Take me out to the ball game...

Last week I took the middle three kids and went down to a Cincinnati Reds game. They were playing the Washington Nationals and so I figured we wouldn't have any problem getting seats. The kids were very excited and Tanner brought his glove "just in case."

So, what was the highlight of the game, you ask? Was it quality time together?

No.

Was it great seats (honestly, there aren't any bad seats in that stadium) with nobody behind us so the kids could run around a little bit? No.

You'll notice Sarah is covering her ears. That is because there were 5 or 6 Cincinnati home runs hit that resulted in a mini fireworks display each time. Was that it? No.

It was this glorious sight that suddenly popped up in front of us like sunshine on a gloomy rainy day.

THE COTTON CANDY LADY!!!!

But then the clouds crashed back in front of the sun when I just couldn't bring myself to spend almost as much on cotton candy as I did on the tickets so I only bought one and split it among the three of them. Ella had been following the cotton candy vendors all over the stadium and by the sixth inning was convinced that they were never going to come over to our section.

But the kids had fun and so did I. I much prefer to watch baseball in the stadium than on TV. Then as a bonus on the way home we stopped and got everybody (mom included) a milkshake, so the evening ended perfectly.

Cincinnati Zoo

Marc took a couple of days off so we are trying to check off the last of our summer to-do list. Marc took Tanner, Ella and Sarah to a Reds game but I will let him blog about that. He is much wittier and creative. Yesterday, we went to the zoo. Ella and I tried on a shirt made to fit an adult gorilla, a 42-inch neck in case you were wondering. We watched a really fun bird show, featuring a bald eagle.

We of course rode the carousel. Sarah is just coming into the picture on the left.

And we rode the train.

The zoo is also a botanical garden and the flowers are so pretty. I had to take a couple of pictures.

A visit from Uncle Scott

My brother Scott has been in town for the weekend. He and his family live in Okinawa, Japan, so it is a rare treat to get to see him. We had fun just hanging out. It seems that his presence brings out some silliness in the kids! They all really think he's fun, especially Ella who has an ongoing discussion about which of the two of them has the most beautiful hair!

Have a safe trip home!

Rylee Rockin' with Rascal Flatts

We found the perfect (late) birthday gift for Rylee. As we were driving home from Gatlinburg last weekend, Marc noticed a billboard for a Rascal Flatts/Darius Rucker concert coming to Cincinnati. Since neither Marc nor I could imagine a more perfect combination to make Rylee happy, and grandma was willing to watch the other kids, we decided to treat Rylee to tickets. We bought lawn seats because we thought it might be too loud for Rylee inside the pavilion. It was a perfect night for a concert. That teeny white speck in the middle of the next picture is Darius Rucker. He was great and even did a few Hootie songs for the us.

I think Rylee liked it!

Great Smoky Mountains

Since Marc couldn't take a long vacation this summer, we decided to spend a few days in Gatlinburg, TN with my brother's family and my parents. The trip started out a little rough with a morning of rain and no electricity (AAAGH, no TV, computers, video games...we were forced to interact!), but it picked up quickly. Here's what we did.

We viewed some fabulous scenery. (Mount Leconte, in case you are interested)We found a great little paved trail and went for a little hike by the river. Remember our whole morning of rain? It made for a rapid river (and a nervous mom!)Why is it so hard to take a family picture?

The next morning, we found a yummy local pancake house in which to stuff ourselves, then boarded this trolley for a trip into Gatlinburg.

We putt-putted.

We found a calmer spot of water where our nervous mother actually let us get our feet wet.

We rode an aerial tram (imagine you and 100+ other people suspended by wire hundreds of feet above mountains and trees...) to a little amusement park.

We slid on boats. And we slid on carts. I think the alpine slide was the highlight.

There were also bumper cars, a giant swinging pirate boat, and lots of other fun. We then got to ride the aforementioned delightful (does the sarcasm convey?) aerial tram back down the mountain. The kids loved it.

We had a GREAT time with our family. We thought you all might enjoy the name of the road that led to our cabin.

Yes, it really does say Boogertown.

So much for a nice relaxing Sunday morning.....

Marc's mom and favorite Aunt came to town Saturday. We spent a lovely evening enjoying some of our favorite Mason cuisine and looked forward to visiting with them more this morning. Just as we finished breakfast, Mary, who has recently learned to climb was left standing on a chair in the kitchen. Sometimes she gets a little bouncy and jumpy. So as she stood on this chair, bouncing and jumping, amazingly, the chair fell. Now this would not be too bad, but the chair happened to be pretty close to Rylee's wheelchair and Mary's chin connected with some part of her chair leaving a nice inch-long bleeding gash. So Marc and I scooped her up, got dressed, left the kids with Diana and Shawn and headed to the ER for some stitches. As we sat waiting for the gel that they applied to numb the area, we noticed that in the fall she also chipped a tooth and somehow bruised her cheek. She hated the papoose board, but quieted down almost as soon as they let me pick her up. Marc approved of the stitches done by the ER doctor, though he did request another one be put in between two that he felt were too far apart. Here is a picture of the wound.

The other kids declared it 'gross' when we changed the bandaid tonight. When we left for the hospital, Ella quickly ran to her room and grabbed one of her high school musical bandaids and gave it to Marc for Mary. So sweet. Here's Mary with her Gabriella bandaid!

All in all, I should be grateful. Falling off a chair and hitting your face on a wheelchair could result in something much worse than 8 stitches and a chipped tooth. We live about 5 minutes from a nearly-new branch of Cincinnati Children's where they were fantastic with Mary. And, this is the first time ever one of our children's has needed stitches (knock on wood!). Thanks Shawn and Diana for taking care of the others so we could both go!

We continued to celebrate Ella's birthday on Tuesday by inviting a bunch of her friends and their families to our neighborhood pool for private pool party. It has felt like we have been celebrating her birthday for weeks, but she has just loved it.

There were about 20 kids that came. Ella said she wanted a pool party and listed a bunch of kids she wanted to come. Marc and I decided we didn't want to be responsible for making sure all the kids didn't drown, so we invited families. It worked out really well because there were kids for everyone to play with.

There were lots of presents. She even scored a Vera Bradley purse! (from one of the neighbors!) And lots of cake and ice cream. Ella loved her party and I hope that it made her feel as special as she is!

We have also checked a couple of things off our summer to-do list the last couple of days. Marc had the afternoon off on Thursday so he took Tanner, Ella and Sarah to Lazer Kraze, a local laser tag place. The kids had a great time and talked about the strategy for next time all the way until bedtime. The vest they had to wear weighs ten pounds. Marc said Sarah did a great job.We also removed Ella's training wheels and about 3 minutes later, this is what we had. She was obviously ready for it. Our practice session was abandoned when she noticed that our backyard neighbors were out on their trampoline.