Family Fun Day

It's our family tradition to have a Family Fun Day after tax season!

The kids pretty much get to pick everything they want to do for the day - hopefully this won't come back to bite me in a couple years!!

This year they chose to go the Magic House in St Louis! 

The Magic House is definitely a family favorite; the last time we were there Caleb was still a baby, so this was his first time being able to enjoy everything!

Note to self: remember to charge the camera batteries!!!

This was the first musical instrument the kids played with; I wasn't sure if we were ever going to walk away!

You hold a small steel pipe up against the tubes on the wheel and as you spin the wheel it plays a classical music piece - not sure which one, I will have to check with Brandon!

The Magic House has touring exhibits every so often.  The one featured right now was The Magic Tree House, which is a series of chapter books that Sarah has been reading!  She loves to read and these books are really entertaining!  It is about a brother and sister who visit a magic tree house filled with books.  As they read the different books they journey to that point in time, for instance the Civil War, dinosaurs, etc.

Caleb loved playing in the Civil War section of the exhibit and Sarah enjoyed playing teacher in the school!  Here she is writing her name in cursive - WOW! She has a handwriting book at home with instructions on how to write in cursive and she has been doing pretty well!

The next section we visited was all about art.  The machine Sarah is playing with has you design your own art - you put your finger on a color, hold your finger on the surface, spin the surface and it colors the computer screen.  It was a little advanced for Caleb, but he enjoyed playing the the kinect toys.

The kids based their decision to go to the Magic House on the fact that they wanted to climb "the green thing that goes in a circle."  It is a beanstalk with giant leaves and you can crawl up (three stories) and down!  The kids loved it!

There was a construction zone the kids played in for quite some time!  Caleb loved filling a wheelbarrow with rocks and then dumping it over . . . he did this over, and over, and over!

This day was exhausting for us!  We found a slide (that was 3 stories high) that the kids could run up the stairs and then slide right down to where we were sitting.  This was great for a couple reasons - I didn't have to worry about the kids getting lost, they had to climb several flights of stairs to get to the top so it wore them out and I could sit down and relax for a little while!

The static ball was so neat! 

Sarah's hair is so wild!!

Caleb wouldn't touch the ball without me, but as long as I was holding him - his (and my) hair went wild too!

Fortunately, I had just enough juice left in my battery for one final picture outside!

After we left the Magic House we went to Uncle Phil & Aunt Emily's house for dinner and then went home - the kids (and me) took a nice long nap on the way home!

Tax season is long and hard on Brandon and the kids.

I sincerely appreciate all support, help and love I get from them.

I know one Family Fun Day cannot repay the last 3 1/2 difficult months, but it did give us a chance to reconnect as a family!