Aaahhh....the smell of summer food!!!

We absolutely love summer food!! Love grilling whatever we can and eating out on the deck - what great rewards for all the nasty winter weather that we were dealing with not too long ago.

Last night Amber was over, so we fired up the grill and had some shrimp, corn on the cob, salad, bread, and hot dogs for the kids (they do like shrimp but who can resist a grilled hot dog?). Then as a treat we made s'mores afterwards. The boys had been asking for these for a few weeks now so they were so excited when we announced that not only were we having dessert, but that dessert was going to be s'mores!

Yes, the boy likes corn!!

Last Day of Kindergarten

Some tears were shed today.....some mine, some Elliott's teacher's, some of the other moms'. I really wasn't even sad until I gave Mrs. Hale a hug and it all just came gushing - so thankful for such a wonderful, fun, caring teacher that was such a perfect match for our energetic oldest. One of Elliott's classmates even started crying saying that he didn't have enough time to spend with Elliott. Poor guy! Love that Elliott has such a lot of friends that want to hang out with him!

Their last day was spent outside mostly at the PTO carnival - fun games, snowcones, bounce houses, etc.

Then we went to a cookout at one of our friends' house this afternoon. The water guns and water buckets were definitely a hit! The moms (and dad) even surprised the kids by pretending to get them all together for a picture and them bombarding them with buckets of water - wish I'd gotten that on camera!

strawberry goodness

Mom brought fresh strawberries over on Monday, and I have to confess that we've been eating strawberry shortcake almost every night - YUM!! Last night, Elliott even said he liked the shortcake but was getting a little tired of it. Really? Not me.

This recipe is really easy - in fact it's on the back of the Bisquick box so really no need to post.

Sweet Baby Eli

Love getting snuggles from this cutie!! Miss you Eli!!

memorial day excitement

This was the view from our deck last night. We were sitting in the sunroom eating dinner when we heard and saw a firetruck coming down the main road of our subdivision, but it never passed the display homes that back up to our yards and never went down any of the other courts. Then we saw a police car that did the same thing. Then a 2nd firetruck and a 3rd. So we sent Brian out down the street to investigate and about that time we saw firefighters run around the back of the first display home with an axe and start busting out the sliding glass door and other windows in the basement. Black smoke just started pouring out. Then I realized all the windows of that house (which usually are clear enough to see the furniture and curtains inside) were totally black.

The initial report is that lightning struck the gas line...apparently there is a huge hole in the dining room floor. The front of the house is sporting melted fascia and charred furniture. What a blessing that it was no one's home....that it was a holiday so the model was closed when the lightning struck...that nothing meaningful was inside.....that the firefighters responded so quickly.

What was amazing was that within 10 minutes at the most there were 7 firetrucks (from Wentzville, LSL, and New Melle), at least one ambulance, multiple police cars and fire rescue vehicles. I'd say that's a pretty quick response!

creature sighting

My neighbor came to the door this afternoon to show us this turtle that was in the road in front of our house. It was the biggest turtle I've seen outside of the zoo - it was probably a foot long at least.....and chubby and just gross in general. Not sure where it came from but I hope it got wherever it was trying to go!

The Graduate

Elliott graduated from Kindergarten today! He was very excited to show off the songs we had been practicing (he was upset earlier because apparently he didn't think some of the other kids practiced as much as they should and kept "messing everything up"). They sang the Star Spangled Banner, 7th inning Stretch,and an original song written by one of the kdg teachers "Take Me Up to First Grade" - all part of the "Swing into First Grade" theme for the graduation program.

All the kids also got to tell what they want to be when they grow up.....Elliott said a "cop". First we had heard about that.

Grandma Dee and Aunt Erin and Eli even got to come over to see him graduate - so thankful for that. I'm sure that they were terribly excited that we got to eat Burger King for lunch (Elliott got to pick since it was his special day). We love that you came!!

We ended the day by going to the pool and having strawberry shortcake - two of his favorite things right now.