Football Friday Nite

We love football here so we decided that this would be the year we attempt to take our kids to a high school football game. The season started Friday night (August 26th, I started this post a few weeks ago), the weather was gorgeous, and Jason didn't have to work that night, so we decided it was the perfect evening to go. The plan was to go to the local game but they were playing their biggest rival and it usually sells out, so we thought maybe we should find something a little more low-key. The next obvious way to decide, of course, was to find a nearby school that was also close to a great restaurant. We live 20 minutes from a Der Dutchman Amish restaurant that is right down the street from a high school, so off we trekked. Xander hated it immediately. It looked too fancy and there was a loud pianist. But then he saw the bakery. And the gift shop. And the buffet. It has now become his new favorite restaurant.

(Like Jordis' headband? She's apparently channeling her inner Olivia Newton-John.)

Next up was the football game. Even though they were expecting a giant stadium like they see on TV, they were still overwhelmed with all the sights. Xander was impressed that people were allowed to stomp on the bleachers on purpose and make lots of noise. I was impressed that I saw people coming away from the concession stand with funnel cakes. Then I saw sno-cones, and Chick-Fil-A sandwiches and Cow Tales. Forget the Amish place, we might just start coming to games at this school and eating at the concession stand.

We decided to sit on the visitors side since Jason had a friend also in attendance and we thought we'd support the high school that his brother and sister went to. It was clearly the wrong side. The football team was horrible, and so was the band. And I'm still not sure why the flag corp was using flags that didn't coincide with their school colors. But the kids didn't seem to mind. Xander was learning how to read the scoreboard and Jordis was enthralled with the cheerleaders.

As is par for the course, Jordis made a friend while we were at the game. She also thought the team mascot was HILARIOUS. She made Jason take her down to the track so she could see him up close. Then she tried taunting him for the rest of the evening.

We decided to leave during the fourth quarter. I was clearly channeling crowd avoidance techniques I picked up from my dad.....had to get out of the parking lot before the game was over and we were sitting in traffic wasting gas. But I do have priorities so we made sure to pick up a funnel cake to eat on the ride home.

Kids had fun + mom & dad had fun + little to no drama = SUCCESS!!!!

It's that time

School supplies

New backpacks and lunch boxes

New fabric napkins to pack in lunches (because we are all about recycling and not making extra trash in this house).

Ridiculously expensive name-brand shoes that I swore I'd never purchase

Two adorable kids wearing new outfits

One really sad mom who doesn't want her baby to be old enough for school
(definitely no picture of that)

Two kids who couldn't wait to tell us about their first day

Happy Back to School Xander and Jordis!

Summertime

Wow, I haven't blogged in almost a month! Can you tell I got a part-time job? It's definitely making my summer go a little faster than usual since I'm not here 3-4 afternoons a week. We've definitely been keeping busy.

The kids and I have had a few slumber parties on the sofa bed. The first time we watched "Because of Winn Dixie" and the second time we watched "The Karate Kid" (the original one). I let them eat popcorn on the bed which they thought was pretty cool. One night we also made chocolate covered bananas. They were yummy!

One day, right before school was out, Jordis and I took our neighbor on a little tour of some of the finer points of south Columbus. She is from Michigan and we've been discussing a little field trip since last year, so we finally made our way out.
We started at Schiller Park.

Then we stopped for goodies at Pistacia Vera. How I love their macaroons. Jordis had a delightful lemon sugar cookie. I forget what Nancy sampled, but it looked equally as tasty.

Next was a trip up High Street to the North Market. We checked out all the booths, grabbed some lunch to go (yummy mashed potatoes and mac and cheese from a local eatery) and continued north. Oh, and Jordis always has to take her picture with this cow whenever we come to the market.

Our final stop was the Park of Roses. It was a few days before the annual festival so the roses should have been at their peak, but it had been so hot at the time that they were looking a little pekid. We enjoyed them anyway. It's always fun to take someone there that has never been. You'd never know that such beauty existed in that busy stretch of High Street without someone showing you. It's definitely off the beaten path.

We've also had some creepy summer storms....

...made homemade donuts....

....been to the park.....

...and discovered silly string.

There's still 35 days until school starts, so I'm sure we'll have some more summer fun in the weeks to come.

Zoo trip

Shortly before the end of the school year I took Jordis for a day at the zoo. It's so much easier to take just one kid because there's no fighting about what to see, and it was a beautiful day, so I was looking forward to it. And Xander was going with his class the following week so I didn't feel bad about either child being left out

Jordis loves to climb all over these words in the Habitat Hollow, which is right next to the petting zoo. Those sweet animals have the most patience to let so many little ones run around and touch them all day.





The polar bears weren't out because their outdoor area was being cleaned, but we were able to go to the educational portion of the exhibit.

We rode the train

Enjoyed the flowers

And spent a lot of time in the primate area. They are my absolute favorites and Jordis likes them as much as I do. I could spend all day watching them and on this day they did not disappoint.



And it wouldn't be a day at the zoo if Jordis didn't make a trip to the reptile building. She was disappointed that they didn't have a snake out to pet, but she did like that this snake was looking at us.
Such a fun day getting one-on-one time with my little girl who's growing up way too quickly.

Catty

Typically, this is what people think of when they hear the word catty:

cat-ty

adj. cat-ti-er, cat-ti-est

1. subtly, cruel or malicious; spitelful: a catty remark

2. catlike; stealthy

But not at our house. Catty is our former caterpillar. The caterpillar my kids captured in their bug catcher late last summer because he was going to turn into a butterfly. He wrapped himself into a chrysalis and settled in for a time.

Then fall came, and there was no butterfly.

Winter was next and, well, you know.

I put the bug catcher in the garage for the winter. Our very.long.winter. Our very long, COLD, winter. The very long, cold winter that we all thought would never end.

(You get it, right?)

Once it was finally starting to warm up, the kids brought the bug catcher back out and sat it on the porch. I let them continue to believe that this pupa survived the winter and was still undergoing metamorphosis. I didn't want to break their little hearts by telling them that their caterpillar probably didn't survive for seven months outside in the cold.

But apparently the joke was on me.

Meet Catty.

Xander was outside playing one May afternoon and came running in shouting that Catty turned into a butterfly. It was a gorgeous butterfly at that. And the odd thing was that Xander had brought home a butterfly book that day for his reading homework.

The kids wanted to keep it, but we had to explain to them that it needed to be free, so we opened up the door and watched it for awhile.

Catty seemed to have trouble finding his way out, so Jason found a thick piece of mulch for him to hop up on and we brought him out of the bug catcher where he made his way down to the flower bed next to our lilac bush.

He stayed there for quite a bit, flapping his little wings. We thought he was learning to fly, but after a quick internet search I discovered it's how they dry off their wings after first emerging. And then he must have gotten tired of two little kids ogling him and breathing on him, and he flew away.

I hate being wrong, but I'm so glad my kids got to have faith in nature and see that some things are worth the wait.

I need a plan

It appears as though Thursday is the last day of school. That's two days from now. We've all been counting down the days. For different reasons, of course. :-)

I've known this day was coming for a while now, so I've had ample time to make a plan for filling our summer days with things besides TV, Wii and screaming children who like to fight all day.

I've done a LOT of research about crafts, events and local happenings in my community.

And this is the plan I've come up with.

I think it's going to be a long summer.

Mom's Day

So I'm a little behind. Almost a month. Geesh! But wanted to share a few Mother's Day pictures.

I woke up to find that the kids had gifted me some items in their Easter baskets.

(I know....Easter was two weeks before Mother's Day, the baskets should be back in the crawl space. Sue me.)

Anyway, Xander had made me a lovely book at school where he filled out on the pages all the reasons that he liked me. It was very clear by the end that he likes me because I feed him, as most of the pages said he like me because I make him XYZ to eat.

He also went and found everything he could in his room that's yellow and gave it to me since yellow is my favorite color. Then he chastised Jordis because her gifts were NOT yellow.

She had the last laugh though when she held up a family picture she drew......of Jason, Me and herself.

Those two crack me up.