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Blog, Family, kids, park

Exploring STL–Grant’s Farm and a picnic


The past few days have been pretty wonderful because Don took off work for the entire week! He has been on the night shift for over 6 years now (and stays on that schedule for his nights off) and it feels like we’re always feeling the stress of that schedule. So I suggested having him take a week off to have a staycation so I could sleep in (which I really never, ever get to do!) and we could just enjoy time together as a family on a normal schedule. It’s amazing how much we’ve been able to accomplish already. Everyone is so relaxed and happy–which really goes to show how much this was needed for all of us.
Anyway, I have, surprisingly, been feeling pretty great lately (I’ll post more about that soon!) Or, I guess I was, until after a full day yesterday haha. Don had never been to Grant’s Farm and the kids and I haven’t been in a while so we wanted to work that into our week somewhere.
mom and baby
I am honestly not an animal fan but I love watching the kids light up when they see/interact with animals. Kingston and Evangeline were too terrified to go in with all the goats (I don’t blame them–the goats kept biting my dress!) but Liam and Kai loved brushing them.
boy and goats
mom and little boy
boy brushing goat
young boy brushing goat
Kai has a major obsession with pigs. If he sees a pig, even a picture of one, he goes crazy. I’m serious, the obsession is probably more than my obsession with ice cream–and that’s a lot! So I had to include this picture of him with the 3 little pigs (and a picture of Kingston because after he saw Kai getting his picture taken, he wanted one too.)
boys posing for picture with mural wall
I love when my kids unintentionally match (they both picked out their own outfits without knowing what the other was wearing.) These two in their mint outfits were just too cute together.
matching brother and sister
We picked a really good day to be there. Kids are starting back at school so it wasn’t too crowded and it wasn’t too hot. But we were sweaty at this point so the boys couldn’t resist getting soaked in these sprinklers.
boys running through sprinkler
kids activities
boy getting wet from sprinkler
When we’re at a place like Grant’s Farm or the zoo, I usually end up with a memory card full of pictures of the backs of their heads. I don’t know why, but I still love these pictures. I guess it’s because I love to step back and watch their friendship. There has been much less fighting this week since we’ve been able to just spend this relaxed week together.
grants farm
It’s even better when all 5 make it into the shot!! (along with our outdated double stroller that could REALLY use a replacement.)
5 kids looking at turtle
dad and little boy
kids activities in st louis
free things to do in st louis

 

boy waving
boys on fence
kids with camel
We packed a picnic lunch to eat at the park after we were done with Grant’s Farm and it was the cutest scene that I ever did see!
family picnic

 

big family
Complete with a napping baby in his carseat! The ducks were really bold and came over to get some of the crumbs that the kids dropped. (And may have stolen bites of a sandwich from Evangeline, who wasn’t guarding it as well as she should have haha)
baby napping in carseat
kids and ducks
kids and ducks
at the park

This little headband is from the juice shoppe. I won it in a giveaway and it was supposed to be for her baby sister, but she wanted to wear it as soon as I opened it. I can’t blame her because it is absolutely adorable!

the juice shoppe headband
And this one of Desmond had to be included—that little fistful of food and his chubby little baby body. It won’t be long before his baby fat will starting coming off and I’ll just be left with memories of the baby pudge.
cute baby

 

roberts kids groupshot
I asked them to line up really quick for a picture. The hand holding was all their idea. I barely was able to snap a few pictures before they started play ring around the rosie and it was the cutest thing in the world. I love that Desmond is started to be included with all of their playing. Having lots of little ones isn’t always easy..but when things like this happen, I seem to forget the hard parts.

 

ring around the rosie

 

large family

 

kids playing

And now my body is paying for our long day out yesterday (along with spray painting 8 shelves for the kids’ rooms during the hottest part of the day!) So today is a day for rest, finishing some more house projects, and maybe some mini golf and dinner out tonight!

Blog, Family, park

playing at the creek


As I’ve mentioned before, we have been trying to take advantage of Don’s weekends to hit up places in our area to do something fun with the kids. We have been fortunate to have some pretty perfect weather on the days we go out. This past Monday was no exception.
 
We checked out the creek at Mastodon State Park. The boys had been there before and absolutely loved it. So we stopped by the dollar store to pick up some creek essentials. Because apparently the creek isn’t nearly as fun if you don’t have nets to catch fish or buckets to house the fish.
catching fish in the creek

 

It also isn’t nearly as easy to catch fish with a butterfly net as one would think.
But!! I did catch one for the boys and Don got a tadpole. So everyone was happy–until Liam realized that we were not taking them home as pets. 
dad and son in creek
Getting packed up and getting to our spot was a bit stressful. But I knew it would be worth it once we set up our chairs and the kids started playing. And I was so right!
helping little sister

 

little girl by stream

 

kids activities
kingston
  
Evangeline ended up tripping and, consequently, went slightly under water at one point. She was a little bit traumatized. She spent probably 30 minutes cuddled up next to me afterwards. Not a happy event for her but I’ll take all the cuddles I can get 🙂
mom and little girl

 

We found this fun donut inflatable at the dollar store! I’m not the only one in my family who was excited about it.
There may have been an incident with a certain 6 year old accidentally letting it float away. Followed by a big break down. Followed by his dad going downstream to see if it had gotten caught anywhere. Thankfully he was able to retrieve it and our family is still in possession of our very special $1 inflatable donut. 
riding inflatable donut in the water

 

boy playing with toys

 

happy boy
evangeline playing with rocks

 

boy eating watermelon

 

teaching the fine art of skipping rocks
dad showing kids how to skip rocks

 

young dad skipping rocks
evangeline at the stream

Days like this make it worth the hassle of loading up tons of stuff and lugging all of it (plus 4 children) to a creek. In the end, you forget about how much stress was involved in getting there and you can just enjoy the memories made. 

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!! (Hopefully with more good weather!!)