Hot First Day of School

It is so humid here that there is condensation on the floor and the walls. Yeesh. The kids were cooler for their first day of school. George reports he sang songs all day - but we saw evidence of some work when we went tonight to the open house. Estelle said they played but she also made a picture of herself where the teacher had told them to draw a fat head. It didn't have her name on it (nor did any of them in the whole class) but I could pick it out because she said her favorite animal is an elephant and her favorite food is an apple.

Here's the pictures!

Summertime Fun

We managed to have seats at this year's company picnic at the Mud Hens game so we were fortunate to sit under the upper deck and didn't have to get completely soggy in the steady sprinkle. The Hens lost but the fireworks afterwards were spectacular. We took our neighbor Becca since John was at a pig roast in Chicago.

It has been raining here since Saturday night and somehow our neighbor Sydney has decided to play princess. Estelle made her crown last night and then took George over this afternoon where he acquired his Prince George crown. Silly fun times!

We're looking forward to starting school on Wednesday!

Sailing

Here's a few pictures from our sailing trip on Lake St. Clair yesterday. The weather was a little rainy but when we got the sails up we went pretty fast. We stayed in the US, going up to a Metro Park that had it been a sunny day would have been much more fun. There was a big pool and a splash park that we didn't use. We played putt putt and that was fun until George fell in the water hazard on one of the holes when he was trying to retrieve his ball and even though he was only a little soggy, he was mad. We had clothes for him to change into back on the sailboat though - no problem! At the end of the day we were all hungry and tired. We enjoyed a great meal at a restaurant there called the Beach Grill before heading home.

Vacation Highlights

Here is George taking his turn as captain of the "Star of Saugatuck", the paddle wheel boat that we rode on Wednesday night. It goes a little ways up the Kalamazoo River then out into Lake Michigan - where both kids got to take a turn steering.

Here is Estelle taking her turn. Lucky she didn't run us aground or flip us when we turned.

And this picture might be too dark, but after we met up with Dave and Marty, the kids got to ride their scooters. When the scooters were actually moving, the kids rode behind and held on tight. Here it looks like they are driving though! :)





The day after we took these pictures was a very windy day and the kids got to body surf in 6 foot waves with Gumpy. If you sat out on the beach for long enough in the sugar sand you'd never have to pay for exfoliation again!



This is the family picture that is similar to one taken two years ago when we visited Dave & Marty - but everyone is a different size than in that picture!


Finally, here is George. Game Boy Addict. Pokemon aficianado. If we were looking for George and couldn't find him, we discovered his new favorite pasttime. Sitting - for hours - playing his gameboy. If that isn't bad enough, his favorite spot to play caused him to have a circular mark on his bottom. Boys will be boys, right?

Summer Vacation

One summer project that John actually finished is our new deck. Last night for dinner he grilled pizza. They work great on the grill believe it or not, and then we don't heat up the kitchen. Tre'sja's sister Tavia was on a roll playing with the kids yesterday afternoon so she stayed for dinner too. They walked her home about 9:30 last night while I was at a neighbor's impromptu porch party. I got to enjoy talking with a new "transplant" to the neighborhood from San Francisco - she's missing being able to walk to a coffee shop the most. We have places relatively close, but not really walking distance... Toledo hasn't got Starbuck's on every corner. Sigh.

We're heading out this afternoon for a week at Lake Michigan with some of our cousins, Grandma Muffin and Gumpy. We hope the temperature will be just right and that we packed enough sheets, towels, and pillows to be comfy at the rented house. We're looking forward to dinner in Saugatuck with Dave and Marty (they're buying the ice cream, we're buying the dinner - considering how much ice cream is consumed in this house, I think we got the better end of that deal).

We talked to Krystal yesterday and we're excited that she'll be coming back to Toledo in August and will be able to do afternoon babysitting 4 days a week. Thinking of signing back up for gymnastics on Tuesdays and trying to find someone to teach George piano lessons who is close by.

Nice to hear that our new cousin Emelia is doing very well. We sure wish we were closer so we could visit and hold her for a little while.

And In Other News

Last night after I posted the pictures to the blog, I wrote to my friend Pam who had taken the one picture of us in the parade and asked if she had any others. She actually gets her pictures developed (which I haven't done since getting a digital camera - soooo bad!!) and told me she had just picked up her prints. Here's the digital version though ... crazy kids on bikes and another of the "Grand Poohbah" cart with baseball mascots on board. Thanks Pam!!

I also realized after I posted last night that I forgot to mention Estelle lost tooth #5. She knew it was ready to come out so she brought a Kleenex and a baggie with us to the Mud Hens game on Friday night and about the 5th inning she just pulled it out. She's enjoying the straw space once again.

And finally, at 11:48 PM Pacific Time our new cousin was born via c-section ... Emelia Margaret was 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 19 1/4 inches. I've seen a few early pictures and she has big eyes with a little bit of hair on her head. Estelle wants to know when we get to go out to Seattle and see her.

Busy Summer Days

On a day when the azaleas were in full bloom we took lots of pictures - but mostly silly faces.
George and his friend Paul right before graduation.
Tehree, George and Paul after graduation ceremonies (note George's punch moustache).
The "Grand Poohbah" golf cart getting ready for the King Wamba Parade at Festival. Our friend Zizzie is in the front with me, Muddonna in the middle with George, and Muddy in the back - Estelle rode her bike for the parade with J.T., Ben W. and Elias.

Since our last update, we've had Kindergarten graduation, school is out, Memorial Day came and went, we survived the Festival, enjoyed a 2 week visit with Grandma June and Allan, started t-ball and coach pitch, and began to settle down into our summer routine with Tre'sja.

Today Tre'sja took the kids to the zoo. They waited in line a long time for the baby polar bears and then only got to see the one boy - 170 lbs at 7 months. The twin girls were in a room somewhere with their mother. Sigh. They also went to the butterfly house where George saw at least 4 cocoons, one "hatching". Of course, with all this new routine, they completely forgot to go to yoga.

Estelle has decided that she is a trout because trouts are the fish that like swimming the most. She doesn't even let bug bites and sunburn put a stop to her. George is devoted to Pokemon this summer and knows all their powers and what they evolve into -- totally over my head but other kids seem to speak the same language. I don't know what happened to Xiaolin Showdown in his repetoire.

We're waiting to hear about our new cousin, who might be born right this very minute. As of the last report Aunt Meghan has the epidural in and is at 5+ cm.

Easter and Spring

We think that it is finally spring here. It was a beautiful 80 degrees for Estelle's first spring soccer game yesterday. No such luck on Easter when it was actually snowy (and the pictures above show Sunday morning indoor activities) - though our egg hunt on Saturday was held outside. Kids are resilient and we gave them loads of sugar to keep them revved up. Despite the weather we had about 45 kids this year. Not sure if this was our last one or not. Maybe one more since we have to use up the leftover prizes and if we don't do it George will need to find other reasons to break out the chocolate fountain. He didn't stick his head in the chocolate fountain, but just about ... stood guard over it while the kids hunted for eggs.

Spring break was fun for the kids to spend time with Gumpy, Grandma Muffin, and Grandma R. They made exploding blueberry muffins in our dysfunctional oven, visited the art museum and watched Christmas ornaments being blown at the glass museum, attended their last gymnastics class (taking a break for at least the next 7 week cycle) and ate at Inky's. It was great to have the help and get my laundry caught up! George read to them and wrote stories, Estelle played with Polly Pockets quietly by herself.

We are in the final phase of getting ready for the Old West End Festival. We're adding garden tours this year for a nice change of pace. Shakespeare in the Park is another new feature - on Sunday afternoon. I've got to get tickets printed this week and the guidebook wrapped up.

2007

George and Estelle had fun picking out our Christmas tree.

George played a shepherd in the Christmas pageant at church.

Estelle was Mary!

Estelle lost tooth #3 on January 24. She's lost #4 since then but we still need a picture.

Well, for all those of you who have been asking, I'm FINALLY getting around to posting this blog entry. I was working on it earlier and aol lost my connection so I kind of had to start all over. Oh well. A lot has happened since I last posted ... Thanksgiving, Christmas, John's birthday, George's birthday, Estelle's birthday. Everyone is enjoying winter - as much as winter can be enjoyed.

We've had some snow days away from school, so life has been interesting making babysitting arrangements on those days. We might have more snow tomorrow, which may put a damper on the afternoon's activities - George is supposed to go to a classmate's bowling birthday party and I'm taking some antiques to be appraised at our neighborhood's version of Antiques Road Show called "What's It Worth?"

So far this year my work travels have taken me to San Francisco, Baltimore, Orlando, Dayton, and Kansas City, with a trip to Pittsburgh this week and Chicago scheduled the following week. Especially enjoyed spending time with Laura in KC and eating at my favorite Chinese place, Bo Lings. It was also strange to drive around and see that they're tearing down expensive homes in Mission Hills to rebuild them as more expensive new homes. I thought they only did that in Florida and California!

George's birthday was a dinner party at Spaghetti Warehouse with a sleepover afterwards. He's into his GameBoy, Yu-Gi-Oh cards, computer games, and his new KerPlunk. Come over and play sometime!

Estelle's birthday was celebrated last weekend with the cousins' visiting from Indianapolis. She dragged everyone to the hockey game and ate lots of pancakes. She and Kate played for a long time with Polly Pockets and she's ordered a pair of Heely's ... that should be interesting.

Both of the kids are having a great time in their art classes at the Museum. At school George likes to play Boggle Jr. and is reading this as I'm writing it - quite amazing! Estelle sold over 100 boxes of Girl Scout cookies (thanks for your orders) and is a big fan of Extreme Makeover Home Edition - although American Idol is capturing her attention also.

We're starting to prepare for the Easter Egg Hunt and looking forward to spring. Hopefully it won't be so long until our next update!

November

These two pictures I got recently - the first is my friend Kate and I when she came to town for a leadership meeting at the end of October. The other is me with Grandma Winky when I roped her into doing a photo shoot for my company's recruitment campaign.

We're really looking forward to going to Grandma Winky's tomorrow for Thanksgiving. The kids are very excited to play hide and seek with Tina and look for deer up on the hill. Of course, mashed potatoes are the highlight for Estelle and George is fixated on his ham and sweet potatoes. John will go to the Lions game too.

When I was gone last weekend the kids went to their first real sleepover. This was a birthday party for one of George's classmates - at a hotel. Her mom got 2 rooms and let the kids swim. The boys went to sleep at 9PM and the girls in the other room stayed up past midnight. Then on Sunday John took the kids to the hockey game (it was Girl Scout day). Estelle was over-the-top about everything and George just liked the cotton candy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Last Weekend at the Apple Orchard

While John was out of town last weekend we went to the Erie Apple Orchard (Estelle had already been this season on her school field trip). We went a little before the OWE Family group that we were meeting up with at 1 PM Saturday because Roy & Joyce were coming over at 4 PM to watch the kids for the evening (while mom and Sara celebrated their birthdays by taking a trip to Ann Arbor to see the Martha Graham dance company and eat Ethiopian food at the Blue Nile restaurant - yum). Getting there early allowed us to go in the pumpkin jumper, the caterpillar slide, and on a pony ride. The kids fed big carrots to the ponies they rode. We also bought apple cider donuts, a gallon of cider and 2 1/2 pecks of apples - Macintosh for Estelle & mom, Golden Delicious for George. Once we met the Family group (J.T., Ben W., Eli, Olivia, Kimberly & Christina made it for this outing) we scoped out pumpkins and went on a hay ride. We got to pick more apples to add to our stash. Good thing we like A-P-P-L-E-S so much!

Been A While...

We've had a busy 6 weeks!
The Memory Walk was at the zoo at the end of September (see above picture).
Estelle started soccer with her dad as the coach, a seven-game season. She usually scores at least one goal each game when she gets the chance to play offense.
Both kids are enjoying school, with reading and writing work as a highlight.
Estelle is doing a reading challenge to read 10 books in October. She'll earn a pizza. She's also started Brownies (so this is fair warning that we're expecting you all to buy cookies from her). She took a trip to the Erie Apple Orchard and I got to go with her (another picture above).
George is enjoying computer time at school and has figured out how to get to his favorite sites at home too.
Halloween costumes have been chosen already, though we're not sure all the places we can possibly go to trick-or-treat. The selection process was interesting with George deciding between a banana and a Power Ranger. We looked at 4 stores before we found what we wanted.
John took a trip with friends to go whitewater rafting on the Gaulley River in West Virginia. He came home pretty muddy.
Hope you're enjoying your fall!