First Day of School

It is interesting to think about it, really.  Students have a restless night of sleep in anticipation of the coming day.  Well, so do teachers.  Brian started his new job at Linden McKinley STEM Academy (I know, sounds impressive, huh?) with students last Wednesday.  Needless to say, he came home exhausted.  And, now that I am a mom, I felt the need to take the official first day of school pics.  Thought you would enjoy these.

Honey, I'm home!

Working hard...I think he said something here like, "Man, I'm exhausted!  This year is going to be a lot of work!"

Spaghetti Reprise!

Emory June at 8 months.  If you are thinking that this picture looks familiar, you are right.  Check out Jackson below.

Jackson - quite awhile back - March 2009, about 10 months old

COSI

We met the Shmidt's at COSI the other day. The kids loved playing together. It's good to have friends to enjoy these crazy toddler/kid days with.

Georgia and Ava rockin' the hula hoops

Jack and Sophie, not so much

Friends

Let's all get in the phone booth (with mom screaming "Watch your fingers!")

Memorable Moments

A couple pics I just had to share...

I bought these nets for $1.25 at Old Time Pottery - have I mentioned that I LOVE that store!?!  Best buck twenty-five I ever spent.  The kids play with them for hours, and we get them to pick up the walnuts in the backyard...I know, genius!  Jackson had a rather unique catch the other day though.

Owen (neighbor down the street) and Jack play on Owen's firetruck sprinkler - they had a blast soaking each other and their mommys!

Liam (our new next door neighbor), Jackson, and Georgia enjoy some corn from Miss Lisa (or missyeesa, as Jackson calls her) on their front sidewalk.

Little Friends

We watched Landon for our friends, Steve and Della, awhile ago.  A few snippets of the kids' interaction.

Emory June: Oh, I am so happy my friend Landon has come to visit.

Emory June: Is that food I see?

Landon: EmJ, your mom's not looking, quick, let's give eskimo kisses.                      Emory June: No Landon, I want the real thing.

EmJ: Ok, she's looking again...pretend like we are just both going after this toy.

Landon: What can I say?  I'm a ladies' man.

Uncle Justin & Aunt Alli

Justin and Allison came up to visit this month. We had a great time seeing them; the kids just adore them. They brought with them a cool picnic table for the kids with an umbrella to go with it. We took them to COSI as well - next time we will just send them with the kids.

Justin, Allison, Georgia, and Jack in the carriage in "Progress"

EmJ loved playing at the water table.

Sisters!

Georgia and Emory June LOVE each other. Fast forward about 20 secs in this video to hear the most amazing sound on earth.

Tractor Days at COSI

COSI recently hosted "Tractor Days," where they had HUGE tractors on the back patio. The kids could climb up in them. Even I was surprised at how big they were (not to mention how expensive!).

I love how the kids could fit inside the wheel of this giant tractor.

Jackson ran at this one saying something like, "I want that one!"

Fascination with the fountains

They even got to "milk" a cow

Love that face - he was giddy about it

Georgia tried her hand at milking - she would be a great farmgirl

She even took a spin on the tractormobile

Georgia is 4!

Georgia's birthday was July 2nd (sorry for the late post), and we celebrated at Benny's Pizza in Marysville.  Why, you ask, would anyone who has all of Columbus at their fingertips decide to go to Marysville.  Benny's.  Yes, food.  It happens to be a HUGE motivator in my life.  Many of my happy memories either center around food, or I can remember exactly what I was eating when it happened.  It is such a great place.  You can hang out on the outdoor patio - all fenced in - and listen to the band.   I made Georgie a cake and we sang happy birthday - she loved it!

Showing Off

Georgia and Jackson perform for the camera - who am I kidding?  I was doing anything I could to occupy them in the car on the way home from vacation.  They wore themselves out playing and laughing at each other, and then fell fast asleep!

Hello Cavallaro's!

We spent the weekend on the way home from the beach with our good friends, the Cavallaro's.  Etienne and Julia are both in the army, and they live near Ft. Bragg.  They have two girls, Gabrielle, who is in between Georgia and Jackson, and Olivia, who is a couple weeks younger than Emory June.  We knew them even before we were married, and it was great to get our whole families together for a few days.

Etienne and Julia had video monitors for the kids.  Absolutely fascinating.  Emory June had just started crawling, and we had her in Olivia's bed.  As we were watching, we saw EmJ pull herself up (c'mon, she had just started crawling that day) and she was leaning over the side rail of the crib.  We are watching this on video, certain that she is about to go head first out of the crib.  I rushed upstairs and made a dashing rescue in the nick of time.  Needless to say, we ordered them off of Amazon the next day.  (Side note - do you know that you can buy practically anything on Amazon.com?  It is a mom's best friend.  Why drag 3 children into a store when you can find it on amazon and it ships free?  Seriously.  A few of our favorite purchases: shoes, video monitors, books, and our snowblower).

Etienne took us to his base to see the Blackhawk helicopters that he flies/flew in Afghanistan.  Very cool.

The girls taking their turn in the Blackhawk

The boys, showing off

Gabby and Georgia playing in the pool in the backyard

This boy is so cute!!!

Vacation at the Beach

Ah, I love the beach.  There is something about sand getting in every crevice known (and unknown) to you that just screams SUMMERTIME!  We have some wonderful friends who offered their place to stay in South Carolina.  So beautiful.  I even had some moments of peace watching the sunrise by myself.  I can't remember the last time I did that!  We had a great week just living the good life with some great friends, the Rozelle's.

Jacob, Georgia, Jackson, & Sarah.  Yummy - Who wants ice cream?

Sarah and Jackson snuggling on the couch

The "big kids", Jacob and Georgia

All 9 of us piled on this golf cart to go to the beach - a sight to behold.

The sunrise...georgeous!

The whole gang: Jacob, Jay, Katie, Sarah, Molly, Emory June, Georgia, Brian, Jackson

I just loved this time with the kids in the water - they just savored every minute of it. I just wanted to bottle them up and keep them this way forever. It seems as though the time slips through my fingers so quickly. Never grow up, little ones!

Summer Photo Shoot!

A friend of mine, Jess Seed, is starting a photography business. We had her take some family pictures, and I couldn't be more thrilled with how they turned out. Her fee is only $75, and you get a full sitting, plus the CD of all of your photos! Check out her website at http://www.seedling-photography.com/