Recap

I thought that life would be a little more relaxed once school started. That has SO not been the case.

Last week as a kind of 'last hurrah' before school started and to celebrate that we finally read the Book of Mormon from front to back as a family, we decided to surprise the kids with a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge. We didn't tell them where we were going, just that we had a surprise for them to celebrate. We started with dinner out at the Outback (we had a gift card). I think they were disappointed as they thought this was the big surprise we had been talking about for a week. Then we had to go meet Ella's teacher which was fun because Tanner had him last year and LOVED him. After, we casually drove over to the Great Wolf Lodge and parked. Even as we exited the car, the kids were asking what we were doing there. They were a bit slow to pick up on the real surprise.

When they finally figured it out, they were so excited and after a quick trip home for Ella's swimsuit (oops!), they were excited to hit the water park. (Rylee stayed with grandma.)

Tanner spent a good deal of time trying to master this pool. He said it reminds him of the show Wipeout.

We swam for a couple of hours on Thursday night and all day Friday. We had a hard time keeping up with Sarah.
By mid afternoon on Friday, everyone was fading. We could tell the kids were getting tired. Marc and Ella wanted to do the slides so I loaded Mary and I on a tube and paddled out into the wave pool. After one cycle of waves, she was drooping, and after the second she was out.

She was in such a sound sleep that I was able to paddle out of the wave pool, unwedge myself (literally) from that tube, walk to a chair and remove her life jacket and she never stirred. So funny.

In other news, Marc found out this week that he PASSED his boards! He is now officially a board certified orthopaedic surgeon.

And finally, we celebrated 15 years of wedded bliss this week. I was really excited for our anniversary because I had the perfect gift. I struggle to find good gifts for Marc because unlike me he never says he wants anything (except a purple hippopotamus). But this year, the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing the Cincinnati Bengals on a Monday night in Cincy. Could the stars have aligned better? I think not. I scored some seats and gave him the tickets on Thursday.

First Day

The kids started back to school. Rylee has moved to the middle school which means her bus comes at 6:29! Good thing I like to get up early! I drove her to school since I had been unable to get new brakes installed on her wheelchair in time for the first day of school.
I looked online for some new ideas for back-to-school traditions. I found some fun ones. We started the day with our names spelled out in pancakes. Tanner's was too long for the plate. My mom has a useful tool called a pancake pen which made this breakfast quick and easy.

Tanner is in third grade this year and Ella in second, which in Mason means they get to ride the same school bus again for this year and leave the house at the same time. I asked them to hold up 2 and 3 fingers for their grade level. Apparently it has been a lazy summer for their brains...

Here we go......

Mary just really wanted to be in a picture.
When they got home from school, there were back-to-school sugar cookies to decorate and a survival kit that I had put together. Marc said the survival kits were a big hit. I missed the fun since I was wandering around downtown Cincy trying to find the man who was supposed to put new brakes on the wheelchair.
They had a great first day!

Girl's Day Out

(Imagine that these pictures are further down in this post and that this one is not so blurry!) (I get so frustrated trying to move pictures around in these posts)

The last time I got my hair cut, I realized that my next visit would be just before school started. So I thought, why not bring the girls along and we'll make it a girl's day out. Here we are before leaving the house. I don't think either of them had even brushed their hair at this point.

We stopped at Panera bread for a quick breakfast. Sarah only wanted a smoothie. I swear that girl would eat nothing and drink all day long if I let her.
Ella opted for a chocolate chip bagel.
We then headed over to the salon. Here are the girl's while we were waiting. It's a great before shot, isn't it? Still looks like neither of them had brushed their hair (although they did). I let them decide how they wanted their hair done. Ella opted for the tiniest little trim off the ends. She loves her long hair. Sarah on the other hand went for the drastic change and I think she looks stunning.
After shot....
We had a fun day together and spent the afternoon hanging out with Marc's cousin Beth and her family. We had so much fun in fact that we didn't take a single picture!

I was thinking I didn't really have anything to blog until I looked through the pictures from the last couple of days and realized there was.

Tanner and Ella passed their Yellow Belt test at Karate this week. Neither one of them really likes Karate, but they are having to learn that hard lesson that we finish what we start. Since I am committed to pay for it for 6 months, they are going. They have fun when they get there but getting them there is torturous.
Back in the days of med school, condo living and coin-operated laundry machines, I used to get rolls of quarters at the bank and save the state quarters for a collection someday. I have had a container of quarters on my dresser for at least 8 years. Anyway, Tanner has been looking for some ways to earn money. I told him if he would count and roll all those quarters, he could have 10%. I thought I might have $100 in quarters. Wrong! There was $190 and he scored $19 for a few hours of work. Who knew there was that much money in there. That will make a good dent in the back-to-school shopping.
It is SO hot. Still. We have been swimming so much that the kids are tired of the pool. Today they played in the sprinkler in the back yard. This was how it started.
The next time I looked out the window, I saw they had suspended the sprinkler over the slide and were literally flying down the slide and laughing the whole time.
Tanner said the ring made the landing a little more comfortable.
Not sure why you would need goggles and water wings.
Last night for enrichment, we had a little sewing class. I made this little pillow for the kids to put their teeth in when they lose them. Then the tooth fairy can leave the money in the little tooth pocket. It turned out really cute and the kids are excited to lose some teeth. It was a fun little project. Easy, useful and done in less than an hour.

No sleeping beauty here!

Instead we have a sleeping ladybug,a sleeping giraffe,
and a sleeping wonder woman!

Cincinnati Zoo

We haven't been to the zoo since Christmas time and with a break in the humidity on Friday, we decided to go. We were really spoiled in Toledo because the zoo was only a 5 minute drive away. Here it seems like such an excursion to drive 25 minutes to the Cincinnati zoo.

Right off the bat, the kids found this bird that imitated them when they would make noises and bob their heads. They thought it was hilarious.
I think this was the first time that Mary has been the to zoo and been interested in looking at the animals.
Ollie and Mary kept hitting the glass of this leopard's enclosure and yelling, "Wake up!"
Yes, Madagascar hissing cockroaches. The insect house will definately make your skin crawl.

We always have to ride the carousel.

Go Bananas!

Wednesday lunch this week was McDonalds! (good for the kids, not so much for the parents) and then a trip to Bananas, one of our local indoor inflatable playlands. Our cousins who have been visiting from Japan are leaving next week and they wanted to check it out. The kids had lots of fun jumping and playing (and working off their chicken nuggets!)

Mary was a little timid at first but warmed up quickly.
Sarah is a nut. She has no fear!
After a while the cousins figured out it would be fun to make trains and go down the slides together.

Here are all the cousins that jumped and played. Eliza and Rylee just watched.

left to right- Megan, Ollie, Mary, Ella, Sarah, Monica, Trey, Tanner, Cameron and Calvin

Look what a dollar buys

In the spring, Marc picked up a couple of small kits at the home improvement store which were basically a dixie cup, dirt and some seeds. The kids got them started and I watered them until they started to grow. We planted them on the side of the house which is always sunny and look what we have now. Ella's sunflower is taller than me! Tanner's was originally planted in a less sunny spot and may be a different variety of sunflower. We moved it a few weeks ago and it is doing great. I think it may catch Ella's.

They have had so much fun watching the plants grow. Who says a dollar doesn't buy anything anymore?