Klondike Park and Scootering Around

On Saturday, I went to a baby shower for cousin Meredith.   Aaron took the boys to Klondike Park to spend the morning.   This park is located near Defiance, MO, about 25 minutes away from our house.  It has a big lake and a spider man playground as the kids call it.  The boys looked for lizards and loved the playground and being outside of course.

Klondike Park, MO

On Sunday, we decided to stay home and barbecue.  It was nice to hang out at home after such a busy holiday week/weekend.   The boys played a little bit outside on their scooter and to end the weekend, we got to see a rainbow above our house.   So cool.  Now we need to get ready for Sam's first day at preschool.

The boys loved seeing this rainbow at our house

4th of July 2013

Forth of July was on a Thursday, so we got to have Friday off from work, which worked out very nice.   In the morning we had a brasilian swimming play date with some brazilian friends at the Chesterfield Aquatic Center.  The kids had a blast!  The weather couldn't be any nicer, in the 80's, low humidity, we had so much fun.

 The kids took an awesome nap after a fun day at the pool.   Then we went to aunt Jane's for her annual birthday/4th of July Celebration.   The party was so much fun, they had a typical German style dinner (bratwursts, sauerkraut, and potato salad) and that was an inflatable bounce house for the kids.   Of course the kids had a blast. There was another little boy Jeremiah and the boys had fun playing with him.  We also had the tank race.  This is an annual game, you usually just pay $1.00 for your tank and you get the prize if you tank wins.   Noah was a little bit scared of the fireworks, but Sam had fun.   We went back home and enjoyed the fireworks from our house.

Having beer and kids playing

Aaron, Sam, aunt Jane and I

Noah - loves hot dog

Sam, Noah Lucy and Emma

Enjoying the nice weather

Tank race

Sam's first time understanding the race

Staycation with papai 2013

Miss Maria takes one week vacation every year and this year it was over the 4^th of July week.    Aaron took the week off to hang out with the kids and I was off on Thursday and Friday of that week too, so it was a good week for a staycation.   Papai took the boys to different kinds of activities throughout that week.  A little summary by papai (Aaron).

Monday - Aaron and the boys went to the Zoo.  The first thing we did was pet the stingrays and sharks. Noah was a bit scared of all the splashing around, but had to get a stuffed shark toy before we left.  Then we went to the reptile house and the monkey house.  The reptile house was the kids favorite and they spent time looking into every single exhibit.  The weather was cool outside that day so all the big animals were very active.  We even got to see the baby Asian elephant, Priyya.

Ice cream for refreshing

How cute is baby priyya?

Brothers looking at stingray

Tuesday- We had plans to go to the Botanical Garden.  When we got up in the morning it was raining a bunch, but we decided to try to go anyway.  After waiting an hour in the normal rainy day in St. Louis traffic we made it to the garden and a nearly empty parking lot.  I decided that we could at least do all the inside exhibits.  We toured the plants and people of the southwest exhibit. Sam loved seeing the cactious and the Native American dwellings.  We then went to the Climatron and temperate house. Then we toured the food exhibition.   We had only been at the gardens and hour and had just about extinguished the interior opportunities so we decided we could handle the torrential rain and go to the children’s garden.  Sam and Noah had the entire place to themselves and had a blast.   Due to the heavy rain- no pictures.

Wednesday- Aaron took the boys for a hike at the Powder Valley Nature Center (We call the Nature museum) in Kirkwood.  It is a great park, they hiked for about 2 miles and went to check out the museum area.  The weather was nice again so they were able to have a picnic outside.

In front of the Nature museum

Checking out the maps

We see deers!

Deers

Nice hike in the woods

Time for a picnic

and some brotherhood

Checking out the museum things

very interesting

I should mention that all the events above were free.  St. Louis offers so many free activities for kids and we definitely take advantage of everything they offer.  We enjoy the outdoors as much as we can, and we are rarely at home during a nice day watching TV or such.  

Thursday and Friday I was off so I will continue for a 4^th of July weekend fun!

Sam's last day at Miss Maria

We were very lucky that we found the perfect babysitter for the boys.   Miss Maria only lives 5 minutes from our house and we found her  through a recommendation.    The boys loved her.   I was home for a whole year with Sam, right after he turned 1 year old, I went back to work and he started going to Miss Maria.   He was there for exactly 3 full years.   Sam is now 4 years old and was time for him to move on and to start preschool.  His last day at Miss Maria was very nice, which was June 28 2013, we brought some cupcakes and a gift to Miss Maria.   The kids did a very cute card to Sam with his favorite things.  Noah still be going to Miss Maria for another year, so Sam will get to see her from time to time.  Sam can't wait for preschool.  My boy is growing up too fast.

Sam and Miss Maria on his last day

Things we know about Sam:  Knows about the planets, has a bear name Gavin, loves Peter Rabbit, plays soccer, eats only Peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and waffles with extra syrup for breakfast....

And Sam always has a smile on his face, have fun at school, we love you!!! Miss maria, Gavin, Allison and Amelia.

Brasil against corruption

Brazil had a very hot week with protests and demonstrations.  It all started when the public transportation went up about $0.20 cents.  It was just the tip of the iceberg, a catalyst.  The truth is that the population, especially the middle class is tired of a corrupted government.   Brasil is hosting the soccer world cup next year and the Olympics in 2014.  The government has spent billions renovating stadiums and getting ready for those big events.  The truth is that of course all those renovations are "overpriced" with public money.   The population don't see the benefits.  Brasil lacks big time in education and health.  The politics make super salaries that is outrageous.  The major hashtags of this week was: #changebrasil #wedontneedworldcup #mudabrasil.  As a Brazilian with Brazilian kids and a husband that is Brazilian by heart, we decided to go downtown this weekend to protest.  I love my country and hope to see a better Brasil some day.

We didn't counted on a big storm that crashed the protest from nowhere.  We were soaked and had to go down the arch to get covered.  It was the craziest big storm we experienced being exposed to it.  We had to go home because we were soaked and the kids were a little bit freaking out.   However, we were able to make the news and got our message out there. #stlouissupportsbrasil