Charlie turns 5!!!

For Charlie's birthday this year he wanted to go to a hotel! Not World of Bounce or Galaxy Games and Golf...a hotel. He has loved when we've taken little trips and stayed a night in a hotel. It's a little adventure for him. So, we went to a local hotel and invited the grandmas and grandpas and Jen and Rob's family to come and join us. We played in the pool, had Donatos pizza and Super Mario Brother's birthday cake. In all the preparation and packing and hurrying out the door...I forgot to bring our camera! I have a little video my dad took on his phone that I'm going to attempt to upload...so we'll see.
We love our little Charlie, he is such a sweet boy...Happy Birthday, Charlie Brown!

Charlie's Spring Program

Charlie did a great job this year at his pre-school's Spring Program. I was very proud of him...except for the fact that the first half of the performance he wouldn't take his finger out of his nose and the second half, he had something in his eye which caused him to rub it excessively until it looked like it was going to swell shut. All of these things he managed to do while still doing all of the hand movements that went along with the songs!

1st Grade trip to Arlington Court

Meg's 1st grade class would walk over to a nearby nursing home once a quarter to visit the residents there, read to them and put on a little show. This was always an interesting event...most of the residents that came to listen were brought there by the employees and were unresponsive and nearly unconscious. This can be kind of scary for 6 and 7 year olds. But, every once in a while we had some very rewarding experiences there. Dawn Pokini is a member of our church and comes every Sunday. She is an Alzheimer's patient and full-time resident of Arlington Court. I noticed she never attended these events and the last time we went I sent the person in charge to go find her and bring her down. Meg was able to read to her and play some cognitive games with her. They both had such a great time together. Our family tries to go and visit Sister Pokini every so often, she doesn't have any family, she never had any children and is not married. She can't even really remember how she came to be living here in Ohio. (She followed a friend out here, who could no longer care for her). But, this experience was different then the others we had had. She told Meg that she was an answer to her prayers that day. I think Meg was very touched by this.

Also, I had a couple cute photos of Meg with her good friend Quin. They are so cute together!

Easter 2011

The Easter Bunny was good to the kids this year. The boys got some more cars (just what they needed) and Meg got her "Password Journal" she had been hoping for. And Daddy got some chocolate! :) Henry loved all the sweets and Meg and Charlie just liked hunting for them!

Spring Break 2011

It has been a very long time since I last updated. I have no excuse, except that for some reason I view blogging as another one of my chores. But, once it's done, I feel some sense of accomplishment. These are pictures from a trip to COSI (our science center here) we made during Spring Break. The kids just love it! They have a huge area for kids kindergarten and below, so I took the boys in there while Tom took Meg to see some other things. We all had a great time.

Spring Break

For Spring Break this year, I just decided that we would try and do something fun each day. My favorite was going to the Slate Run Living Historical Farm. It was pretty quiet there, but we were able to see their first baby lamb of the season (I think about 20 other Ewe's were in some serious labor while we were there!). It was so tiny and cute. Henry was loving all the ducks and geese. See if you can see Meg trying to hold him back from being attacked by an angry goose he had been chasing! And I had to include the picture of Charlie doing his super hero pose.

Henry is 2!!!

My little Henry turned two on March 11th. He is just such a sweet boy. We love him dearly! He is our first sweet-tooth. He would be happy if you let him live off of cookies and candy all day. So, for his birthday, I let him eat whatever he wanted...hence the big pile of M&Ms! We had a big family party. Jen's family, Becky, Kathy and my parents were all there to help celebrate. (We sang to him at the Kiehl's on Sunday, because they weren't able to make it). Henry loved, loved, loved his presents. Cars, cars and more cars. Charlie helped him take his new Buzz Lightyear 4-wheeler for a spin too. We love you, Henry!