Just a day in the life...

We are most definitely in the right place! I love our neighborhood. It is such a blessing to have our friends from church just houses away. Here is Emma afterschool on Monday...
There are 5 trampolines within short walking distance from our backyard. It's so great that the neighbors are willing to share. Now we don't need to get a trampoline!

On last shot...Poor Rick has been working on the sprinklers for weeks, all by himself. The rain has not cooperated well and Rick has had to work so much. He's had to battle a lot of water and mud (see picture below). He even took our shop vac out back to suck up some of the water from the trenches. The clay doesn't allow the water to soak into the ground so it just sits there.

We're just a few short weeks away from planting grass. Hip, hip, hooray!

Primary Activity Day

I'm going to keep my comments brief, but her are some cute pics of our recent Primary Activity Day:

We split the Primary into 2 groups. I was with Jake and his cronies.

My friend Amy took the camera from me because my photography skills are seriously lacking.

Fossils...

Bees...

More bees...

That's one big bee!

Nice.

Bio-dome:

Inside the bio dome

Jake's totally into percussion now.

Jake and his BF, Michael.

We love the 577 Foundation!

Tea Parties and School of Rock?

I can't believe this is the last week before school starts! We're trying to squeeze in some last minute fun with friends before it's back to the grindstone. Emma had some girlfriends over for a "tea party" this afternoon. They served Goldfish crackers and water. Shelby must have been the guest of honor because they had her sitting on some sort of pedestal.
Shelby got her own cup of "tea" and a dish of "biscuits" as well.

Jake and his bud Michael went back and forth between playing Legos and their new band instruments.

Jake is on percussion, and Michael plays the tuba. Hot Cross Buns never sounded so good!

It's great to see them so excited. It was a little weird for me to take Jake down to the Junior High for band practice though. The school is so HUGE - and Jake is so NOT!

I'm really going to miss these guys when they go back to school. They're some pretty awesome kids. *sniff*

Cedar Point

Folks have been talkin' up Cedar Point ever since we moved here so on Rick's last day off, we decided to drive out to Sandusky to check out all the fuss. After dropping off poor Shelby at the doggy clink (a.k.a. pet watch), we hit the rides. We started with the Sky Ride so we could get the lay of the land. You'll notice from the picture below that we had high spirits going into our adventure...

Next stop: a moderate looking roller coaster called Corkscrew. The kids were a little nervous, but we assured them it would be fun (and safe).

Emma HATED it. She cried the whole time and refused to go on any more roller coasters the rest of the day. Much of her early afternoon was spent watching the rest of go on rides. Jake did fine, but wasn't overly anxious to try anything too intense. They both loved the bumper cars though.

They would have been happy to spend the whole day crashing into us.

The kids showed us up by riding the round-and-round ride called Matterhorn. I get sick on such rides, but they loved it. The swings were a big hit with them too.

We experienced some weird weather during our trip. It was quite humid, but hot at the same time. This proved to be a nasty combination for standing in lines. Rick and I wanted to ride Mantis so the 4 of us waited in line for an hour. When we finally got to the front, the ride shut down due to some mysterious mechanical issue. We didn't want to give up our spot so we waited for another 1/2 hour. This gave time for the clouds to roll in and the rain to start pouring. Hungry, and sick of waiting, we left the park to go get lunch. On our way to Olive Garden, we got rear ended by a pickup truck. This got Emmy going again, but we were okay. The damage was minimal and will be fixed later this week.

We waited out the downpour while enjoying soup, salad, and breadsticks at Olive Garden. We were better able to handle the lines with food in our bellies, so we headed back to the park. The rain had cooled things off considerably. We no longer wished to ride Snake River Falls because we would have been cold, wet, and miserable the rest of the day. We got some good shots in front of the spray though.

More driving for the kids...

I wouldn't mind having a chauffer in real life.

Emma finally felt at home when we hit the kiddy area. What a dare devil! Look at her companions on this Frog Hopper ride:

I think the kids ended up having a good time once we abandoned our plans of hitting the big coasters. Rick and I were disappointed, but we're already planning our adults-only trip for next time.

Camping Trip

Rick got 3 consecutive days off, in a row, one day after another. So, we took a little camping trip 20 minutes from home. You may remember from a previous post a little spot in Toledo called Oak Openings. It's a preserve used most often by scout troups, etc. When you're in the park, you really feel like you're deep in the woods somewhere. It's really beautiful.

The kids were more than anxious to get our camp set up. I just got out of the way and read.
Though it was completely unnecessary, Jacob lashed a latrine for us. I don't think it could've actually supported any member of our family, but it did make for some fun pictures.

Here's the hole he dug that was never used.

Here's a side shot:

Normally I don't sleep well on campouts, but Rick gave me a nice cocktail of Benadryl and pain pills and I was out. When I got up at 10:00 the next day, the boys had set up a shooting range for the BB guns.

Emmy is cross-dominant. It's cute to see her shoot because she screws up her face and squints her eye.

Rick was an excellent safety monitor. He had to repeat his lectures a few times with Emma in particular.

Emma got into the spirit of building things too. She put together her own little teepee using 3 logs and her blanket.

Taking advantage of the lovely weather, our family took a little hike through the woods. Shelby accompanied us sans leash and was so well-behaved.

I needed a nap after hiking mile after mile for 2 miles.

The kids were ready to shoot some stuff once naptime was over. Here's a better view of the "shooting range" that Rick and Jake made:

In the background you can see the tripod "camper's sink" that Jacob created. He lashed 3 pieces of PVC pipe together and tied a jug of water from the top. Rick made a little hole at the bottom of the jug and stopped it up with a golfer's tee. He also placed a bar of soap down the leg of some old hose and fastened that to the contraption. It was clever AND useful.

We were smart enough to bring our awning to keep bugs out of the kitchen and protect us from rain. We got sprinkled on Friday night so we played Uno and Skipbo for quite a while. Fortunately we had already made and eaten our Dutch Oven Dump Cake before the rain started. Yum!

Though it was still raining on us the next day, the canopy of trees held back some of the drips while we packed up. Shelby was covered in burs, leaves, and mud by the end of the morning. In fact, she was such a mess that we drove straight to Petsmart to get her groomed. Doesn't she have a face only a mother could love?

Dance Recital

Emma just finished her summer dance class last week. She got to perform in a recital down at the old high school. Here is some of Jake's shaky camera work:

The cute white blur with glasses and a ponytail is our Miss Emma. Fortunately, I captured the same dance on our real video camera too. You can actually tell which girl is Emma on that video. I just don't know how to upload it. Sorry!

Emma's Magic Show and Jacob's Tower

Jake and Emma took a 2-week magic course at the library in July. They studied with a master that has been teaching for 18 years and is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians (yeah, it was the first I'd heard of it too). They picked up a few things and had a dandy time. Their experience culmintated with a show in which all the kids got to perform. Here is Emma's debut (turn up the volume):

Jacob chose not to participate in the show because he had scouts the same night. He's really into lashing right now. Check out some of their work:



He also made a small-scale monkey bridge in our front yard with PVC pipe. The kid's a lashing fool!