News – The Spencer Family Web Page

The Duck Egg

Margaret Spencer — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 15:17:09 +0000

On Easter Sunday Dad walked outside to drink his coffee. When he turned around to go back in he saw a duck sitting on a nest. Dad saw an egg underneath her. A couple hours later the duck was not there, so we took the egg and incubated it. A few weeks for now we might have a baby duck.

This is the makeshift incubator.

Kit the chick

Margaret Spencer — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 19:04:21 +0000

When we got Kit we immediately liked her! And she liked us!
She climbed all over Amelia. Kit likes to come in the house and be held. When we put her down she chirps loudly. She is the best chick we have had!

April 12 – Easter Egg

Amelia Spencer — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 23:23:36 +0000

This morning, after waking up to an Easter Egg hunt, Dad found another egg outside. This one had been laid by the mama duck that walks around our neighborhood. We decided that we would take the egg inside and put it in a makeshift incubator after realizing the mama duck wouldn’t be returning for her egg. We should be able to see if there is any baby inside of the egg in 7-10 days.

The duck with her egg

The incubator

The log we are using to keep track of when to turn the egg

April 7, 2020 – Quarantine Log

Amelia Spencer — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 23:57:24 +0000

Today Margo graciously allowed me to have a mini photoshoot of her in our backyard. She had just been running through the sprinkler, and made a perfect model.

Thursday, April 2 – Quarantine

Amelia Spencer — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 19:28:19 +0000

Today, after spending a lot of time with my school work, I practiced playing my guitar. I was working on trying to play chords. I cannot currently play a song other than the ones we are working on in my school band, but I am working on it.

Wednesday, April 1 – Quarantine

Amelia Spencer — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 19:26:46 +0000

Today I practiced my violin outside, and continued researching Resin jewelry. I was planning on actually making something today but found problems with the plants I was going to put in the jewelry. My plan is to find decorations to put into the resin rings, necklaces and earrings.

Cake

Will Spencer — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:51:47 +0000

I just made a St. Louis gooey butter cake. It’s delicious!

Baking

Will Spencer — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 18:07:55 +0000

I have been baking. Breakfast is my specialty. I have made pancakes, waffles, bacon and eggs, cinnamon biscuits, sweet rolls, and a quick chocolate cake, all from scratch!

These are the cook books I have used.

Crayons!!

Margaret Spencer — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 17:56:30 +0000

I got new crayons! And they are Beautiful!

Thanksgiving ski trip to Keystone

dave — Sun, 27 Nov 2016 03:31:13 +0000

We spent Thanksgiving in Keystone, CO, this year with our friends the Duncavages. Although there wasn’t too much snow (there were only a couple runs on the mountain open, unfortunately), we still skied and enjoyed some hot tubbing. We also had a great Thanksgiving feast, complete with turkey, pies, cakes… you name it. We didn’t take many photos, but the ones we have are pretty good. The highlight was getting Margaret on skis. She was a great sport, and really caught on to it. Check out the video, its pretty great!

Eventful Memorial Day Weekend

lindsay — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 03:31:04 +0000

There was more than one to spend Memorial Day weekend this year.

Option 1: On the Pantazis farmette, spending time together, enjoying the great outdoors, and butchering chickens.

Option 2: At Alderbrook Resort in WA, spending time celebrating Chris’ 40th birthday, enjoying the great outdoors, and drinking wine.

I can say, without a doubt, everyone enjoyed the weekend.

Grandma Shirley Comes to St. Louis

lindsay — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 03:17:46 +0000

We love having visitors!! My grandma Shirley has traveled all over, lived in 20+ different homes, but prefers driving as her mode of transportation. Much to our delight she took the 4-hour flight out to see us, along with my aunt Karen and aunt Carla. We showed them the highlights of our city: a Cardinals baseball game, barbecue, the history museum, and some time just cooking together and enjoying the backyard in great spring weather. Maggie will tell you she loved having “the grandmas” here:)

I chose the game where we’d all get Yadier Molina jerseys.

Maggie took advantage of having grandma all to herself when the big kids were at school. She talked constantly and always had a suggestion for something to do.

I love you grandma.

Laura and Ian’s Wedding – Island Style

lindsay — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 03:04:03 +0000

Laura and Ian got married this spring! We were able to make a long trip out of it, first heading to Eatonville for a few days and then up to Orca’s Island for all the wedding festivities. It was perfection to say the least. Naturally, food took center stage, it is a Spencer event. Oysters, salmon, baked goods, homemade wedding cake, just thinking about it makes me hungry! Laura and Ian planned a wonderful getaway for everyone where we could all exercise, a run to start the wedding day, and relax with several opportunities to sauna. Amelia is writing all about it for her 5th grade personal narrative. I will have to post it as it will be much, much more descriptive than mine.

The kids loved exploring the resort and took no time getting into the water, they are crazy awesome!

Amelia tried her first oyster.

The lovely bride,

The handsome groom,

And their wedding party.

Chicago

lindsay — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 02:38:04 +0000

In February we spent a long weekend in Chicago with Mark, Faith, and Jonathan. It was a blast! We took advantage of the spectacular museums, went to an interactive showing of The Princess Bride for Valentine’s Day, ice skated in Millennium Park, and the highlight – going to Jonathan’s high school performance of “Bye, Bye Birdie”. Seven months later (I’m way behind on website updates) and the kids are still singing “we love you Conrad, oh yes we do…”. We are looking forward to doing it again in 2017. Thank you Mark and Faith!!

Seattle skyline at the Museum of Science and Industry

Ice skating in Millennium Park

The famous “Conrad”, Maggie was star-struck!

“Will and Margaret are being maniacs”

lindsay — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 02:48:51 +0000

There’s a little drama/Harry Potter spell casting in the Spencer house, regularly.

Keeping up with Maggie

lindsay — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 02:40:23 +0000

There are so many hilarious “Maggie phrases”, conversations, and mannerisms, if only I would write them down more often! Here are a few that I can recall tonight.

When Maggie wants to share a secret with someone she will say “I have to whisper”. Then she puts her ear directly next to yours and speaks in a whisper while facing away from you. This is extremely hard to hear and absolutely darling.
Due to too many uneaten and complained over dinner times, we’ve instituted a new monthly menu schedule. (The jury is still out on whether the little kids are eating any more dinner but there does appear to be a little less complaining.) In February the Monday night menu included eggs. On a Monday night Maggie came into the kitchen. I told her we were having eggs. She said, “I don’t like eggs. I’ll have a banana and you can call it an egg,” and left before I could respond. She’s a quick one!
Maggie understands the progression of her upcoming school career. She recently told me “after I’m in Ms. Katie’s class I will be in Ms. Rachel’s class. Then I get to go to kindergarten. I can’t wait to be in Ms. Tadrus’ class. I love her.” She might be ready but I’m not.

Merry Christmas

lindsay — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 02:23:59 +0000

This year was one of our quietest holiday seasons. We had planned to spend Christmas at home and then join Anne and Brian in Effingham with Helen and her family. The “winter crud” hit hard on Christmas and Will and Maggie were sick for the remainder of vacation. Luckily Anne and Brian braved the illness and came for a few days to make things more enjoyable for all of us. The Pantazis crew came for a full day of St. Louis fun including the City Museum, lunch out, and holiday lights at the zoo. Here are a few Christmas highlights we actually documented.

Baking Peanut Butter Blossoms, a request from Amelia to honor Grandma Delores.

Christmas Eve, Will is starting to fade a little already.

Opening our packages from Melinda and Mike, our Christmas Eve tradition.

And then this pretty much summarizes the rest of winter break at the Spencers –

SOS Trips – UPDATED

lindsay — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 01:14:54 +0000

Helen and I have decided it’s not too hard to get together midweek from time to time, or that it is essential to do so to maintain sanity…If we both drive 50 miles we can be in beautiful southern Illinois with Faye, Holly, and Margaret, what more could we ask for? I’m going to document these wonderful, hilarious, and life saving trips.

SOS Trip #1 – Tuesday September 1, 2015 at Eldon Hazlet State Park in Carlyle, IL

Helen found a state park 50 miles away for both of us and it was a find! Luckily the pool was still open and we pretty much had it to ourselves. Faye and Margaret swam, we all enjoyed a picnic lunch, and Holly napped. Success!

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Summer-Finale-/i-JMCPnPd/A

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Summer-Finale-/i-ZcNpH8d

SOS Trip #2 – Tuesday September 15, 2015 at Eldon Hazlet State Park (again!)

Why not? This time we took the girls on a little hike at the park, picnicked, and went to the great little creamery, Marcoot Jersey Creamery.

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Summer-Finale-/i-46fXNvw/A

I think this picture captures just how Margaret feels about Faye:

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Summer-Finale-/i-vfjHzJM/A

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Summer-Finale-/i-LGwQwzS/A

SOS Trip #3 – Tuesday January 12, 2016 in Greenville, IL

With winter break over, it was time to get back on schedule. Helen and I needed a get together. Why not Greenville, IL? It’s an hour drive for both of us and all we really knew was that they had a Federal Correctional Institution because you can see it from I-70. We met up at the public library, spread our germs all over the children’s room, and then went to a local coffee shop for lunch.

http://photos.dspencer.net/Published-Galleries/2016/Welcome-2016/i-Hb8D3rs/A

http://photos.dspencer.net/Published-Galleries/2016/Welcome-2016/i-K8xFC3r/A

Holly was recovering from a winter cold, poor girl.

http://photos.dspencer.net/Published-Galleries/2016/Welcome-2016/i-cTtgrM9/A

Faye and Maggie provided entertainment for the coffee shop patrons.

http://photos.dspencer.net/Published-Galleries/2016/Welcome-2016/i-LXSNQtk

When we inquired about other things to do in Greenville besides the library we were told to go to Marcoot Jersey Creamery. So back we went, reliving a stop from our September SOS trip.

http://photos.dspencer.net/Published-Galleries/2016/Welcome-2016/i-jTLsQhb/A

Ice cream on a 20 degree day – success!

SOS Trip #4 – TBD

Happy Halloween

lindsay — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 01:49:27 +0000

Every year we are reminded that Halloween is a big deal in St. Louis. Neighbors decorate their homes, inside and out, adults get dressed up, jokes are shared in order to get candy when trick or treating, and the festivities continue for days! This year Maggie’s school party was Wednesday, Amelia and Will’s parade and party were Thursday, no school Friday, and Halloween finally arrived Saturday. Here are some of the highlights.

The Mark Twain Halloween parade is always great. The kids all walk with their “buddies”, kids they are paired up at the beginning of the year.

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Fall-Fun/i-BJGsrfr/A

It was a beautiful day.

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Fall-Fun/i-8WGs5vk/A

Will is the ninja.

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Fall-Fun/i-wxnZKgx/A

We went to the Science Center’s Spooktacular and met the Ghostbusters!

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Fall-Fun/i-mQ2pCjV/A

We carved pumpkins.

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Fall-Fun/i-qQSx4XN/A

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Fall-Fun/i-73tTsqk/A

And trick-or-treated with friends.

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Fall-Fun/i-tVmrB6H/A

A total success with our cowgirls and ninja for Halloween 2015!

Will is 7!

lindsay — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 17:08:14 +0000

Will has another harvest season and birthday under his belt. This year the birthday celebration seemed to go on and on, much to Will’s delight. In early October we made our annual harvest trip to Iowa City. Will spent the majority of the weekend riding in various farm equipment and enjoying being out with the men.

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Willvs-7th-Birthday/i-hVHTqvS/A

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Willvs-7th-Birthday/i-KH4Gvxt/A

We had a birthday celebration with Gramma Anne, Pop Pop Brian, and Larry.

http://photos.dspencer.net/Photostream/i-nvVj8LR/A

On his true birthday, October 14th, Will chose to go out for ribs and Ted Drewe’s for frozen custard, very St. Louis. It was delicious!

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Willvs-7th-Birthday/i-cqhfwBS

The grand finale was a ninja/karate party with his friends and Vera and Faye. The party included lots of running, jumping, and obstacle courses, pizza, Will cutting his cake with a genuine sword, and breaking a board with his foot. What more could a 7-year old boy ask for?

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Willvs-7th-Birthday/i-hzFfKLq

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Willvs-7th-Birthday/i-tmbRWW2

http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Willvs-7th-Birthday/i-phhpQcd

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http://photos.dspencer.net/2015/Willvs-7th-Birthday/i-vPbZjsf/A