Enjoying St. Louis

One of the coolest things about St. Louis is all the free activities available.  We have been taking advantage of free and paid activities this summer.

For Scott's birthday we headed to the Botanical Gardens this Wednesday.  Every Wednesday during the summer admission is free after 5pm, and a concert begins at 7:30.  It was really fun.  Tons of people go.  We packed a little picnic, and Scott's parents joined us.  C didn't really appreciate the music.

We went to the Magic House last week, which is a giant kids' museum.  Here he is exploring the bank exhibit.  He looks like a miniature personal banker. 

We had some old friends over last week for dinner.  I wish I had gotten a pic of the hubbies and kids, too.  It was great to catch up. 

Olympic camp

C has spent the last week going to an Olympic games camp at his preschool.  He had a ball.  They had a different theme of games each day.  They had gymnastics, track and field, biking, swimming/water, and a gold medal ceremony. 

I didn't get many good pics, but here's from the procession at the ceremony.

He was so excited that Scott, grandma, and I were there for the ceremony.

Proud of his medal and certificate for his gold medal in running.

Project: dresser pics 1

If you remember that dresser I said I was going to paint? 

Well, I finally started earlier this week.  I lightly sanded it, and then put 2 coats of a nice primer over it, so it looked like this. It took me two days since it was so hot I could only paint in the morning.  Then I had to wait a couple of days for the primer to "cure."

I opted to go the priming route versus the heavy sanding b/c

A) I don't own a belt sander

B) I am not good at it

C) I prefer to paint, and I felt like I would have better luck after reading lots of tutorials.

The primer coating is a bit shadowy, but supposedly that's normal.  I did two coats so the gold would be nice and covered. 

Tonight I put the first coat of paint on, here's how it looks:

The color is a bluish-green called Mermaid's Net by Behr

It looks better in the picture than in real life.  It will definitely take 2-3 more coats.  Supposedly you have to do many very thin coats.  It is very hard to get the paint very thin with a roller though.  I really hope I can get it to blend.  I think light sanding before I put the final polyacrylic coat on it.  Hope to have a final pic before the end of next week. 

I think I'm going to spray paint the hardware, but I'm going to wait until I have it all finished to see if I like the dark brass finish that's already on them.

Wordless Wednesday

Weekend fun

Visiting the brewery on Clydesdale day.  We didn't make it through the tour, but we did get to pet the horse.

We stopped at Soulard Park to let C play afterward

If you can't tell, C picks out his own clothes for the most part these days!  Showing off his hammerhead face paint from the Big Truck Day at Kemp Auto Museum

Big truck day was awesome.  So many things for the kids to get on/inside. Monster trucks, bobcats, semis, ambulances, firetrucks, army trucks, etc

Showing off his tattoos.  He wouldn't stop asking for more.

Watering our roses

Trip to Memphis

C and I got to go to Memphis again last week.  It was great b/c C got to spend time with his two older cousins that he doesn't see that often.

riding the camel at the zoo

checking out the new dinosaur exhibit

practicing casting

caught his first fish.  very proud

at Shelby Farms

Picture catchup

Well, I just found these gems on my camera.  Not sure how I missed it.  I'm so out of practice with the photos/blogging. 

chilling with a popsicle at the preschool picnic

got his face painted!  he asked for a red Voltron lion.  she had no idea, so i told her to just make him a red lion. 

enjoying his new slip n slide. he doesn't really have the hang of it, and it's a piece of junk.  any suggestions on a great slip n slide?

Painting is finished!

We've finally got all the painting in the downstairs completed...well, not us, but the painter.  I think he did a great job.  We love the colors, and it just makes it seem more like home.  I need to take some pics to post.  We need to find new glass doors for our fireplace as the others had pretty bad smoke damage.  I want ones that can be closed with the fire burning, which seems to be hard to find.  Once we have those, we just need a coffee table and a backsplash (probably on hold until next year).  Our painter is going to paint our bedroom and C's bedroom in the fall probably--after we decide what we want up there.  Things are really coming together. 

C and I have had a pretty uneventful week as we had no plans.  We've been so busy with school and errands until this point that we hadn't really had to fill our days.  Today is the first day where we literally have NOTHING. It's 9 am, and I'm already bored.  I'm kind of at a loss of what to do.  Library, CEC (it's a bit cool today and wet), the indoor playcenter.  This is the first time it feels really obvious we don't really know anyone other than family.  I have something most weeks of the summer, but a few gaps, and I don't do well sitting around.  I'm also not great at spur of the moment planning.  C just wants to do the slip-n-slide, but it's been way too cold the last few days.