One of our Favorite Places

My two little boys are definitely something of a cross between little ninjas and monkeys.  So, of course, one of our favorite places in town is a place that lets them express their ninja/monkey selves.  Defy Gravity is an indoor trampoline park that I know we have talked about before.  Recently, they've added a ninja course where the boys can test out their parkour skills, and they absolutely love it.  Actually it makes me want to try out some of the fun too!

We've been to Deft Gravity to have some fun several times this spring.  The first time was when the big kids had a rare day off from Creekside.  We headed over with the boys and their buddies Izzy and Carolyn.  That time, we just let the kiddos have the fun.  They loved climbing over all of the obstacles and bouncing together.  It was so cute to watch.  After our jumping and climbing adventure we continued the party with a delicious lunch at our absolutely favorite Mexican place, Chuys.

Our time with friends got us thinking.  Ian had never been to Defy Gravity, and we wanted to go have some fun with the boys.  So, another weekend morning Ian and I headed back over to join in on the fun.  Since Evan loves his parkour classes, he usually hangs out most of the time on the obstacle course.  Ben on the other hand is our little bouncer.  So, we spent most of the time alternating between bouncing hand in hand with Benny and trying to climb walls with Evan.  Ian managed a lot better than me on crossing the slanted monkey bars while I was proud of myself in getting across the slack line while he didn't.  It was fun, and those obstacles are harder than they look and boy, I was sore the next day!

The boys finished off our time with a little trip into the dodgeball court.  They loved grabbing as many balls as they could and pegging the nearest grown ups.  I used the time while they were happily throwing balls to sneak over and try a few more obstacles in before our time was up.  Our whole family had a great time.  It's such a fun place, and I hope we can find more like it in our new home!

(the boys and their buddies Izzy and Carolyn)

(climbing the net)

(over the wall)

(bouncing together)

(a little refreshment after jumping)

(Ian's first ever experience with a foam pit!)

(the dodgeball arena)

While we were out

While we were busy with our week of house hunting in St. Louis Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to watch the boys.  It was over spring break so the boys had lots of quality time to spend with their grandparents.  They went out to eat, went to a movie, played with Legos, decorated Easter eggs, read stories, and even had a visit from the Easter bunny on Easter Sunday when I arrived home.  Even though Grandma and Grandpa were very tired, I think they all had a great time together.

Once I got back in town, fortunately Grandma and Grandpa were around for a few more days because I had just a few days to get the house ready to sell.  I definitely couldn't have done it without them.  They strapped mattresses to the roof of the van and helped me haul it to the dump, cleaned the oven and the garage, buy flowers for my front yard, just entertain the kids while I was busily cleaning, and anything else that I asked them to do to help.  They even came in to Evan's school with me one day to teach a science lesson with me!  This made Grandma just a little bit nervous, but she did a great job making a "lava lamp" with her little group of students.  I think everyone had a great time visiting Creekside!

It was such a busy trip that none of us even stopped to take a picture!  Now, that's a sure sign that I was stressed!  When I realized I did get a few at our last dinner out at Panera.  They are certainly awesome grandparents, and we were very lucky to have them there to help out!

(Grandparents taking care of their boys)

(everyone's happy)

(until the next trip-See you in St. louis, Grandma and Grandpa!)

Quiet...We're Hunting for Houses...

So, after our lovely Easter celebration in Charlotte, it was back to the task at hand-finding somewhere to live in St. Louis.  Now, we had already been up there once in February once to scout things out and learn a little bit about the neighborhoods up there, but I thought it made more sense to tell you about the whole adventure all at once.

Ian and I flew up there for a long weekend on Valentine's Day to meet our realtor and learn a little bit more about this city where we would be moving.  Cold weather was in the forecast both in Durham and St. Louis, and it turned out to be quite the adventure.  The first night, we arrived and decided to drive around a little bit to learn as much as we could about the area.  So, we drove around the Chesterfield area and down Olive/Clarkson St. which is one of the main streets in the area.  We drove as far as we could go looking at neighborhoods until we ran out of sunlight.  Then, we walked around the Chesterfield Mall for a little bit before heading to dinner.  Unfortunately, the Chesterfield Mall turned out to not quite be the Southpoint that I had been hoping for, but that's ok.  We did end up finding some delicious Thai food for dinner that night though.

The next day, our realtor picked us up at our hotel and started the journey to find our house.  Initially, we told her what our budget was, and she picked the middle and low end of that budget to show us.  She started in Chesterfield.  We were definitely not blown away by the houses that she was showing us.  The neighborhoods didn't have much of a community feel and the houses were old and small.  Turns out, most of the houses in Chesterfield are of a similar age, and you have to go into school systems that weren't as good to find the new construction, so that was something that we would just have to live with.  However, by the end of the day, we did tell her that we wanted to increase the price range where she was looking just a little.  That night, we went out to dinner with Ian's boss and had a wonderful dinner with his family and some other work colleagues.  They thought we should live in their part of town, but unfortunately there wasn't anything we could afford there.  It was a lovely dinner and it was very nice to meet them anyway.

The next day our schedule was altered a bit by a big snowstorm that came barreling through town.  It dropped about five inches of snow.  In the Triangle it would have paralyzed the town for days.  Things were pretty shut down that morning as the snow fell, even in St. Louis.  Monsanto was closed and Ian was working from the hotel room, but I decided to brave the roads to have breakfast with my friend Mary further in town.  The drive was absolutely hair-raising, but while I was out the snow plows started to move out onto the freeways and other roads.  My trip home was already significantly easier and by the afternoon, the roads were actually pretty passable.

 After the snow had subsided a little bit we headed further in to town to check out Kirkwood, a suburb where my friend Mary had relocated from Durham a few years ago.  It is an even older part of town, and they definitely didn't have any of the suburban neighborhoods I was used to, but the schools were equally good and I liked the feel of their residential areas and farmers market, so we definitely kept it on the list.  During the next day we headed further out of town to Wildwood and Ballwin, more suburbs where the houses were slightly newer.  There we found some houses that we really quite liked.  None of them were new, but we could start to see ourselves living there which was a pleasant change.  We definitely had some leads.  I even toured a school in one of the districts we could end up in and deemed it a lovely school, we were anxious to get back there and actually pick out our house.

Oh, and while we were there we were even able to head out one evening to have a little late Valentine's night on the town.  We went to a brewery for a cider, wandered around a cute little shopping area called Maplewood, and ate a delicious Italian dinner.  I'm sure there will be lots more fun places to explore when we actually get out to St. Louis.

(a typical Chesterfield house)

(a typical Kirkwood neighborhood)

(a typical Wildwood house)

(enjoying a little time for fun)

Over the next few months we scoured the realtor websites searching for just the right house, and before we knew it, it was just after Easter and time to head back to actually find our house.  We arrived in the morning and were excited to get started.  The first day, our focus was back on Chesterfield.  Again, the houses were all older and smaller than we wanted, and we weren't quite sure about the neighborhoods.  We found one house that was the best of what we saw that day-nice kitchen and yard, so we toured the neighborhood school just in case.  That night, I had a mini meltdown in the hotel room just imagining that we wouldn't find anything.

The next day, we started our quest back in Kirkwood.  I really liked the area, but I knew that houses were fairly expensive and hard to come by there.  The first two we looked at were nice on the inside but within 10 feet of train tracks!  I was really beginning to think I would never find anything or would have to settle for a house where the rooms actually shook every half an hour or so.  After those stops we headed out to Wildwood to look at some there.  Lo and behold, the first house was great!  We almost stopped our search right there.  It was the perfect house, except for the large power pole practically in the backyard.  That definitely gave me pause, so we continued on.

Our next stop was two houses in a neighborhood called Lake Chesterfield in Wildwood which actually had a pool and tennis courts, a rarity in St. Louis.  The first house was pretty nice although the bar in the basement was a little too substantial for my taste.  Then, we crossed the street and went into the second house.  I walked in the kitchen and I was in love.  It had been completely renovated and was gorgeous!  The house had almost everything we were looking for-great backyard with sun for gardening, beautiful kitchen, laundry room, and even a huge furnished basement complete with bright green carpet perfect for all of the boys toys.  This house definitely checked all the right boxes.  We went to look at the neighborhood school that afternoon and found it equally lovely.  The next day, we looked at a few more houses, but we ended up heading right back over to that one because we had found a keeper.

So, we put in an offer.  Since the house had actually been on the market a while we were able to make an offer significantly below the asking price and get it accepted!  We had found a house and were even able to go out that evening and celebrate with our friends Mary and Matt.  Two inspections later everything worked out and we will officially be moving in in June!  So, we will officially be the proud residents of 118 Windjammer Lane, Wildwood (or Grover), Missouri.  Yay!

(Our new house-118 Windjammer Lane)

(the beautiful kitchen)

(the lovely kitchen/den combo)

(the backyard)

(the boys' rooms...connected by this nifty pocket door which they are very excited about!)

(the basement complete with bright green carpet)

Easter Fun

Every Easter we head down to Charlotte for our annual Easter party-Davis style.  We were going to be gone on Easter, so we moved our celebrations ahead one week.  Of course, we didn't let the change in date get in the way of our fun.

The weekend started out with the traditional Davis family Easter egg hunt and party.  The tradition is that the weather is usually freezing cold, pouring down rain, or both.  This year, while it was a little chilly, the weather was actually pretty nice and made for some great Easter egg hunting.  For the party, the Davis family cousins stop by as well as some great family friends-the Fahys.  The yard was looking pristine, like something out of a magazine, as usual, and the big boys did a thorough job of hiding all of the Easter eggs.

The kids arrived and were immediately ready to head out into the back yard to hunt.  We had to herd them all onto the screened porch and corral them until everyone could get into position.  We let the little ones start first, followed by the older kids.  That ways everyone could get a chance to find some.  It still makes me a bit amazed that my boys are now both considered among the big boys-it happens so fast.  So, the kids flew out into the yard, and in no time, the Easter eggs were whipped up into their baskets which were soon overflowing.  Ian and Gramps were proud of some of their more creative egg hiding spots that took the kids a little longer to find, but before long all of the eggs were found (except for the two that Gram found months later while gardening).

After all the eggs were found, then the trick was trying to keep all of the little munchkins from eating all of their contents.  Of course, we let the boys have a few pieces of candy (and I think the little devils might have snuck a few more while we weren't looking).  We finished up the party with some delicious cake and chocolate milk, yum!  It's such a great tradition and the kiddos always have such a great time!

The rest of the Easter weekend was equally fun.  One of the highlights was definitely the recurrence of the marshmallow milano cookie sheep that we just had to make again.  It all started with some innocent marshmallow sheep construction and ended with the sheep doing inappropriate things and then being devoured in one bite by some hungry people.

It was a lovely weekend, and we returned home refreshed and ready for our journey to St. Louis over the next week, but more on that later...Happy Easter!

(handsome Easter egg hunters)

(Waiting is the hardest part.)

(and he's off)

(Benny searches for stragglers.)

(the sheep building party)

(and, yes, this was the best we came up with.)

(I think the sugar was getting to them!)

(poor sheep)

(The whole weekend just wore the poodle out!)

Bracketology

I always love when March Madness rolls around.  I grew up not really caring about college basketball even though my parents were die hard Jay Hawks.  However, after going to several seasons of Duke basketball at Cameron Indoor Stadium including the ticket campout, I've been converted into a fan.

I always like filling out my bracket for the big NCAA tournament, but not knowing much about most of the teams in the tournament, I never do that well.  Plus, with Duke making some early exits in the tournament in the past few years, they haven't helped my success rate.  Last year, I even got my immediate family in on the fun.  I signed us all up for the ESPN online bracket challenge and we filled out our brackets online to see who would do the best.  Not sure who won last year, except I know it wasn't me, but I was ready for this year.  I filled out the bracket, picked Duke to win in a gesture of loyalty and hoped for the best.

The boys were finally old enough to get in on the fun this year.  I found a website where you could print out brackets with big pictures of the mascots on it, and the kids could pick the winners that way.  The boys loved filling them out and then seeing who won.  They did make some unorthodox picks, especially Benny.  Evan paid more attention to the numbers and usually picked the higher seed.  They got really interested in the tournament and it was fun watching them pick and then cheer for their teams in all of the games.  Best of all, they were both rooting for Duke.

Lo and behold, at the end of the day, Duke actually won it for us this year, so I came out on top of the family bracket competition, and the boys were thrilled.  We're looking forward basketball season again next year!

(The boys make their bracket picks.)