"The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows." Sydney J. Harris

Back to school we go...this week was a lot of back to school organizing and back to school partying...and now the kids are back in school enjoying (I hope)!

As the obnoxious, picture-taking mom who I am...here are some pix from the first morning!

 

 BIG hugs from Mrs. Ganss!

Can you say HOT? I thought you could...

The Speller family headed downtown tonight for a Cardinals game!  Of course, we had to go on the 2nd hottest day/night of the year - about 95 degrees when we got there...around 87 when we left.  UGH!  Otherwise, we all had fun!

Quack, Quack, Quack, Honk

Some fun pictures from our family vacation to Duck, NC.

The view from the back deck...breathtaking at any hour of the day!

S'mores for dessert...yummy!

The view from the top of Currituck Light House

more to come later...

A Kid's-eye View

Jake and Anna had a GREAT time at camp.  Both did archery and riflery, Jake shooting left handed and Anna shooting right handed.  They did a great job and won some awards for their improved skills!  Here are a few pictures from the kids' cameras...I might need to send them with digital cameras next year.

Mohawk Cabin

Wow - he actually made his bed!  Now, if we could get him to keep his room this clean.

Chilling out before bedtime.

Another bed that's made...hmmm, could be a conspiracy.

Lulu was ready for camp!

One of Anna's counselors - dressed for success!

A new friend!

They like each other, they really like each other!

Some more pix from camp...the ones of them together are from a sibling lunch the camps had!  Made me cry to see them so happy to see each other...

While kids are away, the parents will...

Okay, so we are rather lame about partying while the kids are away, but we are having some quality married couple time, which is very nice.

The kids are at Camp Lincoln (Jake) and Camp Lake Hubert (Anna) in Lake Hubert, MN.  From the notes we've received from their counselors, they are both doing very well and enjoying their activities.  Jake chose baseball, radio and basketball (no surprises there) for the first "activity block."  I know Anna chose archery and gymnastics, but I don't know what the third one was.  Here are a couple of pictures.

I'll add more when I know more!

The Spellers Take Manhattan

The Spellers (Andy, Tracy, Jake, Anna and Nan) headed to The Big Apple for some fun!  There is so much to do in NYC and I think we did a pretty good job of doing a lot of it!

We arrived on Sunday and headed to the hotel (London NYC) to drop off our luggage and then directly to Stage Deli for yummy food.  After Stage, we did a little walking around and then headed to Rockefeller Center to go to the Top of the Rock...what a view!  We spent some time looking over the city and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner...Bar Americain (Anna was hoping to meet Bobby Flay, but it didn't happen).

The next morning we got up early and headed to Battery Park, by subway,  to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  We did the audio tours, which were very kid friendly, and really had a great time exploring the past.  The kids found it very interesting that we had relatives who had come to America through Ellis Island.   When we arrived back at Battery Park, we walked down to Ground Zero, they are doing a lot of construction, so we really didn't get to see much.  Then off to John's Pizzeria for original brick oven pizza. DELISH!  After lunch, we found our way to Washington Square Park.  The kids played chess with two of the men in the park, LeShawn and Cornbread.  It was fun to watch and the kids learned a lot.  We went back to the hotel and took naps, then met up with Caroline Parrone at Basso56 for AMAZING Italian cuisine (Jake LOVED his noodles - LOTS OF BUTTER!)

After dinner, Anna, Caroline and I took a walk down towards Times Square to visit the M & M Store - with music blasting, we danced our way through the store!  We did not, however, buy any actual chocolate treats...
After kissing Caroline good-night and sending her on her way to the subway, Anna and I walked back and fell fast asleep!

The next morning, we got to sleep in, if you count waking up at 730am sleeping in.  After breakfast, we headed back to the subway to to the American Museum of Natural History.  Jake was a bit confused about the Asian animal display...he thought we were going to the Museum of American Natural History.  Not...but he loved it anyway.   We found many of our ancestors and way too many school groups yelling thru the halls.  My favorite part was the dinosaurs, Jake and Anna liked the animals (our ancestors), Nan loved all of it and I'm pretty sure Andy didn't really care, but that's okay!

After the museum, we headed to Greenwich Village for some more walking around and lunch.  We went to a place called Jackson Hole.  After more walking, and a little whining, Andy found a bakery (Levain's) where we had the most amazing chocolate chunk cookie and brioche.  

While Jake and Andy headed to the ESPN Zone to play games and look around, Nan, Anna and I headed to the American Girl Store.  Anna had been counting the minutes until we could go and get her new doll.  A special thanks to everyone who gave her gift cards and birthday money...she spent it all on the doll of the year, Lanie, and lots of goodies.  Nanny also got her some cool new jammies to match her doll's.  Needless to say, Anna had a really good time!  Apparently, the boys did too, but since I wasn't there, there weren't any pictures (not completely true - there were a couple on Andy's phone of Jake bowling).    Then, back to the hotel so Anna could play with her new doll.  Dinner was at another wonderful Italian restaurant, Il Gattopardo.  After dinner, we headed to Central Park for a carriage ride.  It was a perfectly beautiful evening.

Our last day started early, as the girls arose to go to The Today Show.  Our early morning paid off, we got to meet Matt and Natalie, and got very close to Al and Meredith.  There were a lot of really nice people at Rockefeller Center waiting with us.  We were on two different times and our friends at home got to watch, since it comes on an hour later in St. Louis.  We then went to get some breakfast and the to Grand Central Station, just so the kids could see it.  After that, we walked back toward Greenwich Village for lunch at Stand, since Nan had seen the toasted marshmallow shake on Food Network.  It was well worth it...hamburgers, fries and shakes.  What did Jake have?  A hot dog from one of the street vendors..."it was one of the best hot dogs I've ever had."  He also wants another one next time we go to NYC.  Lofty ambitions.  We walked more, Anna whined a little more, we stopped at Union Square, then hopped the subway to Times Square to visit the flagship Toys R Us, which has a 3 story ferris wheel inside...very cool.

Our trip ended with a rather stuffy and traffic-y ride to the airport.  We sat for a long time, since we got there early, and then headed home.  Thanks Nan for a fantastic trip!