More Columbus

Columbus Day 2 was filled with a lot of different events. Here's the first half of the day-I believe we went swimming in the morning? That was really all the kids wanted to do and then we would take them somewhere and they'd have a great time. The pool was freezing. They admitted this but still wanted to go in. Anyway, we drove to the Ohio State campus in the morning to show the kids the stadium (No, they didn't care. Yes, we knew that before we went.) Owen was in an awful mood but perked up significantly when we played a rousing game of tag in the Jesse Owens Memorial. Normally that might feel disrespectful but actually seemed appropriate.

 Later, we went to the American Girl store to get Paige's doll's hair done. Yes, that's silly, but if we had gotten any hairdresser besides the one we did I would have said it was worth it. Her doll's hair was in need of a little love (not the one pictured below, a different one). Our guy was very nice but a little "new." It didn't matter, Paige thought the store was great, of course, and loved everything about it.

After spending too much time at the doll store (Pat and Owen went to the Lego store to pass some time and Owen came back with 3 new minifigures) we went to Cosi for lunch. This is another food place whose presence is seriously lacking around here! I got this giant salad and everyone else had flat-bread pizza.

Happy Birthday Pat!

We had big plans for Pat's birthday this year. Cake. Lasagna. Then we both got sick! Pat spent the day sleeping, the kids went to a friend's house and I did some errands I was too weak to do the day before. The first picture you see was his birthday dinner. Toast and water. It's possible he only got off the couch to eat it because he thought there might be presents after and he was right! Owen made a card and Paige made a mini scrapbook from some pictures of our wedding I didn't need for another scrapbook. I'll have to post pictures of it another time because she worked very hard on it!

We got around to making the cake yesterday (carrot cake by request) and I recruited Pat to help me. It was pretty big so we stuck half in the freezer and the kids asked to each frost half (picture below).  It was looking good and we all had a couple bites before wondering why it was tasting so salty. I usually leave out the salt when I bake (I could pretend it's for health reasons but it's mostly laziness. One less thing to measure!). Pat not only added the salt but used rock salt which left pockets of saltiness in the cake. So...we all had a good laugh and tried to eat the cake but gave up after a couple more bites. Don't worry, he got his lasagna today!

The Crew!

We really wanted to go to a Crew game and they happened to be playing the night we got there. We were worried about the weather and it did get really cold but the kids didn't complain once! We saw some really good soccer and our team ended up winning 2-1. When they scored they would shoot yellow streamers high into the air to fall over the crowd which absolutely thrilled Paige and she spent some time collecting them. We were also near the section of fans that get all nutty (i.e. standing the whole time, some shirtless, and singing catchy cheers) which I think made it all the more entertaining; their enthusiasm was contagious. Afterwards, kids were allowed to go on the field and kick a goal so we got in line. Owen shot his as soon as they counted down but I think Paige was a little apprehensive because the mascot was in the goal and she wanted nothing to do with him.

Crew field

group shot!

Paige collecting streamers

me and Paige

Superfans released some smoke when the game ended

Pat celebrating the win

On the field!

Columbus!

We took a mini trip to Columbus for a few days and packed in so much fun that I'm going to drag it out and make you relive it with us over multiple blog posts. We weren't even sure we were going to be able to make it to Columbus because Owen was sick Thursday night through Friday but we chanced it when he seemed to have recovered by Saturday morning. It paid off, Owen and everyone else stayed well for the whole trip (right now is a whole other story...). The first thing we did was grab lunch at Pei Wei which is a fast foodish version of P.F. Chang's (and also owned by them). I wanted to try about 90% of the menu and ended up getting Vietnamese Chicken Salad Rolls (pictured below). They were alright but Pat's food was fantastic and tasted just like P.F. Chang's. We need one of these by us. Immediately.

Orange Chicken

I had some extra oranges around the house that I didn't just want to eat so I searched for a recipe to make. I found this "healthy" version of Orange Chicken and mentally prepared myself for no one but myself to like it. I was pleased to find out I was wrong-everyone enjoyed it! I substituted red wine vinegar for the rice wine vinegar, I didn't have the green onions it called for and I put it over brown rice instead of quinoa.

Squirm!

The first graders at Owen's school performed a musical a couple weeks ago called "Squirm!" Owen played the part of the Daddy Long Legs and had a few lines, he did great! He'd been singing the songs at home for a couple weeks so I was excited to see how it would all come together. He did think the morning performance was a tad better than the evening performance because one of the bats didn't get to say his line but I don't think the audience noticed.

For the Birds

We took the kids to a bird show at our library a few weeks ago. Doesn't sound so exciting but I actually thought it was pretty funny! Owen got picked to help out with the show so that was exciting too. The best part was when the woman asked the kids where they could learn more about birds and they started shouting out things like, "the computer! the internet! a phone! an ipod!" I'm pretty sure she was trying to lead them to "the library!" or even "a book!" but they were having none of it. I laughed so hard I cried.

Almost Missed!

I just organized a bunch of photos that had been on Pat's phone so here are some things that happened in January that may not have been posted! 

Pat had a beard!

We went to Disney on Ice!

The kids used silly straws!

Silly straws make any drink more fun!

St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St Patrick's Day! We celebrated with our own traditions. We had Lucky Charms and green milk for breakfast and the kids found some gold coins the leprechauns had left in a fort. We had Shepherds Pie (below) and Irish Soda bread (forgot to take a picture but I've put the recipe on the blog before) for dinner. Paige and I ended up spending a lot of the day on some impromptu crafting and I really enjoyed it. Our celebration may have not been very authentic but I'd say whatever percentage we are that is actually Irish would be pleased.

We're Adorable Too

While Pat and Paige were out dancing, Owen and I were having a pretty awesome time too. First on the list was taking these pictures. Then we went to the mall for some indoor putt-putt. I don't have a score to share because Owen was playing by his own rules but he did get a couple birdies! We wandered around for a bit and got a yummy snack in the food court before heading home. It was nice doing something special with just Owen, the only other alone time we get is the 30 minutes between when we drop Paige off at preschool and when Owen has to go to school.

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Warning: the cuteness in this post is overwhelming.

Paige and Pat went to their first Daddy-Daughter dance over the weekend. Paige initially thought it was going to be a dance recital and was very excited so we had to make sure she understood what the night was really going to be like. Luckily she was just as excited when we explained the actual event. Paige got all dressed up and Pat surprised her with a corsage. They danced the night away and Paige told me later that she had FIVE desserts! 

Surprise

You don't need a pass code to use the camera on the iPad so sometimes I open up the photos and find pictures like this. 

Quiet Paige

Paige is almost 4 now. She has ideas and emotions about everything and she is not shy about saying it (well, not at home anyway). She's constantly making up stories and playing pretend and it's fun to see where her imagination will take things. Sometimes I'll catch her in a rare quiet moment though, or when she thinks I'm not watching and I get a glimpse of a different Paige. It's amazing to see kids develop into complex beings...even if it does make my job harder:)

Spin Art

We bought Owen a Snap Circuits kit awhile back. He liked it but it didn't really hold his interest for as long as I was hoping...so  I was glad to come across another reason to use it! We put the fan circuit together and then taped some paper on it to make spin art with markers. Our fan is a little broken so it flew off a few times during the process but we like an element of danger in our art projects anyway. 

(These circles are not labeled accurately)

Out!

Alright, admittedly, this isn't the most exciting picture but let's think about what it represents...the zoo! And if there's a zoo picture on the blog that means it was nice enough to go outside! There's hope! The kids started asking about the playground as soon as we arrived so we stopped at some animals on the way but mostly headed straight there. We ended up running into three different families we knew and stayed with two of them the rest of the time we were there. It was fantastic to see all the kids out in the sunshine running!

Turkeys!

We were driving through the park over the weekend when we saw a car stopped with two turkeys hanging out by it. These turkeys were pretty bold and when they saw us approaching they ran right over to our car. We had to make our escape when they went back to the car on the other side but it was fun to watch them for a couple minutes. Paige is scared about going in the park again though and I'm hoping she'll forget about the turkey's before it warms up. I'm sure we have plenty of time before that happens...