Grandpa Seibert's 60th Birthday Party Camp Out Extravaganza Day 1

So as soon as we got the Wells family packed up and headed west, we loaded up the station wagon for a weekend of backyard camp out fun for Grandpa's 60th birthday party. Rules were you had to sleep outside, you had to eat outside, and no showering. Fun for all! Sweet G was loving the tire swing
The big kids were all jumping around in this jumper.

Greatest 60th Birthday party Ever!

When things started getting crazy in the jumper, Aunt Becky busted out the MInute to Win It games. Uncle Bran was hard to beat at any game, but Grandma gave him a run for his money with putting penne pasta onto a spaghetti noodle while you hold it in your mouth.

Henro spent some time alone with the leftover noodles.

I did beat most people at successfully getting a cracker from the middle of my forehead into my mouth without using my hands. Attractive and becoming picture of all of us.

Grandma and Grandpa played some corn hole. Go Buckeyes! Grandpa is wearing a shirt that says "60" and is wearing a necklace of 60 washers around his neck. He also received a posterboard with 60 cars on it, 60 ice cream bars, 60 perler bead creations, and 60 mini snickers.

Then the slip and slide came out. fun for all. Were these this small when we were young??

Annalise has been begging me to get ours out. I'm glad she got her fill at Grandma's house.

A picture with the birthday boy. All those extra kids just wandered by. Just kidding. Some of those kids belong to our family friends--the Meyers and the Bockeys. Where were the Coleman kids in this chaos??

Grandpa and his birthday cake--carrot. See Uncle Kevin, we ate a vegetable!

If the carrot cake counted as a vegetable, June had five servings of veg that day. Every time someone new would come around, she asked for a piece of cake. I think she ate 3 before we caught onto her scheme.

Then it was back in the bouncer to work off some of that sugar!!

grandpa didn't bounce because he was pinned under a cute, cuddly baby.

It was grandpa's wish that we all camped out. Even me. So armed with an air mattress and a tylenol pm, we slept out with the lighting bugs and all the passing motorcycles and semi trucks. It was very restfull. Evie and I fell asleep holding hands. that made it all worth it.

Laura and Nate come to visit

Just as soon as we had the Turners packed up and leaving (BTW, Becky, I found some of Henro's PJs), The Wells of WBL, MN pulled in the drive. A wonderful reunion for Evie and her first friend, Laura. So it shows that their moms shop at Target and these little girls all have the same taste in jammies.
We did lots of fun things with Michele, Laura and Nate. I just didn't capture them on the camera. Try to imagine the Indiana Transportation Museum, Forrest Park, swimming at the pool, playing in the yard, going to the library, going out to breakfast and the candy shop, and going to the children's museum. We packed a lot in that week and had a blast. I think it was completely successful because on the last night, the kids were all sent to bed by 7:30 pm and the moms fled in the station wagon to Meijer and the nearest frozen coke machine (which was out of order--again). thanks for making the drive down! WE had a great time!

Happy Father's Day!

Lately, a holiday honoring a parent calls for a delux breakfast in bed. Since we still had a couple extra kids hanging around, that meant no fancy eggs benedict for Uncle Jim. Instead, the early risers (Georgie, Annalise and I) went out and got donuts for Father's day. Because, really, that's all Dad wants anyway. Jim and the crew settle down for a quick bite to eat before the presents get handed out.
A pie iron! Now we can eat campfire pies with frosting on top!

When Georgie heard there were more donuts downstairs, she tried to escape, with cute results.

Finally, she got her donut. Aunt Jenni's house is the best. Your mom would never let you have a whole donut to yourself, kid. I wouldn't let my own baby have a donut. that's why we have aunts and uncles.

Later, we took Uncle Jim out to lunch at Steak and Shake because kids eat free on the weekends and we had an entire herd to feed.

Future in food service?

Future grill master.

Look how happy she is. First a donut, then all the french fries she could gum down. You will see that we also gave her fruits and vegetables so we aren't completely to blame for her stunted growth. Then it was off to the Children's musuem!

In the new area of National Geographics Treasures of the Earth, Mom, Sweet Gee, and Annalise hanging with the clay warriors found in China.

Evie and Henry dig for another warrior.

Annalise has finally mastered the monkey bars. It seems like Evie has been doing it forever and now little sis can do it too!

Of course, we had to park Henry in a race car on the way out.

The Turner kids arrive

The Turner family of SC came to visit us for a weekend. Well, mostly the kids visited. Becky and Brandon skipped town to go to a wedding in Cincy. Big deal. We had way more fun here playing. Annalise had someone to play farm with. That is until June only wanted horses and Annalise couldn't tolerate someone playing by their own rules. Girls. Shesh.
later, we decided to hang outside. Annalise made herself a bed in the wagon and Henro dragged her up and down the sidewalk.

Evie loves playing with Georgie. I even permitted her to carry Georgie on the grass. It's a good thing that Sweet G is a pipsqueak because Evie could tote her around easily.

Our Henro is growing up so fast! He is 5 1/2 now! Can you believe it?

Georgie hitches a ride with Annalise. Annalise was pretty excited about Georgie in small doses. She isn't as doting as Evie is.

Lastly, here is a shot of the big garden growth. We have been eating the lettuce, broccoli and cauliflour. It won't be long until we get some tomatoes!

City Museum in St Louis

This may have been the most awesome place I have visited as an adult with Children. Check out their website http://www.citymuseum.org/ It's an old shoe factory in St. Louis that an artist has turned into an incredible interactive playground of art and fun! Our Friends, Jen and Moe, and their kids took us there. If Jim didn't have a flight to catch the following Monday, we would have stayed until it closed and then went back the next day! To give you some idea, you walk into a room that kind of looks like an underwater scene in which you can crawl or climb on anything. Including walking through the life size whale scuplture.
I took a tunnel to see where it went and ended up in this cage over the floor. I had to squeeze through a tight space to get out.



Outside is just as magical as the inside. This is Evie in a big hamster tube of steel suspended about 20 feet above the ground.

That lady with the blue shirt is me climbing up the hamster tube.

And there was a giant ball pit filled with playground balls.

This is more of the outside. You could climb on all of this. The safety inspector has a tough job at this place!

More fun on the inside, a hall of mirrors.

And there were lots of ways to go between floors. Evie and Adli are in this blue spiral climbing up.

There was also an art room. Annalise and I spent a lot of time here because she was a little nervous about climbing all around everything.

While Annalise and I were creating art, Evie investigated a room filled with skate park ramps that you could run all over.

Have you ever seen a pencil this big??

in additon to crawling on everything, you could crawl under and through everything. Not sure how Evie and Adli ended up here.

Jim and Evie discover how to get under the stadium seating in the circus area. It was tight.

Even for Evie.

Back in the art area, we were still painting.

Then we took a break to see a juggling show. Remember when Evie wanted to be a juggler when she grew up? Adli helps to extinguish a fire.

Wouldn't you be proud if this was your kid?

Annalise and Evie explored the skate park area some more with a run around this bowl.

Then we entered a cave area that took us to an open atrium with 3 spiral staircases. The staircases went up 6 stories. you could walk down or take the spiral slide to the bottom. We all slid down. Annalise did not like it and ended up with a floor burn on her back. I was really dizzy at the bottom. This pipe organ was playing while we descended. This is an idea of what the cave area looked like. A bunch of cement scupltures that you could climb in that looked like fossils. Very cool. I would recommed this place to anyone visiting St Louis and plan to make a day of it! I would like to have my next birthday party there.