Sacramento Cooper visit and Iron Chef Grapes!

The Sacramento Coopers visited us last week and we had a whirlwind good time! Dave, Becca, and Charlotte flew in Saturday April 18th. They all went to City Barbecue that evening while I was at home visiting my Grandmother. I got to see her less than 24 hours before she passed away which was a blessing. 

Sarah and Jenna on a little slide

Sunday: Dave, Becca, Charlotte, me, Jenna, Sarah, and Matthew (basically both families minus Erik) went to CocoKey. I've always wanted to go there since I heard it was a fun indoor waterpark that you can just go for the day. A benefit over Great Wolf Lodge. We were having a great time there until one of the lifeguards measured Sarah. Apparently she is 47 inches tall and you must be 48 inches tall to ride the water slides. Well Sarah was so upset. She is a daredevil and loves to slide! She is also a great swimmer. They wouldn't let her swim to prove that she is a good swimmer. Jerks.....

Matthew and Jenna on a slide

Dave and Charlotte

Now Charlotte is out of the slide

Good job Charlotte!

 Monday: In the evening I had to teach so the whole family (minus Gina) + Sacramento Coopers + Grandma and Grandpa went to a Clippers game. The Clippers lost and Jenna read a book the entire time but everyone else seemed to have a good time.

Tuesday: Erik worked and the girls were in school. So Dave, Becca, Charlotte, me, Matthew, and Grandma and Grandpa went to the zoo. Charlotte wanted to see monkeys so we went to the gorilla section and saw them playing. It was a great time. Then we went to Culvers for lunch. They had never been to Culvers and said it was overrated. I disagree.  Culvers = Awesome!

Charlotte pulling Matthew in the wagon at the zoo

 Wednesday: We went to my grandmother's funeral, and were gone all day. I'm glad we could go. My sisters and Dave M. went on a trip to Washington D.C. and visited the spy museum while they were there. They picked up these nifty glasses for the girls.

Who are these girls?

 No family get together is complete unless we do iron chef. Becca and I picked a secret ingredient: Grapes! This was actually a very difficult secret ingredient. It's hard to make a savory dish with grapes. The battle was Dave Vs. Erik. The sous chefs were Grandma and Becca. Erik ended up being victorious

Iron Chef Grapes

 Erik made:
1. Grape, nut, and tomato salad. A fresh salad that could have used a tangy cheese to complement the sweetness
2. Penne in grape sauce with ricotta. The sauce was a mixture of wine and grape jelly. It was very sweet but the ricotta helped to balance the sweetness. It was still tasty
3. Grape sushi. This dish was Erik's best. He made a sweet rice with grapes, then rolled up the grapes in sushi wrappers. Next he made a homemade caramel sauce and drizzled that on top of the sushi. Yum!

David made:
1. Grape chutney on crackers. This (in my opinion) was Dave's best dish. The grape chutney worked really well with the cream cheese and the crackers. It was delicious!
2. Grape avocodo salad. This salad had a soy dressing on it and was different and creative. I didn't love it though.
3. Marinated flank steak. The steak turned out really good. Even though Dave marinated it in grapes, the grape flavor didn't shine as much in this dish.
4. Grape ice cream. Dave took vanilla ice cream and added smashed grapes kind of like cold stone creamery and put it in a graham cracker crust. This dish was really yummy.

North Market

 Thursday: Becca, Grandma, and I went to Charles Penzone to get pedicures then to Starbucks. We wore our fancy flip flops to starbucks with our pretty feet. Becca and I got a sparkly blue and Grandma got red nail polish. Then in the evening we went to the North Market for dinner (yum yum!) and to see the Emperor's New Clothes at the Columbus Children's theater. This may have been a little too old for Charlotte but my kids loved it!

Hayden Falls

Friday: For lunch, Dave went to Kogens and Tokyo sushi to get us a variety of sushi. Yum! It was all good! Then we went to Hayden Falls to see this beautiful waterfall and walk around the park. Later in the evening we went to Handels for ice cream. Becca and I walked home (2 miles) because we were trying to walk 10,000 steps a day.

We are so glad the Sacramento Coopers came to visit us. It was a fun week!!

In other exciting news, we bought a house: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/5276-Springdale-Blvd_Hilliard_OH_43026_M45809-81876?row=3

We actually had to pay over asking price because houses are selling like hotcakes around here and it already had a few offers. So we will close on May 20. We are so excited!! We are planning on renting it out for some extra income. Hopefully we get good renters.

A sad day for us

My Grandmother passed away on Sunday. She was my only living grandparent and was my mother's mother. Grandma May was such a treasure! We would go to her house to eat ice cream and sweets of all kinds. She called herself "Grable Gurdy" although I'm not exactly sure what that meant.  Hanging out with Grandma was something we looked forward to. 

For the past 7 years she has had alzheimer's disease. It is such an awful disease, and she was in a nursing home. She passed away at the age of 96.

Four Generations of women

Uncle Joe, Grandma May, and Uncle Larry

Grandma May

What I remember most about my Grandma is her willingness to poke fun at herself and her smiles. She was gentle and very sweet. I wish she could have known my children. She was so unselfish in many ways.

I love you Grandma

Hamsters and Girl Scouts

Jenna is on cloud 9. We decided to buy hamsters for her. Technically she bought the hamsters with the money she saved from doing chores. We got three dwarf robo hamsters she named Whatchamacalit, Fuzzball, and Pebbles. She feeds them and cleans the cage. She is doing a great job of taking care of her little pets.

Crazy willy wonka like hamster cage

Jenna and her hamsters

I know our cats are wondering why we brought mice here to tempt them!

carcassone

 Playing games is something we really enjoy and now that the kids are getting older we have been able to play more games. Matthew will get there but right now he is just an observer.

Speaking of Matthew, he has been CRACKING me up lately. A few things he has said lately:

Me: "Matthew do you think it is hard to make friends?"
Matthew: "You can't make friends. You can make food. You can't cook friends."

Matthew: "I don't want to say the Our Father."
Me: "Matthew the Our Father is a prayer Jesus taught us. It is holy."
Matthew: "I'm going to sew the Our Father up"

(while playing skipbo)
Me: "We need to wait for our turn to draw a card"
Matthew: "Do we have crayons do draw on the card"
Me: "It's a different kind of draw..."

He is also obsessed with his orange pants and Lightning McQueen shirts. He loves Lightning McQueen!

Last Saturday my co-troop leader and I took 13 girls to the 4th grade Camporee. We were there from 7:15am - 10pm. It was a fun yet completely exhausting day. The girls explored caves, did archery, started fires, learned about Indian lore, cooked over a campfire, etc. It was a blast.

Jenna starting a fire

Jenna in a cave

Jenna = Katniss

Jenna and Lauren along with 2 other girls doing archery

 We have a lot of trips and Girl Scout activities in the next month.  It will be a fun time and I'm excited for May. Looking forward to the end of the year too. I can't believe I'll have a 5th grader. How are they growing up so fast?

Jenna, Sarah and friends in the tree

Niagara Falls Spring break 2015

We did not go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. But we did have a barrel of fun there! HAHAHAHA. We went to Niagara Falls April 2-4 with my parents, Amanda, and Missy and Dave. We stayed at the Marriott Fallsview which was pricey but had an amazing view. 

We left home on April 2nd at 7:30am for our trip. The day before we left was April Fools day and we had to play pranks on each other. The night before Erik and I put googly eyes and shiny tape on all of the items in the refrigerator. I'm still picking off eyes....

You lookin at me salad dressing??

 Then Jenna made me some "juice". It was actually jello. She also switched the cereal boxes so when I went to pour my life cereal I got cinnamon chex instead! She put coins in our shoes and countless other little tricks. She loves April Fools day.

Juice or jello?

 We arrived at Niagara Falls Thursday around 3pm and took a walk to the falls. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining. We went to Zappis pizzeria for dinner which was delicious and reasonably priced. I ordered lasagna and Erik ordered pizza of course!  Then we went back to the room for hoho cake. Yum! My Mom brought hoho cake since this trip was to celebrate our big birthdays. My Dad's 70th, Erik and my 40th (I'm not 40 yet, stop rounding me up!!), and Jenna's 10th. Then we went swimming in the evening.

Friday morning we decided to go to ihop. We all sat down to eat and our eyes bugged out at the prices. $15.19 for an omelet! WHAT? We spent $77 on breakfast at ihop. IHOP!! They weren't golden eggs laid by a goose either.

Kids in front of the falls

 Next we went to Journey Beneath the Falls. Since it was so cold we couldn't go on the observation deck. It was, in fact, covered in snow. But we were able to walk through the tunnels under the falls. This was fun with several tidbits about the falls and how much it is eroding. 30cm per year! After the Journey beneath the falls we walked to Clifton Hill to the Ripleys Believe it or not museum. This museum was packed with the craziest animals, people, and stunts. We all liked it.

Ripleys Believe it or Not!

After Ripleys we walked around more and then Jenna, Matthew, me, Missy, Amanda, and Mom went to a maze. It was a fun little scavenger hunt. Jenna was a machine trying to find all of the places in the maze.

For dinner we went to Ruby Tuesdays which I happen to like quite a bit. Then we walked back for more hoho cake. Erik and I put the kids to bed and I read my book while Erik went to the fitness center to work out. Amanda, Missy and Dave just hung out in their rooms. My Mom and Dad went to the casino. The casino! They were out late and even got ice cream. How come they are the life of the party?

The maze

 Saturday morning we had to say goodbye to Niagara Falls. We really could have stayed another day. There was so much to do and it was beautiful. On Saturday morning Sarah said "I miss America". Apparently she was ready to come home.

Our view from the hotel room. It was beautiful!

Burned Easter Eggs and Hunts in the frigid air

I've missed you warm weather and sunshine. Oh how I long to see you again! It has been too long and every time I think we are done with winter, it's 20° again. I think we are about done though. I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

We colored Easter Eggs with the neighbor boys Ben and Alex. Ben is in Matthew's preschool class.

Coloring Eggs

 I discovered something about making hard boiled eggs. You should not leave them on the stovetop too long. I set the eggs in water to boil and then got on a conference call. Next thing I know I heard something crack. I went to investigate and all the water had boiled out of the pan and the eggs were burned. These were the few I salvaged. Burning stinky eggs = not in the Easter spirit

burned eggs

 I have been babysitting a friend's son named Camden lately. He is also 4 and is good friends with Matthew. I took them to the New Hope Easter Egg hunt this past weekend.

Matthew would rather look at the bunny and Jesus

 It was freezing! While it was sunny outside, the temperature was COLD and I was not really excited to be outside so long.

Matthew and Camden with their eggs

Sarah and Jenna and their treasures

 Since Camden was over I also invited another little guy from church over - Nicholas. Matthew had a playdate with 2 friends and they had fun riding in the back of our car too.

Three little boys

 Today was warmer with the sunshine so we headed to the zoo and Culvers with Jen. I tried to snap a picture of the kids standing on these letters but the sunshine was so bright. Today was a perfect day for the zoo - the weather was wonderful.

prairie dog kids

 Grandma and the kids decorated cupcakes for Easter. The cupcakes are behind them and they were frosted with pink and yellow frosting and had tiny paper eggs and bunnies in them. It was so cute and the kids loved it. Then Jenna started singing little bunny foofoo and kept bonking the paper bunnies on the head. Hopefully Grandma was not horrified.

Easter cupcakes with Grandma

The kids wanted to take a silly picture too

In other news:

• I am reading the Broken Eye by Brent Weeks. This is the third book in the Lightbringer series. His books are so well written, just like my bud Brandon
• I'm also reading In Legend Born by Laura Resnick. This is a fun read and I'm really enjoying it.
• Our book club voted to read Warbreaker so we will be reading that next. I have already read it so luckily I won't read ahead.
• Jenna has been asking approximately 100 times a day for a hamster. She is saving up money by doing chores to earn her hamster. After Easter we will get her a hamster to end the constant requests. She is beyond ecstatic.
• We went to see Third Day in concert two weeks ago. It was an amazing concert. They didn't sing my favorite song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwlCibGItok
• Tickets to see Third Day were much cheaper than Taylor Swift. I know Jenna would love it but I can't spend $130 a ticket. Yikes! Maybe she can do chores and earn Taylor Swift tickets too. That's a lot of chores!
• I noticed Jenna is wearing the same shirt in all these pics. Actually she does own different shirts but this is one of her favorites.