Just pics

Family at the zoo

This sign says "Did you know an average four-year-old child asks 437 questions a day". Yes, I know that well. Poor Jill said that four three-year-olds ask over 1,000 questions a day.

Girls on the train around the zoo.

Boys on the train. They are definitely big buddies.

We were obsessed with these penguins. At first we thought this one was in time out, then we realized he had his nose against an air vent. Another one had his wing lifted with his armpit to a vent.

This was just the first section of the penguin exhibit. It was so cool!

This is not with any zoom--I could have touched the penguin. In fact, when they waddled over to the water and jumped in, we got splashed with cold water.

This rarely happened...

Dressing up like a character from the Magic Tree House

Signing her name on the chalkboard at the Magic Tree House exhibit. She also wrote a poem and put it on the giant Poet Tree in the lobby of the museum.

This picture does not show how funny this scene was. In the part of the museum with the fishing hole, there was a little stream that flowed under glass through the room. Kate absolutely freaked out and would not step on the glass. She would follow the path around the room but stop and scream anytime she noticed the water.

the girls helped Benton fish

Fishing at the Children's Museum

Kate played at the Babies Only section of the CM

Dad showing off for Benton

Cool musical chairs at CM

in the bubble room, the kids stood on a platform and were surrounded by a huge bubble

the cool construction zone at the CM

There was a Magic Treehouse Exhibit that had adventures from the series of books. This was an old horse and buggy they could steer.

David was very amused by his competitive son playing a board game

cute kids!

the triplets loved Kate--she was definitely their favorite thing at the zoo. Jill had to keep telling them to come look at the animals and stop playing with the baby. Kate loved getting the attention--and the treats the girls snuck her (her new obsession is anything with a straw--juice box, cup at a restaraunt).

loaded down with luggage

Clearly, I was amazed by the climbing goats

Isn't this hysterical?

Meet me in St. Louis

scaredy cat had no fear of the goats

the goats could climb the wall, so our two goats thought they could too

we were amazed by the goats on the wall

six of the seven kids eating custard (Kate missed out due to a nap)

I'm definitely my dad's daughter--before the trip I not only planned out our activities but also our food. I found this custard recommendation online, and the custard was great--especially since it was 85 degrees in March!

I don't think I had ever seen a camel in real life before

miniature versions of their dads

those little eyes get him out of so much trouble with me

The Children's Museum had a beanstalk that went from the bottom floor to the third floor that the kids could climb. So cool. I think a lot of people were confused because the girl in the zebra print kept showing up on various floors (only a few of us knew there were actually three girls in zebra print).

Kate was cracking herself up at the Arch

Kate started walking home at one point.

pretty girl at the Arch

These dads have their hands full!

David and I faced our fears and took all three kids on a little vacation this week. I had been searching for a good family destination that was within driving distance, and St. Louis kept popping up as a family-friendly place. Because the thought of our three kids on a trip wasn't crazy enough, David got Chad, Jill, and four of their toddlers to go with us.

We hit the road Monday on a five-hour trip that actually took six hours due to Chick Fil A and bathroom stops. At one point when we stopped for gas, Jill and I opened the van doors and instructed the kids to run around in circles for a minute. Those toddlers are like hummingbirds sometimes with all that energy. I was nervous about the drive, so I put together a bag for Lindsey and Benton (Kate was out of luck) and gave them each 10 tickets. Every thirty minutes I told them they could give me a ticket and pick someone out of their bag to play with. The plan worked pretty well, and the trip was low-whining.

When we got to St. Louis we went straight to the zoo. Their zoo is free, and it is amazing (that's Benton's favorite word right now, so every animal we saw was "amazing"). One of the coolest parts was the penguin exhibit. They were inside a building that was literally freezing, and they were so fun to watch. I can't describe the exhibit very well, but it truly felt like we were inside the movie Happy Feet. After a few hours at the zoo, we checked into our hotel, cleaned up a bit, then headed to meet Hace and Sally for dinner. I had researched eating places and found a deep dish pizza place called Pi that was supposed to be authentic (Obama had eaten there while campaigning). We were disappointed with the food but loved the fellowship with Hace and Sally (who probably will not have kids for a long time after supper with our seven children).

We went back to the hotel, and the most dreaded part of the trip was upon us: sleeping arrangments. Much to our delight and shock, all three kids slept great. We put Kate in a pack and play, then we each slept with a child. Throughout the trip, we were pleasantly surprised by the lack of tantrums, fits, and meltdowns and the generally happy dispositions our kids had. Kate was a trooper and truly went everywhere we drug her without any complaining. We think she was tired of us leaving her behind for trips and felt like she had something to prove.

Tuesday we started the day at the zoo again. This time we hit the children's area, but it was much cooler than it sounds. Our favorite thing there was the goat exhibit, which does not sound cool at all, but these goats just walked around and you could pet them and brush them. The funniest part was that they kept climbing a wall and resting on the wall. Luke and Benton thought the goats had a good idea and tried to climb the wall themselves. This would be a good time to point out that Luke and Benton had a blast together--almost as much as David and Chad did--and I think they truly appreciated some man time since they both are surrounded by sisters (Luke has a couple more though). Another cool thing in the children's zoo was a plastic slide through the otter pool, so the kids could literally slide through the otters. We rode a mediocre train through the rest of the zoo then finally convinced the kids there was more to St. Louis than the zoo and got them to leave. After a relatively quick lunch (nothing is really quick with that many kids), we went to the Children's Museum. Again, I can't describe how cool this place was, but it put the Memphis Children's Museum to shame. After several hours at the museum, we lured the kids out with a promise of ice cream. In my research I found a custard place that had great reviews, so we drove through the middle of nowhere to find this place--and we were not disappointed. At this point we finally gave in to the kids' begging for swimming at the small, nasty hotel pool. We swam, we ate (and drank root beer) at Fitz's, then we all crashed on night number two.

Our final day we wanted to see the Arch before we hit the highway. The Arch was beautiful. It was in a lovely park. Unfortunately, the kids were not impressed with the arch and really just wanted to get in the van and take a nap, so we took a few pictures then hit the long road back home.

We truly all had a great family vacation and feel like we can tackle another vacation with all kids in tow. However, if grandparents want to join us, we won't turn them down.

One classy lady

In today's society, dressing as a classy lady is not popular. Short skirts, plunging necklines, and messy hair are all fashionable. However, David's grandmother Babba was always a classy lady. Many of the stories David and I tell about her revolve around her impeccable style. One of my first encounters with Babba's style came the day we got back from our honeymoon. We loaded down our Explorer with all the wedding gifts stored in my parents' dining room and took them to our new home in Cordova. When we got to our new house, Babba was there ready to unpack in her "moving outfit" as she called it. Only Babba would have a designated moving outfit, and only Babba's moving outfit would look classy.
Babba died last Friday after an extended illness. She was worn out and ready to be free of her heart problems. She has always been a special lady for David because he lived with her and Bupper the year before we got married. That year he was constantly arguing with Babba about how early he needed to get to work or how she needed to get off the phone so he could call me (this was life before cell phones). But that year he also had a home-cooked breakfast each day and countless nights of listening to his grandparents tell stories from their past. One day he showed up at their house with a new purchase to show them: my engagement ring. He knew if Babba approved, so would his mom (who lived in Athens at the time).
Babba always had a special affinity for David that stemmed from his being born in Memphis and living with her the first few months of his life while his dad was overseas. She always would tell me that David was the cutest little boy and had the cutest voice. In recent years, she developed a love for all our kids, but she would always remark that Benton was the cutest. I knew she felt this way because Benton reminded her so much of little David and his cute little voice.
Yesterday after the funeral, I told David I hope he still loves me like Bupper loves Babba after 62 years. Two classy people. Babba was loved and will certainly be missed, but her legacy lives on through the classy ladies she influenced--her daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters. Her last two great-granddaughters (Kate and Sophie) have her middle name, and I hope they grow up to always wear their pearls and be classy like Babba was.

Happy birthday, Mr. President

The students got a four-day weekend for President's Day, so by Monday my kids were looking to me for entertainment. Unfortunately, I had spent Friday in a training class, Saturday in Oxford with my Knowledge Bowl team, and Sunday in the bed with strep throat, so I was looking for a day to catch up on TiVo'ed TV. But I was outnumbered, so we loaded in the van and went to the gym for a quick workout before swinging by Target to get a craft and RedBox to rent a movie.

The craft the kids chose was a set of foam eggs to decorate with stickers and glitter. Good, clean choice. The kids worked diligently on their eggs, but Benton opted to use his own Star Wars stickers on his egg instead of the ones that came with the pack. Because nothing says Easter like Jabba the Hutt. Jabba is the slovenly creature who has a slimy tail that Benton thinks is stinky (as in poop). I guess he could give the Easter Bunny some fierce competition.

After the craft we were all pooped, so I popped in the Muppet movie we rented (not the newly-released Muppet movie but Muppets in Manhattan circa 1984 thanks to RedBox's tricky marketing ploy). I checked on the kids after a little bit and noticed that there was a large viewing party for the Muppet movie that consisted of more Barbies than I knew we owned and several nicely-dressed dolls.

(Just noticed as I was uploading these pictures two interesting things. One: there is a Barbie flashing the camera towards the middle of the pack. Two: for some reason I find it hilarious that those four dainty dolls are lined up next to the oversized and brightly-dyed Elmo.)

The next morning it was back to school on a rainy Tuesday, and I had to get a picture of Benton in David's old raincoat from 1980. Somehow that slicker has held up these 32 years. I'm so glad Benton has reached an age where he thinks David is cool. In fact, he told me earlier this week that his best friends are daddy, Tripp, and Luke. Daddy and Tripp make perfect sense, but Luke is a boy who was in Lindsey's class last year and goes to our church but probably has no idea who Benton is.

Love is in the air

For Valentine's Day, I thought it would be a fun surprise to have post it notes on the floor outside the kids' rooms and down the hall to the living room. So, I wrote personalized notes on ten sticky notes to each child, and I color coded the writing so they could figure out which note was for which child. Lindsey was thrilled; Benton was confused and just wanted his candy. The notes led to the living room where their Valentine's treats were waiting on them--a Fancy Nancy book and princess chocolates for Lindsey, and a Star Wars coloring book and Star Wars chocolates for Benton. Is it obvious what Benton's new obsession is? He has watched Return of the Jedi countless times lately. He loves C3Po, R2D2, and the Ewoks, but his favorite character is Chewbacca the Wookie, and he likes to "talk" like Chewbacca. Lynn told me the other day he was humming the Star Wars theme song while he ate lunch.

Lindsey's top note says "You are a good big sister." Benton's bottom note says "You are cute as an Ewok."

After a day with way too many sweets for all the kids, we decided to balance out the sugar with Mexican food. Where else would we have a romantic Valentine's dinner? Obviously other people think the bean place is a good choice for celebrating love because the place was packed. The live music kept Kate in her chair after she had devoured her guacamole and beans, so it was a great choice for the Ruff clan.

He's got moves like Jagger

Since we last chatted, we have had two choir productions, two illnesses, and one lost tooth. Such is life in the Ruff house.

Lindsey's choir had their much-anticipated performance of "I'll Fly Away" last Sunday. To go with the song choice, the kids wore green choir robes and had motions and clapping. Lindsey took this gig seriously, and she watched the teacher's every signal from her spot on the front row (the short genes come in handy for things like this). David watched her at the 8:30 service, and I showed up for Sunday school then watched the second performance. All those at the first service said she reminded them so much of me, and I am going to assume they don't mean condescending and bossy but rather focused and obedient. That's my girl.

Benton's choir performed their two songs this Sunday and I honestly don't remember the names of them. This is probably because unlike his sister, he did not practice the songs incessantly at home. Which leads to why during his performance, he stood on the front row (short genes!) and did not sing a word. But that boy can dance. He swayed and grooved for both songs, catching my eye every now and then to make sure I was so proud. To quote Benton, he was "amazing." My pictures are not good because we did not have good seats, but it is obvious he is marching to the beat of his own drum on the bottom right of the picture.

Kate had no choir performance, but she did have hand foot and mouth disease. We were blessed with a very mild case that included no fever or sores in her mouth (because she sure can eat). She spread it through her daycare but not the rest of our house. As soon as she recovered, I came down with strep throat. We can attribute this to the fact that we had snow one week ago and today it is seventy degrees. Mississippi weather keeps us on our toes!

Finally, Lindsey lost her second tooth, so she has caught up to her younger brother in the lost tooth category (let's hope she passes him and he has no more traumatic falls). She has been trying to convince her teacher to pull her not-loose tooth for weeks, but she woke up yesterday and the thing was hanging. So, I did what my mother would have done: told her to wait until David got home from the gym to pull it. He pulled the tooth; she got a tooth sticker and the tooth song at school, and the tooth fairy brought her a dollar during the night. Speaking of teeth, Kate now has four molars. At 13 months she has a full mouth of teeth!

I took the pictures of the girls after bathtime to show Lindsey's lost tooth and Kate's adorableness in her hooded towel. Benton, with his hands on his hips, told me to take a picture of him too. I told him he was wearing nothing but a smile, which wasn't appropriate for a picture. He insisted I take his picture in all his naked glory, so I did, but I deleted it before I uploaded pictures. Because I would hate for that picture to surface when he is running for office one day.

WOW! clowns and old women...

The two older children have been busy, which means Kate has been busy by default. It was one of those weeks we were so busy that Lindsey went to ballet, and when David picked her up he heard the teacher say, "Lindsey, please remember to bring your ballet shoes next week." Whoops.

On the 100th day of school, Lindsey's class had a celebration and dressed like they were 100 years old. Dressing a five-year-old like a 100-year-old was not an easy task, but I think the result was a decently-old looking five-year-old. While the majority of the outfit was not authentic, she did have on glasses that belonged to her great-grandfather and a brooch of her great-grandmother's.

The next dress-up day was Circus Day after a week of studying the circus. As I was creatively trying to turn her dress-up clothes into acrobats or trapeze artists, I had an epiphany: we have a friend whose son was a clown for Halloween last year. So the circus costume turned out to be a breeze, and Lindsey was the cutest clown I have ever seen.

On to Benton. This year both kids are in the choir at church. Lindsey loves the idea of choir; Benton, not so much, but he does love going to "chuch" for any reason. Lindsey's choir has been busy rehearsing for their performance next Sunday in church, and Benton's WOW (wee ones worship) choir will sing in church the following Sunday. They had a warm-up singing in the Wednesday night service this week. We did not have high hopes for Benton and would consider the night a success if he stepped on stage. Because of our low expectations, we were not disappointed. Benton got on that stage, found me on the front row, and just smiled at me. The whole time. As others were singing and dancing. Until he turned around and saw the big screen behind him that showed him "singing," so he spent the last part of the song faced backwards. We couldn't be prouder.

Lindsey later asked him why he didn't sing on stage. "Were you scared because all of those people were watching you?" "No." "Were you sad because mommy was in the audience and you wanted to sit with her?" "No." "Then why didn't you sing?" "I just not want to."

And a Kate update: that girl is into everything. She can walk now, but we often still find her walking on her knees, which is just odd. She eats everything in sight. Lindsey was a picky eater from birth; Benton ate random foods as a baby but now is picky. Kate is the best eater we have had yet, but we literally have to remove her from the kitchen every meal or she would spend her day in there eating. She has six teeth and is currently cutting a molar, which is another odd thing about her. Someone pointed out that they are called "two-year molars." Her two tricks are nodding her head and waving bye-bye, but the fun part about it is she gets the two confused. So if you tell Kate bye-bye, she nods her head at you. Kate also loves to walk around on her knees nodding her head anytime the older kids dance to Wii Just Dance.

That's a little update of what's going on around here....stay tuned for pictures of Lindsey in her choir robe next week.