Sleeeeping

It probably seems like the kids nap a lot because I take a lot of pictures of them sleeping. The truth is that it doesn't happen often enough so I tend to document it when it does. Owen's last day of school is tomorrow and basically my plan for the summer is to wear them out so much that I have lots of pictures like this one:)

Baseball!

We happened to be 5 minutes away from our local minor league baseball stadium on Sunday so we decided to take in a game. Pat found a deal for a family 4-pack of tickets and it also happened to be Family Fun-day which was a nice coincidence and also the reason that we spent most of the game not actually watching the game. That's ok though, we had a great time even though they lost.Our tickets included some vouchers for the kids fun zone, free ice cream, free launch a balls (a game played after the baseball is over), and free horrible-for-you junk food (I went on and on that day about it but I won't here, you're welcome). On top of all that they had face painting (we missed it!), a kid's run (missed that too!), and the kids got to run the bases at the end of the game (made it!).

Group picture, Owen declined.

Face first down the inflatable slide

Paige chose the bounce house for her turn.

Who needs a spoon?

Finally watching some of the game.

Ha ha!

We wandered onto the lawn seats.

Running the bases. Paige skipped third base to avoid the mascot Skipper (who she kept calling Cooper)

This does not seem like the most comfortable sleeping position...

That's better!

Good Books

I remember reading a long time ago that kids like to read the same books over and over. This hasn't been true of Owen and Paige except for a couple books (ahem, Princess book...) but for awhile we were hanging onto these five books from the library because the kids never wanted to return them! I wanted to remember them so here they are!

Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated): About a princess who floats and what happens when she decides to have an adventure outside. Everyone loved this book and it wasn't super "princessy." 

The Runaway Dinner: About what happens when a little boy's dinner runs away! I heard about this book and Princess Hyacinth from a blog I check every once in awhile that usually has pretty good recommendations. I'll admit it was fairly amusing but the kids took to this book more than I did.

Knuffle Bunny Free: There are actually a series of three Knuffle Bunny books and we love all of them (and really anything by Mo Willems). This one is about what happens when a little girl loses her bunny on the way to Holland.

The Little Little Girl with the Big Big Voice: A little girl is looking for an animal friend to play with but her big big voice keeps scaring them away. Paige especially loved this one and had memorized it by the time we had to return it.

Time for Kids: Presidents of the United States: This one was more for Owen, I think we read some of this one every night while we had it. They had a page or two on each president and interesting facts. Owen is really interested in the presidents and sometimes it's hard to find information on them that is age-appropriate but this one worked!

They're still doing this. It's still adorable.

Half Marathon Time!

It's that time of year again! I ran my 4th half-marathon early yesterday morning. The weather was great for most of it-nice breeze and a little cloudy and I set a PR with my time of 1:59:24! I did feel a little guilty about waking the kids up at 5am but they didn't seem to mind too much...until later when they were a bit grumpy...then it was me and Pat who minded:) We were actually all really tired (and some of us a little sore) by the time we ate lunch so we all sat on the couch and watched Mary Poppins. Pat was in heaven when Paige crawled into his lap and fell asleep.(Click here for past half-marathons)

5:30 am flash photography in the car.

Hanging out before the race in the Browns stadium

There's me on the left, about to cross the finish line!

Me and Erica!

Me and Sarah!

Me and Mom!

Family picture!

Bigger family picture!

Pat's favorite part of the day.

Field Trip!

Owen's Kindergarten class took a field trip to the Farmparks and Paige and I were lucky enough to join them. Actually, technically Paige and I just "happened" to be there at the same time so we got all the benefits of the field trip without any  of the responsibilities of being a chaperone...pretty tricky but it was the only way I was allowed to bring Paige! Both kids had a great time and I was pretty impressed with how well-behaved all the students were. The kids all had the opportunity to milk a cow, plant a potato, pet a myriad of different farm animals and of course learned a bunch in the process. Paige and I didn't join them on the bus ride home but Owen told me most of the kids fell asleep (including him).

Owen milking the cow, Paige abstained.

Lining up to plant the potatoes. Paige is near the back, Owen is in the front.

When Paige's turn came she very surprisingly slam-dunked her potato into the ground. Then she nicely crouched down and helped cover it with dirt.

I'm pretty sure Owen's planting is going to grow the best potato ever.

Owen and friends.

These horses were Owen's favorite part, they came right to the fence when they saw the kids coming. You can't see Owen because he's right in the middle next to the horse. but he's there!

Owen's class.

Mother's Day!

We didn't know how much to plan for Mother's day because it was only a couple days after Owen's surgery so our families were nice enough to come to us. We had a lunch-time brunch with them inside since the weather wasn't so great. Owen woke me up that morning with a bag filled with crafts and artwork he had made for me. One of them was a paper bag filled with "breakfast in bed" foods (a granola bar, juice box and clementine)!

Waffles, scones, apricot breakfast bread, sausage, egg casserole, and yogurt with granola and fruit.

Me and the kids.

Surgery

Owen had surgery last Friday and if it had been as traumatic as I was thinking it would be I probably wouldn't be putting it on the blog. As it turned out though, Owen was super brave and calm and fantastic and except for about an hour or so after surgery really seemed to enjoy the day. He wasn't nervous at all and I think it actually helped to calm me down. They had to pull one of his very loose front teeth to make way for the breathing tube so that was an extra bonus for him I think. He was in a lot of pain right after the surgery which was a little scary but by the time we got him home and gave him some food he was already back to normal! We had spaghetti and apple pie that night at his request. We kept having to remind him over the weekend to SLOW DOWN! 

Waiting for surgery.

After surgery and in lots of pain...I think the cell phone games helped to dull it a little bit but the morphine probably helped the most.

Owen had the choice of a wheelchair or a wagon to exit the hospital. Here he is in his choice and minus a tooth.

Paige, modeling our dinner.

The Cemetery

There were a few reasons we've been wanting to take the kids to Lakeview Cemetery but I was still surprised by what a fun and interesting activity it turned out to be. I thought the big draw would be a hill there completely covered in daffodils (called Daffodil Hill of course) but that was actually the most disappointing party of the trip (maybe we were too late in the season or we're not easily impressed by flowers?). Another reason we wanted to go was to see the James A Garfield monument. Pat and I had visited the cemetery before but had not gone inside the monument. The inside was beautiful and the view from the top was great. You could see downtown Cleveland and the lake.The Wade Memorial Chapel was also gorgeous and the grounds of the cemetery are like walking through a park. While we were inside the Chapel the kids were given Lakeview Cemetery coloring books which I thought was really strange at first. Then I realized that if we took our kids on a cemetery outing we're probably not the first family to do it so...a cemetery coloring book, why not?! We had some difficulty finding my great-grandma's grave-site and the kids started to get whiny while we were wandering around but I couldn't really blame them because we had walked really far. I'm already thinking about another trip to see some sites we missed!

James A Garfield monument looking down

James A Garfield monument looking up

James A Garfield statue

Stained glass window in the Wade Memorial Chapel 

Mosaic in the Chapel

Walking

Perusing their coloring books.

We found a shady spot to sit while Pat hiked on to get the car.

Out and About

Paige and I went shopping last week with a friend and her son and it was like the kids would not stop being cute. I finally just put the camera away because I looked like a crazy person (especially in Trader Joe's...). I think my friend had it right when she said it was like they were an old married couple. I would also venture to say it was like they were tourists (especially in the second picture) but maybe that was my fault for having the camera.

Some More Artwork

 We spent a lot of time drawing and coloring one night last week. Here are some of the results-

Paige drew this rainbow on her own but she did ask for help with what order the colors went in.

That's a person on the bottom and a shooting star on the top. While Paige was drawing this she said, "I meant to draw a heart but I drew a shooting star!" 

Owen drew this police station. If you ask him for more details he can tell you which squares are doors or windows but I know for a fact that the rectangle on the left with the lines is a ladder.

Pat drew this.