Zack's b-day party at Heros

Heros is *the* place for birthday parties.  Or at least the kids think so  :)  Since Sydney has had a couple of big parties with friends, Zack had his there this year.  The party began with decorating a t-shirt, with his best bud Chase.

Next they got on the bouncer and slides.  Fun for everyone, even for big sis!

 It was a good group of friends.

 After the inflatables, the kids went to the "sandlot" and had a "food fight".  They hurled all sorts of stuff back and forth and the team with the least amount of items on their side in the end won.  Too bad Chase got hit in the head with a rubber chicken :(

 They also did a race on wheeled boards.  It proved to be a bit more difficult that it looks!

 Next the kids moved over to the carnival games.  This are is always a big hit and they get to pick out a prize.

 Of course the birthday boy gets the biggest prize!  No surprise, he picked out a jet.

Finally the gang headed over to the dining area, which was decorated like it was back in the 70's.  Pizza and juice was served.

After blowing out the candles on a his cupcake, the kids each got to decorate their own cupcake with yummy treats like jellybeans and gummy bears.  Those cupcakes are delicious!!



Finally it was time to open the presents.  He got a ton of toys.  Such nice friends!  Zack had a blast and it was a very special day for him :)

Safety Township

Zachary had the great opportunity to go to Safety Township this year.  The program was around back when Sydney was entering in to Kindergarten also, but I could not figure out how to make arrangements to get her there so she did not attend.  Zack got to carpool with Elle, who lives in our neighborhood and also goes to Childrens Discovery Center.  I am very thankful to have great neighbors and friends who can help us out like that.  That arrangement worked our very well.

The kids got to ride around a little town in these cool cars and learn all about safety rules - in cars, on bikes, stranger danger, and much much more.  He has been telling us all about it all week! 

 At the end of the week there was a graduation program to share all the information they had learned.

577 Foundation day

While we were out running errands on our day together, I remembered that Sydney was going to be at the 577 Foundation right when we were nearby.

So we went from the library over there to "spy" on her! I didn't get to take any pictures of her - (didn't want to really look like a stalker!) - but Zack and I enjoyed the park while we walked around. The pond was beautiful!

We discovered some really cool tadpoles (with legs!!) in the pond.

Zack still mentions the time we had a picnic lunch at the 577. We'll have to do that again soon ;)

Camping at Maumee Bay

We arrived at Maumee Bay for our first camping trip of the season. We were all pleasantly surprised to see that Friday was movie night - and they were showing Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs! I was the only one who hadn't seen it yet.



The movie didn't start until the sun went down, so it was going to be a late night. The popcorn was only 50 cents a bag, what a deal.

Zack is smiling now, but just wait a few minutes until we got swarmed by Mayflies!! ewww! There were millions of them flying around in the sky. Luckily they didn't all land on us or anything like that. They just flew away after it got dark.

The next day we headed over to the beach. It wasn't super warm, but we had promised the kids they could get the unlimited ride arm band for the big slide at the beach.

They had a blast going on it and I think they were on it for at least an hour.

When we got back to the campsite Sydney challenged me to a scooter race. We had to go around 10 times (!!!). I was surprised how fast she was on her scooter. I didn't have a chance!

Later we went fishing. Technically those are the kids fishing poles, but their idea of fishing is watching us fish. Them seem to have no interest in actually holding the poles. So here is a picture of me with my 3rd fish of the season. It's 5 1/2 inches long. No idea what kind of fish it was, it just jumped off of the hook - it was really hard to hold!


The park was also having an ice cream social, so even though we were also having s'mores by the campfire later, we indulged in some ice cream too!

After we had a campfire and ate our s'mores it started to sprinkle a little, so it was bedtime. Around 11pm while Alan and I were watching a movie, we heard sirens going off. Shortly after the park ranger drove through the park warning us that there was Tornado Warning and we needed to go seek shelter in the shower house. So we woke the kids up and carried them over there.

It was quite interesting seeing all of our camper neighbors hanging out in the restroom! As you can tell, the kids were tired and less than thrilled to be there. We stayed there until almost midnight, when the storm was leaving.

Around 2am the sirens went off again and we were woke up by thunder and the park ranger driving around again telling everyone about another Tornado Warning. This time we decided to stay in the camper just because we didn't want to wake up the kids again and take them out in the bad weather. The storm was pretty windy and lasted until 3:30am. Surprisingly the kids slept right through it all. I was glad for that because they probably would have been scared, it was pretty intense. The wind shook the camper from one end to another, shaking it was it went.

Little did we know that only 9 miles away an actual tornado had touched down. Sadly we found out on Sunday that someone we knew had their house leveled by that tornado, and she and her son were killed in the storm. So very sad and tragic. Her husband and daughter are in the hospital and will probably have a very long road to recovery ahead of them. Mary and Hayden will be missed very much by our family, they were both such happy and loving people. I still can't believe it happened.

Last Day Blast!

Today is the last day of school for Sydney. I can't believe the year has flown by already, and Sydney has completed 1st grade. Here is a comparison of the first and last day of school. I just LOVE the kids summer blond hair in the first pic - fresh back from our vacation to Cancun. ahhhh.... memories.

There was excitement at the bus stop and all of the kids got ready for their last trip on the bus for a long time (well, I guess only 3 months. Summer is so short!!)

For the last day of school they had a "Last Day Blast" which was basically a bunch of carnival games and fun stuff for the kids to do all day. They had games like ring toss...

... tattoos...

... and lots of fun with their friends. This was supposed to be an outdoors event, but a storm rolled in and we were all set up in the school instead.

I'm sure Sydney will miss Mrs Turner. She is a great teacher!

Zhu Zhu pets...

Meet the newest, cleanest pet in our house!  Those Zhu Zhu pets are multiplying around here!  At least they are quiet and night and don't require a litter box!!

Sydney's family b-day party

It was a beautiful day. We spent the whole day laying by the pool and playing in the water. I'm so excited because the pool is clean! Let's hope I can keep it that way...

We invited over Grandma & Grandpa and also Uncle Brian, Aunt Andrea, Ian and Brandon for a cookout and birthday celebration.

Sydney was very excited to get another accessory for her Zhu Zhu pets.

She also got a pair of earrings, now that she isn't afraid to change them anymore ;)

I am usually one to make an elaborate birthday cake, but quite frankly I was all "birthday-ed" out by the time this party came along. I had made her cupcakes last weekend (which I still think are pretty darn hard to make - mine always look terrible!!) and some Puppy Chow to take to school. So we decided to get a cookie cake instead. I was thrilled when she was actually really excited about getting a cookie cake.

After the festivities it was time to head out for some more fun in the pool. This time the big kids got in too, and a pool noodle ensued.

It got pretty rough out there, but Zack and Sydney held their own with a water gun to defend themselves. They got pretty good at shooting water in peoples faces!

I don't think we could have asked for a nicer start to our summer. I'm sure Zack will be a more confident (or maybe just crazy) swimmer this year.

Sydney quickly picked up right where she left off in her swimming skills.

Sydney's b-day party

For Sydney's 7th birthday party we ended up with a beach party kind of theme, mostly because we were decorating flip flops, so the rest just kind of fell into place. We picked out several games around that theme - here she is with the "pin the flower on the hula girl".

She was so excited, couldn't wait for her guest to arrive. The count down started earlier in the week and on the day of the party, it was "how many hours?..." "how many minutes?..".

As an ice breaker we played a game where we passed a hula hoop between two teams of girls - and the winning team got to pick a prize. They were all very excited to be picking out prizes.

Here is the hula game in action. One girl did especially well (no, not Sydney). A little too well - very suspicious! haha

After a few games inside everyone decided to hit the playset. That was, until they got too hot - then it was back inside for some more fun.

I think the most fun was when they were playing "freeze dance". We were playing the Hampster Dance song. I'm having a hard time getting that tune out of my head - the music was cranked! The girls had a blast just jumping around being crazy.

We finally settled down for the craft - fabric covered flip flops. They did really well and were almost all able to tie the fabric on by themselves.

Here they are displaying the end results. Oh, and Zack wanted to get in the picture too - he was feeling a tiny bit left out with all of the girls here :)

Instead of a cake, we let everyone decorate their own cupcake. Yum!!

Sydney had hers with the "works"!

It was a great way to celebrate - Sydney has so many nice friends.