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My friend Lynn from Dale Lynn Photography took fabulous pictures of the kids at Innis Woods Gardens.  It is a beautiful place and the pictures turned out great.  Innis Woods is going on our list of frequently visited places - I had no idea something so beautiful was this close to me.

My birthday is coming up soon and Erik made a scavenger hunt with post-it notes so that I could find all my gifts.  He put riddles like "I make little waves" to give me a clue that the next clue was in the microwave.  It was AWESOME!  And I got cake pans, a cake carrier, and a new frying pan.  This was so much fun.

Then we had ice cream cake for lunch (yes that's all I ate for lunch).  We didn't have 36 candles so Erik wrote 36 on the cake in binary.

Yes in binary.

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In even more exciting news, we got a fish tank and two fish.  Sarah named her fish "mushroom" and Jenna named her fish "Jenna".  Now we have to remember to feed the fish everyday.

79 points on Quiddler today!

Matthew is 1!

While we celebrated Matthew's birthday this weekend camping, his actual birthday was Monday.  I snapped the obligatory picture of him with his designated animal: a horse.  I took a picture of Sarah and Jenna in the same dresses when they turned 1.  I did not put him in the dress. It was hard enough to get him to stay still long enough for the picture (and get all the other kids/cat out of the picture!).

Several times this summer we have driven by lemonade stands. 

I always stop. 

 I'm a sucker for mildly warm watered down lemonade that kids are selling by the side of the road.  Jenna said she wanted to have a stand selling something like cookies.  I thought that was a great idea and showed some entrepreneurial spirit.

So we made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies (Jenna read all the ingredients and did a great job figuring out how to double - except for fractions of course). Then we set up the cookie stand for about 2 hours. 50cents for 1 or 3 for a dollar.  Jenna made $5.50.  The neighbor girl came by and bought a dollars worth of cookies so I let her be in the picture :).

Star Wars is a pretty big deal at our house.  So Matthew's shirt, which reads "Judge me by my size do you? Size matters not".  Is practically the most wonderful shirt ever made.  He may not think so as you can tell from his grumpy expression in this picture.

I also realized I never got a picture of the 3rd seat Erik installed in the Explorer.  He is an amazing handyman as you can tell from this picture!  Really - how cool is it to install a third seat!  We had discussed buying an Expedition when our Taurus dies for extra room but now we have it.  Thanks honey!

We happened to be at the zoo when they were doing a puppet show and the kids loved it. 

This week has been a good week.  I've eaten ice cream every day this week.  Summer = lots of ice cream. Yipee! 

75 points today on Quiddler

Buggies, Beards, and Baked goods

This weekend we had a fun-filled camping trip to Amish Country.  We went a few years ago to Amish Country campsites with the Masts and we stayed at the same place this year.  I love their free firewood - it's all bits and pieces of Amish furniture and some have really interesting shapes.  Sarah found one that looked like a unicorn horn and she went around dolling out unicorn power to everyone.

On Friday we went to Rolling Ridge Ranch. Here we rode on a rickety wagon with a lively Amish driver who pointed out all the animals to us. We also each got a bucket of feed for the animals.  Mine was gone within 10 minutes since one of the animals grabbed it out of my hands!  The kids absolutely loved this trip.  The animals came right up to the wagon and Sarah especially loved to feed them out of her hand.  Sarah has always had a love of animals though.  The kids even got to drive the wagon!  See the picture of Jenna steering the horses.

We also went to Lehman's and Heini's and Amanda came too!  We spent a lot of money at both places and stuffed ourselves with cheese. Erik bought 7 different kinds of cheese.  We have a lot of cheese-eating in our future. 

We love the atmosphere of Amish country too.  There are so many buggies, beards, and baked goods.  You just can't go wrong.

On this camping trip we also celebrated Matthew's first birthday.  I made a caterpillar cake out of cupcakes for all the kids.  There are 6 kids between us and the Masts so we needed a lot of cupcakes.  Luckily I had just enough with 1 to spare.

On Saturday we went to my parents house to celebrate Matthew's birthday with them. I made a "1" cake for him to eat.  He dug right in!  I remember when Jenna turned 1 she was so tentative and didn't want to make a mess.  Matthew had no such qualms.  I had to give him a bath afterwards.  Yuck!

Of course we got to sit by the campfire and make smores.  Yum!  Jen brought coconut marshmallows.  Roasting coconut marshmallows and putting dark chocolate and graham crackers on them was divine!

The only downside of our trip was that I forgot my prayer journal.  Too bad because I need it.

66 points on Quiddler and I made the word "nth"!

Hubby is back!

Erik came home tonight from his yearly Man Trip.  He went kayaking in Michigan, something he has never done before.  Unfortunately he didn't put sunblock on his legs and now half of his legs are red. You can see a nice line where his shorts ended!

The guys traditionally do something adventurous and exciting - we sit in the hot tub on the Girls trip.  Erik always has such a fun time and I like to plan a special dinner for him when he comes back. 

I made bleu cheese and bacon hamburgers with garlic grape tomatoes and a side of baked potatoes.  Then for dessert I tried something complex.  I wanted to make this:

It is a layered chocolate mousse with alternating layers of chocolate and caramel mousse. This required 5 pans/bowls because the number of steps required.  Rather than getting that beautiful layered look. This is what I got:

That is obviously not the look I was going for.  It was tasty but not at all a beautiful layered dessert.

I also thought I would upload some more Disney photos. I love this picture of the girls with Belle. They are looking at her with rapt attention. I wish they paid attention to Mommy that way.

Here is also a picture of Erik taking Matthew behind the waterfall.  In 2009 we played several water games.   We had a blast this year playing water games too.  I used to force Missy to play games with me in the water when all the time I just needed Erik. Too bad I didn't know him back when we were 12.

This year the water was a little warm too.  It was 98 degrees and just too hot to be refereshing.  So I thought we should just go get a few bags of ice and dump them in the water. Erik wasn't sure so he did some calculations and determined it would take 3100 pounds of ice to cool the pool down 10 degrees.

This is why I love him.

He is a nerd and so good looking. 

Not sure why he married me!  Maybe it is my love of water competition too.

Only 29 points on Quiddler today :(

It's a hot world

Monday at 10pm we got home from Florida.  We left our beautiful tropical paradise to come to Ohio.  Even though I love Ohio, the house we stayed at in Florida was gorgeous.  And we went to.... Disney World!

It was Sarah and Erik's first time at Disney world and we all had a blast.  We got autographs from Lady Tremaine (Cindrella's Stepmother), Princess Tiana, Princess Jasmine, Ariel, Cinderella, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty.  The actresses playing those characters really did a great job.  The Cinderella actress told the girls they acted like great sisters and that they could give her sisters some lessons on manners.  How cute :).

We rode several rides including It's a Small World.  Erik has never been to Disney and had always heard about It's a Small World.  He was excited to ride it but after a few minutes looking at all the little dolls with their painted faces singing the same song over and over, we looked at each other and both thought it was a little creepy. As a child I thought it was awesome though.

Our Disney trip was fun but it was 95 degrees outside and Sarah dropped her ice cream on the ground which resulted in screaming.  Missy labeled it "icecream gate 2011."  We all got a little sunburned too.

Not only did we go to Disney World, but we went to a waterpark with a lazy river, slides, and a big pool.  Everyone had fun at the waterpark. We also ate mozzarella sticks as a snack which the girls thought was fantastic.  We didn't buy any toys at Disney, rather we bought toys at Downtown Disney and ate at the Rainforst cafe.  Again, Sarah was scared at the Rainforest Cafe when there was an indoor "thunderstorm".  Matthew didn't seem to mind.

Since I'm obsessed with cupcake earrings (yes I know I have a problem), I bought 3 pairs of cupcake earrings at Disney!  Now I can wear tons of cupcake earrings :).

Jenna had her last Daisy Scout meeting of the year at a place called the Glass Slipper. It is a quaint little house that hosts birthday and bridal shower teas. Jenna wants her birthday party there but I don't really want to pay that much. Maybe if we win in Vegas.....

97 points today in Quiddler and I got to make the word "quoting"

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

We visited Grandma and Grandpa Cooper over Memorial Day weekend and had a great time.  Grandpa Cooper has a huge train set that the girls love - especially Sarah. Matthew also got so excited my camera couldn't capture the shot. Check out the picture of him flailing - how cute :).

Of course if I was a real photoshop expert I would photoshop his hands in but I'm not that good.  Or really any good at all.

I also snapped a really cute picture of Erik and Matthew playing. That is just too sweet.

Tuesday (yesterday) was Jenna's last day of Kindergarten. She is now officially a first grader.  Kindergarten is okay.  First grade just sounds old.  I can't believe she is so grown up now.  I also don't think I was reading as well as she is now when I finished kindergarten.  Of course it's hard to remember since that was just a few years ago (just a FEW!).

She made a Turtle book and a turtle ceramic in art class.  The turtle book was a result of research.  The teacher gave them books to read about turtles.  They took facts they learned from the books and made their own books.  I was impressed she was doing research already. 

Next she'll be attending conferences with me giving presentations about education or bioinformatics or something like that.

Matthew's First Birthday is coming up and I am having difficulty deciding the kind of cake to make for him (this is obviously very important).  I made a lady bug cake for Jenna and a bumblebee cake for Sarah. Those were easy because we had given them those nicknames.  We don't really have a suitable nickname for Matthew.  So I'm having trouble deciding on a good cake to make. 

Please take my very important poll to determine the cake to make:

http://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/LTk1NjY4MDczNQ/web

Or if you want to text (because who doesn't want to text to vote for my awesome poll!) text a number to 37607

Make a live audience poll at Poll Everywhere

72 points on Quiddler today.

Little bo peep has lost her pattycake

The culmination of one year of rigorous ballet lessons for the girls occurred last weekend with the annual recital.  No it wasn't rigorous.  In fact, most every week Sarah just stood there rather than doing her pattycake routine. 

Will Sarah do ballet next year?  Maybe or maybe not.

 Jenna however absolutely loves ballet and the recital best of all.  Jenna was Little bo peep and had fun dancing at the recital.  Nana, Papa, Aunt Missy, and Aunt Amanda all came to the recital.  It was perfect except when Matthew spit up all over Papa!


In other news:

• Erik installed the third seat in the explorer. I'll have to take a picture sometime. The girls love riding backwards.  Remember this? YAAAAA BABY!
• Today Erik rode his bike and took the girls in the trailer to Handels and I drove my car.  I haven't ridden a bike since I was 32 weeks pregnant with Matthew. That's a long time plus I don't have a seat for him to ride, plus I didn't want to because it's hot.
• Today also Matthew ate his poop.  Yes. He. Did.  Nasty!  It required an emergency bath.
• 87 points on quiddler today and I got to make the word "gander"!

11 months - let's go to the zoo!

Matthew is 11 months old now.  Really.  11 months old!  He will be a year on June 20.  How exciting!  To celebrate we went to the zoo.  I got pictures of all three kids at the habitat house at the zoo. 

It was a beautiful day and we've been enjoying the weather.  Of course it is also raining, thunderstorming and tornadoeing (if that is a word).  Tonight I had to tuck in the girls multiple times because they were scared.  Erik was off playing racquetball or he would have taken some of the tucking in duties.  I told them before bed that there might be a tornado so I'd have to wake them up and take them downstairs.

Well that was not my brightest moment. 

They couldn't sleep.  They wanted me to sing songs, pray with them, and sleep with them because they were scared.  Next time, I'll just wait and see if there is a tornado.

Today I did another "not bright" thing.  Maybe this time off of work is reducing my brain cells.  Anyway, I put Matthew in his high chair and got lunch ready for the girls.  As I was fixing lunch I look over at him and he is standing up facing the other direction leaning out of the high chair. 

I didn't get there in time. 

He fell out of the high chair and landed on the linoleum head first.  Poor guy.  We need to strap him in all the time now.  He is too agile! He will make a good ranger in EQ2.

In other news:

• I took Sarah to the metropark Wildlife Exploration program. It is her third program and if she attends 5 programs she gets a nifty badge.  I went with my friend Jen and my friend Candi and their kids. We had a great time!
• My two MBA classes are going well.  I had a midterm this week in accounting which was fun.  It's much easier than teaching classes.  I might just be a perpetual student.
• Speaking of my session off - why am I so behind on everything?  I had this great idea that I would clean and do laundry and be all caught up on everything, run 5ks every day, redesign my website, yada, yada, yada.  I haven't done any of it.  This vacation is going by tooooo fast.
• I am currently reading a few books -
• Wise Mans Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. This is for our COO* book club.  I like this story and am excited to hear what happens to the main character.  He is a good storyteller.
• A Cavern of Black Ice by J.V. Jones. I waited 2 months for this book at the library since they only have 1 copy.  When I finally got it I didn't read it right away then had to take it back since I had a *few* fines.  Now I finally got it again.  Yipee!  I'm excited for this book.
• The Dispossessed by Ursual K. LeGuin. I picked this book up again and it is very political.  Still a good story though - I want to see who wins, the capitalists or the anarchists. 
• Books I just finished -
• The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan.  This is a new series after the Percy Jackson series.  I really enjoyed this book.  It was fun and quick.
• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark. This was such a neat book set in England in the 1800s. It really was Pride and Prejudice meets a fantasy world.  I liked the book but I know it is not for everyone. 
• The Judgement by Beverly Lewis.  This was a great book and the start of a new series by Beverly Lewis.  She draws you into the Amish world and I always wish I was part of it!  Of course Erik says I couldn't have internet access or my droid.  Bummer.

67 points on quiddler today!

Why Dinner is late

I'm making pasta for dinner but need a pan so I'll empty the dishwasher.  Emptying the dishwasher.  No Matthew put the plate back in, stop playing in the water. PUT DOWN THE KNIFE!

Finally get a pan and the water started boiling. 

Sarah walks in. "Mommy can I have a snack?"  No we are eating dinner soon.  "AAAH".

Jenna walks in.  Must don my Armor of Constant Questions.
Mommy have you tried laffy taffy? Yes
How old were you when you tried laffy taffy? I have no idea
Were you 7 years old when you tried laffy taffy? Possibly.
Why does Aunt Missy have great teeth? She probably flosses and brushes a lot
What did people do before toothpaste and floss were invented? Maybe had bad teeth?
Can I pray for good teeth? Sure
What is a number that rhymes with 8 but is not 8? 38
Can I paint?  No we are going to eat soon.

*sigh*

Water is not boiling yet. 

I hear screaming in the background.  "MOMMY Change my diaper!".  Sarah you are potty trained....oh no.... Did you have an accident?

Clean up Sarah's accident.  Water is boiling over.  Add pasta to the pan. 

"Mommy Matthew is up the stairs!"  I run up the stairs and there is dirt everywhere.  Matthew is smiling his most mischevious smile as he plays in the dirt from the plant.  Pick up Matthew and remember to close the gate.

Get dustbuster and clean up the dirt that is now all over the carpet and stairs.

Jenna walks in again
Mommy did you know that Daddy had a mane coon cat? Yes we think Rocky was a mane coon cat too.
Was his fur waterproof? I don't know do mane coon cats have waterproof fur?
Sarah chimes in: "My fur is waterproof" Sarah you don't have fur.
"Yes my clothes are fur"
Jenna: When she takes off her clothes she is an ugly cat.  Sarah is not an ugly cat.  Ugly cats have no fur and some people are allergic to cat fur so these cats make nice pets for those people.
Are some people not allergic to anything? Yes.  I think the pasta is done - let's go see.

Pasta is all stuck together because I didn't stir it enough. 

Sarah: "I don't like pasta.  I don't want pasta for dinner"  You like pasta.

Who wants red sauce and who wants butter on their noodles?

"Butter!!"  *sigh*

I remember I have 3 kids. Where is Matthew?  Sarah: "No Matthew NO!  Matthew is eating my polly pockets".

Is it in his mouth? Did he swallow it?  No - fine.  Let's get dinner on the table.

Who is going to put the napkins on the table and who is going to put the forks?

Jenna: I want to put napkins on the table.  Sarah: "I want to put napkins on the table".

An argument ensues.  We must divide the duties so that Jenna puts two forks and two napkins on the table and Sarah puts two forks and two napkins on the table.

Finally the pasta is done and the sauce/butter is on it and we are ready to eat.  Girls go call Daddy to dinner!  Sticky pasta that is late - yum yum!

Camping 2011

Last weekend we went on our first camping trip of the season and Matthew's first camping trip ever!  We camped at Buckeye Lake KOA, which is a fun place to camp.  The sites have large, mature trees, there is a huge jumping pillow for the kids as well as a pool and playground, and they have many activities - hello ice cream social! 

We had a fabulous time.  Matthew crawled around in the mud all weekend and the girls ate smores and got all sticky (see picture). This was a really great camping trip. Erik took a nice long nap and I got to read some of my book (which is way overdue at the library!).

Here is a picture of Matthew in our camper as well as a picture of all 3 kids piled in the back of the Explorer.  This is something we won't have to do much longer since we just got our third seat for the Explorer! Yipee!  Erik will have to install it and once he does, we won't have to squish anymore.

After the fun filled weekend we were a little tired and I may have forgotten to close the gate to our stairs.  This oversight led to Matthew climbing up the stairs and playing in the plant's dirt.  He made a tremendous mess and the girls were quick to correct him (I think correcting Matthew is Sarah's favorite thing to do). 

Since I've had this session off from working, one would assume I would have the house spotless and the laundry all caught up.  Ummm.... no.  I'm still behind on everything.  EVERYTHING!  Although I have been going to bed around 11 or 11:30 something I normally didn't do (if I go to bed before 12:34 it's an early night).  So I'm more rested but other than that - I'm still behind on cleaning!

 

97 points on Quiddler today and I got to make the word "aching".



I couldn't pick one thing!

Every night at dinner we all share our favorite things of the day.  Erik usually shares something about a process or program he got working for his job, Jenna often says "seeing Daddy" (yes she is a daddy's girl!), Sarah's favorite thing is nonsense 96% of the time, and I usually pick a favorite thing from the day.  Today I couldn't pick.  Yes, that's right.  There were too many good things today that I couldn't just pick one!

This morning I woke up to Erik making pancakes.  He made pancakes for me that spelled "MOM".  What an awesome guy.  Who doesn't love pancakes?

Then we went to church where I got to do projection.  I really like doing projection (projecting the words to the songs on the screen) so that made me happy.

Next we came home to Erik making pasta for lunch.  Yum!  I love pasta!  I also ate leftover cookies from the wedding we went to last night. My cousin Angie got married yesterday, and instead of a useless wedding favor, we all got empty boxes (sounds useless, but wait....). There was a cookie buffet and everyone filled their boxes with an assortment of cookies. I stuffed mine full (I mean full!) of cookies.  This was the best wedding favor ever! Of course her parents own a bakery so a cookie buffet is not too outlandish. 

Next the girls and I went on a wildflower walk at one of the metroparks.  We were led by a park guide who showed us the different wildflowers and told us which ones to stay away from and which ones were edible (I will probably them up). The girls loved it!

When we got home, Erik had put all of the dirt in our gardens and was assembling the boards to lay across the gardens.  After he finished, we planted the plants in our square foot gardens. 

Erik followed the Square Foot Garden technique from a book he got for Christmas.  He used a mixture of 1/3 peat moss 1/3 vermiculite 1/3 composte. I hope our garden does better this year than it has in the past.

So as you can see, my day was fabulous.  I couldn't pick just one favorite thing as we were eating dinner.  Plus I had leftovers of peanut butter cheesecake for dessert which was also incredible!

I have also included a picture of the girls sleeping on a mattress on the floor of their room. I'm so glad we spent $500 on bunk beds for them when they sleep on the floor.

80 points on quiddler today!

Girls trip!

This weekend we went on the 6th annual girls trip to Hocking Hills. We sat in the hot tub, laughed, prayed, played games, and ate, ate, ate!  Amanda and I had a peanut butter brownie throwdown and I hope to have more throwdowns with her. That was so awesome!

The cabin was beautiful and nestled in the woods in such a peaceful setting.  There was even a hummingbird feeder as well as many other bird feeders so I got my bird fix.

 Jill also braided my hair in two pigtails.  It looked awesome. I just needed a plaid skirt to complete the ensemble.  When I came home the girls wanted me to braid their hair too - which I did. I also snapped a picture of Jill braiding Jenny's hair.  Jill is an expert beautician!

I came home to Matthew climbing the stairs and playing in the plant's dirt. Here he is standing at the table in the playroom eating crayons.  Yum. Yum.  I'm glad he recognized me when I got home.  You never know at 10 months if they really know who you are!

53 points on Quiddler today!