Preschool Field Trip

On Friday, Ethan's preschool class went to a YMCA in a town not too far from us.  It has a wonderful kids pool.  It was a blast and all the kids loved it!

Just getting in...all smiles!!

Ethan with his buddies, Blake and Jaxson

They loved the tire swing!

Here's the tire swing in action...

Ethan and Blake again

Standing under the water spout

Just lounging

Underwater Ethan!

A Beautiful Mother's Day

I realize, I'm behind a day!  Happy Mother's Day to my mom and mother in law!!  As well as all the other moms in my life!  We love you all!
We had a great day.  The weather was beautiful and I got some new landscape lighting installed for my Mother's Day gift!  I will have to take a picture to share later.  After church, a tasty lunch and a nap, we decided to go to the park for some playing and fishing.

Lucky to have these 2 boys in my life :)!

He ended up catching 3 fish!  I was playing with Nora, so no pics of the fish.

She didn't get wet...but wanted to inch closer and closer to the water.

Lucky to be this girls mama!

Nora wasn't too interested in the fishing, so we walked to the playground.

Ethan and Daddy joined us, after their worms were gone.

I LOVE this picture of these 2!

What a wonderful Mother's Day!  I'm so blessed!  And, just think, there will be 3 littles in the pic with me next year!

Baseball Star

At least he's a star to me :)! Ethan had his first baseball game on Thursday night.  He was beaming the whole time.  He loved it!  It was so fun to watch. They play 3 innings where every player has a turn to bat.  There is no score keeping, but these kids don't care!  They each get 5 (if needed) pitches from the coach and if they don't hit any, they get to hit off the tee.  So it's kind of a hybrid coach pitch/tee-ball.  Ethan hit the pitches his first 2 at bats, and the third used the tee.  He also played outfield, third base and pitcher.  He said pitcher was his favorite, because he got to get the ball more and throw to first base :).  Anyway, on to pictures...

Playing the field...at least he wasn't picking flowers ;).

He smacked it down the first base line :)

If you look close, the white smear in the dirt out in front of his bat is the ball!

My good friend, Jessica, got a video of his first at bat and HIT of his baseball season!

Running the bases.

Cheering section/snack area

Nora and Callynn enjoying their brothers game!

She ate most of the time :)

Ethan the 'pitcher' 

Good Game

"Go Braves!!" (with their treat dollars)

Blue Gatorade mustache, a ring pop and a very happy boy! 

Weekend in StL

*Warning* LOTS of pictures ahead ;)!
We had a wonderful (and exhausting) weekend with Abby and Alex.  They have 1/2 season tickets to the Cardinals and knew we were wanting to take Ethan to a game this year.  So, they invited us for an unforgettable experience!  Ethan has been to a couple games before, but he was 3 months old...so needless to say, he doesn't remember them.  We headed to Edwardsville to pick up Abby and Alex on Saturday morning and then spent the rest of the day in Forest Park.  First a picnic and then the zoo!

Picnic by the tulips and The Jewel Box

Now, onto the zoo!

Ethan and the Hippo- he says the hippos and elephants were his favorite

Hanging out in the bear cave.

Nora and I with the elephants

Family photo op :)

The penguin/puffin exhibit is closed right now :(, so this is as close as we got.

Monkey kids swinging on the rails.  We were waiting to see the sea lions under water!

This guy was very playful!  Jared kept touching the glass like he was tickling him and he would swim up the glass and do a back flip out of the water.

Nora loved it!  And I love this picture of them :)

Abby and Ethan under the sea lions

Nora at snack time (with an ice cream mustache).

Abby and Alex- what great hosts!

We have a picture in front of this elephant from our first zoo visit with Ethan, before he was 1.  Check out that trip here!

Our growing family heading out of the zoo!

Sunday we went to church with Abby and Alex and then met my parents in the pouring down rain and storm at Culver's for lunch.  They came over the hang out with Nora for the afternoon while we went to the game.  The weather forecast was not looking good for our game, but we were determined to go anyway.  We took towels and umbrellas and hoped that our preparedness would keep the rain away.  It worked!  The only drops we felt were on our way into lunch in Edwardsville.  The weather turned out really nice.  Not too hot and sunny, but not wet and rainy!  Watching Ethan and his excitement was my favorite part of the whole day.  He brought his glove and made sure daddy brought his...just in case!

These were at Abby's before the game.  We had to get a picture of our little Cardinal's fan family!

Go Cards!

Love these kids!

We were right above the visitor's bullpen.  Great seats!  Ethan could see all the action!

Loved the one on one time with this boy! (Or would it be two on one?!)

Sunday was "Run the Bases" day.  So, since the weather held out, we got in line with 5000 other kids to let Ethan run the bases at Busch Stadium!  How awesome is that?!?  He loved it but I think Jared and I were more excited for him (and to be on the field ourselves).  No touching the grass though!  A guy next to us got yelled at for bending down to literally touch the grass.

First steps onto the dirt!

Quick stop by the first base foul line

Look how happy they are!!

And he's off!  There were so many people, it was hard to get good photos.  But he ran fast the whole time and made it all the way to home plate!

These next 2 are my favorites from the day!

Busch Stadium sign behind home plate

This one totally looks photo-shopped...but it's not!  

What an amazing weekend with Abby and Alex.  Thank you guys so much for the tickets and the great hospitality!  We'll be back ;)!

Great day at the ballpark!  Oh and the Cardinals won!! 7-0!