sprinkler park with the yosts...7.27

the 27th was a crazy day!!! the yosts started out going to graceland, then headed to our house for the tie dyeing debacle...

then we all went to corky's for one more dinner together, and THEN the big kids all went to the sprinkler park (baby jake was more than ready to get home and in bed! he likes his sleep!)

the yosts were hoping to completely wear out their girls before the trip home so they would sleep!

they completely wore us ALL out!!! the kids had a blast at the sprinkler park running off all their energy!

after everyone got dried off, the yosts loaded up their car and headed back home...

leaving the yosts every summer is always hard, but at least we know that we have the next year to look forward to!!!

(rachel did an amazing job capturing some of sarah and drew's finest moments...fighting over the water spout!!!)

more craft time...7.27

well, after the success of our first crafting experience with the kiddos, rachel and i were a little over-confident in our "skills"...

i had gotten a tie dyeing kit for all of our little ones to make their own shirts...

how fun would that picture have been with all 6 kiddos lined up in their matching shirts?!?

we will NEVER know...

oh my goodness...what a process! we had 4 stages of prep work before we could even start dyeing the shirts!!!

so, the yost girls ended up going home to st. louis with damp shirts in ziploc bags which still needed to be hung to dry, then washed, then hung to dry again!!! so so sad! the only redeeming quality of the whole thing was that every time my kids wear their shirts now, they talk about all the fun we had with the yost family!!! sheesh!!!

sunday lunch with the yosts...7.26

the sweet yost family got up and went to church with us on sunday morning...

so, we took the to our favorite after church restaurant...russo's! yum!!!

mimi joined us for lunch and sat at the kids' table...what a great mimi!!!

even baby jacob got to enjoy some of the deliciousness after he woke up from his nap!!!

craft night...7.25

after our big day downtown, we all had a little down time, and then gathered back at our house for a low key night...

once the kids got bored with generally running around our house and backyard, rachel and i busted out the craft project to keep the kids busy...

they all worked very diligently to make their own pair of flip flops...

showing off their hard work!!!

an afternoon at mud island...7.25

after our fun trolley ride, we headed to mud island!

we rode the tram across the river to the island...

once we arrived on mud island, we immediately headed into the cafe to grab a snack!

then we headed to the river model to get soaking wet!!!

i didn't have a good grasp on how wet the kids would get...we didn't bring swimsuits!

little man sleeping in his stroller...

yes, drew sat down in the water. why not?!?

when drew, jake, and i caught up with big kids, they were swimming in the "gulf of mexico"...fully dressed. why not?!?

it was by far, one of the coolest things the kids have ever done (according to them!)...

walking back the trolley stop...all the kids were drenched! and so tired from playing so hard all day!!!

carriages and chicken and trolleys, oh my!...7.25

when we walked outside from the peabody, we were about to walk across the street to eat lunch, but fun daddy saw a horse drawn carriage sitting there...and asked the kiddos if they wanted to ride in it! what do you think the kids said?!?

we decided to take the carriage a few blocks to gus's famous fried chicken for our lunch...

we all pigged out on the greasy yumminess...

then we decided to walk down to the riverfront to catch the trolley to get to our next destination...

we got a few cute pics of the kids while we waited...and waited...and waited for a trolley!

sweet baby jake was a champ during all our escapades around down town...

all smiles on the trolley...

we finally made it to our next stop...