Young's Dairy Farm

There's a big ice cream place just outside of Yellow Springs called Young's Dairy Farm. It's not just a farm, let me tell you. It's some sort of bonanza of farm-related fun. There's a petting zoo (see also pic of Ella and the goat) and fun stuff to do (see also Luke riding the large cement cow). The kids had a blast and ate some tasty ice cream.

Prima Ballerina

Ella's recital outfit came in last week. For those of you coming to the recital (the most exciting 3 minutes of Ella performance you'll ever see), here's a preview of the costume. For those of you not coming, this is what you're missing out on.

The Fellowship of the Walk

Well, 5 miles came and went without too much trouble. Here's our group picture (minus Aron who was kind enough to take the picture for us). The fine folks from the March of Dimes provided us with Hoggy's and Graeter's after the walk. Does it get much better than that??

Two Quick Notes

First of all, I need to update my grand total of donations for my walk tomorrow. I raised $325! Woo hoo!

Second of all, Aron and I had a little day trip with the kids today to Yellow Springs (by Dayton)for a little shop hopping and nature walking (they have a really cool state park there) and happened to run into Dave Chappell! Aron quickly ran to the opposite side of the street to take his picture. Yeah, I'm sure Dave didn't notice the moron standing across the road holding his 19 month old kid on his shoulders with one hand and trying to work the zoom on the camera with the other.

P.S. If you don't know who Dave is, I'm not going to bother to explain him but I will let you know that he's the one with the thing of coffee in his hand.

Feeling the love

The WalkAmerica/March of Dimes walk is this weekend (Sunday to be specific). If you still want to sponsor me, you can (just let me know). On Sunday, I will be walking 5 miles in honor of Natalie and her brother, Andrew.

With your help, I've raised $195. Woo! Thanks soooooo much to all the sponsors! I have great friends and family!

Showing the love...

Super big thanks to my friend, Missy's brother Cameron for getting us free tickets (5th row, baby) to the Broadway play, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He's a stage manager for the national tour and it happens to be in Columbus this week (thru Sunday I think). If you happen to be in the mood for a little Broadway musical, it's a good one so go see it!

Come along and ride on my fantastic ride...

Remember the Superman kite, Dad?

Daddy's attempt at kite flying
Mommy's attempt at kite flying
Ella's attempt at kite flying...altho, I'm not sure where she's looking...
I remember the day that my Mom, Dad, brother, and I all flew kites. Well, we kind of all flew kites. I distinctly remember picking out the best kite at the store...it was all white with a giant Superman logo on it (sweet). Jeff picked out some sort of swirly, rainbow colored thing (he was a dork even way back in the day) but I digress. We all went out in the back yard to fly the kites. I wanted to get mine up in the air all by myself but Dad wouldn't let me because he kept telling me he had to get it started and up in the air first then he would let me have it. Impatiently, I waited for the perfect moment. My Dad got it up in the air....higher....higher....even higher...(it probably went so high because it was the Superman kite but who am I to say?)....even higher still until I hear "Damn it." My Dad had my Superman kite so high up in the air that he ran out of string and didn't realize that the string wasn't tied to the handle. Up, up, and away went my super sweet Superman kite until I could no longer see it.

We tried to then use my brother's kite but let's face it, it was rainbow and swirly. Please.

Let's fast forward 24 years to the pictures above. I finally got to fly a kite and yes, I did let Ella hold the string after I made sure it was attached to the handle.

Just hangin out in my sweet ride with my tasty snacks...

Who doesn't enjoy a ride in your little red wagon with some Sesame Street juice, Trader Joe's dried blueberries, and iced animal cookies?

(A special thanks to Jeanne's Mom, Dianne, for watching Natalie while Jeanne and I made a quick pit stop to Trader Joe's on Friday.)

What's in a name?

Myles came over last Thursday after story hour so I could take he and Ella to a nature class at the state park. I took him potty at my house before we went. I'm not used to the, ehem, mechanics of pottying with boy parts but I do remember that Aunt Robbie always tells Myles "Weinie down." So, you know, when in Rome and all, so I put him on the potty and said "Winkie down, My, so you can go peeps." He looked and me and shook his head and said "It's not a "winkie," Aunt Annie, it's a weinie and you don't "go peeps," you pee."

Thank you for schooling me, Young Skywalker.

Gettin' Swingy With It

Biker Chic

The kids have been enjoying riding their bikes in the driveway now that the weather has been a little warmer. This is Ella's tough, biker pose. It's more of a Do Gooder pose (for those of you who watch the Backyardigans you'll know what this means).

Soccer!

Aron has decided that Ella will be the next Mia Hamm...or at least participate in soccer this fall with all the other spastic children in our town. He bought her a soccer ball over the weekend. A pink soccer ball to be specific (he says that he cleared the pink ball with Luke who told him he didn't mind playing with a girlie ball, too).

The kids love running around in the backyard kicking the ball. Definitely a good investment...or at least worth the 8.99 to help the kids (and Aron) burn off some energy.

Bubbles...tiny bubbles...

It's spring time and we all know what that means to my kids...bubbles. My friend, Paula, gave the kids some leftovers bubbles from her daughter's wedding a few weeks ago and ever since the kids have been dying to go outside and blow bubbles. Unfortunately, the bubbles from the wedding didn't last long (especially when Ella spilled half of them when she leaned over to pick up something) so I bought the kids more.

It was all fun and games until Luke kept trying to eat the bubble wand. Then it was time to stop and play some soccer!

Breakfast Time!

"These are good banana pancakes, Mom."
"What is this that you set before me, Mother? I'm expected to eat this? Surely you jest."

Genetics are weird

Ella looks like me. No surprise there. People tell me this all the time--friends, family, perfect strangers, EVERYONE. I freely admit it (except she has Aron's eyebrows). Her personality, though, is 99.5% Aron. Is it genetic? Is it that they're both first borns?

I say it's a genetic thing.

When she sees a door that's slightly ajar, she's gotta close it (how many times have I been asked if there's a reason why the bathroom door is still open even though no one's in there?). She enjoys getting messy but in a controlled type environment that allows for easy clean up once she's done. She's not the kid to play in the mud then "forget" to take her shoes off before she enters the house and tracks mud all over. Even food choices are becoming more and more toward Aron's preference. She doesn't eat chicken (I think we all remember that she's NEVER liked chicken even in utero). She doesn't see the point in having chocolate pudding when you could have a more tasty vanilla (who ever invented vanilla pudding anyway? It's like having no flavor to a pudding. Like eating big gelatinous blobs of goo if you ask me.). She enjoys a good piece of pie. She also dips every food she can into ranch dressing (a little goes a long way if you ask me). She wouldn't touch a pickle to save her life (who doesn't enjoy a good pickle?). When we're in the car, she doesn't like the music too loud (I've frequently been told to "turn it down a bit" and "stop singing so loud, please, Mommy").

But one thing...one thing of mine she got. My tendency toward a silly face when posing for the camera.

Score one for me, baby. SCORE ONE FOR ME!

Martha Stewart DOES live here

I decided to be extra nice to Aron today so I made him a cake. For those of you who didn't get to partake of the cake (99% of my readers), that's real whipped cream. None of that substandard Cool Whip for my Honey Bunny.

Easter-phase 2

After church, we all went back to my Mom and Dad's house where 26 of my relatives were assembled for lunch. Everyone hung out and had a great time playing and laughing. When all my cousins and aunts/uncles/grandparents left, we all settled in for a great big nap. I missed getting a picture of Ella taking her nap but here's a couple of Luke and one of Myles (he's the one with the missing head).

Easter!

Easter started pretty early for us. We went to the sunrise service at our church which started at 7 AM (yikes!). We had to get the kids up at 6:15 (double yikes--they normally get up at 7:30).

The night before Easter, Ella and Luke had left a plate of pretzels (Luke's contribution) and an apple (Ella's contribution) out on the fireplace for the Easter bunny. As you can see in the picture, the EBunny ate the pretzels and nibbled on the apple. He left them a bunch of good stuff in their Easter baskets to say thanks. If you look closely at Ella's hands, you can see she's wearing one of the presents--Sesame Street rings with all the different characters on them. I had to beg her to just wear three of them and not the SEVEN that she wanted to wear.

Egg coloring

I just colored like 10 dozen eggs
Ack! There can't be more eggs to color!
Ella went to Steve and Lindy's house on Friday. They colored eggs. I think Ella was a little tired of coloring them by the end.

Do you like it shaken or stirred?

Myles came over for a play date today. We did some crafting-mostly finger painting. Luke is a tad little for finger painting still so I gave him something else to keep him occupied. I tried to give all the kids a glass of chocolate milk with lunch. I started to shake Ella's in her sippy cup but then she told me she'd rather have it stirred with a spoon because it tastes better. My 3 year old prefers her chocolate milk stirred not shaken? What has this world come to?

WalkAmerica!

As many of you know, my friend (Jeanne) had twins that were born prematurely in September. They were born at 23 weeks gestation (40 weeks is considered to be full term) after a difficult pregnancy for Jeanne. She and her husband (Del) have put together a team of walkers for the annual March of Dimes WalkAmerica event. It's a 5 mile walking course and I've committed to be part of their team (yikes! What was I thinking? 5 miles?? Seriously?). The March of Dimes' mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. So, basically, they want to help babies like Jeanne's.

The walk is April 29th.

If you'd like to sponsor me on my walk (come on, you know you want to!), please let me know.

Come on! Sponsor me! All the cool kids are doing it!

Who's Mommy's Little Man?

Gonna climb the highest mountain, cross the widest sea. . .or just go poopy in the potty

We've been trying to gradually introduce potty training to Luke. He can usually go peeps when we put him on the potty but today he took it a step further. I had him on the changing table and I asked him if he wanted to go peeps. He looked at me and said "Poopy." Poopy, huh? That sounds like a plan to me. I took him in the bathroom and put him on the potty and magic happened. That's right, folks. Peeps and poopy all at one time. I think I got a little misty.

No, I didn't

BUT Luke was so proud of himself that he hopped off and started clapping. Then he started saying "Daddy, Daddy." Yup, we had to call Daddy and tell him of the great accomplishment. I think Daddy got a little misty.

No, he didn't.

Are these the cutest kids or what?

We had the kids get their Easter pictures taken a couple weeks ago and here they are...

Playground time!

We're lucky enough to have a playground behind our house. I missed getting any actions pix of Luke but here are a couple of Ella.