An Old Love Found

So....if you really know me, then you know that I grew up learning how to play the piano.  You might also know that my loving seminary teacher (cough...Becky Peterson...) helped me overcome my fears of playing in front of others and even while they sang along to my music.  I played in the early morning seminary class, young womens, and a little while in relief society.  Then...I went to college and lost the benefits of a piano (sad story I know) :)  My in-laws have a piano and I have played on it a handful of times, but my energetic son kept me too much on my toes to feel comfortable to really play on it.  This sad story changed a few weeks ago...I am sure that made your day.  Okay maybe not, but it has made my year.  I got a PIANO!!!!  It is awesome and I love to play on it.  I am so grateful to receive it and for the men who helped move it into my apartment.  I have to admit that my playing ability has decreased a lot since I went to college, but it is coming back faster than what I expected.  A fun fact about the piano is that it is a playing piano!  It is been converted into an electrical playing piano and the lady who gave us the piano also gave us 10 rolls of music for it.  Tucker is really excited that "his" piano plays all by itself.  There are a couple of loose wires, but it does play.  I love how the boys play music on it.  Tucker understands that you play with music so when he plays he opens up sheet music first so he has notes to "follow".  I feel so blessed and am so excited to have it.  My piano skills are SLOWLY being built back up again and it is fun.  I really like the color of the piano, but our apartment is dark so you can't see the pretty cherry color very easily. I have plans for the bench that came with the piano and it involves paint stripper, staining, foam, and fabric.  I can't wait to do it this fall.  I am also going to make a runner that goes on the top of the piano that matches the bench fabric.  The piano definitely needs tuned, but we need to fix the 4-6 broken hammers before that happens.  All in all, I LOVE the piano.  Now to purchase some early learning piano books and teach my oldest son to play!

 

Easter....a little late

Okay, so maybe my Easter posting is a EXTREMELY late instead of a little late, but the good news is that it is finally here.  Every year Aaron's Chiropractic College puts on a huge Easter egg hunt and brings in the Easter bunny through a helicopter for the whole community.  It was a lot of fun!  There was a firetruck there and Tucker drove it while Ethan rode in it and they both got to pilot the helicopter after it landed.  It even had a petting zoo.  Tucker was very concerned about the animals and told us they needed to be in the shade with water instead of in the sun.  What a smart boy! The Easter egg hunts were divided according to age groups and held at different times so Aaron and I could see both boys hunting for eggs.  Tucker is not very competitive, especially in a new environment, so he was a little nervous about getting eggs.  He got over his fear and starting gathering eggs but on his third egg as he was bending down to get the egg another kid accidentally hit Tucker fairly hard on the head, so naturally Tucker was done.  Ethan is much more competitive and we had to hold him back to get the eggs until it was time.  He was so excited he dropped his bag and came running back to Aaron to show him he found an egg.    

Magic House

The Magic House is awesome! We took our kids there forever ago, before Ethan even broke his arm back in February.  It is a house/museum that has been converted into a kids play world.  We had so much fun, but we went on a holiday so it was way too packed.  There was a whole section that was a mini town that kids got to play in.  There was a house that Ethan liked to play in.  Tucker really liked the mock grocery store where you could buy pretend groceries.  The all time favorite was the train complete with a whistle, bell, and pretend coal to put in the train.

 Future doctor of chiropractics, of course!

Baseball!

GO CARDS!!!!  

Okay, so we aren't die hard baseball fans, but everyone in St. Louis loves the Cardinal Baseball Team.  It only seemed natural that we would take our boys to a true authentic Cardinal Baseball game.  Yes, even in the extreme heat.  Looking at our pictures it may seem like we are wet.  That is because we are wet.  Wet from sweat! (...eeewww) We still had a fantastic time though.  We all wore red or cardinal clothing and ate hot dogs, french fries, peanuts, ice cream, and LOTS of water.  The boys lasted all 9 innings!  We spaced out the food/treats to keep them interested.  I also made baseball coloring books for them to color and we brought binoculars, which of course were a big hit.  We went to the game on July 4th because what is more America than baseball?!  That being said, we also got to see the fireworks while at the stadium.  It was pretty cool.  Tucker's favorite firework display was the smiley faces.  We had so much fun at the game!      

Tucker's smile reminds me of someone else....hmm could it be his Aunt Maria? :)  Apparently my Dad taught my sister Maria to do a "cheesy smile" and this is pretty close to what it looked like.  Sometimes, if we are lucky, we can get an actual smile out of Tucker.  But...I think this one is still cute too.