city garden Archives - Raising Roberts

Blog, city garden, Family, kids, pregnancy, st. louis, vacation

summer nights in the city

This summer I have been avoiding the heat as much as possible. While it’s nice to stay indoors, it’s not so nice to stay indoors with 5 kids who have suctioned out every bit of my energy. My body is really starting to feel like I’m 5 weeks away from having a baby. Meanwhile, the kids are building up more energy by the day. If I could bottle up even an ounce of their energy, I think that would last me for the rest of my pregnancy and beyond.

My favorite compromise continues to be an evening trip to the Citygarden. We tried to go a couple of weeks ago on Don’s weekend. We had made it all the way up to the city and then we saw the multitudes of people in their Cardinal’s attire, heading to the game. All those fans decided to fill up every single parking space within a few blocks of the Citygarden. Let’s just say I wasn’t too happy with Cardinal’s fans at that moment. We ended up hitting up a park by our house instead.

We learned our lesson the next time around and checked the Cardinal’s schedule before heading up. Instead of parking issues, this time ended up being a cooler evening–in the 70s. So instead of herding 5 kids down multiple blocks in downtown St. Louis at night, we just had shivering kids with blue lips. I’d still say that’s a better outcome. The best part is that we had the place to ourselves pretty soon after we got there!

I’ve mentioned it before but we always go in the evening because 1) you don’t melt from the heat, 2) less crowds, 3) better lighting for pictures, and 4) the colored fountains at sunset. And nothing is better than to take your kids somewhere and be able to sit down and relax while they all play (without any fighting!!) If we can make it up there again before the baby is here, I will so take that chance.

Although, there was this small incident when Kai sprayed Liam and you can see that he wasn’t too thrilled. Does it make me a bad mom if I was cracking up at this moment? Especially at the fact that I caught his reaction on camera?

Desmond wasn’t so sure of the fountains at first. He sat on his daddy’s lap and in the stroller for a good chunk of time before he got down and experienced the joy of running close to the fountains. But if even a drop of water touched him (or he thought it was going to) he would run back to us.

We spent a solid 10-15 minutes watching big swarms of birds flying above us and around the buildings. Evangeline was positive that they were all “looking for their mommy.”

Liam wanted me to go with him to check out the “sunflowers,” as he called them. Liam’s photography skills definitely surpass anything I was able to do at 8 years old (and even still at 28!)

Those lights, though! Pictures don’t do it justice, especially with me behind the camera. Maybe with another trip and some more practice.

P.S. Because it’s worth mentioning again–5(ish) more weeks until we meet our precious baby girl!

August 31, 2016

Blog, Family

Memorial Day

So first thing’s first. I had the honor and privilege of sharing a little of my story over on Babble with an interview titled “This is Why You Should Never Judge That Mom in the Grocery Store with Five Kids.” Ultimately I pray that when people read my story, God gets all the glory for what He has done in my life. Nothing that I have done is even worth boasting about. He gets all the credit. And I also want to say thank you to all the many people who shared, liked, commented, etc. on the article. I really couldn’t believe that so many people even read the article!

And now on to Memorial Day…

A few days ago, I shared our first family vlog. It was the video version of our Memorial Day. But you know when I have the DSLR out, I have to take some photos of this cute little clan of mine. (Ignore the weeds behind him–we’ve been working on those! In other news, does someone want to come do my gardening for me? Nothing harder than working with these rock beds when you’re a newbie and have no idea what you’re doing!)

After spending the early afternoon playing out in the yard for a bit, and having a picnic (that was not so peaceful, especially when a giant spider arrived!) We drove up to the Citygarden for the evening. You may already know of my obsession with this downtown splash pad from our visits HERE and HERE.

I didn’t spend as much time taking pictures as I normally would because we were working on the vlog. But I couldn’t resist getting a few (or 250 haha) because this is just a happy place for us all.

One of the best things? When we go here, no one fights over anything. They love to play together and come up with fun games and races. It makes my heart so happy!

Our camera battery was just about dead by the time it got dark so we were reserving that for videos. But the nighttime fountains are what make the evening trips worth it! We like to go after 7 to get free parking and a little bit of daylight hours to play and take pictures. But our favorite part is seeing the fountains light up in all the different colors.

I’m a little behind with posting because life is SO BUSY right now. But I hope you have a good week!

June 8, 2016