Adam's Good Deed

Adam's birthday comes so close to Christmas and since he's a well loved little boy, he doesn't want for much. So, we talked to him about raising money for the Court Appointed Special Advocates of St. Louis County. As a result, Adam raised $125 at his birthday party!

The mission of this organization is to advocate for abused and neglected children in need of safe, permanent homes through highly trained volunteers appointed by the St. Louis County Family Court.

Adam and I met Paul in Clayton a few weeks ago and delivered the donation to CASA’s director. The director, Allie Ray, explained what CASA does to Adam. This donation can support a CASA volunteer for one month, helping several children in need. To learn more about this great organization, visit them on the web at www.casastlcounty.org.

We're proud of Adam for making the decision to donate the money and not whine about not receiving toys!

Five For Friday

It's been an unusually busy week here in The Lou for the Kreidlers. Lots of activities, homework, and appointments. But, here we go with Five For Friday, an hour early!

1. Adam went to the dentist this week. No cavities! Dr. Fuzner said that Adam may not lose any teeth until he's almost 8 - yikes! His chompers must be in there pretty tight. Remember when Emily started losing teeth and she looked like this:

Emily's best Nanny McPhee impersonation!

Finally! Top teeth GONE!

2. Adam also went to the eye doctor. All is well -the lazy eye has strengthened and hasn't lost any strength in the few months he's been off treatment. Recheck in 6 months! The Eye Doc was in surgery and running late so we goofed off for a bit before he got there.

3. As a special treat for Adam (really, for Mommy) - we went to FroYo since we were up in the Creve Couer area. Yummy treat for a rainy day, especially since we both loaded our yogurt with HOT FUDGE!

4. Emily's Girl Scout troop went to the Missouri Humane Society on Monday. What a bunch of sweet dogs and cats! Emily and I both liked the Mastiff and the Boxer.

5. I'm away this weekend on my girls' trip so Paul is in charge. In store for the weekend - more basketball. Go Shock! Check out this picture of a recent jump ball. I didn't know Emily could jump that high!

That's it for now. Have a great weekend! More next week!

Five For Friday

Here. We. Go!

1. Kids were off school Friday (2/18) and are for Monday as well (President's Day). So far, no fights. Paul and I are blessed with great kids!

2. Emily is a basketball tournament this weekend. Two games and we're proud of her hustle and determination, even against much taller and talented teams.

3. Adam participated in his first baseball practice this week - batting cages and some throwing/catching. He seemed to love it and the coaches were wonderful with the boys!

4. We had a few BEAUTIFUL days here in Missouri during the week. We're spoiled now, so if it snows, I might cry! That says a lot about how beautiful the days are because I don't mind snow and winter. But, 75 degrees in February? Wow!

5. Hockey! This weekend we have tickets to the Blues game tonight and Monday. On Monday, the Blues play our Blackhawks so we will put away our Blues shirts for the day. Uncle Joe and Jon will be joining us to root on the Hawks!

Have a great weekend!

Wish We Were Here Wednesday....

Costa Rica - has it really been 3 years?

Ahhhh....soka!!!

Adam, the lover of all things Star Was, has some favorite characters. His favorite - General Grievous. Adam's second favorite - Ahsoka. Now, for all you lovers of the original Star Wars Movies (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi), these characters probably have you saying "Uh??? Who's dat??"

General Grievous is a villain that appears in the newer Star Wars Movie "Revenge of the Sith". He is a cyborg, but has a beating human heart. For whatever reason, Adam loves Grievous, even though he's a villain. Adam chose to be Grievous last Halloween.

Adam's second favorite character is a Togruta female Jedi padawan (means apprentice) named Ahsoka Tano. She appears in the Clone Wars cartoons on the Cartoon Network. Her master is Anakin Skywalker, who calls Ahsoka "Snips" for her snippy attitude! Ahsoka is one of Adam's MUCH loved action figures. She goes everywhere with him including into the bathtub at night to do battle with other action figures. She met a rough ending a few days ago, she snapped in half.

Poor Ahsoka, and poor Adam! Ahsoka is a hard to find action figure, but thanks to Amazon.com, a new Ahsoka is on her way to one excited little boy in Missouri!

5 For Friday - a little late!

Cindy is here visiting so I'm a little late for 5 For Friday! So, without further ado...

1. Like I said, my mom is here visiting! She and I treated ourselves to Valentine's facials on Friday morning. I think my face looks like I'm 36 instead of 37.

2. The snow/ice is finally melting! Almost gone as of today. It'll be nice to get the kids outside to play some basketball on the driveway.

3. We took my mom to Grafton, IL to see the bald eagles on the Illinois and Mississippi River this weekend. Such awesome birds and so great to see them in their natural habitat vs. a bird sanctuary or zoo! Before coming home, we stopped at the Mel Price Lock and Dam in Alton. While we missed the tour by 40 minutes, we still visited the museum and looked at the impressive chunks of concrete that make up Dam #26!

Sunrise before we left home at 6:45.

4. Emily had another great game on Sunday! We finally bought a BIG lens for our Nikon and the lens proved itself useful this weekend with both the eagle watching and Emily's game.

5. Adam starts baseball already this week! Looking forward to Chargers Baseball when it's warmer!

Wish We Were Here Wednesday

The forecast for St. Louis today? COLD!

So, today's first post contains pictures from where I wish I were today! Where, you ask? Mexico with a Bloody Mary in my hand would be lovely right about now!

Little Gymnast

Since September, Adam has been enjoying gymnastics. His coed class splits time between the boy and girl apparatuses. It appears, however, that his class now has a male coach so the boys can now focus on their apparatuses. Paul and I enjoyed watching him on the rings when we picked him up and were able to take some shots of him with our new Nikon lens. Enjoy!

Our Best Girls!

Unmentionables

Inspired, I was, yesterday to clean out my "unmentionables" drawer. As it turns out, I own 25 bras and 45 pairs of underwear, none of which look like the pictures above!

I probably own slightly more, but refused to fold three baskets of laundry to get a final count!

5 For Friday

1. Not one, but TWO, snow days this week for a storm that for the most part was a dud in St. Louis. Kids were awesome though. Very well behaved and only at the end of the 2nd day did they start to pick on each other.

2. Emily had a basketball game last Sunday. She played awesome! She scored quite a bit (at least for her), had some rebounds, and even a blocked shot. We're proud of that girl! The team looked great and that game reinforced our decision to stick with Coach Julie and not play in the Kirkwood Junior Basketball League with Emily's previous team.






3. Today, Adam and I, along with our neighbor friend, went to the Science Center for a quick visit. The kids enjoyed the overpass over Hwy 40/I-64 more than anything but building the Arch a close second.





4. Relaxing weekend for the Kreidlers - no activities other than the Kids Lego Club at the County Library and our long runs. Both Paul and I have longish runs tomorrow (7 and 8 miles, respectively).

5. Registration opened for the Chicago Marathon this week. The Kreidlers are taking a pass on Chicago this year in favor of the St. Louis Rock and Roll full marathon and possibly the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon.

That's all for now! Happy Weekend!

A Baby Picture

Emily's school is requesting parents send a baby picture of their 5th grader for use in a yearbook spread. Back when Emily was born (2000), digital cameras weren't really all the rage. We had one, but since everyone had dial up modems, we cropped all digital pictures so so our relatives and friends could could actually download the pictures. So, when the call went out for a baby picture, I wasn't sure what to submit since the picture quality of the cropped pictures is pretty much crap. (Can't think of a nicer way to say it other than "crap"!)

So, I went back in our picture files, starting when Emily was born. I found this picture - from Emily's baptism when she was almost 4 months old. And guess what? We actually had it in the original BIG file.

Enjoy Emily from July 2, 2000!

And it continues...

Looks like we'll escape the brunt of the ice and will settle for sleet and snow. So far, it's just been sleeting. Some pictures:

Emily checking out the coating on the bushes:






On Manchester Road, on the way to the gym. This is NOT snow, this is just sleet accumulation.



Since we'll be at home the rest of the day, we'll be eating well! Cinnamon Rolls, cupcakes, chili and cornbread. yum!!