Browsing Tag

summer

Blog, Family

Memorial Day


So first thing’s first. I had the honor and privilege of sharing a little of my story over on Babble with an interview titled “This is Why You Should Never Judge That Mom in the Grocery Store with Five Kids.” Ultimately I pray that when people read my story, God gets all the glory for what He has done in my life. Nothing that I have done is even worth boasting about. He gets all the credit. And I also want to say thank you to all the many people who shared, liked, commented, etc. on the article. I really couldn’t believe that so many people even read the article!
 
And now on to Memorial Day…
baby with heart sunglasses
A few days ago, I shared our first family vlog. It was the video version of our Memorial Day. But you know when I have the DSLR out, I have to take some photos of this cute little clan of mine. (Ignore the weeds behind him–we’ve been working on those! In other news, does someone want to come do my gardening for me? Nothing harder than working with these rock beds when you’re a newbie and have no idea what you’re doing!)
baby with heart sun glasses
boy climbing tree
little girl blowing bubbles
After spending the early afternoon playing out in the yard for a bit, and having a picnic (that was not so peaceful, especially when a giant spider arrived!) We drove up to the Citygarden for the evening. You may already know of my obsession with this downtown splash pad from our visits HERE and HERE.
water fun at city garden

 

fun with water at st louis city gardens

I didn’t spend as much time taking pictures as I normally would because we were working on the vlog. But I couldn’t resist getting a few (or 250 haha) because this is just a happy place for us all. 

water park city gardens

 

splashing water summer fun

 

evangeline wrapped in towel
One of the best things? When we go here, no one fights over anything. They love to play together and come up with fun games and races. It makes my heart so happy!
kids in summer

 

kids in summer

 

little pink tutu swimsuit

 

father and son being funny

Our camera battery was just about dead by the time it got dark so we were reserving that for videos. But the nighttime fountains are what make the evening trips worth it! We like to go after 7 to get free parking and a little bit of daylight hours to play and take pictures. But our favorite part is seeing the fountains light up in all the different colors.

colorful water fountain

I’m a little behind with posting because life is SO BUSY right now. But I hope you have a good week!

Blog, city garden, Family, st. louis, summer

St. Louis night life


That blog title drew you in, didn’t it? Well, if you have kids and you’re looking for something fun to do in St. Louis, maybe it will be relevant.
 
I should be a spokesperson for the Citygarden. The two times we’ve visited this year have been two of my favorite outings with the kids. This time I really wanted to be there after the sun set so we could also see the fountains all lit up.
boy playing in water
young boy having fun at splashpad
dad and daughter
reflection in the water

We got there a couple of hours before sunset so we could swim in the pools. The splash pad was pretty crowded when we got there but was pretty much cleared out by the time the pool closed at 8. 
(the only pool open that night was a pool for kids 5 and under. If you are wanting to swim in the other one, you may want to check to see if it’ll be open)

fun kids activities for summer

 

this kind of has an Olympic gold medalist vibe, eh?
smiling boy at city garden

 

young girl having fun at water park
wet hair

 

liam at city garden
mom and daughter

 

If you ignore the fact that my arm kind of looks like a nub, I sort of love this picture of Evangeline saying “hi” to Kingston.
mommy and little girl

 

boy with strong pose

 

young brothers running

 

boy watching colorful lights at city garden

Also ignore the giant water spot on my stomach, left by a little girl who shall not be named 😉 I really wanted a shot with the fountains. But I think there was some sign posted somewhere that stated “if you see this family trying to take a picture, do whatever is necessary to photobomb it.” 
We had almost the whole place to ourselves at this point. But there always happened to be oblivious kids jumping in all of our shots.

pregnancy picture

Even though we had been playing there for 2 hours already, the boys went crazy once the lights were more apparent. Liam declared it “so much more fun than playing video games.” How’s that for a review?

colorful changing lights at splash pad

 

lights changing colors at water park

 

light display at st louis splashpad

 

The darker it got, the harder it was to photograph. So you’ll just have to trust me when I say how awesome it is at night. The kids said they had even more fun than our last visit–which of course made me decide that we have to visit one more time before this baby is born. And of course, after he makes his appearance. 

And that appearance? Hopefully that will promptly follow my best friend’s wedding on July 4th. The weeks leading up to the wedding will be filled with many events, extreme nesting, and a waddling pregnant woman with rapidly dying brain cells. 
Thanks for reading along 🙂