Thanksgiving

I am bound and determined to keep up this blog. More time passes each time I blog. This time it was August. Since I started a blog in 2006 the longest I ever went was about a month. If noone else but myself looks at this, I like to keep it up to remember all the events and things our family has done. So I think things are looking up and we can get back into life again. Thanksgiving was great. Lots of laughter and good times. Getting together with them is great, good for the soul that is for sure.

These are the photo cards that we sat at each place setting. They had to guess who's picture was who, which was fun. The kids always love spending time with cousins and we have a few events set up for the next few weeks, so this will be a month full of family and of course good times.

God is good!

Elena's 7th Birthday

Summertime Pals

Each year it seems our yard is the place to be. Most days I love it. I am a bit protective of my kids so I would rather have the friends here to play. So these days on average I have around 8 kids here. I often joke that I run a free daycare. Each summer it seems to change just a bit. With apartments in the area kids move in and move out so I try to snap some pics so the kids remember who they played with that year. Of course summer is in the final lap and I am already looking forward to quieter days....

A day at the river with the family

A great afternoon down a Blue Bridge with the family. We could of stayed the whole day - we stayed most of the afternoon!

A visit with our friend Michelle

Last week I got in the car and drove. A first for me. I have never honestly taken my kids by myself in a car more than an hour away. So we drove almost 3 1/2 hours to visit my friend Michelle, who moved a few years ago and I keep saying we will visit, so we finally did! And I am so glad that we spent time together. The kids really don't remember playing together, but were instant friends. We have 7 kids literally they are ages 8,7,6,5,4,3 and 0 but for the most part they played so well together you never would of known. We caught up, I got to meet some of her girlfriends and we had a girls night in which was so nice. We went to the movies and a block party and a park, and it went to fast. But it was so nice to catch up and it will be nice when we get to see them again even if briefly here the beginning of August when they come up to visit.
So now when we get in the car if I haven't told Natalie where we are going she asks if we are going back to miss Michelle's. She had such a blast. Thanks Michelle!

Gymnastics

I attempted to put Elena in Gymnastics when she was younger, but she was a little bit stubborn. I cannot believe this post was over 3 years ago! When I just started blogging. So when I signed Natalie up for Gymnastics, Elena wanted to also. They did great! Natalie is a natural. She was nervous at first as she is my quiet observer. She doesn't jump into anything, but once she saw one of her friends from cubbies was with her, she had a great time. The bar is her favorite, she has turned everything she comes into contact with a pull-up bar. The counter, the table, the racks at the store, coat racks in waiting rooms, oh do I have a monkey on my hands!Elena had her class immediately after Natalie's and was always so hot and worked up by time it was her class. She quickly made friends with a daughter of her dad's high school friends, so that was great. Bonus, a new friend that we already know the parents! YAY! We don't have many school friends that I trust that she go play with yet.She is a natural flipper and jumper. Such a strong little girl, this was a great way to get her energy out.

Last Day of School - Time for Summer!

Of course I am behind with this post. The last day of school was June 4th. We are almost 2 weeks into summer vacation, it seems like we have just had one obstacle after another and haven't really begun to enjoy summer yet. Hopefully this week will bring changes to that and we can start having some fun!

So now we have a preschooler, a first grader, a third grader and a sophomore in high school! AHH! No more babies at home. :(

Here are Ethan and Elena on the last day of school this year.

Ethan's First Indians Game

On Memorial day we decided to take the boys to the ball field and Although Jason took an interest in ball at age 2, Ethan is just now getting into the game and we thought he was finally ready to go to the big league. The boysEthan was all smiles as he checks out the view of the field. So much excitement!Jason- who I cannot believe is finishing up his freshman year of high school!! What a handsome kid:)

Ethan anxiously waiting for nachos.He did good. For as antsy as my little man is, he stayed with what was going on with the game pretty good. Of course there were 1000 seagulls bombarding the place so he was easily distracted by them flying right in our face! (I was a bit distracted by them as well!)We didn't stay for the whole game, we left when the score was 10-2. Indians were not winning, of course we are bad luck so once we left they came back with a win! That is the story of our life.

Art Show and Open House

The kids school had their annual art show and open house this year. My kids love art, so they were excited to go and show off their projects they have worked hard on this year. Elena absolutely loves school and even though she loves summer too, she is so sad to see the school year ending. We went into her classroom and she showed me EVERYTHING they do. She went through each station and gave a full and complete explanation of what they do at each. She is so clear in her explanations, she will make a good teacher some day. Ethan wanted to find his art work and go home. Here he is pointing to his which is the brick house at the top.Elena's first year for this, her pic is the kid with the bubbles.

Ethan's teacher also had a slide show to watch. They went to the museum of natural history for a field trip and they had the pics to share. I really like his teacher this year, I am sad to see her retire this next year, so I won't be able to request her for the girls.

International Museum Day

Two weeks ago it was International Museum day. In the next county over, they had free day to many of the local museums, In Sandusky they had free trolley rides between stops and boat rides too. Ethan was kind of in the midst of a cold, just getting over a fever, so we didn't want to overwhelm him. We planned on starting in Milan and going from there. We started at the Milan Historical Museum. I love to sort through these old artifacts and think about how different life was back then. Makes you so appreciative of the lives we are fortunate enough to be living today. They had period outfits that the kids could try on to be photographed in, but mine would have nothing to do with that. Ethan did try on the hat.The dollhouse museum, Natalie was interested and a little frightened. (I was too) Some of the dolls were a little scary. Elena thought this detailed doll house was very interesting. She took some time to check it outThe girls observed a child's playroom set for a tea party.Outside the Merry Go Round MuseumThere were some pretty neat looking carousel horses and figuresWe got to take a ride on the big Merry go round which was the highlight of the dayA wood carver was busy whittling away at the wood creating a carousel horse for a raffle.We stopped for coffee and the kids got a kick out of these geese next to us.At the Maritime Museum they learned how to tie different types of knots.Natalie traces the paths that the ships would follow on Lake Erie.

It was an interesting and Educational day for us all. Ethan was beat, so we didn't continue on to any more that day, but hey a day with the family and all free. Sounds like a perfect day to me:)