A belated but sappy birthday poem for my little sis

As I think back on the days growing up with my sister

There were times I would have preferred a weeping blister

Over the years we have grown up and live far apart

And now I realize something obvious from the start

She was a actually a friend and I’ve missed her

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TARYN!!

If you're going to write a poem about your sister and the only rhyming word you can think of is blister you should proceed with great caution.

I miss summer!

Over the summer, this is what our regular schedule looked like. Except for a few weeks of swimming lessons, we had lots of time for playing with friends and cousins and spending time together. I remember thinking that in some ways I was excited for school to start so we could get back into a routine. Now I wish it were summer again.Below is our current afternoon regular schedule. This does not include things that come up like Parent-Teacher conferences, department meetings, book club, etc. I think I may have allowed the kids to do too much!

cooler weather.....outdoor fun

We have finally gotten a break from the 90 degree humid days and have been having some fun exploring the outdoors.

Saturday, we didn't have anything until a soccer game at 1 pm so we decided to check out the Loveland bike trail. It is a 70+ mile flat bike trail that follows the Little Miami River. It was a great morning with cool weather and good exercise. We don't have a bike trailer for Rylee so I ran with her in her stroller for a couple of miles and then switched with Marc for the bike and the two little girls. This trail is really fun. I can't believe we haven't taken advantage of it before.
The last couple of Sunday afternoons, we have explored a local park. It is called Liberty park and they have an old military cannon that the kids have had a lot of fun playing on.


Last Sunday we found this poor duck that had obviously lost a fight with someone or something and was missing most of the side of his face and most of his beak. The kids were throwing some bread and it didn't look like it was able to eat. Tanner was really worried about it. He has prayed for it every night since and that was part of the reason we went back today, to see if that duck was okay. We didn't see him so we can only hope for the best.
Some shots of the kids (mostly for grandmas)





I just realized there aren't many shots of Sarah in this post, but rather than try to move the pics around, I will promise pictures of Sarah's first soccer game in the next post.

Firsts

Today was Sarah's first day back at preschool. She has been excited to for school to start since the bigger kids went back to school a couple of weeks ago. She has a different teacher this year (which I think makes her a little nervous) but the same aide (which she is very happy about!).

( *warning...little soapbox moment coming...does anyone else really hate the practice of putting Miss in front of a person's first name and calling them that? Does putting 'Miss' in front of a first name make it a respectful way for a 4-year-old to address an adult? Couldn't a child just as easily learn to call her teacher Mrs. Jones? It bugs me. It makes me miss All Saints in Toledo with Mrs. Stokes.)
Mary just had to be in all the back to school pictures this year.

The other first for today is that for the first time in a little over 13 years, we have no crib set up in our house. sniff, sniff Mary hasn't used the crib since the bunk bed went up so we (and by we I mean Marc) took it apart and moved to the storage room in the basement. sigh

Play me, I'm yours

Here in Cinci last month there was a program called "Play me, I'm yours" in which 30 or so pianos were placed all over town in public spaces. The idea was for regular people to just sit down and play for whoever happened to be sitting nearby. Well, one of the pianos was stationed at a nearby Graeters ice cream shop. So, I thought it would be fun to have Tanner, Ella, and myself go and play the piano and get some ice cream as a reward. We loaded up the kids and off we went. When we got to Graeters there was no piano and I thought we had missed the program. Tanner was quite relieved, and we got ice cream anyway. When I was paying for the ice cream I asked when they took the piano away. I got some confused looks and quickly realized I had come to the wrong Graeters. So, off we went with ice cream in hand to the correct Graeters and found the piano outside as promised. It was a nice friday evening and there was a good crowd outside enjoying their ice cream. Tanner already had his ice cream and could not be cajoled, prodded, or threatened into playing, but Ella bravely sat down and played one of her newer songs and got some nice applause. I also played (it was a sporadic duet with Mary at times) and got some nice applause as well.

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!