Summertime photos

In a grand run-up to the Fourth of July, we attended a pretty spectacular barbeque and fireworks party thrown by a friend who owns a big splash of property just outside of town.  The kids had the time of their lives running through the grass, jumping on the trampoline (which led to the loss of one of Emerson's front teeth), catching frogs, and riding four wheelers.  But the best part of the night was when the awesome fireworks show was complemented (and possibly upstaged) by an almost supernatural lightning show.  Between that and all the fireflies, it was a pretty twinkly night.

A festival up at Aaron's university had some great activities for the kids, inculding a chance to try out all the instruments.  It's now on our list to get Theo playing trumpet, and some of the other kids playing violin one of these days.  When we have more money, apparently, because music lessons are expensive!

Then Aaron went out of town, and we had fun!  I promise it's his terrible timing, not me celebrating his absence!  The Three Rivers festival took place in his absence, and to keep us all from wrecking the house, I took everyone to as many activities as I could each day.  This is the kids at a big activity they held at the Botanical Gardens, with crafts and activities including a ride on a giant bouncy slide.  So.  That was a hit, obviously.

One of my favorites was the cookie contest held at a local baking store.  Addy's was pretty impressive--I thought she might win (she didn't).  Emerson's was a pile of as many toppings as he could fit.  He likes the food, that one.

My favorite might have been the Harry Potter movie debut (which sadly we couldn't even see until Aaron got back, because a) movies cost way too much to take everyone, b) it was at midnight, and c)Aaron would have killed me if I went without him, even though he hasn't read the books.  Instead, there were a bunch of activities held at the mall the afternoon before the premiere, so we attended all of those (including the free dinner if you wore a Harry Potter costume), and ended up with our faces splashed all over the newspaper the next day.  Well, we do love Harry Potter.

Which leads me to the Harry Potter baseball game, played by the TinCaps, that happened the next week.  Luckily Aaron made it for that one, though sadly the TinCaps lost--practically their only loss of the season.  Apparently the Death Eaters were in the house.

And . . . a trip to King's Island in Cincinnati rounded out our mostly local "staycation" this summer.  Theo and Aaron had the guts to try out the super-high Diamondback roller coaster, all but the little kids got to ride The Beast, which is apparently the longest wooden roller coaster in the world.  It was really fun!  We split the rest of our time between a few thrill rides that the big kids were tall enough to go on, and the ever-enchanting kiddie world.  It was probably the highlight of the summer for the kids, not quite as much for Aaron and I, who could stand to skip the pricetag next year. 

Haha, here's an update of the picture we took at the King's Island drinking fountains two years ago.  Our kids have grown!  Sera couldn't even reach it last time.  Also, they apparently repainted (see the picture at the bottom of the blog).

And finally, the week before school started, we got to attend the American Idol concert out in Columbus with the older kids.  It was a super-fun night that I hope those kids will always remember.  What an amazing journey for those contestants, from average Joe to lighting up the stage in a production like that!  Theo and Addy were hilarious throughout the night, teasing each other about which contestants the other "liked."  Oh, what joys we have in store for us!

May and June pictures!

Okay, so picture catch up for May and June.  Look quick, because I'm going to change the date in a few days to make things all chronological and stuff.

Emerson's class held a fantastic Mother's Day brunch for their moms.  The beautiful tissue paper bouquet Emerson made me is still displayed in our front bathroom.  Here he's squinting at something (probably food he wishes was located in his mouth) from beside his friends from church, Isaac and Jensen.  How lucky is he to have those two both in his church class and his school class?

I am not a good scout mom.  However, Theo had a marvelous time with his friends at the Pinewood Derby.  They are a fun(ny) bunch of boys!

I only got to accompany Addy's class on one field trip this year (they actually only had one), but we had a great time at Science Central.  Here she is with her best bud, Eliza.

The awesome visit we scored from my mom and her husband Don deserves way more mention and way more pictures (most of them taken with my mom's camera--she's a great photographer, and aparently much more seasoned and organized about it than I am) than I'm including here.  One of our favorite outings was going to the zoo, where the kids thought they were in heaven carrying around big cartons of popcorn that seemed to magically refill, and getting a chance to ride on some of the fun rides that our fun little zoo offers.  Such a fun day!

Theo had the birthday of his life, this year.  He scored a movie camera, a Spy Gear safe he's been coveting for a while, some mechanical pencils, duct tape, and an old-school Jackson 5 CD.  He's come a long way this year, and we're proud of him for the transition he has made to a new school and the good friends he's made there.

He had a Harry Potter birthday party, and this is my attempt at Hogwarts castle with a Quidditch field out back. 

He invited ten friends to a sleepover party (his first), and to my surprise (horror), they all came.  I jest though, the party actually was so much fun, aside from the fact that nobody got much sleep.

I have about twelve of these cute pictures of Emerson helping Sera learn how to ride his "old" two-wheeler with training wheels.  Can I just say that Emerson is exactly the big brother I always wished I had when I was growing up?

I don't think it's possible to say too many times how much I love our yard, and how it neigbors a big open field for the kids to play on.  They love getting out there to play all sorts of things, from baseball to frisbee to kickball.

Aaron had so much fun planning this trip up to Battle Creek Michigan for the Blue Angels air show.  The one drawback was that it fell on a wickedly hot day.  We sat under our umbrellas in the sun watching the cool stunts for hours, but had to take breaks every now and again to cool off in the funny little tents where people were selling everything from investment schemes to cookware.  It's also possible that I complained a little (a lot). 

Lots of zoo visits (ah, the joys of membership).  We love that place!

Summertime and the livin' is . . . not as easy as you might expect

Oh good glory, it's time to get back on the blogging bandwagon. Surprise! Too much has happened to fit it all in. So instead of blabbing about it (you loved the blab last month, admit it!), I'm doing pictures. It's about freaking time, isn't it? I'll break it down into smaller posts to accomodate those with smaller brains (okay, that's mostly me, because seriously is not moving photographs around to get them in the right order not the most complicated thing?).

So, to start us off, we have a random summer kick-off party at a spray-pad:

We also went to the zoo and camping, where we (thankfully, I gotta tell you) didn't take many pictures:

There was a concert on the beach where we went camping--fun night! Wait, what am I saying "fun night?" My actual exact thought that night was "if I had to pick just one day of my life to relive over and over and over again, this would be the day." It was an absolutely perfect night. We hauled our chairs and blankets down onto this hillside that sloped down to a lake and listened to patriotic music played by the Fort Wayne Phil (we were about an hour out of town). A whole bunch of boats pulled up to the shore and the music was piped out to them as well. One thing I noticed and loved was that nobody seemed to have brought any alcohol with them! It was just one of those nights that was so good that nobody was even interested in that. Anyway, the final strains of music seemed to call the fireflies to life, and as everyone packed up to leave, they were everywhere, thousands of them! The kids were chasing them and catching them and letting them crawl up and down their arms with their little bums flashing green and yellow, and I don't think I said very many words, but my heart swelled until it just about popped listening to the sweet conversations of love between the kids and their dad and random people we just started chatting with as we hiked back up to our campsite. So yeah. That was the day I want to relive.

On to the next post.

To Theo at Ten

Dear Theo,

I'm afraid I'm slowly growing less cool in your eyes this year, which makes me a little sad.  But whatever else you might be, you're just as much my little potato now as you were when you were actually the same size (okay maybe a little bigger) as a little potato. You've done a great job transitioning to a new school this year, and I'm proud of the friends you've made (thanks for letting us meet them at your birthday party!).  Every year you get better at reining in your emotions, at working things out on your own, and at seeing the world through the eyes of others--at least a little bit. 

Some of my favorites about you right now are:

• You have an unholy obsession with duct tape.  It was pretty cute when it started--nice wallets, by the way.  The shoes, however?  With laces and real soles (cut from another pair of your shoes)?  I'm interested to see where this goes.
• I seriously can't believe you figured out how to play the Diary of a Wimpy Kid theme on the piano.  It's hard!  And syncopated!  This may be why it's so hard for me to feel like I can teach you anything anymore.
• You do fantastic voices.  I hope you pursue this dream of yours to take up some acting--heaven knows you can do drama, and your vocal imitation skills are pretty spectacular.
• I love seeing you with big fat books!  I'm so glad you've embraced my love of all things Harry Potter this year, and I can't wait to see the last movie with you!
• You can memorize just about everything.  I sort of love that your most recent memorization is We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel.  Of course, I can't tell you how much I like Billy Joel or it would probably completely wreck it for you.
• You make us laugh!  On purpose, every day.  Of course, often we have to nudge you away from the rather prevalent potty humor.  But still.  You're a funny kid!
• I love the conversations we can have now.  You've learned how to think about things from more than one perspective, and you're just an interesting person to talk to!
• Your room . . . has been looking cleaner.  It's like that episode of Hoarders that I made you watch a while back actually sunk in.  Who knew you could keep things in order?
• I know your competitive spirit will take you places one day!  I do wish it didn't take you to Troubletown with me so often, though.
• You're one of the better ten-year-old cooks I know.

We wish you the best in the coming year, Theo!  I hope tweenagerhood is mostly good times for you!

Love, Mom