Citygarden ROCKS!

Oh Citygarden, why did it take us so long to meet??!! This summer, the kids are only doing one camp each. It just so happens, Jeb and Virginia both chose swim camp and it is this week. Ford chose football camp at Auburn and it is next week. That leaves us a WHOLE lot of summer to hang out. We love our pool, Shaw Park, and we spend long afternoons hanging there with our friends. But I felt like the kids needed a little something else. So . . . we decided that we would create a list of places/things we wanted to see/do in and around St. Louis and choose one for each week of the summer! Many of the things on our list are free (other than the crazy high gas to get there!). Our first stop on this summer journey, Citygarden. We have been wanting to go since it opened and just now made it downtown. We will definitely be back! An amazing park with art, beautiful flowers and water features -- and the kids can play and climb on most everything!!

Let me preface these pictures by saying that the high last Friday was 61 degrees. It was a bit chilly for water but they LOVED it!

Citygarden, we will be back soon! The kids already asked to return it to our "must do" list!

School's Out for Summer . . . woohoo!

We made it through another school year! I can't believe that next year, all three kiddos will be hopping on the same bus and heading to the same school. Yikes! I think I will actually be quite sad to see my baby go . . . in the fall, Ford will be in 4th grade, Virginia will be in 2nd grade and Jeb will start kindergarten! Where has the time gone??!!

Bus stop on the last day of school . . . we were missing two kids. The kindergarten kids wore white, 1st grade wore green, 2nd grade wore blue, 3rd grade wore red (which was so hard for my Auburn boy! Thank goodness for a red Cardinals t-shirt from the Easter bunny!!), 4th grade wore orange and I'm not sure about 5th grade since Patrick wasn't at the bus stop! The kids were having a end of school picnic to celebrate the end of school.

Ford and Virginia were a little sad to say goodbye to 1st and 3rd grade thanks to some super amazing teachers -- Mrs. Donnelly and Miss Finan!!!
Virginia with Robin, Allie and Emma -- snow cones at the picnic!
And it is an end of preschool for the Baloghs. After 4 years at Salem, there are no more little Baloghs to hop out in the carpool line. :( I have loved this precious place and all the amazing teachers that have loved Virginia and Jeb. It was such a warm, nurturing, sweet place and I knew when I dropped them that they were having a fun day. We will definitely miss this place . . . thanks to Mrs. Deiffenbach and Mrs. Steinhoff for a great last year of preschool!

So busy and so behind!

We have been so busy! And I am so behind! So, I'm going to throw together a camera phone post on what has been keeping us on the move . . .

Virginia has been hip hopping! The recital is June 11th. She loves the teacher, Reggie, and all her friends in the class. I love watching!

And a little frog catching . . . this one was much, much larger than the tree frogs at Uncle Bryan and Aunt May's lake house!
A little cake pop eating . . .
A lot of batting cages, baseball practices and games!
Some end of the year Reed Rockin' . . . Ford is on the left in navy! He loved the music which included a little Beatles and other oldies. He was amazed when Brent and I knew the songs . . . I love it when we surprise him!
A little park swingin' . . . and Jeb learned to ride a bike with no training wheels! Maybe a video will follow if I can get it to upload!
A little Cardinals baseball too . . . sitting on the VERY top row with lots of our friends from school.
Did I mention it was FREEZING AND WINDY on May 2nd!
Jeb had an adorable Mother's Day program and Mema happened to be in town to join us!
We have also been playing tennis, Jeb has been swimming (videos of that possible too!), and school has been ending. Plus a road trip and the start of a new summer ritual! Stay tuned . . .

And then spring break came to an abrupt END.

We spent the last couple of days of Spring Break with my family in Athens . . .

Virginia was very excited to have her favorite PF Chang's lettuce wraps! (Please note, we were dining outside!)

And a little frozen yogurt always makes us happy!
Bridge Street with Mema . . .
And then we headed back to the Lou. We needed to be home to celebrate a wedding of a sweet, young couple at our church. When we left Athens on Friday, friends in STL were posting Facebook statuses about snow. I knew they must be joking. When we arrived back in town, there was no snow. However, the next day, well, that was a whole different story.

Hello Saturday, March 26, 2011. Springtime in St. Louis . . .
Between 5 and 6 inches fell throughout the day . . . this is the view of Forest Park from the wedding reception on the top floor of the Chase Park Plaza Hotel . . . beautiful, but not what the bride and groom were expecting!

A few days in Birmingham . . .

After the lake, we enjoyed a couple of days in Birmingham. Being at Mimsie's house in Mt. Laurel is like a vacation destination!

Bobby and Jeb on the golf cart . . .

Cutest little guys ever!
Emily, Allison and Virginia strike a pose . . .
Dessert with a view . . . Ford, Emily, Allison, Virginia, Bobby and Jeb . . .
Brent and Brook with their kiddos . . .

Lake Life . . .

We headed South for Spring Break last week . . . 1st stop, Lake Martin! It was so fun to spend a day at the lake with cousins. And Bryan and Mary Laslie are pretty amazing hosts!

Ford and Lil . . . so happy together!

Virginia giving the kayak a "whirl", literally! It is really hard to make a kayak go straight! :)
Jeb got the best end of this deal . . . Ansley kayaked him all around and he just laid back to enjoy the ride.
Martha and Virginia . . .
Enjoy a little "sand bar" fun! Let me remind you, one week to the day from these beautiful photos, we were back in St. Louis and had 5 inches of snow. Seriously insane!

The Happiest Place on Earth . . .at Halloween

We braved Disney World again -- and this time, even Jeb went! It was the middle of day 2 before he would let a character anywhere near him. We simply put him on the rides we wanted to ride and never asked how he felt about it. Poor guy! His first ride was Test Track at Epcot where the car reaches 65 mph and takes a huge curve -- he is one brave fellow! Virginia is our daredevil -- she road Everest 3 times in a row. Literally got off and got right back on. Crazy! She also braved Tower of Terror and cried a few tears because the Rock-n-Roller Coaster was closed (her daddy shed a few tears over that also!). Ford, as always, is our steady one. He likes a little adventure but prefers to stay low to the ground. He is a big fan of Test Track and Thunder Mountain Railroad.

The Pumpkin Patch

We took advantage of an early release day and drove to Eckert's for a little pumpkin and apple pickin'!

We took a little hay ride out to the orchards. I didn't quite consider that 3 kids could pick A LOT of apples -- and how do you tell them that you can't buy them all. FYI, apples are MUCH cheaper at the grocery store!!!
But the very favorite part was spinning in this big red apple -- and almost making mama throw up! :)

Our final summer swim . . .

Things have been nuts around here so I'm trying to catch up on all that we have been doing since school started! We spent almost every single day of the summer at Shaw Park pool. The kids loved swimming with so many of their friends and I loved visiting with so many of my friends!! Somehow, I never manage lots of pictures at the pool. Here are a few iPhone shots, taken on Labor Day weekend, showing how we spent our summer . . .

Jeb is officially a fish. By the end of summer, he was jumping off the side of the pool and swimming all around without any help! Such a BIG boy!

Virginia is all about handstands, flips and all sorts of jumps . . . she loves the water too!
And not to be outdone by her older brother . . . Virginia conquered the platform too!

Having a Blast in Birmingham . . .

We spent 5 days in Athens and then moved on for 5 days in Birmingham. The kids wanted to stop and see my college, Birmingham-Southern. They didn't remember going to Easter egg hunts there when they were little. :( It is amazing how much the place has changed in the time I have been gone -- A lot happens in 16 years. WOW! Here are the kids at the fountain (which was there when I was) sitting in front of the new student center (which was not!).

The Balogh girls . . . Ansley, Emily, Lil, Allison, Martha and Virginia.
All the Balogh cousins enjoying the pool . . .Martha, Jeb, Bobby, Allison, Lil, Ford, Ansley, Emily and Virginia . . .
Virginia and Martha monkeying around!
Ansley, Lil and Ford . . . so happy to see each other!
More pool fun . . .