COSI

Over Labor Day weekend our friends from Michigan were here and we were looking for something to do inside since it was cold and supposed to rain. We settled on a trip to COSI since none of us have been to the new one. When I say new, it's been there at least ten years, but most people my age grew up with the original COSI. The kids have been wanting to go for awhile so they were pretty excited. It was the last Monday they were open for the season, and the final day before they closed for their annual two-week cleaning, so we were in luck.

The ball tossing maching in the courtyard was a big hit. You hold these balls up to the machine and they get sucked up inside and then spit out into the air. Then they rain down onto whoever is standing there. I was really proud of the kids because they collected balls and gave them to our friends' little guy, Baby Joe.

Of course you can't go wrong with shootable water.

And submarines are cool

(to some people....if you like feeling claustrophobic, which I do not)

Dr. Jordis loved the little-kid area...

...and the soda shop in the Progress exhibit.

Xander was fascinated with this rotary phone. It was really weird to have to show him how to use it.

Giant Lite Brite!

For dinner we went across the street to have dinner at The Spaghetti Warehouse.
Three active kids made for a wild and crazy dinner hour.

And the food was good, too!

Genius

Okay, it might be a little early to start throwing out labels, but check out my kid's first test scores of the year in math, science and spelling.

(Math has never been my strong suit but I'm not sure how you can get-1 and still have a score of 32/32 when there's no bonus question.....).

At any rate, we are super proud of our little second-grader. He never ceases to amaze us.

Go Packers!

Jordis started her first activity this year.....cheerleading! She started taking cheer classes at the local gymnastics center, but we didn't feel like she was getting much out of it so we signed her up for football cheerleading with our local Optimist Football league. She was put on the Packers with 16 other girls and now she's learning how to cheer, as well as understanding when and why cheerleading is used. She was a trooper when it came to her three practices a week in August. Then she got to go to her first spirit night where we had pizza and cupcakes and painted banners for all of the games.

Her first game was a little shaky. Grandpa, Grammy, Maw Maw and Paw Paw all came to watch, and she refused to participate. People were looking at her, the pom poms were too scratchy and there a lot of pouts and faces like this.

Jason and I both had a few "chats" with her...

...and finally, after being bribed with $1, she cheered during the 4th quarter. After all the grandparents went home.

The second game went a little better. She got to be a banner holder that day so she had something to look forward to.

Nanny Mo and Mr. Brian came and she said she'd cheer as long as Mr. Brian didn't look at her.

Little did we know it would be 99 degrees that day and the girls would be spending almost half of the game sitting under a tree eating popsicles.

After a bye week we had a really good day this past Saturday. It was much cooler so we had to bring out the sweat suits. Grandpa and Ba Dee were able to come this week and Jordis not only cheered, but looked like she was having a good time, too.

We couldn't be more proud of our little girl and can't wait to see how she does the rest of the season.

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.