My monkey

Climbing in the bars of the kitchen table

Lily climbed up the outside of the banister and across the top of her play kitchen and then said, "See mom, I didn't crack my head off."

The real heart-stopper was when I found that she had climbed on the outside of this banister and stood at the top (over the stairs below). I tried to be as calm as I could when I approached her so that she would not get startled and let go, but it was hard to control my urge to scream and sprint toward her.

Later she climbed on top of the flimsy blue plastic paint holder to reach the clips at the top

Going to the playground to give her some appropriate structures for climbing

Hopefully, within the hour, we should have an appropriate structure for climbing right in our very own backyard...

Weekend with Abby

Abby's family went on an outdoorsy trip this weekend, and since Abby is not exactly a "rough-it" kind of girl, Abby spent the weekend with us until her family returned. Below is our weekend in pictures.

Friday night at the park, cooling off in the water area. As a side, so many parks around here have sprinklers or some sort of water element; it really surprised me how common it is. Must have something to do with that St. Louis humidity...

Two tired girls relaxing on the couch after a long day of playing

Saturday morning art time

Saturday afternoon picnic at the park

Making cookies in preparation for our pajama party

What would a pajama party be without some pillow tossing?

Cheers to a fun night between cousins

Sunday afternoon splash time at Grandma's community water park

Nothing better than some pool time with Grandma (and some great barbecue prepared by Grandpa back at the house)

Snuggly

Dinner ideas

As a temporary stay-at-home mom, I've had much more time to actually put some thought into dinners and try out some new recipes. I love finding new recipes from the internet so I thought that I'd share some that we've tried lately:

• Emerald green risotto - A little too green for me but great when you have extra green veggies that you want to use up - and some extra time. As with any risotto, it takes awhile.
• Cajun chicken pasta - Two very big thumbs up from Carl, me and Lily!
• Mexican bean burgers - We loved this! Makes a lot, so we froze half of the prepared, uncooked burgers for a later time.
• Chicken marsala - I've had better, but this is a great weekday recipe - very quick. I served this with cous-cous - also very quick.
• Broccoli rabe, white bean & fontina pasta - Good, healthy meal.
• Fish bake
• Modified paella (my own quick & easy version)

The last two are my own recipes. If anyone is interested, I'll e-mail them to you.

Lord, give me strength

So this is our latest Craig's List purchase. We bought in on Tuesday and have used it twice so far. The wheels are huge which is great for jogging (so easy to push!) but not so great for getting in and out of my car. We took it on two different park trails, one nicely paved, very hilly but shady path and one more gravel but flat and sunny path. The stroller did great on both! I, on the other hand, had to dig down deep to make it through, but I did it. And even more surprisingly, Lily did it too. This girl is very active and not one to sit for any length of time so I have to get creative to keep her occupied. But she hung in there with me, and I greatly appreciate it. It is an every day struggle, but I'm going to try my hardest to get into better shape even if...
*Lily asks me several times during the walk/jog if I am mad or sad because I'm red and huffing and puffing so much.
*Children on field trips take pause to make sure that the red-faced, sweaty, out-of-breath, shaking woman pushing a little girl in a jogging stroller makes it to her car okay.
*I have to reassure Lily once I get into the car that mommy is going to be okay (even if I'm not sure).
I'm trying here!

All aboard for some fun

Lily and I have been busy bees lately. On Sunday, we went with Carl to the Nature Center near our house (see pics below) which was very nice - lots of things to see and do, including an indoor beehive and an indoor treehouse. We finished off Sunday at my brother's house having dinner with family (so nice). On Monday, Lily and I went shopping and out to eat with my mom (again, so nice to be able to get together with family so often). Yesterday, Lily and I hit the trails around the Nature Center in the morning and then spent the afternoon at a great park near us. Today, we visited the Museum of Transportation which is just down the street from us. I've been meaning to get there for quite a while, and we finally got the chance today. I really feel like we have been able to have a wonderful "staycation" this year. Even Carl enjoyed his month off exploring the town. It couldn't be better timing for us, considering that we just moved to a new town and have so much to explore and don't have to worry about the hassles of travel, expense of hotels, etc. We're loving it! Also, I have to say how much I love the area in which we live. We have so, so many things very close to us, especially for kids, and we couldn't be happier. Below are pictures from today at the Museum of Transportation.

We saw lots of trains today

We even got to ride on this little train

We went into restored train cars

The levers were a little overwhelming for me too

Lily checked all the trains in search of Thomas. I thought that I might fool her with this one, given its bright blue color. But Lily was having none of it. As with the other trains, she checked the front and declared that it was not Thomas because it did not have a face or lips. :)

Lily got to play with lots of toy trains in the Creation Station

There were lots of activities in the Creation Station - all indoors and out of the heat - a welcome relief for the kids and the parents.

Eyeing some sweets - real or pretend, this girl has a sweet tooth!

Powder Valley Nature Center

Lily's taking it all in at the observation area

A fawn comes to visit!

Getting a good whiff of the stinkbug scent - yuck!

Pilot Lily coming through with a traffic-stopping smile

Watching a puppet show but on by mama

Good luck Tim!

Sending you these virtual flowers from our garden. We'll be thinking of you!