We've had a birthday....

...shout hooray!  We have a lot of birthdays in July in our family.  Add grandma and two cousins that live close and we are eating cake all month!

Ella turned eight!

One of our kid's favorite birthday traditions is breakfast in bed.   They look forward to that almost more than presents.  And the fact that I will buy them a box of their favorite sugar laden cereal, makes it super easy on me.  Ella was up early waiting for breakfast!

 Dad got to bring it up before leaving for work.  She had cereal (apple jacks), fruit and hot chocolate!  (yes, it has been 95 degrees here!)

They also get one gift to open in the morning.  Ella loves this game on the ipad, and was dying to have it for her DS.

A note on her birthday shopping.  I had of course procrastinated until the last minute and expected to have all day Saturday to shop alone and find the perfect gift.  What's that saying about the best laid plans?  Marc ended up having football coach training all morning and then a surgery after that.  There was something going on that night that I wanted to do so when 2pm rolled around and I hadn't done any shopping, I took matters into my own hands.  I loaded all the kids in the van and we went to Toys R Us. I texted Marc and told him to meet us there.  We walked around the store and I told Ella she could put anything in the cart that she wanted for her birthday and then after Marc picked them up, I just put most of it back and kept what I hoped she would really love.  It worked out great.  All her shopping was done in about an hour!

A wonderful visitor brought donuts!

She went to our favorite pizza place for lunch with dad!  (another birthday tradition)

 We also planned a friend birthday for later in the week, but one of Ella's friends from school couldn't come, so she went there to play in the afternoon.  Her friend actually had a mini party for her complete with cupcakes and a Happy Birthday banner.  It was really cute!

While she was gone we made a banner of our own.  It's great to be eight!

Family party was that night.  We made some delicious pizzas (yes, she did have pizza twice in one day!) on the grill and then a little party.

 Ella's friend birthday party had a plants vs. zombies theme.  Here are her friends that came.

Happy Birthday Ella!  We love you so much!

Two weeks later...

..here is my post about the 4th of July.

Not far from our home is the Little Miami Bike Trail.  We have heard that it is about 75 miles long and runs along the river where railroad tracks once were.  We snagged one of the teenagers from church to sit with Rylee and took the other four down for a family bike ride.

 We had been down there before, but hadn't ever made it to Loveland where there was rumored to be a snow cone stand.  Sarah was a newbie at the two-wheeler thing but she did a great job.

It ended up being about 4 miles from where we parked to Loveland and sadly the snow cone stand wasn't open yet.  It was only about 10:30 in the morning.  So we rode the four miles back to the car and stopped for an icee on the way home.  It was a great way to start the day.

We also spent the afternoon at my brother's home for good food, a sometimes not so friendly game of kickball and some fireworks.  His neighbor must have spent a truckload of money because it was an impressive show, but you'll have to use your imagination for this part because I forgot to take pictures!

Rockin' with Kenny

Rylee turned 14 this past week!  Yikes!  How did that happen?

Marc and I really struggle to find gifts for her that she will like.  Lucky for us Kenny Chesney, Uncle Kracker and Billy Currington were in town the week before her birthday.  So we went!

Rylee really liked Uncle Kracker and Billy Currington.  Kenny Chesney played a lot of his new songs that she didn't know so she didn't seem as excited for him.

I had a great time listening to the music and watching the crowd!  Wow!  I think Billy Currington's song is right...people are crazy!

Garlock Reunion Part 2

We spent a lovely day at Niagara Falls.  What an amazing place that is and we didn't even see it from the Canadian side.

 We did, however, get on the boat, the Maid of the Mist that takes you up close and personal with those falls.  The captain of the boat takes you to the bottom of horseshoe falls and parks you there.  I asked why he sat there so long and Marc said that is what we paid for.  Rylee loved it!

 After we got off the boat, the kids wanted to go up these stairs that go right next to the American Falls.  Rylee and I watched from below.  They are waving at us in this picture below.

 They were completely drenched when they came down, but all smiles.

 We walked over to a little island next to the Bridal Veil Falls.  It amazed me how close you are to that water.

We had briefly considered not going up to Niagara at all.  It was 3 1/2 hours from where we were staying and we weren't sure it would be worth it having heard that it is so much better from Canada and while it may be, we had a GREAT time!

 I guess it was pretty tiring getting pushed around in the stroller all day long!  This is Mary about 10 minutes into the drive home.

 We also went to Amish country which the kids said was BORING.  I kept pointing out all the little kids that were out working in the yard or helping out in some way.  I got a lot of eye rolling from the back!  This is the only picture that I took!

 I think my favorite part of the week was that our cabin was directly across the street from Beth and Doug's cabin and the kids played constantly. 

 Sarah Margaret with her namesake, Great Grandma Margaret.   She is a crack-up!

We had a great time Garlocks.  Can't wait for 2013!

Garlock Reunion 2011

I was at the pool yesterday with one of my neighbors and we were talking about how annoyed we are by  all the electronics that our kids want to play all day long.  She mentioned that even when her boys have friends over, they want to sit side by side and play video games.  Then this morning as I was looking through reunion pictures, I discovered that the first picture I took that week was this...my son and Dillon sitting on the couch playing their DSes side by side.  

We enjoyed a wonderful week at Punderson State Park up near Cleveland with the Garlocks (Marc's mom's family).  This gathering happens every two years but this is the first time we have been able to go since 2001.  And we were SO pleased that it was an easy 3 1/2 hour drive from home!  

One of our first activities was planting a tree in memory of Gordon Garlock, the patriarch of the family.  This is Marc's uncle Rick sharing some thoughts about this.

 Diana's descendants that were able to come.   Marc's sister Taryn and her husband Jason came from Denver.  The kids just love Uncle Jason (he took them on a nature walk) and he took some great pics of our kids!

 An ad lib dinner theatre as we waited for lunch to be ready!

 We spent a day in Kirtland seeing some of the historical sites of our church.  The kids played checkers at the N.K.Whitney store.  The checkers are slices of corn cobs!  They actually stacked the corn cobs in towers and knocked them down.

 My girls made some new friends in Uncle Pat's daughters 

 We had a lot of rain (shocking for Ohio this year, I know!) but never a day that was a total wash out.  And it wasn't too hot, which was great!

 Our family at the ashery.

 Mary and Tyler, AKA Captain Jack, Indiana Jones...I really never knew who he was at any given time! 

 I asked the kids to pose on the steps of the Kirtland temple.  Mary may have been getting tired!

 Up next Niagara Falls and Amish country.