First day of school

While the local school bus was driving through picking up the neighborhood kids for their first day of school, Tyler and I were loading our kiddos into the van for a trip to the zoo. Almost all of the county and city schools were in session and the temp had finally fallen back into the 80s, so we thought it would be the perfect morning for a trip out. We visited the stingray exhibit, the children's zoo, and the butterfly dome before we all decided that we were hot and tired and ready to go. Interestingly, the kids recalled petting the guinea pigs as their favorite part, even over getting to "pet" the stingrays. (Family, don't get any ideas--we do not want a surprise guinea pig at Christmastime!)

As for E.'s first day of school, we are going to officially start with a full schedule on Monday. We have already been doing phonics, reading, and penmanship for the past few weeks because he has been utterly bored in the afternoons. He is hesitant about starting history because he "doesn't know anything about history." We are going to focus on the ancients this year though and I think it might end up being one of his favorite subjects.

P. pretending to bite the goat. Why? We don't know why!
Daddy feeding P. to the alpaca.
Petting a couple of guinea pigs.At the stingray pool.

Baby name game

When we were pregnant with our first girl, we had no problems picking out a name. I had always liked S.'s name and Tyler liked it too. When we were pregnant a second time with a little girl, things weren't so easy. We didn't decide on P.'s name until the last month of the pregnancy, and even then we were still a little fickle. (Mainly, I was trying to convince Tyler of greatness of the name Hadassah!) So, here we are, less than two months away from meeting our third little girl and we still have a list of names and their meanings hanging on our frig. (How do large families come up with so many names?!?)

To make this process a little more fun for me, let me know what you think! I posted a poll to the right and am waiting to see your votes! Since I am big on nicknames--E. answers to "Zeke," S. is affectionately called "Belle," and P. is appropriately called "Sweet Pea"--a few of the names need some further clarifying on what her daily title would actually be:

• Anastasia: Stacia (or some variant)
• Gabriella: Ella
• Hadassah: Haddie
• Josephine: Josie

So have at it! Cast your vote for your favorite name!
Fine print: In no way will the results of this poll have any bearing on the actual naming of our child.

Backlog of blogs

The month of July went by fast and furiously. Hot and humidiously, too! Not finding any time to blog throughout the month made me believe that I may actually have a life. Either that or I am too tired and pregnant to withstand my normal late night blogging sessions. Let's pretend it is the former!

So do I suddenly have a plethora of time now that it is August? Unfortunately, no. But I do have our van getting repaired right now and it is going to be a 6 hour job. So I have to spend all day sitting at Bread Co, sipping a cool drink, and not having any children pull on my leg. What a painful predicament I am in. Maybe they will need to keep the van overnight and I will be forced to get a hotel room too ... ;)

A friend's spontaneous visit
One great event this past month was a visit from an old college roommate, Laurie. She came in town for the weekend and it was great spending time with her and our other roommate Becky. We went downtown to a children's water/sculpture park one day. The kids had a blast and it was great catching up with friends.

Birthday celebrations continue
Tyler's mom and stepdad came into town for S.'s birthday. They brought Cousin Ashlynn, too. It was a nice, relaxing weekend. S. received cards and gifts for more than a week after her birthday, so every time she saw a card of any sort (including some of the thank you cards I was trying to send out!) she would rip them open thinking they were for her. Her musical and message cards are on her dresser and still get daily use to give she and P. momentary dancing breaks!



Dancin' it up
Speaking of dancing, one of the gifts we got for S. was the "Just Dance" Wii game. All three of the kids love it and it is nice that they can all participate without actually needing a controller to feel like they are involved. Every time I put that game in for them, it just makes me laugh watching them trying to match the moves. It really is like having a dance party!




First Cardinals game
When we lived in KY, Tyler and I would frequent Reds games. Not having kids allowed us to be spontaneous enough to park along the river, walk the bridge, and buy $6 nosebleed tickets whenever we wanted. Being in the stadium and seeing the Cinci skyline and the Ohio River just made for a great time out. In Chicago, Wrigleyville was like nothing we had experienced before. We took E. to his first ever ball game there and Cubs fans are seriously die hard. The excitement and enthusiasm extended well beyond the stadium. We had nosebleed seats, E. was somewhat disappointed that he wasn't actually playing, but the experience was priceless and it had that memorable Chicago feel (with the trains going by during the game and all).

We recently have been brainstorming things to do with E. so that it is just the three of us. When Cardinals tickets were on sale for almost 70% the retail price, we snagged them. We thought he would absolutely love it. While he did have fun, and despite our good seats, E. had a hard time seeing where the ball was in the stadium lights. For the first half of the game I think he was more interested in the peanuts we were eating. During the second half of the game, he was so stoked about a baseball that he got that we joked that we could have just gone to WalMart and purchased him a new baseball instead of actually coming to the game! I hope it was a good bonding time for him with just mom and dad though. As for Tyler and I, the thrill of the baseball stadium has seemed to have worn off. We were so stinking hot that sitting in an air-conditioned car on the way home was our bliss for the night. We breathed a sigh of relief from the constant humidity while E. continually played catch with his new ball ... all the way home.
Summer camp
One of our last big events for the month was a week long summer camp. E. attended the sports camp and I volunteered during the mornings for the art camp. E. had a great time and he said the worst part about the camp was coming home each night. (I tried not to take that personally!) He got to show off some of what he learned during the closing ceremony and then we all enjoyed a reception. P. was particularly pleased with herself when she nabbed a green-frosted cupcake after the reception was over while we chatted with friends. True to the picture below, she only ended up eating the frosting ... or at least wearing it!

Valuable beyond price

S.'s name means "valuable beyond price" and she really is. She is such a beautiful little girl and has such an infectious, cheerful personality. She has this sparkle to her eyes that I hope she never loses. Yesterday we celebrated her 3rd birthday and she woke up in the morning ready to go! I had her party dress hanging from her dresser and she promptly dressed herself and then pulled out her dress-up chest and accessorized her outfit, complete with tiara and high-heel glass slippers. Only a 3yo little girl! But she is also her mother's daughter and eventually realized that it was impractical to keep all of that jewelry in place and walk in high heels for that long, while still trying to have fun.

Party highlights
S. wanted a "pink party" this year so we went with a pink flowery theme. Here is her cupcake cake, complete with pink strawberry cupcakes.

I also made a cookie flower bouquet. Unfortunately, only 7 of the cookies were still on their sticks by party time.
Blowing out candles


Instead of choosing which cupcake she wanted, she choose to just eat the frosting stem. Pretty consistent with the only present she asked for: candy!

Opening gifts

Getting drenched with water balloons

Some of the party goers

Happy birthday, S! We look forward to another great year with you!

Smokin' hot vacation, part 2

As mentioned, Branson was hot. There was a pool, shuffleboard, mini-golf, and more at the resort where we were staying but with the temps soaring, even swimming was eventually deemed almost intolerable. The sidewalks around the pool were sizzling! We ended up discarding our idea to spend time on the lake and going to a theme park to spend the mornings and evenings out and basking in the a/c during the afternoons. Our condo had cable and three TVs so no one really complained about the extra time to watch cartoons or the Food Network.


Personal highlights
Tyler's highlight was playing laser tag. He said that it was the best form of exercise and that he wanted to finish our basement into a black-lighted laser tag arena. Then he was told that just one pack cost over 2K. I think we could find a gym membership cheaper than that!

E.'s highlight of the vacation was all the free mini-golf he could handle. So first thing every morning he asked to go play. His second favorite activity--and Tyler and I couldn't believe it--was riding a ferris wheel at a local race park. We had taken him there to drive the go-carts (he is crazy about Mario Kart) and to let the girls ride the little carnival rides, but he was too short to ride any of the carts of interest to him. On one course he passed all of the other drivers on the inside; talk about competitive!


S.'s highlight was the swings and then "swimming" with just an inner tube. (Sorry, no pool pics. It was too hot to not be in the water up to my neck!)
P.'s highlight? Mobility. Being out of her stroller and walking around with E. and S. made her giddy with glee.
So, what was my highlight? The jury is still out on that one.

On the way home
We were supposed to go to a drive-thru animal safari on the way home, but this was the view around the time we drove by the safari's exit:

Well, it isn't exactly the view because the photographer had her own head cranked over onto the headrest. Guess feeding the animals didn't end up being that alluring for any of us.

More to come
I would like to post a handful of vacation videos as well. So as soon as I have four free hours to upload them, you will get to see them! =)

Smokin' hot vacation, part 1

Whew! We are back from our 100-degree vacation and are now "enjoying" 100-degree weather here at home. If I have ever been thankful for central a/c, it has been this past week!

Due to a trying pregnancy and my inability to sit for too long, we had to forego our east coast vacation and we went to Branson, Missouri instead. However, before heading south to Branson we hit up a local attraction here at home--Circus Flora. I hadn't been to a circus since college, so I think I was more excited than the kids. It wasn't exactly what I expected--it seemed very European in style--but it was still fun.

The circus ring

The entire performance was a re-enactment of Don Quixote's quests across Spain. This act was of "the villian."

The big top only sat a few thousand people and the speaker system was pretty loud. An usher actually brought S. earplugs so that she could put her hands down!

Potentially one of the kids' favorite parts--intermission!



Branson bound
The trip to Branson took longer than we anticipated. We planned to eat lunch at a popular restaurant called Lambert's Cafe. (They are well-known for throwing fresh rolls throughout the restaurant to your table. And man, were they fresh! Pipin' hot is more like it. S. refused to eat one because she burnt her fingers catching it.) Unfortunately, we didn't arrive for lunch until after 2pm and by the time our food came the kids were beyond hungry, hot, and tired. It was a short-lived meal, but at least we can now say that we have been there! While we were waiting for our table, we waited outside; there are tons of benches and games under their covered porch ... think Cracker Barrel, just bigger. While Tyler and E. played a game of checkers on the sidewalk, the girls walked around in their new sunglasses making people smile. P. also practiced "jumping." I should have taken a video of that. Hi-lar-i-ous!