Summer is Flying By

June flew by for us and July is passing just as quickly.  I can't believe that it is the middle of July already.  I will try to sum things up as best I can.  Mackenzie followed up on Safety Town with a week of VBS, which she loved just as much.  Grandma bought her a CD at the end of the week of the music that they used throughout the week.  At the end of the week the kids danced and sang along with the music at a dinner and at church.  Mackenzie really enjoys playing the music in her room and singing and dancing along.  The next week Brian was in Estonia and the kids and I kept ourselves very busy.  I drove the kids up to Grandma and Grandpa's cabin on the third and we hung out with Uncle Mike, Aunt Misty and Lexie for Uncle Mike's birthday.  I came home to work on the 5th and 6th and then picked up Brian at the airport and we headed back up to the cabin for the weekend.  The kids really love it up there, which makes me so happy, since it was such a joyful place for me growing up.  This weekend we went down to Dayton to go to a Pool party at Brian's cousin, Matt's house.  His wife Jean was celebrating graduating from Ketterning College.  The kids had fun swimming at the party and playing with water balloons.  We stayed at a hotel last night and the kids got up and went swimming there this morning before we headed home.  Mackenzie went swimming in her small pool here after quiet time.  So, needless to say, they really like swimming : )

The kids are really growing up fast.  Mackenzie is doing really well at her reading lately.  She is starting to recognize a lot of words and to try and sound words out.  Isaac is continuing to be a typical 3 year old and to defy authority as much as possible.  He is also super sweet and is telling all of us he loves us quite often and giving lots of kisses.  He also enjoys singing songs and playing games.  His name is extremely fitting for him, he loves to laugh.

The painting in the living room is done.  Now we need to find carpeting.  It may take us a while though, first of all because I am cheap and carpet is expensive and secondly because the painters are coming tomorrow to start to paint the outside of the house (also expensive).  However, the room looks so great and getting the carpeting replaced would really be the icing on the cake, so hopefully we can get it done.

Work, Work, Work

Being summer, Brian is on a very relaxed schedule at the University, which leaves him open for home improvement work.  At this point, I am sure that he is anxiously awaiting the fall sememster.  But for now he is stuck working at home.  Right now, along with some smaller projects, we are working on the living room.  We had to have a plasterer come in and fix a number of areas that had been damaged by water in the past, including a big section of a living room wall, which opens up the opportunity for painting.  Our living room is pretty big and has some built in cabinets and quite a bit of molding and window sashing.  So the process of cleaning, sanding, priming and painting has been long and tedious.  We are making great headway though and I am confident we will be done with the painting at the end of this week.  Then we can shop for carpet.  Fun, fun, fun.

Here is a shot of Mackenzie helping prime the built-ins:

We have managed to have some fun in the meantime though.  My parents were here a couple weekends ago.  Mom and I took the kids to the 577 Foundation and the kids loved showing Grandma around.  We went to Cirque de Soleil Quidam on Sunday.  It was very good and I think my parents enjoyed it.  However it was much darker and slower than the other Cirque shows that Brian and I have seen and the kids really lost interest in it.  Here is a shot of Isaac napping, which he did for a pretty good portion of the show.

Mackenzie really did not enjoy most of the show and we ended up leaving a little before the end of the show.  It is unfortunate because I think they really would have loved the earlier Cirque de Soleil show that I saw that was really colorful and fun and exciting.  I will have to do better research before we take the kids to another show.

We took the kids to Madagascar 3 yesterday for Father's Day and it went much better.  They both got a little scared, but Isaac sat for the whole show. 

Prior to going to the movie, Mackenzie had wanted to go shopping. She had $8.57 in change in her purse. I had told her that she could buy herself something to eat at the movie. So she bought a box of Starburst before the show.  She got scared by the "bad lady" in the movie.  She covered up her ears and then asked (very loudly since she couldn't hear) to leave the theatre.  So I took her out (a bit begrudgingly).  While we were sitting on the bench outside the theatre she asked me, "Did you really want to see the movie?"  I told her that I had paid $7 for a ticket to see the movie. She then reached into her purse and took out a penny (all she knows currently is that it is a piece of money, she doesn't know how it all works quite yet) and held it out to me with a sad look on her face. Of course I felt like the meanest Mom on the planet at that point.  I told her that she did not need to give me the money for the ticket and then I suggested that we try to go back in and watch the movie from right inside the door so we could leave easily if she wanted to.  She agreed (a bit begrudgingly) to go back in and watch from the ramp headed into the theatre. When she got scared she would run down the ramp to where she couldn't see the screen and when it sounded better she would head back up. Since the theatre was really empty (we went to a 10 am show), I figured this was okay and it worked for her.

Given the active way Mackenzie watched the movie, she didn't eat a lot of her Starburst. At the end of the show we saw a friend of Brian's and her two little girls. Mackenzie gave each of the girls (and Isaac) each 3 of her Starbursts, which I was very proud of.  Isaac pretty much ran up and down the hallway of the theatre and then found the arcade and the photo booth.  He did say thank you to his sister for the Starburst, which I was also proud of. 

Disconnected

When we returned from vacation we had no phone connection and therefore no DSL connection so my last vacation post is a bit delayed. 

Our last day in North Carolina we took the kids to the Children's Museum in Winston Salem.  The kids had visited the museum the last time we were in North Carolina and Mackenzie remembered the beanstalk that she got to climb.  The kids really enjoyed their time there and I think they got to see pretty much everything.  I love the picture below of Mackenzie reading to a baby doll.  It is really the perfect shot of Mackenzie.  She is going to be a great mom one day.

After the museum we took the kids to McDonald's and we got a huge compliment from a father of four who told us the kids were behaving very well and that we were very brave to take 4 preschoolers to McDonald's.  The kids really did behave very well.  We then took them to the set of the movie Tina was working on and they all got ice cream (sorbet for Isaac).

Saturday morning the Phillips family headed home. The kids did really well during the long drive home, thanks in many ways to the DVD players.  We stopped for a potty and lunch break at Tamarack in West Virginia.  I had stopped there with Tina and the boys when we drove up earlier this year.  They have a small playground outside with cement cheese.  When I was a kid we played on cement cheese, so it was very nostalgic for me.

There were other cement climbing items there as well and Mackenzie thought that this one was pretty cool as well:

The kids have had a blast being home.  They have spent a lot of time in the yard and in the play room. 

On Sunday we had dinner at Linda and Butch's with the Ohio cousins and the kids had their first floats (Isaac's made with Tofutti). 

They also played ball with their cousins.  All of the kids except Isaac were playing a form of tag/dodge ball combo where the goal was to stay away from the ball.  Isaac was playing take away where his goal was to get the ball.  It was quite humorous until Isaac finally stopped playing, crossed his arms and said, "They're not sharing".

Only One Day Left . . .

Yesterday we took the kids to SciWorks in Winston Salem.  It is a science museum geared for younger kids.  The kids had a blast and Mackenzie did not want to leave.  Mackenzie took a tumble outside and got pretty scratched up and we had to ask for some band aids, but other than that it was a great outing.

After quiet-time we pulled out the boys water toy (which we got them a few years ago) and the kids had a blast playing in the water and taking turns playing lifeguarg.  Thomas was super impressed when Brian told him that he used to be a life guard and wanted to know "all about it".

Today we hung out at the house and had some craft time and got ready to have a "party".  Friends of Brian's and Tina's, Dennis and Colleen came over and we grilled and hung out.  I unfortunately didn't think to take a picture of the deck decorated with the kids crafts.  Each one made a bug out of styrofoam balls and pipe cleaners and a wind sock made mainly out of craft foam.  Painting the styrofoam balls for the bugs did not go extremely well, although it did not go extremely poorly either.  I did end up with all of the kids in the bathtub getting cleaned up at the end of it though and a change of clothes for each.  As I was changing Mackenzie she told me that she is "probably going to marry Thomas, because he is so cute."  I informed her that, similar to how she is not allowed to marry her brother, she is also not allowed to marry her cousin.  She took the news pretty well.

Here is a shot of the kids working on the wind socks:

and here is a shot with some of the finished products drying (you have to look pretty hard for the bugs):

While we were getting dinner ready we put up the boys' bounce-house so the kids could blow off some energy and they worked up quite a sweat bouncing around.

We also failed to take any pictures at the dinner itself, but we all had a good time, the kids played together nicely, and the food tasted great, if I do say so myself.

Vacation Continues at Breakneck Speed

We spent Sunday night and Monday at Great Wolf Lodge with Thomas, Nicholas and Tina.  Everyone had a great time and the kids crashed in the car on the way back to Aunt Tina's house.

Today Tina had to work so Brian and I took the kids to Old Salem this morning. I have wanted to visit and have never had the chance. We knew it may not be the greatest locale for four pre-school children, but they did very well. We didn't get to see everything and we didn't get to hear all of the stories but we got to see a lot and learn a lot.  The kids were not doing the O-H-I-O thing below although it looks like Nicholas may have been trying to get something going:

Mackenzie, Thomas and Nicholas spent a long time (I am guessing at least 20 minutes) after dinner sitting around the table and telling jokes to one another and totally cracking up.  The punch lines for pretty much all of the jokes were "then they flushed them down the toilet".  Brian compared it to when you read your fortune cookie and add "in the bed" to the end.  It was hilarious.  Now the 3 of them are outside playing and Isaac is playing in the boys' room.  We are about to start bed time for the Phillips kids.  One more day of vacation down . . .

Vacation Continues in West Virginia

We had a very exciting time in West Virginia the last couple days.  Babcock State Park was beautiful.  It is park of the New River Gorge and we explored the Gorge area.  On Friday we drove down and checked into our cabin.  The cabin was mcuh nicer than expected.  Here is a shot of the outside.

It was too small to get a shot of the inside, but it had two very solidly constructed sets of bunk beds that were built right into the cabin and has a wall between them.  Each side had a dresser and in front of the beds was a table and four chairs.  There was a galley kitchen on the other wall and section that sticks out in the picture is the bathroom.  Everything was extremely clean including the vinyl floor (at least when we arrived).  The bedding was very nice as well.  The dishes, pots and utensils in the kitchen were also very clean.  The kids were very excited about the bunk beds and spent the time while we unpacked playing on the bunk beds. 

The park itself was also very neat and beautiful.  Here's a shot from the parking lot at the headquarters:

Here's a shot of the working mill at the park:

And here's a shot of the mountains from the park:

On Saturday we went to see the New River Bridge, the world's longest single-arch steel span bridge. 

We walked down 600 stairs to get a good view of it and then, of course, we had to walk back up, but the views were worth it:

We decided to take a scenic route out from the bridge and the plan was to find somewhere to get a snack and then to go to Sandstone Falls.  The road that took us down from the bridge to the river valley and across the river was nicely paved and other than a couple of very sharp turns was a nice ride.  However, we then ended up on a "road" made of mud and large rocks.  I don't know if everyone gets the commercial that talks about rebuilding compact SUVs and shows an SUV driving through a desert and falling apart.  All I could envision during out 50 minute drive through the middle of nowhere was that commercial, but our Torrent did great and finally got us out safely (along with Brian's driving).  The kids thought it was a lot of fun and that the bouncing was quite an adventure.

Finally, after a break back at the swimming pool at Babcock State Park, we went to Sandstone Falls because Mom still wanted to see the waterfalls.  They were also beautiful:

After we walked along the nice deck that is built along the falls for tourist we decided to take the easy hiking route back, where Mackenzie found a caterpillar to take a picture of:

Needless to say, I would definitely recommend a trip to West Virginia.  I would recommend to West Virginian's that they open some restaurants, at least in the New River Gorge.  Luckily we brought food with us and the cabin had a full kitchen so that we could cook our meals, because every time we thought that we would "find somewhere to eat" we could not find anywhere to eat.  We did find a few shops selling "Primitives".  We didn't go into any of the stores, but I am assuming they were selling art & crafts and not primitive people.

 

Sunday morning we headed to North Carolina to see Aunt Tina, Thomas and Nicholas and to go to the waterpark.  More coming on that later as it is time to start getting our swimsuits on . . .

Vacation Has Begun!

We are all very excited to be on vacation!  It started a little hesitantly.  We were supposed to head to Columbus, OH on Wednesday night originally, but things were just not working out for that plan.  Luckily, Wednesday morning we decided to wait until Thursday morning to head out to give ourselves one more night of preparing.  When I got to daycare on Wednesday night I was greeted with "I forgot to call you and tell you that Mackenzie got sick."  Fabulous.  So we went home and checked and Mackenzie had a fever.  So we gave her some Tylenol and finished getting ready in the hopes that she would be feeling better in the morning.  Fortunately she did not get sick again.  At about 1 in the morning she woke up and complained that her head hurt and the ear thermometer read 100.2 so I gave her some more tylenol but we decided we were going to make a go of it.  So we headed to Columbus.  I attended the Kronos Customer Experience for the day, and Brian took the kids to COSI.  We would recommend both.  Brian and the kids picked me up at the end of the conference and we are now in Marietta, OH, right on the border of West Virginia.

We got to go swimming this morning:

Now we are getting ready to go visit Fenton Art Glass, which has been on my list of to-dos.  And then we are heading to check out our cabin in Babcock State Park in West Virginia.

I hope everyone has a happy, healthy and safe Memorial Day!