Pulley system

One of the exhibits at COSI has you test which pulley system makes it easiest for you to pull your own weight (2 pulleys vs 3 vs 4). In the pic on top with Luke, you can see the sign that he's using the one with two pulleys.

COSI is so great because it allows a child (or Tori as we can see by the last picture) figure out for themselves which methods work the best rather than just telling them.

Hawttt

Who are these lovely ladies??

What was once lost, has now been found

Found the camera. It was just as I suspected--little hands helped me lose it if you know what I'm saying. I found it on someone's side of their craft table with incriminating self-taken photos of the perpetrator. I'll let you figure out who that might be...

Work it....own it...

Hands off, ladies. He's all mine.

We've been trying to work with Ella on her t-ball skills.Something must be clicking for her because she got a girl out on second base tonight (a first) and fielded several other hits very well. As she's getting better, she's starting to get even more excited about t-ball.

Retro

Vintage Aron, Annie, Ella, and Luke circa November 2005

So somehow I've managed to lose my camera (again) and have resorted to vintage family pix (again). I lost it sometime after we visited COSI and Jeni's Ice Cream (might I strongly suggest the Riesling Poached Pear) with Auntie T and her mom, Granny Lanny. I'm sure it will turn up someday.

We went to the Olentangy Caverns today which was great (but again, no pictures cause I had no camera). The kids (plus Myles but minus Chase) a blast. We went to Taco Bell after the tour of the caverns where I introduced the kids to the concept of the mixed drink. That's right. I let them combine any types of pop plus fruit punch, lemonade, etc to make a tasty drink all in one cup. Then they had a competition the entire way home as to who had made the best combination. Myles loves all things taught to him by his beloved Aunt Annie.

What have we been up to this week?

Luke's face was painted like a lion.

Myles is in the middle (he was a poisonous frog) and Ella is in the white tank top/purple striped skirt. She was a cheetah.

The kids attended a safari-themed local vacation bible school. They had a blast! Enjoy the cute pix.

Love this guy

Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage

So the other day I decided it had been too long since I had cleaned under my bed and thought I could probably get rid of some stuff under there. I looked under my side of the bed and saw a super fuzzy, decomposing core of an apple that was stuck to my carpet. I knew there was but one child capable of squirreling away food in my house. Long time blog readers will recall by this post or #4 of this post or, heck, you might even recall this one from 2007 if you've got a good memory (click on the links to view the old posts) who this child might be.

I immediately yelled for both kids to come upstairs. I stood them in front of the bed then had them both bend down and look at the decomposition. It went down a little something like this...

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Me: Do either of you know what that is?

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Ella: No

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Luke: No

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Me: Well, I know what it is. It's a rotting apple core of an apple that someone ate then threw under my bed when he or she was done with it. Anyone have anything to say?

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Luke: It was a pear not an apple.

Question #2 for the day

Aron has decided that it would be just peachy if we went primative tent camping this summer with the kids. Don't know what that is? It's no electricity, running water, or anything while sleeping in a tent with two squirmy children.

I've never done this before (and quite frankly neither has he unless you count sleeping outside once in his Granny's woods when he was like 10).

Any suggestions? Pitfalls to avoid? Words to the wise?

Question #1 of the Day

How many of you have been boycotting BP over this debacle on the Gulf Coast? I can't say that I go to any one gas station over another but lately, given the choice I have been choosing someone other than BP.

I saw someone talking about boycotting BP on a TV show last week and they raised this interesting question about the effectiveness of a boycott. If people are successful in reducing BP's income and potentially driving them out of business (best case scenario for boycotters), who pays for the clean up? Government? Taxpayers? Locals?

Any thoughts?

Ella was a little more chill about catching a foul ball

I think she was more excited about the lemonade in her cup.

Fun quiz

I quizzed the kids a little today. I'll give you the questions and answers (along with their little musings about answers). Luke is Child #1 and Ella is #2. Could you predict their answers?

What's your favorite animal? 1. Elephant. 2.Elephant. ("Hey! You can't copy my answer you knew I was going to say elephant so you said it first just to say it first.")

What's your favorite food? 1.Popsicles. 2.Chicken nuggets.

What's your favorite restaurant? 1.McDonald's. 2.Taco Bell. ("McDonald's. No wait, Taco Bell. No wait, that old guy with the beard that uses the big box for his Happy Meals. ("KFC?") No wait, Taco Bell. Yes. Taco Bell. I love tacos. Can we have that for dinner?")

What's your favorite toy? 1.My sleeping bag. ("A sleeping bag is too a toy, Mommy. I use it to make a fort in my bed and play like it's a pool and dive into it.") 2. Littlest Pet Shop

What's your favorite sport? 1.Football (Cause Daddy likes to watch it). 2.T-Ball ("Cause I get to play it with Grace and she's my best friend.")

Bath or shower? 1.Bath. 2.Bath and shower.

Favorite TV show? 1.Scooby Doo. 2.Phineas and Ferb

Favorite Ice Cream flavor? 1.) Orange Sherbert 2.) Cookies and Cream

Sam!

Our friend, Sam, came over Monday and played a little slip n slide with us...

Sam

Ella and Sam

Ella and Sam

Ella and Luke

Sam and Ella

The Tooth Post

Luke went to the dentist for the first time on Monday. He was super excited about finally getting to go and told everyone he saw that it was his first time.

As a side note, the dentist told Ella that he felt the slightest bit of wiggling in a couple of her teeth. I thought she was going to burst she was so excited about this! The bad news is that he estimated they might or might not be out by the time school resumed in the fall. Do you know how hard it is for a 6 year old to wait a few months to get some teeth to fall out?!?!

Hit it to me! I'm open!

We went to a Columbus Clippers game earlier this week. Luke really wanted to catch a foul ball.

** Notice that Aron is now wearing the glove and Luke is in more of a supporting role by holding his arm up.

Last Day of School!

Thought it might be a hoot to do a little comparison shot so I had Ella wear her first day of school outfit for her last day of school, too.

Ella: First Day Sept 2009

Ella: Last day June 2010

Fun Day at School

Last week, Ella's school had a fun day to celebrate the end of the year. When I was her age, I remember having a "track and field day" during the last week of the school year where you ran around all day long doing different events.

The fun day at Ella's school was pretty fun with tons of different stations like face painting, bounce house, bongo drum playing, sand art, etc. I volunteered to help out and was at the parachute station. Click on the link if you don't know what this is.

Bounce House!
Ella's buddy, Grace, in the bounce house

Love those ponytails on Grace!

Ella's on the left with the very painted face

Face painting was popular!

Whew!

We've had a busy last week to 10 days. I'll hopefully get to post some pix sometime today but first, we have to go to our very first summer reading program entertainer at my Mom's library. I think it's a children's singer of some sort.

Oh, and I hope you like the new look of the blog.

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

Here are some pix of Ella doing her t-ball thing. I'll post more on it later.

She's on the right of the frame throwing...
It killed me a little to buy her the pink ball glove...

She's facing to the right... I had to take a picture of this opposing team member. SHE WAS HUGE! She must be taking some of the Major League steroids. She was almost as big as her coach! This is a 6 year old?!?!

Doing the typical 6 year old playing tee ball move: swinging your arms from side to side when you're bored...

Up to bat (BTW, the freakishly big girl is catcher. Look at her compared to Ella)...

Made it to first...

...and third...