Happy Thanksgiving!

That's right Pilgrims, it's time for turkey eating again!!!




















Remember when Zack through that 40 minute fit about putting that shirt on??? geez!





















Bust out the cameras! This is the first (and maybe only!) full size turkey that we have ever made. Yum Yum Yum!!

Here's the guys enjoying the feast...

3 generations of hot chicks at the feast too!

What?.. that outfit again?

Who would have thought that Zack would take such an interest in clothes these days! When he got home from preschool on Friday, he scurried upstairs. When he came back downstairs again he was all smiles and proclaimed the new clothes that he just put on to be "his favorite outfit". He wanted to sleep in them that night. The next day he wore them again - ok, really they only had a few hours of "wear" on them. However when Sunday rolled around and he wore them yet again, it was time to come up with a plan. That night they were promptly thrown into the wash, proclaimed as "dirty" and it was announced that he would need to find something else to wear. Yeah for running pants!!

Happy Halloween!!

Unusual for Ohio, it was a beautiful Halloween night - weather was in the 60's, warm enough to leave the coats at home. We went out as soon as 6pm hit (thanks to Grandma & Grandpa coming over to pass out the treats!) and didn't stop until 8pm. The kids bags were packed full of candy. More candy than the whole family even needed! One special treat for night was the visit from the Monclova fire department. They drove their big fire engine through the streets, passing out candy to the kids and just being silly. My favorite part was the neighbor that was passing out Jello shots for the parents! yum!!

Sweet dreams

So far I would say that the tonsilectomy has been a success - Zack has been sleeping through the night for a few weeks now. Another test will be when we go to the Dr's and get his weight rechecked. hooray!!

Goodbye Chyna :(

Today our kitty, Chyna passed away. She was 17 years old and suffering from chronic renal failure. We loved her dearly and she will be missed very much. :(

Tonsils & adnoids removed

Today Zack went to Flower hospital to get his tonsils & adenoids removed. We are hoping this will make him a better sleeper, which will help him gain some weight and be a happier kid. The surgery started at 10:30am and lasted about 40 mins. When we got to see him in recovery, he was very very unhappy. Coughing and crying uncontrollably. It was a sad thing to see, knowing we couldn't help him much. He did calm down for a little bit and napped, but when he woke up he was still pretty sore. When we got to the recovery room, we stayed there a couple more hours. We were getting pretty discouraged when he refused to try any Popsicles and would only drink a little bit of water. Then the nurse found some apple juice and he sucked that down, and also ate some applesauce and 2 Popsicles! After that he was feeling much better and started talking and laughing. Daddy had put Cars movie on his iPhone and that really saved us. Zack was happy to watch it while we waited to leave. By the time we got home at 3pm, Zack was talking non stop like usual and not willing to sit still for hardly a minute. I hope he decided to calm down so he can get the rest he needs! He's eating bread, pudding, jello, Popsicles, and lots of juice.

the great dinner battle

With Zack being a picky eater, it's not unusual that our dinner turns into a battleground some nights. Recently I thought he would really like some meatloaf (which he probably *has* liked before), since he really likes meatballs, and they're pretty much the same. Well he refused to eat it and then told me "when you make some good food I'll eat it". !!!!!!

The big saver

When told that going on vacation costs money, Zack said that he was going to contribute by giving us all of the money in his piggy bank. His goal is to get to ride on the Barnstormer roller coaster at Disney World again.

"I willn't!!"

You have to give Zack credit - he sure is a creative child. He's made up his own contraction. "I willn't" is a pretty popular phrase when he speaks. "I willn't spill the milk!" "I willn't break it, I'm just looking at it"

the Shape of Things To Come

Zack has been talking a lot lately about when he grows up - he's going to be a "Daddy". When I told him that a Daddy has babies, he told us that he was going to have 3 boys! One of them is going to be named "Dad". Not to be outdone, Sydney reported that she will also have 3 kids - two girls, named "Ashley" and "Chloe" of course.

Kindergarten!

Sydney started Kindergarten today. She was all decked out in her new outfit, complete with pink sequined head band and her Barbie wedding backpack. What a cutie!! We can't believe she's starting school already. Zack also just started in his preschool room yesterday. They really do grow up too fast. sigh

Rolf Water Park

The Rolf Water park was a big hit for the kids. I picked a day when it was supposed to be 89 degrees and sunny. Little did I know that thundershowers were also in store! Less than an hour after we got to the pool the clouds moved in and the lightning started. So that caused an hour and a half long rain delay and we left the park for a little while. Eventually it cleared up and we got to go back. We met our friends there and they all had a blast!

Put in Bay

We took a day trip to Put in Bay today. We rode on the Miller Ferry, which was as much a part of the whole experience as was being on the island. Zack is every so enthralled by boats as much as he is cars and trains so it was a great trip - Sydney on the other hand was starting to get very leary of the rocking of the boat, but she did relax later and enjoy the ride. No trip to Put in Bay would be complete with out pizza and beer at Frosty's, so that was first on our agenda. The kids enjoyed an ice cold chocolate milk. Since we went on a Saturday it was quite busy. We did get to rent a golf cart, although it was the slowest cart on earth! I guess we were lucky to get the cart, since there was a shortage, but it was a terrible cart! After riding on the cart we played at the playground, and went up to the top of Perry's Monument. We ran into our friend Dawn so we went out to dinner with her. It was a long day, and the kids stayed out until the last rays of light. Needless to say they were conked out by the time the car got rolling home. What a great day!

Enjoy the silence

This morning Syndey told me that she wanted to be a mommy so she could "do anything she wanted".
I asked her, "oh yeah, you know what I did last night? I went grocery shopping after you went to bed! Doesn't that sound fun? And I didn't get home until late - and I went right to bed afterwards".
She asked "did Daddy go too?"
"Nope, just me"
"well, I would go grocery shopping by myself too if I were a Mommy. So I could have some quiet time".
She'll make a great Mommy :)

Sydney's streamer

Sydney made a cool streamer today at school - she had a great time showing me how pretty it looks when it flies...

July 4th - Cedar Point!

For the 4th of July we went to Cedar Point. Many said we were crazy, but what the heck, we did it. The park actually was not super crowded. Especially in the kids rides, the lines were short. Zack was just completely thrilled watching the roller coaster. He wanted to go on every one, especially Top Thrill Dragster. He could have spent the whole day watching that ride go. He also loved the Ferris Wheel. Sydney loved the Tilt-a-Whirl ride the best, even though it made Mommy almost sick with the spinning - and made Zack almost cry. I can't believe it was in the kids rides, it was pretty fast!!

Both kids loved the Jr Gemini. There wasn't a ride that they didn't love. Well, Zack did get pretty bummed out on the bumper cars. For some reason he couldn't make the car go. I guess he wasn't pushing and holding the pedal down or something. He went on it twice and both times he was just a speed bump. Poor guy!

We got there at 10:45 am and didn't leave until 11:30 pm. We practically had to pull the kids off the rides. We also got to see some great fireworks.

What???

Zack often responds "What??" to us. Is it that Zack *can't* hear us really, or he just doesn't want to hear what we're saying?? I think it's the latter most of the time.

Hot dogs anyone?

Really, I'm not sure where he got this from!

Happy 3rd Birthday Zack!!

Another year has come and gone and you have transformed from a bumbling toddler, into a little preschooler in the blink of an eye! You are a very intelligent, inquisitive, and talkative little boy. I think 80% of your sentences begin with "why..." (and the other 20% usually start with "I don't want to..."!!). Although you can be very stubborn at times, you are sweet and sensitive also, unless you are stealing toys from your sister. Your birthday revolved around your 3 current loves: Thomas the Train, Disney Cars, and the latest love, monorails! You carry your monorail around with you everywhere you go, and of course it has a special parking spot in your bed too. You can spell at least 5 words, and read too - "Zack", "Sydney", "Mom" & "Dad". You share your Dad's love of cars and things that go fast and make loud noises - motorcycles are a favorite too. You can't wait to go to Cedar Point to ride on the roller coasters. You never want to to sleep, and wake up cranky in the morning. You are also quite sneaky and love to squirt people with water guns at the pool! Happy happy birthday!!

Mokencycles!

yep, it's those new fangled vehicles that Zack loves so much!! tee hee hee

Swim Lessons

Zack started his swim lessons today. He was actually not even shy about joining the group and getting in the pool. No surprise he was the smallest in the class, since the age range is from 3 yrs to 5 yrs and he just turned 3 years old when the class started.

Day 7 - I hafta go potty!

He's another travel tip from Mr Obvious - don't give your kids a bunch of juice boxes before you get on the airplane. Apparently it makes them have to use the bathroom - in Zack's case it was 5 times! well, after drinking 2 or 3 juices I guess I'd have to go too! Other than that, I'm happy to report that our plane ride was uneventful, just the way I like them. Landing in Detroit was quite a bummer though - back to reality.

Day 6 - Clearwater Beach

Clearwater beach was our desination today. We had first thought we might not go, due to Zack's sunburn, but decided it would be OK. I didn't learn until after the trip that the SPF factor for a wet t-shirt is only 3, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. We had great weather the whole trip, and today was another sunny beautiful day. The water temperature was in the 80's, it was almost as warm as the air, but just cool enough to be nice.
The kids had a great time playing in the sand and splashing in the waves. After hanging out on the beach, we headed over to the really cool playground they have there. On our way home it started to rain and storm, which was the first rain we had seen on this trip. It was the perfect way to end our vacation.

Day 5 - Gators and more

After sleeping in late this morning, we headed out to Gatorland. It was actually a cool little park that we could all get into for around $50 (unlike Disney at 70 plus a person!). We saw a great Gator wrestling show, saw lots of gators of all sizes, and rode the train. Then we headed over to the new splash park they just recently built. Although the kids couldn't stop talking about it before they got there, they were *very* scared to run around by themselves. Zack insisted that I carried him everywhere, and Sydney did the same for quite some time. They Sydney realized what fun it was and she was running all over by herself having a great time. Zack was still a little whiny, but I think he was also just very tired. He had a great time using one of the water guns shooting everyone in sight. We stayed at the park for about 4 hours.

For dinner we headed over to the Disney Boardwalk, and had dinner at the Big River Brew Pub. The food was good, but the tables were small and the whole dinner cost just about the same as the admission to Gatorland :( The kids caught their second wind after having some food and we walked around the hotels in the area. We also stayed for the Epcot fireworks, only because we were in the area - after vowing to get the kids in bed at a decent hour ;) Oh well, it is vacation after all.

Day 4 - burning up the night time

Today we went to a really cool beach at a park called Calidesi Island. We had to drive an hour and a half to get there and then take a ferry boat over to the island. They limit the time you can spend there to 4 hours, but that was just the right amount of time because by that time we were perfectly sunburned. Note to self, *reapply, *reapply, and *reapply!! We saw a big turtle just walking right in front of the concession stand and also gathered a lot of cool sea shells. Another important note is that you should always wear sandals when walking on boardwalks!! We had to run down the walkway and Sydney was screaming in pain because the wood was so hot. It was not a pretty sight. My feet still hurt hours after that event. Yikes!! The beach was beautiful and the water was so warm, it was a dream day.

After our long car ride home (and a good nap for the kids on the way) we went to Downtown Disney for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. That place is always busy, and I think Saturday night would qualify for the busiest night of the week. By the time we got there at 7:30, it was a 2 hour wait! But I still took the reservation time and we decided after a little bit to go to Planet Hollywood instead. We waited 45 minutes to get in there, by walking around the shops, and then when we got seated, the restaurant was way too loud and we left. Perhaps that is a sign we are getting old or something, but it was definately not the place we wanted to be. So we waited an hour longer and finally got our seat at the Rainforest Cafe. Despite the late dinner time (9:40!) the kids did really good.... until the end when Zack realized there was another "storm" coming on at the restaurant and he started to cry. We quickly exited the restaurant right as it was starting to rumble.

Day 3 - How I got that bad sunburn...

It was a lazy day today, due to the late night yesterday. We decided to go shopping, play golf and then Alan would be meeting up with his friends for dinner.
Let me just start by saying, despite how fun and adventurous the mini golf course promises to be, it will still be about 800 degrees in the sun. HOT HOT HOT It was so darn hot it was almost unbearable. Having said that, we decided that the Adventure Golf was for us, and we started playing at 1pm. Playing is really a loose term as the kids just rolled the balls along and I just tried to make it through the course without having heat stroke. We all had sunburns in the shape of our tank tops when we left.
When we went shopping, Zack decided to spend his Disney Dollars (he had earned $10) on a Car's canteen, that had a water ring toss game in it. Fun! Sydney got a Princess beach towel.
It was bath night and Alan went out to dinner with some friends that live in the area. He went to a Cuban restaurant in Celebration, and the kids watched Toy Story at the house.

Day 2 - Disney World!!

Since it was a weekday, we decided at the last minute to go to the Magic Kingdom in Disney. We got to the gates around 9:30 and it was even hot at that time of the morning. The first ride we went on the was the parking lot tram, then the boat, and finally made it to the park! Once in the park we headed to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, spinning cups. Next it was the Winnie the Pooh ride, and Sydney started to cry about the Wuzzles and Heffalumps being scarey! She said "I never want to go on that ride again". Seconds later we were surprised in the gift shop by Disney employees telling us that we had all won Dream Fast Passes! They were pretty cool - we could go to the Fast Past rides at any time we wanted to (just once). Too bad a lot of the rides were for big kids, but still, it was a great prize. During that day, Sydney spent much time begging to go shopping and spend her "Disney Dollars" (she had $12) and Zack just wanted to go on the race cars!
We tried to go into an attraction called Mickey's Philharmagic, and found out that it was a very dark, loudy and scarey ride! In fact we left after just about a minute of it. I don't blame them, it was pretty darn intense. So we would be well rested, we went back to our house for lunch and rest, and then by 3pm we were back at the park. It was not crowded at all, and a picture session with Pooh was about the longest time we waited (20 mins). The kids loved the race cars, and Buzz Lightyear laser ride. Zack was a much braver kid than Sydney and his absolute favorite ride was Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster! He also enjoyed the Dumbo ride and the People Mover. We did have a problem on the People Mover- it broke down in the dark area as you enter into Space Mountain. That would have been a total disaster had it not been for Alan's pocket flashlight, which kept the kids from being afraid. It seemed like we were stuck forever, but it was probably about 20 minutes.
When it started getting dark we headed to see the light parade. However, so did about a million other people and it was so crowded we couldn't see it. The fireworks went off right over our head, and they were pretty. We stayed until the park closed, at 11pm. What a busy day, we were all exhausted, but had a lot of fun!

Day 1 - Florida Trip... we have to get up how early??

We started our trip to Florida at 4:20 am. yep, that early. We haven't been up that early since the kids were still drinking bottles. Anyhow, we decided to just dress the kids in their outfits when they went to bed last night, so we just picked them up out of bed at 5am and stuck them in the car. I figured that with the lack of sleep they would just be sleeping the whole plane ride. Well much to our surprise, the kids were up and raring to go and never slept once. Oops, I didn't even bring any entertaining toys or books for the plane because I thought we didn't need them. Even so the kids did a great job on the plane ride and never cried once even when we put them in the car at 5am.
Since we had such an early flight we arrived in Florida at 11am, but our house wouldn't be ready until 4pm. So we took a trip over to Downtown Disney. It was hot hot hot! But the kids had fun going to Lego Land and racing cars. After hanging out and shopping for a little while, we went to our house. It was a really nice house, with a big - no *huge* - TV. And a home theatre system, with 250 DVD changer. Now if we could just figure out how to turn it on!
We had dinner at TGI Friday's and went grocery shopping, then called it a night. The kids slept great together in the same room, other than Zack always wanting to talk, and Sydney wanting to sleep!

Happy 5th Birthday Sydney!!

Well it's been 5 years now since the day you first arrived in this world with a fearsome cry. You've grown into a mischievous, beautiful little girl. You have a deep vein of competition running through you, at least when it has anything to do with competing against your brother. Book reading, hand washing, riding bikes - you name it, you'll compete against Zack for it! I hope that is a good trait - it tends to be a little tiresome on a continuous basis right now. However you are also a very kind and thoughtful girl who is smart and caring. You just started gymnastics, so perhaps there is hope for you not always being so klutzy after all. You also love to cook, or at least eat the dough and chocolate chips. Puzzles and games are also a favorite, along with your Ponies and stuffed animals. We count our blessings each time we think of how lucky we are to have such a super special girl like you in our family!!

Easy Bake Oven fun

The bakers are geared up

We bought an Easy Bake Oven from a garage sale recently. What a bargain - only $5 and it had several new mixes with it. So after many days of looking at it sitting in the corner of our dining room, we finally decided to make some treats. First of all, who would have thought it takes 15 mins to warm up the oven! Then, the mix made a teeny tiny amount of dough- appropriately small to go in this tiny oven. It was a lot of fun making the cutout cookies though, and they really did taste yummy.

Cutting out the cookies...

Are they done yet??

Don't kill me Jesus!!!

Last night we were putting together a Prince "costume" for Zack, and I decided we could make him some sort of vest with an old t-shirt. So I took an old black t-shirt and cut the bottom off of it, since it was too long, and used that as a belt around his waist. Sydney took one look at him and said "he looks like Jesus!!". Then Zack picked up his Prince sword, and poked Sydney with it - to which Sydney loudly replied (outside) "Don't kill me Jesus!!!". Sydney was also very upset to find out that the "jewels" that we attached to Zack's crown (Burger King!) were actually from her school project that she had brought home. oops!

Gymnastics!!

Sydney started Gymnastics last week at the local YMCA. What fun! Her class has 6 other girls in it and for their first night they got to try out all of the equipment - balance beam, rings, bars, and even a trampoline. She was so excited about it, she said she wanted to go back the next night. Zack was a little less thrilled about it all since he only got to watch and couldn't try out any of the equipment - well, until Mommy let him bounce once on the trampoline (which was actually against the rules, but it kept him from whining!)

the Magic show

we went to see a magic show at the library tonight. When I asked Zack what he liked best about the magic show, he told me "cake" which they had after the show! The show was put on by our good friend Andrew Martin. It was a good show. And the cake was good too!

Are you....

going to go outside? Are you going to go in the garage? Are you going to go in the basement? Are you going to work?? What are you going to do right now? But what are you going to do right now?? I love you. Go make some money. Good night.... Good bye. I love you. Go make some money!
Sydney says this every night when we turn off the light at kiss her goodnight. Apparently that one (or maybe two..) times we went outside after she went to bed really freaked her out. Especially when she woke up and couldn't find us anywhere in the house. oops.

My new friend

Today we heard about Zack's new friend - Ian! This is the first school friend that we've heard about Zack playing with. Perhaps it could be a long time friend... like co-worker Chloe!

Zenobia Shrine Circus

The circus was in town this weekend so we took the kids. It was quite a treat for everyone - lions, monkeys, dogs, elephants, hula-hoop girls and much more!! The kids especially liked the light up necklaces that they got... and the cotton candy.

Mommy...

"I want to stay with you forever" (whispered to Mommy by Zack as I carried him to bed)

the Jellybean Tree

I finished up a mural in the kid's play loft today. It's our own Jellybean tree!

Ski day 3 - Keystone

For our last day of skiing we decided to stay right at our own resort. Once again it was a beautiful sunny day - we had to eventually take off part of our coats and put them in lockers because we were getting so overheating on the slopes! That's because we were doing some trick moves at the A51 terrain park. Or maybe not - perhaps we were really just falling off the box that we were trying for the first time - but we weren't afraid of the jumps and had a great time playing around.


Alan "rocking the box" at the terrain park...


For dinner we had some brews and a pizza at Fatty's Pizzeria in Breckenridge.




It was a quick trip, but a much needed break.

Ski day 2 - Loveland

Loveland is an awesome local ski resort that sits on top the Eisenhower tunnel. It's right on the continental divide. We went skiing there on our 2nd day. We go there almost every time we are in Colorado, but I think this was one of the very few times that it was actually warm instead of frigid. With the altitude so high, above the tree line, it can get pretty nasty up there when the temperature is cold and the wind is blowing. We had a great day of skiing, and had some fun wipe outs too!

After skiing we went to the Dam Brewery. Yummy!

Ski trip to Colorado!!

Sure, this is supposed to be a kids blog, but we like to put in notes and stories about other things too. We took a quick ski trip out to Colorado this year and stayed at the River Run condo in Keystone. http://www.vrbo.com/21218 What a great place to stay. This was our 2nd time at this particular condo. You can always get good deals at the last minute if you search for them.

On our first day of skiing, we went to Breckenridge. They got a new gondola since the last time we were there. Speaking of which, lift ticket prices are soooooooo expensive now. We had to pay $172 for only 2 tickets, when almost 3 years ago we only paid $43 a ticket. Ouch!

Breckenridge had great snow, and it was sunny. We even skied the Devils Crotch! (a double black diamond run) After skiing we headed to our favorite restaurant, Downstairs at Erics in Breckenridge. Remember Alan taking that fall on the stairs???

Woopy Woop

The kids take the bungie cords that are in the truck and have them hanging between the car seat and the back of the front row seats. Then they hang the other bungies on them. They now serve as phones, devices to steer the train, and Zack especially likes them when the look like "woopy woops"!

Too many!!

We went to the Toledo Zoo to see to see a performance that the Toledo Ballet was putting on. It was excerps from the Nutcracker show that they put on every year. Well, during the dance of the sugar plum fairies, all of the dancers came out on stage and had the same outfits on. When Zack saw them all, he loudly proclaimed "there's too many!!!" He said it so loud he almosted seemed distressed by their appearance! He got that from a book called "Too many frogs", but I think he really meant to say that there's "alot" of dancers :)

Alpine Valley ski trip

Zack takes his first cruise down the hill at Alpine Valley. He made it all the way down without falling, skiing right next to Mommy. He had a good time and went down the hill 4 times, until he started getting a little grumpy, then he was easily convinced to go enjoy some hot chocolate in the lodge. He said the best part of skiing was going up the hill on the Magic Carpet and he wouldn't stop telling us that he wants to go on the chairlift next time!



Sydney was doing a really good job skiing - especially since it was only the second time she's been skiing! Here she is going down the hill all by herself. She is becoming a pro at going down the hill - very fast - in a straight line. Oh well, there's always next year to learn "pizzas and french fries"
Hopefully we'll get a few more days of snow around here so we can go again - and get Zack up on that chairlift!!

Sledding

Even though we only have enough snow to barely cover the ground, we had to get out sledding. It's really only been snowy for a couple of days this winter. Hardly any snow at all, so this was our first sledding trip of the winter. We went over to Sidecut Metro park close by our house. The hill wasn't really steep, but the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.

On our last trip down the hill, the sled finally gave in to the enormous weight of Alan's butt and a hole was broke through the sled. haha It probably had more to do with the stick they ran over on the way down, but the verdict is still out. :)

Best artwork ever!

Here are the latest pictures that Sydney drew for us. One of Sydney & Mommy and the other of Zack and Daddy!

"Oh my goodness..."

"... it's a Nut Grabber!" Sydney's new catch phrase around the holidays :)

"Oh my goodness!!"

Zack exclaims as we are out for a drive looking at all of the Christmas lights on other people's houses.

Lights at the Zoo

We took a trip to the Zoo tonight to see all of the Christmas lights. The kids loved the "dancing" lights which were synchronized to "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas". Zack and Sydney went to see Santa and they told Santa they wanted a train & red race car (Zack) and a ballerina & princess (Sydney).

Don't look now!

We watched the classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer last night. Every time the Abominable Snowman came on, Zack covered his eyes with both of his hands!