Zoo Class, Take 2

I signed Jack up for two classes at the St. Louis Zoo this summer.  The first was on a Grandma/Grandpa day so Grandpa agreed to take him for me while I was at work.  They arrived a few minutes early and the teacher was overwhelming in Jack's face and that was that.  He refused to go in, even after they walked around and talked for awhile.  Ho hum.

For class #2, Grandma and Grandpa were in New York visiting Kelly, Greg and Parker so I took off work and took Jack myself.  The class was called Zoo Clues and it was really cute.  It was mostly classroom-based, learning about which animals have bones, fur, etc.  We got to see and touch several live animals, including an owl, a snake, an iguana and a few others.  At the end we went out into the zoo and did a little scavenger hunt.  It took Jack a short time to warm up but then he was answering the instructor's questions and joining in.  It was fun; we'll definitely do another class in the future!

Painting Pottery

A few months ago Melissa saw a Groupon for a place in Kirkwood called Pottery Hollow.  She called and asked if we should both buy it and take the kids, so I agreed.  We went a few weeks ago and it was a lot of fun.  Each of them got to pick out one thing to paint from a whole range of clay things: mugs, bowls, figurines, etc.  Jack chose a jet and Addison chose a unicorn.  Both of them started out painting pretty mellow color schemes but very quickly both were running back to the color choices and grabbing this and that.  Melissa and I had to bite our tongues to keep from continually saying "are you sure you want to add that big blob of XX?"  In the end both of their masterpieces turned out great and they had a lot of fun!

While we were there both Melissa and I decided to do our own painting as well.  I made these for our new toy room downstairs where I'm planning to do a sport-ish theme and she made something similar for Ethan's future baseball bedroom.

It was a fun little Sunday activity that I'm sure we'll do again sometime.

Rascals Game

Friday night we went with a group of friends to the River City Rascals game.  We have only been once before (last year) which is pretty pathetic given our proximity to the ballpark.  We happened to get free tickets through Melissa's dad's connections (thanks Ken!); though the ticket price is very reasonable at $6 or so.  Jack was really looking forward to the game and paid attention to at least 3 pitches the whole night. :)  This is definitely a family-friendly atmosphere, so our group spent a lot of time on the playground.

One of the kids got a snow cone, so of course we had to get them for the rest of the kids.  Turns out Charlie LOVES snow cones.  The child did not leave this picnic bench for at least 30 minutes.  Then he kept returning throughout the night for a few more melted bites.  Funny.

Jack had fun running around with all his buddies.

Addison, Reghan, Jack, Connor, Maggie & Hayden 

At the end we were excited to learn that the kids got to run the bases.  I took Jack and Hayden initially and they rocked it.  I told them to stick together and they mostly did.  My photography is sub-par (this is why Cyndi and I need to take our photography class!) so they are pretty blurry in most pictures, but you get the idea.  Jack thought he was hot stuff.

We rushed down there so quickly that I didn't realize Charlie wanted a turn too.  I turned around when Jack and Hayden were finished and found Charlie and Addi starting their run.  Too cute!!  Charlie too thought he was a big shot running the bases (at 9:45pm, no less...well past bedtime).

The blur on the base is Addi

Addi up close, Charlie on 2nd base

Fun night!  It was pretty toasty outside, but we all had fun, so it was worth it!