Two Sisters

This is what happens when you have two sisters who love to give you attention.

Thomas Alexander

This post is long overdue... Thomas Alexander was born July 5th at 9:49 am. He weighed 7lbs 13oz and was 19 1/2 in long. He is a good eater and is already over 10lbs! Life is crazy with a 4yr old, 2yr old and newborn. Here are some pics from Tommy's first month.

Just born

With Aunt Amy
Sleepy
With D
With Poppy and PaPa
Getting ready to go home
Daddy and Tommy
With Butch
Hadley loves to hold him... both girls love to give him lots of kisses
In bed with Hadley and her collection of stuffed animals
In bed with Madeleine
With Uncle Todd
3 weeks old
Bathtime... we have an almost identical pic of Madeleine
In the play gym... right now the girls are using it more than him
One month old!
Sleeping on Daddy... he really likes to snuggle
Madeleine decided it was Cardinals day at our house

Our Weekend

Friday night we went to our friends' house to swim. The girls had a great time swimming and catching lighting bugs. We kept them out so late that they slept until 8 the next morning. It was great to sleep in knowing that pretty soon we will be getting up all night.

I didn't take any pictures on Saturday but Madeleine had a swimming lesson and we went to my cousin's graduation party. The girls enjoyed playing with my cousins' dolls from when they were little. It was very cute.

We woke up Sunday morning to a nice sunny day but Madeleine really wanted to go to the Magic House. They ask to go everytime we drive by so we decided to go. I always tell them it is better for a rainy day.... and it ended up raining so it worked out perfect.

Hadley installing a muffler on a car

Dr. Madeleine in the baby nursery. They have it set up like a hospital nursery... good opportunity to get them ready for visiting the baby!
Hadley playing in the sand
Madeleine climbed to the very top of the beanstalkIt stopped raining and we had enough time to get over to Webster for the kids race at the Webster Crits.

Madeleine lined up at the start. She said the bike race was the best part of her day.
Hadley and Jim lined up at the start (second from the right)... Hadley can't quite pedal the tricycle yet so she got some help.

Even after all that Madeleine wanted to play on the swingset. She loves the tire swing. She gets it going by herself and then hops on.
The weekend ended with dinner at D and Butch's... and a tractor ride.

Madeleine's 4th Birthday Party

We had Madeleine's birthday party a little early this year since the baby is due so close to her actual birthday. The Kirkwood pool has this great birthday party package where you get the family pool to yourself for an hour before the pool opens. They even supply the cake. I booked the party back in February to make sure we could get the weekend we wanted. It was going to be the easiest birthday party since we didn't have to do a thing other than send out invitations. It was the easiest birthday party until the night before when the chance of thunderstorms increased significantly and until we woke up to those thunderstorms that seemed like they were never going to end. Pool party canceled. Time to come up with a good back up plan. The weather looked like it would clear in time for a late morning party at the park. Lots of phone calls, a quick trip to the bakery and grocery store and off to the park we went. It turned out to be a great birthday party. The kids had a blast and Madeleine really took the whole pool party being canceled well. Now she is looking forward to having another party with the family on her actual birthday! Hopefully Baby Krewet won't decide to arrive that day.

Madeleine and her friends playing in the sprinkler at the park

Hadley splashing in the water
Madeleine and her friends
Running towards the cupcakes
Enjoying everyone singing Happy Birthday to her
Time for presents
The kids were all excited to be up close to the present opening
The fitness equipment also makes a great train with the birthday girl as the conductor

Best Craigslist Purchase Yet

Last year after much searching we bought a playset off of Craigslist. It was a big project for Jim to get it stained and up in our yard but totally worth it. When we were shopping for one, Jim kept insisting we needed to go bigger so we ended up with the "King Kong". Now I know why he was so insistent.

Wait, who is the playset for?

Everyone going down the slide
Hadley swinging on her belly... I love when they do this because then I don't have to push the swings
More belly swinging
Climbing up to the slide
Sliding down

Lots of Visitors

May has been a busy month and we enjoyed having lots of visitors. Aunt Amy came first but unfortunately her visit was also the same weekend the stomach bug came to visit our house so we didn't get to see her much (and I don't have any pictures). It was also the weekend we moved out of our house to get our floors redone. We spent the week at Jim's parents and Uncle Dave came to visit. The highlight of his visit was a camping trip with the cousins. Madeleine had been asking almost daily when we could go camping with them. We had a very rainy night but everyone had fun. Someday we will actually have good camping weather. This weekend brought my friend and Hadley's godmother, Tara. We hit all the St. Louis highlights. It was a really fun weekend. Tara left yesterday and today we took the girls to the Cardinals game. It was extremely hot but we made it to the 7th inning stretch to hear Take Me Out to the Ballgame... the girls know all the words! Now we need to get ready for the arrival of Krewet #3... only a few weeks to go!

Camping in the rain

The shelter that saved the trip. The kids didn't mind the rain but it sure was nice to have a big tent to be under.
Hadley loves camping
She also loves playing with headlamps.
Dinner with Butch and D
Hadley and Tara
At Grant's Farm
Waiting for the best part of Grant's Farm... a soft pretzel and cheese
Madeleine at the Cardinals Game... she said it was the best day. Jim and I weren't so sure at first when we sat down in the hot hot hot sun!
Hadley's first Cardinals game