A rainy week

We had several days of rain, including some severe weather forecasts, but nothing happened in Holly Hills and the rain is SO good. On one of the dry days, I hauled back dirt and mulch from the Carondelet site to complete filling in the second cinder block raised bed.  The raspberries and blackberries both have blossoms. The concord grapevine has teeny little green grape clusters. The iris are in bloom and the peonies are about ready to burst open. I love spring, even with the crazy weather!

We didn't have rain Monday evening and Steve and I finally burned our Christmas tree in our fire pit.

 We roasted hot dogs and made campfire pies with strawberry pie filling (see below). They were delicious and far superior to cherry or apple pie filling. (Kroger makes a store brand strawberry pie filling)

I had an open Wednesday afternoon so I finally put away all the Easter décor and did some much needed dusting. Over Wednesday and Thursday, Steve and I watched Wonka and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We loved the music and the clever writing and Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa was hilarious. 

Friday afternoon we attended the temple and that night was the Civic Orchestra dress rehearsal which Steve attended. The concert was Saturday and we performed the Hebrides Overture and the Saint Saens Organ Symphony so the venue was in a beautiful church with a giant pipe organ and it sounded SO awesome! We also had the two high school concerto competition winners perform so it was a great concert. And now we are finished for the season. I am looking forward to having Tuesday evenings free. 

Steve and I also helped clean the meetinghouse Saturday morning and I briefly attended a baby shower in the afternoon. I had to get home to a cello lesson (whew - I am not really a fan of baby showers)

This afternoon, Steve and I attended the St. Louis Symphony performance of the Verdi Requiem and it was amazing!   This was concert #3 that was part of our Christmas gift from the kids.  Concert #4 comes this Friday.  Thank you again, Julina, Emily, Elise, Beckie, Steven, Sarah and Kirsti 💖

 

Fun with Sarah

Monday of last week, Sarah was coming home from visiting family and friends in Columbia over the weekend. After returning early in the afternoon, Beckie picked her up and they enjoyed a movie and a seafood dinner. Beckie is so busy these days that it was great she could carve out some time to spend with Sarah. They also went to brunch later in the week.  Here they are before they left on a bright but chilly Friday morning.

Tuesday, Sarah, Steve and I visited Powder Valley Nature Center here in St. Louis.  Right in the middle urban-ness is this lovely pocket of nature where two busy interstates meet. We toured the visitor's center and then took a small hike. Spring was everywhere (accompanied by the constant thrum of interstate traffic, out of sight, thankfully, but not out of earshot)

Sarah, ever the naturalist!

Sarah spent Tuesday night hanging out with Emily and family while I had orchestra rehearsal. Steve and I got to see the Southerlands Wednesday night at Quinn's orchestra concert. Look how tall Quinn is getting!!!

Sarah actually went back to Columbia for the day on Wednesday to spend time with a friend who was not available on the weekend. 

On Thursday, Sarah spend the day doing some long-distance work and I went with Jennifer, a cello friend from Civic Orchestra, to a lovely mid-day concert in Alton, Illinois. It featured a string quartet plus piano and the cellist was a good friend of Jennifer's. That evening, Steve and I were supposed to resume our work at the Kindness Begins With Me project at the church (English classes) but we had a bout of severe weather that kicked up right about the time classes were to start. Ultimately, seven tornadoes (of various sizes and strength) were spawned in the greater St. Louis area so things were cancelled. We never had anything but wind and plenty of rain in our neighborhood, though, so, after we came up from the basement, we played a few rounds of dominoes with Sarah. A gift of time, for sure, because Friday was her last day here. Friday evening, we celebrated her birthday a bit early (it is actually on the 24th) with homemade pizza and a chocolate ice cream cake.  We then watched Interstellar together (always a favorite movie!)

She drove away early Saturday morning and Steve and I drove away even earlier for our temple baptistry shift. I spent the afternoon at a play that featured two of my Primary children - Jaxson and Troy Buttars. I believe I have mentioned before that my class is quite unusual this year due to lack of children. Troy is five and there are two other regular attenders that are also five - or almost five - years old and then, because there are no other older children besides Jaxson, who is almost ten, he is also in the class!  It is certainly not ideal but it is the current solution.  Anyway, these two boys are in a home school theater group and they put on the play Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies.  It was a cute little musical and Jaxson and Troy did very well.  

Saturday evening, Steve and I watched another movie called The Trouble With Angels. It is a 1966 film featuring a teenage Haley Mills as a student at a Catholic girls school. Steve had caught some of it on television a couple of weeks ago and was telling me about it and I said I remember watching it! I checked it out from the library and we thoroughly enjoyed it together. 

Sunday was fairly usual - I played organ for Sacrament meeting (I share that duty with two other people) and there was choir practice after meetings. Steve and I went to the VanVooren's in the afternoon to say happy birthday to Mona and the rest of the time was just trying to catch up with things that had been put aside for family visits. We had the air conditioner on early in the week but, after the severe weather on Thursday, we have had rather chilly temperatures. I am not complaining, though. I love cool, rainy spring weather. 

I am counting down the days to the end of my Mehlville teaching job - nine more days! Woohoo!!!

Fun with the Merrills

We all returned to St. Louis Monday evening from our eclipse adventure and Elise stayed the night with us before heading back to Columbia Tuesday morning.  Kirsti and Ryan and kids also traveled back that evening as they were not extremely impressed with their Indianapolis AirBnB so I got to have a morning walk with both girls Monday morning. We found a huge piece of wood on the side of the road and it was a good thing they came along to help carry it to a nearby dumpster!

You can see that we had nice weather on Tuesday so we visited the playground at nearby Carondelet Park in the afternoon.

The playground equipment was entertaining for a while but they had more fun running down the hills and exploring a fallen log.  

Steve and Ryan looking on....

All while Alice and Ivan were here, their favorite pastime was "making soup" in the driveway puddle and bird bath with leaves and grass and seed pods - stirring with long sticks from the woodpile. We had pleasant weather so they were outside every day.

Wednesday, however, was rainy all day so, to get the wiggles out, I joined Kirsti, Ryan, Alice and Ivan at the History Museum's History Clubhouse that offered a large array of interactive, historical activities for kids including pulling a genuine steamboat whistle, building a mini arch, and "fishing" and preparing food like early indigenous people would have done.

Those "rocks" are actually pillows! How cool is that?

Thursday, Aunt Sarah and Beckie joined us for a trip to the Science Center!

The dinosaur diorama was added to the Science Center in 1991 and Kirsti was fascinated with and  terrified of it as a toddler. Ivan was the same....

We checked out an area of the Science Center that I had never seen before that focused on agriculture. Steve and Sarah found a giant ant to sit upon. Behind them is a wall of different soils from around the country. Who would have thought dirt would be interesting but it was - and quite colorful. 

 

And we also walked across the sky bridge to the planetarium side. And Ivan and Alice got to run the "hamster wheel" that moved the balls in the huge rube goldberg display at the entrance.

Friday morning I joined them on a trip to the zoo. Sarah stayed home to work and Steve took Fred shopping.

The zoo has a night time "glow" event so there were huge blow-up, fabric-covered animals and displays that were lit at night and that one could see for a fee.

Of course, there had to be a carousel ride.  Can you spy with your little eye Alice and Ivan???

And, then it was Saturday morning and we had to say farewell to the Merrills.  Here they are driving away.

I close with some cute photos of Ivan and Alice...it was so great to have them here!!!