Birthday for Sydney (a little early)

We had originally planned on just having a Memorial day cookout, but since both grandparents were coming over we decided to open presents for Sydney's 6th b-day too (only 5 days early).

Zack waits pretty patiently while Sydney gets all of the attention...

It's all about Hello Kitty this year...

Grandpa W and Sydney

here are some cool swimming goggles the kids got...

Even though it was only about 75 degrees (maybe) outside, the kids had to try out the new slip and slide that Sydney got.

Birthday cake

I know it's hard to believe from looking at these pictures, but I really did take two Wilton cake decorating classes! I guess you learn enough to be dangerous - which is what I am when I'm left to my own devices and need to come up with a cake design on my own. I can really excel when when I follow a design in a book, but I just can't seem to get the right balance of design and color when I do it myself. But I digress, this is really a story about a birthday cake... so Sydney and I looked through my cake books and she found a cool frosting cat that she wanted on her cake. Since we decided to have her birthday party early with the grandparents, I had to make a cake on short order. I came up with this cake and the cat even came out pretty decent.

but the next morning.....

Well much to my surprise, when I took the cake cover off the next morning, all of the frosting on the back of the cake had slid off !!! We ran the dishwasher last night and I think the hot air from the dishwasher was blown in the direction of the cake and caused the mess. waaa. Well at least is was the back of the cake!!

Kindergarten trip to the Zoo

Today was the kindergarten trip to the Toledo Zoo. Alan was a chaperone. Since so many parents wanted to go, Alan only had one other kid with him. It was quite interesting because this little boy kept asking Alan "Will you buy this for me??" "Why won't you buy this for me!?". It was funny because Alan wasn't even buying anything for Sydney!

That's my little shutterbug- taking pictures of the penguins.

I think Sydney's favorite part of the day was going to McDonalds for ice cream with Daddy!

Heritage Days

The kids went over to Grandma & Grandpa B's house this weekend to spend the night. They had a great time! The best part was that they were taken to a festival called Heritage Days, out in the "farmland". It was somewhere in Michigan. The day started out rainy, and I was afraid they would not be able to go - after all of the talk of the activities that would have been quite a letdown for them.

They got to dig for money in this sawdust "sandbox". I figured they would get maybe $5. We were sure surprised when they came home with $11 (Zack) and $43 (Sydney)!! Sydney had the clear advantage as she could reach farther than Zack and she didn't mind getting dirty :)

Grandma helps Zack find some treasure!

Of course there were lots of animals to see - pigs, chickens, cows and goats. But they also got to go for a ride on a real, big tractor and participate in a tractor pull. Yep, the kids got strapped in and pulled a weight just like a real tractor pull. Zack pulled a respectable 29 pounds and Sydney pulled 38. They didn't win awards for their weight pulled, but they did get a cool ribbon for participating. Sydney was so proud of her ribbon that she wore it to school all day on Monday.

Hootie

Tonight said goodbye to our kitty, Hootie. Hootie came into our lives as a stray cat who used to live under our deck at our first house. She took up residence there, and soon she had 2 litters of kittens! We caught all of those kittens and found good homes for them. The first time she appeared, we named her "Hootie and the Blowfish" because she was with her 2 babies. Oh, and Hootie was a popular group at the time. :) Well, Hootie was the most elusive of the cats and we had to rent a live trap to catch her and bring her inside to live with us. We couldn't leave her outside to keep reproducing under our deck! So with Hootie in our house, we now had 3 cats (Tara and Chyna were already living with us). Hootie was a calm cat who always just kind of hung around. However, we also found out she was a diabetic cat, after she peed on our carpet repeatedly of our new house and ruined it :( We have been giving her insulin shots for almost 4 years. Even though she wasn 't a playful kitty, she loved to sit on your lap and be brushed. We think she was 15 years old when she passed away. Goodbye dear Hootie.

Our little smartie!!

** caution, Mommy bragging going on here!! **
Yesterday I met with Sydney's kindergarten teacher for the last conference of the year. I can't believe how fast school has gone by. About a month ago the kindergarten class took the Iowa standardized test. Most of the public schools in our area don't take that test in Kindergarten, but since CDC is a private school, they like to take the test to make sure their teaching standards are up to par and to provide solid proof that their program works. Well I am certainly sold on it... Ms Tennille told me that Sydney scored "2.0 " (2nd grade) in Word Analysis and "1.7" (1st grade, 7th month) in Math! That is the 94th percentile for the Word Analysis and 95th percentile for Math! Great job Sydney, we are so proud of you!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

The best part about Mothers Day? Sharing some ice cream treats with the family.

Garage Sale days

It's garage sale time again! The annual neighborhood garage sale was this past weekend. What huge amount of stuff we had. Note that this is not only my stuff, but also my friend Jennifer's stuff. However, we both had an exceptionally large amount of stuff I thought! The garage and driveway were packed. We had some people sneaking around for "preview night" on Thursday, and then Friday was crazy. Saturday was a snoozer - but a good time to eat some donuts and work on my 365 pages with my laptop :)

This is what it looked like on Friday morning...


This is what we were left with at the end of the sale. Note how that old computer monitor didn't sell for $2! What a shame :)

Overall our sale made close to $1,200. Way to go!!

Zack and the Mustang

While Sydney was at gymnastics class, Zack got to "drive" the Mustang around the neighborhood!!

Our swampy pool

We thought we would get a jump on pool season this year and open it early. We were hoping it hadn't turned green yet - not so. It was stinky, just like a swamp again. Luckily it turned blue within a few hours of dumping a bunch of shock in it.


Zack sustained an injury and wanted a bandaid. So he ran in the house and put it on all by himself. This is what it looked like... Note that the actual injury is on top of the toe, not on the bottom where the pad is. :)

A morning at Sidecut Park

Now that the weather is nice again, it's time for Daddy to start running at the park again. That's great for the whole family because we get to go play at the playground while Daddy's working out!
Of course it's the perfect opportunity for me to take some photos of the kids playing. I'm starting to think my kids think my face IS a camera lens at times.






This year Sydney has a new talent - the monkey bars!! She does a great job of swinging through the bars and making it all the way across - a feat that was pretty darn hard when I tried it!

Zack is learning to conquer the fireman pole!

Toledo Train Day

Toledo sponsered a Train Day event down at the Martin Luther King train station downtown. It was a great opportunity for the kids to see where the trains (Amtrak) came into our town. We had never been down there, so it was enlightening for us to see too. There was a a lot of model trains - but the best part for Alan & I was riding on a Segway! I didn't get a picture of that (darn!), but it was really cool.



Here is one of our double decker Amtrak train.

We're all ready to go on a trip!!

There is a cool building downtown that I might have to take the kids back to for a full-blown photo session. Here is my test shot...

Queen Pico!

Pico is Queen of all that she sees!

A school playdate

Sydney was so excited to show everyone her new kitten. We invited over Miranda, a friend from kindergarten, over our house after school. They had a lot of fun, and Pico seemed to recover pretty quick from all of their "loving". :) Pico really is a good kitten with the kids - she enjoys playing with them and doesn't run and hide.

Glass City Marathon

Today was the Glass City Marathon. Alan has never run in this race before, and he decided to run the 1/2 marathon. The half marathon started in downtown Perrysburg, at Perry's Landing so it was close to home. The day was really nice, but again way too warm. In the past this race has had terrible weather, rain or even snow! But of course Alan gets one of those oddball 80 degree days.



The starting line... Alan's out there, somewhere!!



We got to enjoy the park for a little bit before we went to the next stop to cheer on Daddy.




Aww, aren't they sweet when they're not fighting!?!



Almost half way through his run Daddy is still going strong!



And he finished (very sweaty and tired from the heat) in 1 hour 47 minutes. Hooray!!

My flower bouquet was a little wilty by the end of the race too :)

Sweet dreams Pico!

At bedtime last night, Pico was resting peacefully on the end of Sydney's bed. I was surprised again that after the lights went out, Pico remained in Sydney's room. I figured that must be the best thing ever to happen to Sydney - having her little kitten sleep on her bed with her. awwww. About 20 minutes later a very frustrated and unhappy Sydney comes walking downstairs, half in tears, saying that she can't sleep! Oh no, what's wrong?? Mind you, this is the child who falls asleep 3 minutes after we kiss her goodnight... "The kitten keeps jumping on my face!!!" I guess you should watch what you wish for!

It's Pico!

After many long days of waiting, and many many name suggestions, we finally have our new kitten. Pico is the name, and she is just a tiny little thing. We got her from the Paws and Whiskers shelter. There were 3 kittens to pick from, 2 of which were females. Zack wanted the one with the blue collar, so he was bummed that he didn't get his pick. Potential names were Claire, Neku, Kara... but finally we all agreed on Pico.

When we brought her home she had a busy night of investigating every room in the house. Nose to the ground, she ran in and out of each one sniffing everything. During story time she decided to crawl under Zack's race car bed. I figured she would come out after lights out. Nope. An hour later she was still hiding under there. So Alan and I took a flashlight and a couple of cat toys and tried to coax her out. That didn't work, so then Alan just grabbed and pulled her out. Good thing Zack didn't wake up - he might have thought there were monsters under his bed!

She was good while we slept, except for the occasional stroll across our foreheads and all over our bodies. At one point she even walked on top of our alarm clock and turned on the music! All in all it was a good first night for her. I hope her day all alone in the house (except for her new friend Hootie) will go just as well!