All in a Summer Afternoon

The kids made me take a million videos at their last gymnastics session, and they wanted me to put them on the blog.  I may later, but I will spare you all for now!!

They are having a perfect summer day today.  The older two were riding bikes.  Laura loves to ride her bike, but she much prefers at this age to ride on the street.  It makes me a nervous wreck.  I know at her age, I was riding the neighborhood.  In fact, I was sneaking out early in the morning before my parents were awake on weekends to ride my bike around the neighborhood.  We lived in a small village of about 200 people at the time, which I suppose made it a bit safer.  Either way, I only let her ride on the street during non-busy times and when I'm watching.  Call me helicopter, but I've watched too many episodes of Criminal Minds....and the daily news.  I digress.  Hannah is still riding with training wheels, trying to gain confidence and get the ever-elusive balance.  She'll get it soon and then be able to ride with the big kids, which are Laura and the neighbor girl, Aidan.  They are so cute.  The three of them like to ride to the end of the street, which dead ends into the Metro Park.  They hang out along the fence and chat and talk about whatever eight and six year olds talk about these days.  My girls are growing up too fast!!!

We also hunted frogs and cicada shells.  We were much more successful finding cicada shells.  Emma found one little frog.  She let it swim in her pool  before turning it loose.  And we found a bird nest in our apple tree, and the mama bird was sitting on it.  The kids are hoping to be able to see baby birds at some point.  We shall see.  Hopefully the cats don't get them!  We have some pretty avid hunters in the neighborhood.  The baby bunnies earlier in the summer didn't stand a chance.

Hannah and Emma played in the pool this afternoon.  It was fun watching them play "lifeguard."  Hannah had the whistle and would blow it when it was time for break or when Emma was misbehaving, which was like every other second.  Hannah even pretended to rescue Emma a few times.  They also were pretending some imaginary thing with their mermaids.  They were so cute!

Emma's cleaning the pool first

The lifeguard is scolding a "bad" swimmer

The lifeguard is watching a swimmer who is getting ready to run and jump in the pool.

Lunchtime is ferocious!

Last night we got icecream, and Emma has finally graduated from banilla (vanilla).  She now likes strawberry too!

Hannah wants a loom set, like Laura and Aidan.  We went to three stores yesterday looking for the rainbow loom.  We found others but didn't find that one.  I thought she should have the same one as Laura and Aidan so that they could teach her more easily.  So of course Amazon came through, and it will be delivered tomorrow!  She had to pay for part of it herself.  In the meantime, Hannah has been making bracelets with her fingers.  Matt and I are being inundated with rubber band jewelry.  I currently have two bracelets, earrings, and a key chain charm - all in one day!

Laura showing off her earrings

Ja - Nah - Stix

Since I was having surgery this summer, a summer vacation and many of our summer activities couldn't happen.  The girls have been asking for some time to do gymnastics.  So this summer, we signed them up for 11 weeks of gymnastics at a local gym.  I will admit that I have never been too excited about the prospect of them doing gymnastics, mostly because I feared that it would turn into weekends of traveling to meets and start to consume our lives, which is not something to which I am willing to commit.  That said, I have been completely proven wrong.  Gymnastics has been AWESOME for them.  I am completely impressed with the instruction, the strength building, and flexibility they are gaining.  It's been a great thing for our kids, and the icing on the cake is that they LOVE it.

Hannah's cart wheels are getting so much better, and she is really good at the balance beam.  Laura's cart wheels leave something to be desired, but she is improving.  She loves to do things on the trampoline.  Little E is hilarious in her class.  They have her hanging on bars, walking on little balance beams, climbing walls with her legs, bouncing on trampolines and summer-saulting on wedges.  She is about as cute as she can be.

When we first started classes in the beginning of June, Emma called in Shanastix.  And she would correct us when we said it the "traditional way."  Somehow she figured out that it began with a "Ja" sound, and now whenever we say gymnastics, she quickly says, "No, it's Ja-Nah-Stix."  Ok Emma.  Nobody messes with Honeybadger.

I don't have very many pictures yet, so I'll post more pictures and videos in a later post.  :)

 

Raising Money for Cancer and...Ghostbusters

The girls, along with the neighbor kids, had a lemonade and art sale yesterday to benefit the James and Cancer Research.  I am so proud of them.  Laura first cooked up the idea of an art sale.  As usual, she draws and creates pieces feverishly and non-stop.  Laura would rather draw than do anything else.  Sometimes we have to stop her to have her do other things, like read or play outside.  So, it's not a surprise that she wanted to come up with a way to sell her artwork.  She also has the entreprenurial  spririt of her father.  She talked to her friend, Aidan, about it, and she talked to Matt about it.  I'm not sure how the conversations went, but eventually they decided that they would host a lemonade sale with the art sale.  Of course Laura and Aidan's sibs were included, and they all did a fantastic job.  They soared above my expectations!  Anyone who knows me, knows it would have had lemonade, a few pieces of art and would have been short and sweet.  These things are not my cup of tea.  So I give all credit to Matt, our neighbor (who's also a Matt), and the kids!

Enjoy the pictures.

Even E got in on the creation action.

The whole gang

Of course, Mom, got to purchase a piece and pose with the artist.

The kids had a big weekend.  In addition to the art and lemonade sale, they went to movie night at the Keith's.  This is the second time the Keith's have hosted this event.  They had some activities in the early evening, and then when it got dark, they projected a movie.  Last year they projected The Wizard of Oz.  This year it was the original, Ghostbusters.  I didn't go this year, since I just had surgery a little over a week ago.  The kids had a great time!  Apparently, they were a little scared during certain parts of the movie.  But the next morning, they wanted to watch it again.  So they weren't too scared!    

The next morning, Emma kept singing the song, and it sounded like a Russian singing it!  It was hilarious.  "When their something's strange in your neighbor-hoood, who are you going to call?  Ghostabusters!"  It's funny.  She just doesn't use the slang words like "gonna".   Matt and I were cracking up!

Who ya gonna call?

Go, Go, Go

So tired...it's been parrrtayy weekend!  Really the whole week has been go, go, go.  Wednesday we did dentist appointments.  Laura and Hannah each had fillings.  They did really well.  This was H's first time getting a filling, so she didn't really understand the implications of having her cheek numb.  Poor little thing bit her cheek something fierce.  She's been suffering all week as it heals.  Little E did well at her teeth cleaning too.  She follows directions so well there....how can I get that to happen at home :) 

Thursday we enjoyed a nice visit from Tony and Kristin.  We haven't seen them in a long time, and it was good to catch up.  The kids refer to Tony as the Chicken man because during football season when the Buckeyes would score, he did the chicken dance.  Or some version of it anyway.  Life gets so busy that it's good to take time out and re-connect with people again - in person.  We interact a lot with people on the internet, but it's important to connect with people in normal conversation.  We had a little meal that I threw together and then sat and chatted in the living room for awhile.  It was a short but good visit. 

Friday was our annual girls night - weekend at Aunt Ellen's.  We went up Friday and had pizza and icecream and watched Harry and The Hendersons.  One funny thing - when Emma was glitter painting on the sidewalk, Knox, Ellen's dog, decided to take himself on the walk.  Emma started yelling, "Knocky Knocky!!"  She alerted us that he was wandering off.  It was so cute.  Saturday we spent all afternoon at the pool.  It was such a relaxing, fun afternoon!  Hannah practiced her swimming and made some good progress.  She still wears water wings sometimes, and she is working towards retiring them.  They dove for rings and played ball, and Laura went of the diving board.  And Ellen and I sipped Landshark and visited.  It was good, quality time.  Loved it.  Meanwhile Matt had a guy's night Friday with his buds - Dom, Scott, and Andy.  I can't tell you many details except that they had good food at G. Michael's and then hung out at the VC, one of their old stomping grounds on campus. 

After sidewalk glitter painting...a bath quickly followed

Emma peeking through the kitchen window.  She thought it was her stage.

Ellen, the girls, and "Knocky" Knox

Saturday evening Matt took the kids to Olivia's birthday party.  They go to preschool/daycare with Olivia.  She is a couple of months younger than Emma, and they had a great time.  It was a backyard movie party.  They had pizza and watched Zootopia.  I headed up to Mary's cookout.  It was an interesting mix of youngin's and us older generation.  I can't believe I'm in the older generation!!  Aaaahhh!!!  Where did time go?  The Millennials are an interesting group and work completely differently than we did when we were getting out of college (16 years ago!).  I think the trends around the generational differences are fascinating.  It will be interesting to watch how the workforce and the office change over the next several years as millennials come into their own in the careers.

That brings us to today.  I'm chilling today and doing some preparation for surgery next week.  Unfortunately I have a summer cold right now.  I'm hoping it will be mostly cleared up by surgery day and that it won't delay anything.  I cannot do another delay!  This needs to happen yesterday!   I have a list of to-do's to get done today, both home and work tasks.  It's kind of like nesting.  I want a lot of things done before I can't do anything for awhile and before I'm off work.  That will be Sunday Funday for this week.  And then we'll go to church this evening and then have some dinner to wrap the weekend.   The kids are in chill mode today too.  Hannah is watching netflix upstairs in her bed.  Emma is laying in the chair watching her kindle, and Laura is sitting at the counter playing legos.   Everyone is re-charging....

Have a nice week All!

Summer pictures

Since I didn't post pictures in my post the other day, I will do a quick picture post!

Last day/first day of school.  Oh how they grew!

Emma and her best buddy, Emerson. They love Ariel!

L and H made Emma a princess.

Me and the kids selfie

Sand castle in the sand box

Back yard pool fun with neighbors

Emma riding Dreamer

Hannah and Laura giving Daddy some Father's Day love

Hannah, Laura, and Aidan.  Friends.

Neighbor kid picnic

Manley 4th - eatin' some grub

Manley 4th - Danielle has to get up at 3am :(

Miss B waiting for Emma to hurry up and eat

Men conversing - Matt, Mitch, and Gus

And the Belle of the Ball, Snow White (Eleanor)

Sophia giving me some peace!

Girls enjoying pool time at Celeste's

Heading to North America to see polar bears

Our baby bears with the zoo bears

Did I mention that we went up to the zoo one morning, hoping to see Nora.  And...a baby black bear escaped, and we were stuck in a hot box for 1.5 hours.  Yea, that was fun.  We're focusing on the good part of the day :)