Field Trip- Chapter Brady

Four kids = lots of class field trips each year.  Carter and his Sports Entertainment class went to Savvis Center, Busch Stadium and to lunch at The Precinct, Cate's class went to see a production of Cinderella, Scott joined Bennett's class for a trip to the zoo, and I attended Brady's trip to the Lewis & Clark museum, the Locks and Dam, and bird sanctuary.  I won. 

Any fieldtrip with a group of highschool boys...no thanks.
I do not enjoy theatre so Cate's trip was not very appealing to me.
6 classrooms worth of middle school kids at the zoo? Hell-to-the-no.

Which left Brady's trip.  I'm not a huge fan of history stuff (ie, old crap), even though my husband is a history teacher, but in my 12 years of school fieldtrips, this is one I have not been on and I was pretty excited about it. He only has 18 kids in his class and Mrs. V hooked me up with a group of the best behaved, which made the fieldtrip even more enjoyable :)  The museum was pretty cool and Brady really liked the tours of the cabin (no running water! no electricity! no super-comfy mattresses with down comforters!) and the little compound of buildings built to protect someone (I lost interest and have no idea who lived there).  He especially loved hearing about their gardens and, because of his immense gardening knowledge, was able identify the plants and answer the tour guides questions.  The community garden has provided my kids more real-life hands-on education than any class they could ever attend!

This would make a great United Colors of Benetton ad!  These three boys were fun to hang with all day....great kids! And isn't it weird to see one of my kids be the tallest in a group? Brady is one of the tallest in his grade. Crazy!!

 

I have listened to Brady read about Lewis & Clark the last month and was excited to see a keelboat! Finally figured out what the heck he was talking about ;)

The Locks and Dam was super cool.  I can't wait to take Scott there this summer...he will love it.  I had NO IDEA we would be taking an elevator to a bridge 80 feet up.  Watching 18 kids get on their tippy toes to try and hang over a bridge suspended over the Mississippi River is not my idea of fun.  I must have said "TWO FEET ON THE GROUND!!!!" at least a dozen times!

Brady and Carlie (or "Carls "as he calls her) have been BFF's since kindergarten.  She rocks!

The rush of water was dizzying and a little scary.  Also made me need to pee.

Our tour guide told us if you throw trash in the river in Minnesota, it will end up right there.  Gross, right?

Scott would not have survived this field trip.  He is deathly afraid of heights...throw in other people's kids and he would have gone crazy. 

We were lucky to see a barge pull in and pass through the locks.  Very cool process. The bonus was the barge workers throwing around some pretty rough language while they unlatched the hopper cars to fit in the locks. 'Um, helllooooo, we're up here.  Little kids on board!!!'

We headed to the bird sanctuary last and let the kids run off some energy on the walking trails through the reserve.  I didn't see one bird but the water banks were lined with dead Asian Carp.  Kinda smelly.  Really gross.  Boys loved it.

 And with that, fieldtrip season is over.  9 days of school left!!!

Round 3

In March, I started babysitting Parker...one of the sweetest babies in the entire world.  No, really, he totally is.  If you're counting, this makes round 3 of babysitting for me.  My rookie years were with Gabby and Gracie followed by Hadley and now baby Parker.  Who would have ever thought that four kids of my own wouldn't be enough?!

Let's take a pictorial trip to reminisce about my babysitting years, shall we?!

First there were the Cook Twins...my longtime friend Adriane's girls.  Gabby and Grace are just four months younger than Cate so it was pretty much like having triplets. The girls always had so much fun together!!!!

 

Then....

Best Friends Forever!

 

 

And now...

 

How did this happen so fast?  Adie, our babies are all grown up :(

Next up...Hadley!  This girl is one smart cookie and no doubt she will be able to take care of herself!! Loved having her around :)

Then...

And now....

this look says it all!

And now....meet Parker! His Mama, Marci, is a teacher at Cate and Brady's preschool and baby Parker loves hanging out with me everyday  :)  He is the sweetest baby ever!

the after 2:35 baby hog

 

and I can't forget about my great-nephew... Tuesdays with Trevor! 



he loves to entertain Parker

wear him out and he is the best napper!

 

Always a fun time around here!

Chicago soccer

Note to self: do not travel to Chicago with Scott Smallie when the Blues are playing the Blackhawks in playoffs. Yes, in one busy intersection he did roll down his window and screamed "Blackhawks suck". It went downhill from there.

Back to soccer...

This weekend was Brady's final soccer tournament of the season.  That is, last tournament before the zillion 3v3 tournaments start in a few weeks. This time we were headed for Oakbrook Illinois...I love Chicago soccer trips!  Scott had a baseball game on Friday and Cate had her dance so we sent Brady to Chicago with the Ferguson's Friday afternoon and we drove up Saturday morning in time for the noon game. Bennett, Cate, and Carter chose to stay with my family Saturday night so we were only in charge of one kid...holla!  FOUR hours in the car with no kids...WOO TO THE HOO!!!  Of course I slept the entire time but Scott enjoyed listening to sports talk radio with no interruptions and we both loved not having to pass out snacks, change movies, turn up the radio, turn down the radio....etc.

 

We left around 6:15am and made it to the field waaaaay before game time so we stopped at a few stores and had lunch at Chipotle.



This is the type of things that happen when we are kid-free....wardrobe changes in the backseat :)   nice blue undies Coach Smallie

 

Only action shot I took all weekend.  Brady played great and his team rocks!!!

View of downtown Chicago from our hotel room

I pretty much slept the entire 36 hours we were there.  I guess I just needed it.  After the 12:00 game, we checked into our hotel and I slept until the 6:30 game while Scott watched tv and Brady and crew ran the hotel (sorry Embassy Suites!).  After the game, we ordered Giordano's pizza and ate in our room and then Scott headed down to the pool to socialize and I went back to bed.  I think it was the bed, comforter, and pillows...it was like being wrapped in a cool hug and I couldn't get enough :)

 

Wait!  We only brought one kid.  Why are all of these boys hanging out in our room??!!

Brady was digging the only-child lifestyle

Our final game on Sunday was in Hinsdale.  I love Hinsdale.  This neighborhood is just like Fran and Mike's in Clayton...people buy homes the size of ours, tear them down, and then build reaallllly fabulous homes on the lot.  The house on the left was one of my favorites...it's detached garage in the back was built to look just like the main house and was bigger than my house.  Love!

Cutest team ever!!!

Sock Hop

Once a month the Girl Scouts host a dance...Friday night was a sock hop. My friend Rachel let Cate borrow a poodle skirt and I found her a cute 45-record headband and glasses to finish off the "oldies" look. After school she had a slight fever but after a 3 hour nap felt good enough to go. Thankfully the dance is only 90 minutes long and Cate was able to rally through it :) 

 

"Come on ride the train"

They have the cutest Daisy group! 

 

"So call me maybe"