respublica

Gotta put those boys to work

Drew grabbed a few baby wipes and headed out to the deck to clean his set of cars.

Which gave me an idea. Put him happily to work cleaning the sliding door windows which he's been doing for for half an hour.

Learning to appreciate the value of work is a good thing.

What to do?

We were left with the 2 boys today. On our own! What to do?

Drew got himself into his mommy's car, maybe hoping it would take him to his daddy.

No luck, but there has to be something to do.

He got some dirt and...

good naturedly began covering her car with it. I don't know enough child psychology to understand what this means, but he was having a good time.

 

Dale's building another section of fence

Last summer when we were out at Katie and Charlie's Dale built a gate and fence section to help keep Riley in. This year he's on the other side of the front of the house putting up another section of fence to try and keep Riley contained. Two trips to Home Depot and the posts, concrete, 2x4's and fencing were picked up.

Eyeing the straightness...He does have a level.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, he'll get the boards nailed on.

Greetings from Maryland

After a long car ride we made it to Katie and Charlie's around 4:30 EST yesterday afternoon. We sat in the front yard with Riley until the Baileys got home from work.

Drew was first out of the car and pointed at something.

Katie sat with her boys while Jake had a drink and Drew got his smart phone fix.

Then he went to work with sidewalk chalk

Jake laid in the grass and watched

The Katie and Drew raced, "on your mark, get set, go"

Opa got to sit with Jake

Then he handed Jake off to me

Charlie and Drew played a bit of golf

And finally Drew cut the grass

We ordered pizza watched the news and went to bed very early.

Foxglove boys

Katie stood her boys up next to a Foxglove plant to see how tall they're getting. I'd say the Foxglove won.

Here's the Drewster

And Jake

We're driving out to visit with these boys next week. And to try and save the government. :)

Two mothers day photos

One with Lizzie and her brood, the other with Katie and hers. I liked these two pictures.

Checking in

Got a couple of photos of 3 of the grandsons today. Katie and Charlie are with his twin brother Dan and wife Hannah and their two little boys. They're spending the weekend together at some Maryland Harbor and went down to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

The Bailey cousins. Jake is getting so big.

Then back in St. Louis, little Nick fell asleep on his ipad.

Lauren and Kent's wedding

Yesterday Lauren Popov and Kent Muniz were married in the Chapel of St Timothy and St. Titus on the campus of Concordia Seminary on what turned out to be the most beautiful day of a very wet and stormy week. 

In the couple of hours preceding the wedding, family and attendants arrived. The first and maybe only, glitch occurred when organist Karen Shimkus realized that the organ was locked. She called down from the balcony and asked if I knew who might have a key. Wow. I had no idea you could even lock the organ so I went to the first place that came to mind-our security guy of the day, Dan Maske. He tried every key on his key chain and that is saying a lot but none worked. 

After a bit of scrambling we (Karen) found a key hidden away and order prevailed. Meanwhile down in the basement classroom/dressing room Lauren hid herself away with a book on Kindle.

The fathers of the bride and groom wiled away the time by studying their phones...which struck me kind of funny.

Lauren's dad

Kent's dad.

The groomsmen and ushers mainly stood around in a circle checking and rechecking their boutineers or pacing inside and outside.

Or talking to the cutest little girls.

When it was time for the wedding to begin, Lauren didn't want to come out of the elevator. So she said.

But she did and they got married. During the ceremony I did not take pictures although the official photographer did, thankfully.

But afterward I was able to take more pics under a stunning blue sky.

Lauren and her dad played a bit of catch...Lauren played softball throughout high school and college and her parents spent a good amount of time watching games and coaching. Kent played baseball.

The two of them like baseball/softball so much, the groom's cake looked like this:

Then Kent and Lauren hopped in the golf cart for a ride around campus ending at the reception in Koburg.

They made the rounds, visiting at each table...getting married is work.

Happy Birthday James Christian!

Christian is 7 today! My goodness how did that happen? It seems like just the other day we got the call that he was born. Luckily he's still young enough that I can put a picture up of each of his birthdays

Day 1

One!  Let them eat cake

Two!! Start 'em early Cardinal fans

Three!!!  Yes they know what presents are at 3

Four!!!! He still has this bike.

Five!!!!!  But these balloons are long gone

Six!!!!!!  More and more candles

And 7? We will have the picture tonight.

 

The day of Nicholas' Baptism

What a weekend this has been, so many family members in town from all over. This was the first time all five cousins have been together and it was amazing to see.

This won't happen too often from now on.

We got to church early and milled around and talked or sat and waited.

The Easter church service was beautiful, Dale baptized Nick.

Then the congregation welcomed him

Back at the house there was an Easter egg hunt before the meal. Christian and Connor's Texas cousins were here as Darren's brother Doug and wife Melissa were the God parents. So all cousins who were of walking stage sat for a pre hunt pic.

Let's go already

Then food

A Kruta cake

Then Ruth and Mary came by

Dale slept. Most of the others left for Kansas or Texas or Paris (Illinois)

Now I'd guess most are asleep or close to it. Me too.