Another school year came and went with great stories, great students, and tearful goodbyes. No summer would start off right without some typical end of the year celebrations. This year was no different, as we enjoyed our usual dinner at the local Italian restaurant, Acero, with great food and even better company. It was tough to say goodbye to my seniors, as it is every year, but they are a great group of people who will do great things in life. 

With school out of the way, summer turns into full-on dad mode. While mom continues to work throughout the summer, I have the pleasure of keeping both of the kids entertained and out of each other's hair. Unfortunately, this summer started off with a two-week period of one or more people in the family sick. Not a fantastic way to begin the summer. Once we all recovered, it was time to get out of the house. I like to at least try to get the kids out of the house every morning during the week to keep me and them from going stir crazy. If it is not too hot, we like to do things outside around the St. Louis area, but there are plenty of good indoor locations to hang out for free when the weather does not cooperate. Play areas in malls make a perfect last minute destination! The slideshow below highlights a few of the fun things the kids and I have done so far this summer.

Melissa and I also got some time together (and a whole trip, but that's for another post), when we experienced the special Thursday night dinner and paddle boat date offered by the Boathouse at Forest Park. We had a fantastic and relaxing time and the weather was absolutely perfect. I would totally recommend this experience if you live in the St. Louis area. The total cost is $80, which includes two hours of paddle boat rental, as well as dinner and drinks. You can find more information about the date night here.

Shockingly, I even have had a little bit of time to work on some of my own hobbies and interests, most of which you can see in upcoming posts on my other blog page, Mini Scale, but while the kids were doing gymnastics camp for three days I worked on building and painting this game crate for my Fireball Island board game. The original box is pretty terrible and does not hold all the components well, so I got the crate pictured below from The Broken Token. The project did not take a lot of work and it was a great way to spend some very rare moments of pure alone time.

Here's to an equally great second half of summer!

This past weekend was an annual event here in St. Louis at the St. Louis Art Museum. Every year on the first weekend of March the museum puts on a show called Art in Bloom, where artists draw from a curated list of works in the museum to create interpretative floral arrangements. I have heard about this event from many friends and colleagues over the years but have not attended one until now. As of last summer, we are now museum members so we were able to avoid some of the crowds by going to a special members-only time on Saturday morning. We even made it a whole family event! I have included my two favorites below with some explanation of them. I probably would have taken more pictures, but I left my phone in my coat pocket in the coat check room. Perhaps I was able to enjoy them better that way.

In this picture you can see both the original artwork and the floral interpretation. I loved this piece for its reference to Classical sculpture, as well as the ingenuity in the floral arrangement to match the shape of the original sculpture. The color choice of the flowers also made the piece very striking.

My other favorite arrangement was the above piece based on an ancient Maya glyph. Once again, my taste for ancient sculpture plays into my choice, but I feel like the artist very clearly captured the essence of the Maya glyph. I particularly like the branches sticking out, as it gives the piece a feel of exploring through the brambles in the jungle and stumbling on an ancient piece of art.