Cincy Friends

We have had a blast with new friends this summer. My girls love, love, love Brooke, Faith and Elle. We first met them at swimming lessons, but quickly began seeing them all over the place. I think in one week we ran into each other at the gym, King's Island and then church. After so many meetings.....most of which resulted in our girls racing across rooms to hug each other, I began to think maybe God was telling me that these were friends he had for us in Cincinnati. We have since gotten to know them well and do things together as families often. We are so thankful for their sweet friendships. God seems to provide this everywhere we go. These are random Iphone pictures from some of our summer adventures with them.

Gracyn and Elle racing cars at King's Island. These two adore each other. They play so well and never fight!

Addison, Reagan, Faith and Brooke on a rainy morning at King's Island. I believe that is Linus they are with.
Brooke and Reagan, the middle girls. These two are double-trouble, but they are so precious! They are quite similar in personalities and have a great time together! They rode this car all over Faith's backyard.....even through some major mud puddles!

Gracyn and Elle in Elle's backyard fort.

Reagan and Faith playing with lots and lots of shaving cream at Cincy Kid's. Their mom, Mandy and I taught the class. We had great fun cleaning up all that shaving cream!!!

Gracyn and Elle at church.

Addison and Brooke on a date with their Daddies to the Cincinnati Red's game.

About the Author

Addison had an author's day at her school towards the end of kindergarten. Her sisters and I got to visit in the classroom and read her selection of favorite pieces she had written throughout the year. The front of each child's collections had an "About the Author" page, with their picture on top. I loved seeing how Addison described herself. I am copying this with her words and spelling.....might be a challenge to type!

Addison is 6. My Brth Day is May Fourth

She has one Mom and one Dad and Addisn Has 2 Sistrs

Wat I Like to Dew at Skoowul is math my momy wus a techr a log tim ugo my dad wrcs at coc wuch my sistr cols coce.

She ran out of room and stopped there! Too funny! For those of you not well practiced in reading kindie....that last sentence says, "My dad works at Coke, which my sister calls Coke-E". Reagan has always called it that and I guess Addison thought it was important to share! :)

4 and Fabulous

I love this picture of my girl! She loves that hat, and will find it anytime she is wearing purple. She is so adorable this summer.....tan, tan, tan and blonder by the day. I am having such fun playing with her and watching her grow. Since school let you she has mastered swimming and is great at whacking tennis and golf balls. She has grown over the last few months and gained enough height to get on a few new rides at King's Island, which she loves. I recently got her some very tall flip-flops, which will hopefully get her on a few more. She is a bundle of fun and energy. Despite the fact that our summer has been one crazy activity, trip or visit with company after another, she still says she is getting bored and she is ready for school to start. I am teaching her class at VBS, called Cincy Kids at our church, beginning tonight. Maybe that will keep her busy enough for a few days! Love her!!!

Crazy People

255 feet in the air, no telling how fast and flipping forwards and backwards in continuous circles. My child is a crazy, fearless nut and she drug her Pappy along for the ride. Addison saw this sling-shot during our first trip to King's Island and has said from that first day that she was going to ride that with him. There was no stopping her and they had a blast. She never showed a second of apprehension and she laughed and smiled the whole time. Thank goodness Pappy doesn't get motion sickness....we have to have someone to do these crazy stunts with her. Reagan needs to 3 inches to be tall enough to ride....hopefully Pappy can take it one more time when she gets there.

Motherhood is Glamorous

My funny story for the week....The girls were in the childcare at Lifetime when Gracyn had a dirty diaper. They don't change dirty diapers there, but (for the 2nd time) instead of calling me, they ask Addison if she can help her. I think maybe Addison has told them that she can poop on the potty (which she can, but doesn't lately), so they send them in the bathroom together. I don't know why in the world they would do that, instead of just calling me, but that is what happened. By the time I got there, Addison had tried to help her on the potty, but she had already gone in her diaper and this resulted in mess everywhere. Then, when Addison tried to go get help, Gracyn cried and begged her not to go. So, Addison then tried to put the dirty diaper back on her. Long story short, by the time I got there, both girls were upset (think BIG tears) and all of the bathroom and my children were a mess.

I bent down to try to clean Gracyn up and she leaned forward to hold on to my shoulders. But, she missed my shoulders and accidentally poked me in the eye.....with her poop covered finger.

Poop finger to the eye, has resulted in 5 days of excruciating eye pain. Think red, watery, swollen, itchy and painful. I look fabulous sporting glasses over my crazy red eyes. I went to the doctor the day after "the incident", and explained the "situation" to them. They said she had scratched my cornea and gave me an antibiotic drop just in case. Turns out, I was allergic to the antibiotics. 5 days later, I went back to the eye doctor, got anti-allergen drops and am finally feeling (and looking)better on the 6th day.

That is my second crazy eye drama this year.....let's hope it is the last. And, thankfully the eye doctor has 3 small boys, so while I wasn't sure how he would react to the whole "poop in the eye" thing, he totally got it! Didn't phase him a bit!!! And finally, the Lifetime childcare workers and Addison have both been told to please call me if you need me....the 6-year-old is no longer to be held responsible for her baby sisters bathroom needs!

Pappy Takes King's Island

My Dad and Austin came in last Saturday for a visit and just flew out on late yesterday afternoon. We had a blast with them, especially at our several outings to King's Island. They had 2-day passes and we made the most of it. We all got there early Sunday morning and were able to bring them in with us for the season-pass holders extra hours. We played for several hours on Sunday morning, then headed home so that dad and Tommy could go play golf. When they returned home I took the 3 big kids back to KI and we closed down the park. Wednesday morning my dad and I took all the kids back for one last outing before they headed to the airport. That morning was quite adventurous, with Austin braving Diamondback and Pappy and Addison being launched in a giant sling-shot. Pictures of that to come soon, when Dad sends them to me. I didn't take a single picture the entire trip. Thankfully my dad has the same camera I do, so I was able to download all of his pictures.

Here they are coming off the Stunt-Coaster. I think this was one of Austin's favorite roller coasters. I think he and Addison rode it 3 times. :)

Proud Reagan after Pappy took her on a big ride!
Gracyn getting a ride.

Gracyn got to have her first ride on the Log Flume. She is just under the 36 inch height requirement, so we bought her some "high-heel" Sketchers. They did the trick!

Pappy and Reagan getting wet!!

And then, going for a spin to dry off.

My crew with Linus.

Gracyn took a spin on the cars, while the others were at a roller-coaster.

This is Gracyn's roller-coaster. She faithfully rides screaming with her hands in the air, EVERYTIME!!!

She rode the "Chugga-Chugga-Cho-Cho" with Pappy.

Sweet cousins. They were so happy to have him here!

Lake Eerie

This past weekend our friends Ryan and Sarah brought their three girls Sammy, Julie and Gabriella to meet us at Lake Eerie. It worked out great for them, since his sister lives in Detroit, Michigan. They flew there, spent a few days with them, and then we all drove to the Lake to meet at a resort there. It was such a happy, fun, reunion. One of my favorite memories was watching Reagan and Julie spot each other from across the parking lot. They ran and ran towards each other....when they finally reached each other, they stopped eye to eye and just looked at each other....no words, no hugs just stares! Moments later all the girls (and the parents) picked right up where we left off. It was so good to see them.

We went to the portion of Lake Eerie that is in Toledo, Ohio. Tommy and I were thinking, isn't there a phrase, "Holy Toledo!!!". I think we now know why! It wasn't exactly one of the nicest cities we have ever visited. Thankfully the resort was nice and had plenty to keep us busy. After dinner on the first night there, we never left the property again for the entire 4 days. We played outdoors all day and then at night, we would open the door between our adjoining rooms and the kids played their games while we played Catch Phrase. I should note that wives beat the husbands 3 out of 4 rounds! We stayed up late every night and the kids sleep until nearly 9am every morning! Glorious!!!

Girl Reunion. This restaurant was incredibly slow. I think we were in this place, at the table, for 2 hours. Thank goodness, they were so excited to be together, they did great!

Addison photography!
After dinner the first night, we headed out to roast marshmellows. Love this "Resort style camping". We just called the front desk and they lit a fire-pit for us!

Daddy and his girls checking out the lake.

Saturday we spent all morning at the pool. The guys headed out for a little golf, but Sarah and I stayed with the little fish. This is the first time my kids have seen a diving board and they loved it!

That's Reagie.....she is four and fearless. That is a 12 foot deep end. The jumped off over and over again. She is swimming so well this summer. She can swim to the ladder or all the way out of the deep end and under the rope.

My little swimmers.

Inside, the hotel had this soft play place. It was a pirate playground and they girls adored it. They used that big, blue ball as their treasure. They spent the weekend, playing keep-away with the "treasure" and whatever adult they could drag into the action!

Gracyn "Swimming" in her puddle jumper. That is the best floatation device I have ever encountered. She loves that floatie and is all over the pool with it on. It has made our summer!

Saturday evening we got cleaned up and had dinner at the resort.

Love these sweet girlies! Don't you love Reagan's flower-girl headband. She made it from pipe-cleaners at the resorts craft time. She could not be persuaded to take it off.

More Addison photography.

After dinner we got ice-cream and took the girls to the outdoor playground. There is a nature trail behind all those trees. It is beautiful and peaceful during the day. We even saw a mother deer and two babies. At night, however it is swarming with bugs....thousands off them. We made it a few feet in and quickly pursed our lips, turned around and blazed a trail of OFF to get back out.

Poor Gracyn missed this whole night. Nothing like a nap in the stroller at 8pm to get you pumped up for some late night festivities. Notice she never let go of her ice-cream cone.

Sunday was another full day at the pool.

Making a train with daddy....

Pretty Reagan.

Floating fun.

Sunday night we had another dinner at the resort and then spent some time playing outdoor games and exploring. Reagan and Julie held hands nearly the whole weekend. Sammy joined in this time.

She is funny with this jacket. It was about 95 degrees outside.

Dipping our toes in the lake. It was a little smelly and slimey...made us glad we stuck to the pool and skipped out on the "beach" swimming.

We were so relaxed here when a jet-ski came out of nowhere and splashed water all over us.

Sarah and I were up quick.....the girls don't seem to care.

I didn't take any pictures Monday, but we had a big breakfast at the hotel and then stayed indoors because it was raining. The girls had a last few hours of game time and pirate playground, while we chatted just a little more. In the late aftenoon we headed out for a yummy lunch at spaghetti warehouse and then we had to say good-bye! We had a blast and our so thankful they made the trip to see us.

Happy 4th of July

Miss Debra was a rockstar Grandma, logging 9 hours at King's Island on the 4th of July. We had a blast at the park. The weather was wet and drizzly on and off all morning, but I think that kept the crowds away and it definitely kept the temperatures cool. We rode tons of rides, with very few lines, watched 3 shows, ate 2 buckets of popcorn and Tommy and Deb experienced Skyline Chili. After the park we headed home to our neighborhood bar-b-que and firework launching party. It was quite adventurous....these neighbors aren't playing around with little fireworks. Quite illegal, but fun to watch!!! The girls told Miss Debra good-bye at 10:30 last night (her flight was very early this morning!). Then I tucked them in tired, sweaty and sticky at nearly 11:00 last night!

Miss Debra and the girls, post King's Island pre fireworks. Pardon the giant week growing out of my flower pot. My back yard is full of beautiful lush flowers, but apparently my green thumb does not extend to the front.

Tommy passing out the sparklers.
Firecrackers.

Gracyn has no shortage of attention from the middle school girls on our street. She had to have her own "Par-ka-ler!".

Pretty Reagan with hers.

Sassy Gracyn squirming around Miss Debra's lap.

Ready for the big stuff.....just waiting for darkness. Many smores were consumed during this wait.

Buddies!!!

We were sitting a little closer to the action in the cul-de-sac, till we warned by the neighborhood veterans, that we should BACK-UP.

Fun times with Fun people.....Happy 4th of July!!!