadow is 'caught' on the wall and stays visible for several seconds before disappearing.

This was a psychedelic room where the wall kept changing colors and forming new outlines emanating from our reflections.  

I wasn't able to get any in-focus pics, but through the colors and lines were so cool.

Yep, that'd be my camera over my right shoulder.

Before we left, the kids had fun climbing up this four story beanstalk inside the Magic House.

Kirkwood has some of the tallest trees I've ever seen and I thought the fall leaves were so pretty.

By the end of our visit at the Magic House, Todd agreed it was a super cool place and that we definitely need to come back to St. Louis for a long weekend to go again and see other things in the city!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Chloe's Field Trip to Cagle's Dairy

Chloe's Kindergarten class took a field trip to Cagle's Dairy up in Canton and I was lucky enough to get to be one of the chaperones!  This was my group of girls to watch over for the field trip.

The kids got a demonstration on how the cows get an upside down shower to get cleaned up before getting milked each morning and afternoon.

 Then they got to stick their fingers in the udder suckers to feel that suction.  I love the look on Chloe's face!

This is the machine that fills the milk cartons with the milk.

We got to see a Border Collie in action, herding the cows over to our hayride wagon.

Cagle's makes THE best milk!  I wish our grocery stores carried it, but we're not close enough to the dairy.  Sniff.

Chloe got to feed this goat and others.  I told her that this one was her sister.  ;)

She had such a FUN FUN time on this field trip.  But really, how could she not when she is such an animal lover?!

After the tour of the dairy, she got to choose a little pumpkin to take home.

Here is her whole Kindergarten class sitting together before the picnic lunch.  Mrs. Cameron is sitting right behind Chloe and is her new teacher since Mrs. McMichael moved back to Detroit.  Another sniff.  We really like Mrs. Cameron (she was even one of Chloe's and Owen's teachers at Sunbrook when they were 3 years old), but we really miss Mrs. McMichael!

Can you guess what my Beanarina is doing?

She is cleaning her face.  My bizarre little Bean!  She always finds a way to be different.  :)

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails