Spring break, and long awaited St.Louis layouts!

Well, they are long-awaited for me, anyway! I made these right after I got home from STL but I had to wait for Kathy to get her new Spring Ribbon essentials up in the store before I could post them. I love getting to see and use this stuff before its up in the store, but the waiting is torture!

This is a two-page layout so you're supposed to imagine them side by side - I used one of Emily Farnworth's new Plug n' Play templates to make it. I am not sure if I can get them to show up side by side on the blog but I'll give it a try:




We went to the Winter fair this weekend - really a nutty idea with three kids, but whatever. Everyone else does it!!! And that's precisely the problem - EVERYONE else does it. It is absolute lunacy to go there on Saturday, with a baby in a stroller and two kids it took us an hour to get to the petting zoo, and when we finally got there we just turned around because the lineups were too long. We could have gone any other day of the week, but we went on the craziest day because I like to see the heavy horse events and Fred Penner was playing for the kids. It is even more insane to try to stay there until 10:00 pm for the final event, the 6 horse hitch. But we did it anyway, because I like to see it.

This year was the 100th anniversary so they had the Budweiser hitch there. So I went to see the horses in St. Louis a few weeks ago, and this weekend I got to see the whole hitch in action, dalmatian and all. Very impressive for someone who likes that kind of thing, which I do. Do you think I remembered my camera? Not a chance. I do have a few pictures we took in the barns though, but none of it all hitched up in the ring.

So, here's me with the one they have on display in St.Louis





And then, deja-vu, here I am at the Winter Fair with the girls:



Is it just my imagination, or do I look so much more relaxed in the first photo??

The girls really enjoyed Fred Penner - and as luck would have it when he went over to a table to sign autographs after the show, we ended up first in line. He was really great with the kids - brought the girls around to the back of the table for pictures, and figured out from her name that he could speak to her in French, so he did. Its so good to see her understanding and responding back to people like that, and I think she's starting to think its really neat when she finds someone outside her school or family who speaks French, too. She also had a little chat with Sister Cecile this week when we went for tea at the hospital where my mom works.

the girls and Fred Penner

Backtracking now, we had spring break last week so the girls and I did a little bit of travelling - went to visit my mom and dad, and then took a day to go 'down home' and visit both of the grandmothers and some cousins. The girls discovered Nanny's old Nintendo and were soon hooked on Super Mario Brothers. When I was younger, Nanny and Grandma Silver both had their own Nintendo systems - Nanny was Dr.Mario champion and Grandma Silver was always quite good at Tetris. I always thought it was great to go visit my grandmas and they didn't just have the Nintendo 'for the kids to play with' - they were addicted to it, too!!

Discovering Nintendo at Nanny's house

More traditional 'grandma activities' at my mom's house - baking cookies
A. wasn't really invited for cookie-making but was in there like a dirty shirt, anyway:
Grandpa tried to intervene, but she was having NONE of that:

A critical point in the negotiations:
Finally, an agreement is reached, acceptable to all parties: