Lovely Lake Erie

This summer has really been a fun one for our family. I am loving that Natalie is a bit older and we are able to do a little more. So yesterday after watching the weather and seeing a nice warm day and week were ahead of us, we decided to go to the beach. The real beach, ya know with sand and everything? We live so close to the lake, but I am not crazy about all the sand you bring home with you and the constant worry of an undertow with one of the kids - we are more pool people.

So we loaded up the car and had an awesome day. Nice and sunny, nice breeze. We could've stayed longer, but the kids were getting rumbly stumbly and were getting hurt all over at the playground. But while we were there they had a blast!

The water actually was pretty warm. Although it was a breezy day so there were decent waves. That is what made the day for Elena. She spent the day wave jumping.

Natalie wasn't too crazy about the waves. She stayed very shallow and mostly played in the sand.

These rocks when I was younger, we spent the day on them. Laying in the sun, jumping off into the water. That's when it all wasn't so shallow. Now my kids are here playing on them.

There were a bunch of kids there and Ethan joined right in with a few who were digging a hole, Most of his time was spent maintaining the water level in there little pool. Funny.

So we try to make a trip to the beach once or twice each year, Feels good to have done it. The kids were whooped too. No objections to bedtime last night. YAY!

A Day at the Zoo

A few weeks back, we snuck away for the day and headed for the Zoo. Now we bought a membership last year and I thought for sure we would be hanging out there more often. But there aren't many days I feel like spending a few hours in the car with everyone, hee. hee. So I thought I would share a bit from our most recent trip. It was pretty exciting because we had a real good view of the baby polar bear and its momma playing around. This is the first year that Natalie is really into the animals, so I loved seeing her reactions. It was cute because she knew that was a mommy and baby and kept telling us so. "mommy? baby?" then she would point and just laugh. They were wrestling around and pulling each other into the water. Great! Also they had new baby goats out in the children's petting zoo, they were a bit skittish, but Natalie and Elena were determined to pet them!
It was a great day to go, nice and cool - the animals were all out and active.
Miss Elena posing for me.
Grandma Janet came along with us for the day, so the traditional pose by the tigers.
This one was cracking me up, this little girls family was by us, but she insisted on hanging around with us and when I was trying to take the picture, she wasn't moving. Oh well.
Now we are hoping the next few weeks to get out to the other great zoo's we have here.

What a Week!

This past week we had our nieces spend the week with us. After we had gotten almost through the week I realized that I hadn't taken a bunch of pictures, in fact I hadn't even pulled the camera out! It was non stop action around here for the week. We kept ourselves pretty busy. Did manage to get one day in at Valley Beach, had a few picnics, went to a couple parks, Had some "slumber parties" and I think they all had a lot of fun!
It went surprisingly fast and its amazing how after having 5 kids, 6 when Jason was home, 3 doesn't seem like so much:)

T-ball Daze

This is our first year of organized sports. Bill made a rule when the kids were younger that they couldn't play on a team until they were in kindergarten. Boy was I glad to comply with that one! It is hard to keep two young kids occupied while trying to watch one play the game. I couldn't imagine doing this when Natalie was a tiny baby. So far the only sport Ethan wants to play is Baseball. He is really good at it when he can keep his focus on the game. Last night he was last batter up and in the second inning, he hit a home run! It was pretty exciting. So far he likes to play second base the best.

Just a few shots of him warming up and getting ready to hit the field.

I had to catch him in action. Here he is on first base waiting for the next kid to hit the ball. Like the little dance? hee, hee
Miss Elena also briefly got into the T-ball action. At our rec center they offer an introduction to T-ball. You just show up on certain mornings and they divide the kids up and teach them the basics. Since we have been playing T-ball in the back yard, and Ethan was on a team Elena wanted to play her T-ball too. Well she was ready - she had a baseball hat, a baseball glove.- all set.

She did really well in the beginning. She was up to bat first and enjoyed running the bases, but didn't last long in the outfield. She hung on the cone they used for the base, then she laid down on the ground, then she came up to me and told me she was done. This baseball thing takes too long. I think we are gonna push for soccer for this little girl :) A little more action....

Cedar Point

A couple weeks ago, it was a perfect day and Bill had the idea to head over to Cedar Point and check it out.

Now Bill & I haven't been there since before we got married and I was a little leery about taking all the kids. I know others that go often, but I didn't know how much little kid things there were to do. Boy was I surprised! We didn't even ride everything that the kids were able to go on.

It was perfect weather wise. An overcast day high 70's. We got there around noon and stayed for the whole afternoon. Oh it was a blast! Even Natalie turned into a little thrill seeker. Over in Camp Snoopy there are a lot of rides that mom & dad can ride on with the kids and she loved it!

First thing we went on was the space spiral. So we could take a look at the whole park. The kids were amazed by all the rides and things to do.

We spent quite a bit of time in Kiddyland. Elena and Ethan just ran from ride to ride, the minute one would end they would make a plan for the next two rides.

The hot air balloons in camp snoopy spun around and around and went up and down. This was Elena's favorite for the day she rode once with mommy (mommy didn't care much for it) and once with the rest of the crew. (daddy and Natalie didn't like it much either)

While we were in Camp Snoopy, we took in a show. The kids were able to come on stage and sing a song. Here they are singing the Alphabet Song.

What Ethan waited for almost the whole day was his highlight. The Jr Gemini. A little kids roller coaster. I was surprised that Elena wanted to ride also, but they both thought it was pretty awesome.

The one thing I learned about myself that day is that The Big Wheel (ferris wheel) and 3 kids do not mix. We went for a ride and I almost passed out. Trying to keep everyone still. I just knew someone was gonna go flying out of our ride and plummeting 200 feet. Didn't help that Natalie could un do her own seatbelt. Ethan thought it was funny that I had my eyes closed for most of it. Won't do that again...I definitely can see doing this again and again. Great way to entertain the kids and a great idea for mom & dad to go on a date and ride the big coasters! There were so many new things, Bill & I were like little kids pointing out the things we would like to do!

Caught 'Ya!

Little Miss Natalie has figured out where in our house the goodies are, namely the m&m's. Grandma keeps those things on hand all the time and often shares them with her. So the other day I was putting something in grandma's room and didn't even see little miss sneak come in and out. I started to look all around the house for her. I didn't see her when I looked in the living room, but when I started down the hallway I could hear "mmnnnmmmnnmmm" So I knew wherever she was she was into the chocolates. Sure enough, I spy her under the coffee table with a bag of m&m's!! Oh did Grandma get a kick out of this when I told her! Always something to make us laugh!

Independence Day 2007

The 4th of July came upon us quickly this year! The past 3 years we have had a family camping trip and this year we weren't able to schedule it. But we had a great Holiday! I was quite pleased and the kids had a blast too. We started out our day by going to the parade uptown. Our town usually puts on a pretty good sized parade with a little bit of everything. Of course tons of candy for the children. That is really the whole point of going, right? For all the candy! We were supposed to have severe thunderstorms and got through the day with just a sprinkling, YAY! We were invited to friends house for a cookout and they live close to where the fireworks were going to be let off, so we went for dinner and stayed until after fireworks. Really was a fun night. There were a lot of kids so they were all busy and Bill had his friends there so he was busy. Nice time had by all.
Our patriotic kids

Miss Indenpendence herself.
The kids playing and making chalk signs
Our little bug looking for and collecting bugs.
Natalie loved the playhouse and slide!

The fireworks show was a good one although Natalie got scared at first. First time she has ever seen them. Luckily Daddy took her and she fell asleep snuggled up with him.. It was a good day.