Maumee Bay camping trip with the Bachli's

It was a hot weekend when we went to Maumee Bay.  This trip was special because it was the first trip we had taken with my family - my parents and brother's family.  Sydney had a birthday party to go to on Saturday, so Zack and I went down to the beach together.

Along came Brandon and sure enough he found a snake in the grass!  I'm not sure how those boys do it, but no matter where the animals are, they will find them.

The campground was also having their Christmas in July events that weekend - which explains Santa Claus.  What about the pink face?  Well, at the b-day party they did face painting of course :)



At night we all gathered around the campfire and looked for stars.  When it got late, the kids all went on a "midnight walk" looking for creatures.  Unfortunately they didn't find any, but the kids had a great time wandering around in the dark with their flashlights and their cousins for nature guides.

Yum!!  We had a great dinner over at Grandma & Grandpa's camper.



Sydney just loved taking Bindi around and being her "owner" for a little while. 



We also enjoyed a riding bikes and taking walks on the nature trail.  It was a great trip.  I hope we do it every year!

The day Thomas wasn't cool anymore

Of course we knew this day would come. But we just weren't sure when. The signs were there - the Thomas the Train toys remained in their backpack for months. No trains took trips around the house or even saw the light of day. Zack would rather play with his toys than watch Thomas and Friends on the weekend. And then there was today... They had a "picnic" day at daycare today and I packed a lunch for Zack. He was so excited all morning about being able to take a snack bag of Dorito's. Well that was until I looked for a lunch bag for him to take the food in. The only insulated one we had for him was a Thomas the Train one. It was large enough to fit all of his lunch, but when I offered it to him, he choose to take a smaller plain black insulated bag instead (oddly enough, it was an old baby bottle insulated bag!) - even though it meant not having the coveted bag of Doritos. Wow, I never thought he would choose "looking cool" over a bag of Doritos!!

Swimming playdate

The kids has some friends over today for a playdate (Morgan and Mitchell).  Both kids went to school with Sydney and Zack, but stay home during the summer because their mom is a teacher.  So they were a bit bored and I got a call to get together.  I gladly invited them over to go swimming and have some fun at our house.

 Of course the boys grabbed the water guns and ambushed the girls!  :)

Dinner with the Puls

 That's right kids, jump right in!!

 I really need to toot my own horn here - I have kept the pool clean *past* the 4th of July!  This is quite an accomplishment for me - the pool is usually yucky at least once a season.

 Tonight we had our dear friends the Puls over for dinner.  It was a pool party, cookout party and it was a lot of fun.

 Mark tossed the ball around for the kids and they dove in like dogs trying to catch a frisbee :)

The kids even ate a little bit of food.  But not much :)



Legos, and more Legos!!

Since Zack had some birthday money, I promised him I would take him over to the toy store and get some Legos.  Alan was shocked when we came home with all of this!!  Honestly though, I would much rather have Zack spending his money on Legos instead of Smencils, animal bracelets, or Pokemon cards!

 He was so darn excited - he couldn't wait to dig in and get building these kits.

 They definately kept him busy for a while.

Chick shopping night!

I hit the mall tonight with Sydney.  Strike a pose!!

Lego contest

Zack created a Lego masterpiece today.  It is for a Lego contest, and the topic is sports.  So we came up with this golfing idea.  I think it turned out really good and he was very proud of his achievement.

Miniature Golf Day

There seems to be so many fun things to do in the summer, but not enough days and nights to do them in!!  Today we decided to go golfind - unfortunately it was drizzling a little bit, so we had to take a mini break from the fun, but it didn't ruin our whole trip.

Look at the swing on this girl - I see potential!!

 Zack is still learning, but at least he didn't just pick up the ball and throw it in the hole like he did in the past!

 I think Alan won the game... but who's even keeping score? :)

Super Run (aka Maumee Rec 5K)

Today was a super exciting day for me.  Alan and I ran the Maumee Rec 5K.  It's a small, affordable run close to our house.  I ran it last year as my first 5K in a looooong time.  Since it's in July, of course it's super hot.  Very hot.  Most guys were running without shirts on  for this one.

 Well, the great news was that despite the heat, Alan and I both placed in the race!  Alan got 3rd in his age group, and I got 1st place!!  Yes, 1st place!!  It was so exciting.  When I got to the table at the end and turned my popsicle stick in (for timing), I saw that I was the first one to come in for my age group.  I could hardly believe.  What an awesome day!! :)

Rock Climbing at BGSU

Sydney got a great opportunity today at summer camp - rock climbing!  They went over to the indoor rock climbing wall over at BGSU.  Even better Alan got to go over then and see her.  She did a great job.  She didn't make it to the top, but she did go up pretty high and really enjoyed it.

Swimming with Elle

Since Alan goes for a long run in his marathon training on Wednesday nights, we've been trying to invite friends over for swimming dates.  Tonight Elle came over.  As you can see, she was definately not shy about jumping into the water!  She did great - I was trying to encourage our kids to jump in without plugging their noses, just like she does.

Happy 4th of July!!

I have achieved a great accomplishment... this year I vowed keep the flowers on my patio alive (especially the basket that was my Mother's day gift!!) and to keep the pool clean for the 4th of July. And I did it!! The pool has been the biggest challenge around here - ALWAYS green and yucky on the 4th, just when you want to use it. But not this year. I have been reformed - I keep a calendar and check the levels at least 3 times a week. Oh, and the most important, the weekly shock. Even though it was a close call - when we got home from our camping trip we realized that the salt chlorinator wasn't working and the pool had no chlorine for days, it was on the edge of ruining it all... but Alan got it fixed and everything worked out. We've been really enjoying the pool as it has been close to 90 degrees for the last couple of days.

Here is a super cool picture I took of my guys. Awwwww

Cedar Point

We had waited so long for the new water ride to open.  Shoot the Rapids looked pretty cool, but due to some technical difficulties they had to wait to open it until long after the park opened for the year.

  Unfortunately we found out that they put a new height restriction on it and it was taller than Zack.  He was bummed, he really wanted to ride on it.  We did go with Sydney and she liked it a lot.

 Zack got the consolation prize of cotton candy.

The kids had a great time playing the old fashioned football game!

Teach a man to fish...

I often wonder what the kids can do to help out more around the house.  Today I started thinking that maybe they can make their own sandwiches!  When offered the opportunity they were pretty excited about it - Zack even jumped without excess nagging (I mean "encouragement").

In the end they had made a couple of pretty good PB&J's.  It took a bit of supervision and instruction, but it's a start!

Zack's 5th birthday

Zack requested a Monster Truck cake for his birthday, and this is what I came up with (oops, forgot to cover the board before I put the cake on it...). That is Grave Digger, pretty awesome!

We had the grandparents over for some cake, ice cream and presents. Zack was thrilled to be getting this Lego set that he wanted.

That is one happy birthday boy!!

Zack waits in anticipation of blowing out the candles...

Sydney is being quite motivational! He did a great job blowing the candles all out. It was a great birthday :)

Bowl-a-rama!

Today the Summer Camp program went bowling. The kids had a lot of fun. It was funny to watch them hurl the balls down the lane, and then the balls barely even rolled at all! Sydney won on her lane, with a score of 91!

Hey, pay attention - maybe you're getting a spare!

Sydney and her best bud Gabriella. :)