Ye Annual Ritual Of The Backpack

School? Bring it.

Nametags from Cleveland Zoo (the camera blurred this one)

Lovin' life.

The girls got to pick their backpacks for the coming school year. Emily picked Barbie and Tara picked Hannah Montana. Inside are all their school supplies, each individually nametagged of course. We have done this every year, because aside from any practicality we admit it is also very fun.

Party On Parents.

Watch me make a hamster appear from your ear! Who needs a disco ball when you can party with a hamster in a ball?

You know it's been a fun time when your children come into the room and scold you for staying up so late. We had our good friends Derek & Sheri and their two boys for an overnight visit. We went out to dinner and then stayed up past midnight talking about anything and everything. We only get to see them about once a year, but when we do, is always a good time and our kids get along with theirs so well too. For parents with small children, we all can still party with the best of 'em. :)

The Cleveland Zoo

Chore money purchase.

In the heat, monkeys were motivated to - lounge. I don't blame them.

Uncle Jim always had water for us.

Tara attached to Aunt Dee all day. She has a special love for Dee, as do we all.

Emily is in pretzel heaven.
Is this monkey wearing a toupee?
Elephants - Captions brought to you by Captain Obvious.
Watching the giraffes up close.
Polar bear swimming to stay cool
The seals were Aunt Dee's favorite.

The pictures tell the story. It was a great day. The girls both got new zoo shirts and necklaces from Aunt Dee. They also got these cool zipper pulls with their names on them. It's not always easy to find Tara's name, and Emily is usually sold out. Emily also bought a koala mask with her chore money. :)

The animals were lazy in the heat but the monkeys were fun. The one with the head like a toupee ran around, arms in the air and put on quite a show. Emily really wanted to see the hippos and she did. The smell nearly knocked her down when we went in the building where they were. She was like, "Oh my gosh the smell! Ok, I saw them. Let's get outta here!" In her mind, I guess she imagined a more pleasant smelling animal. Hee.

Take me out to the ball game

Emily waiting for Tom and Sheri to arrive while sitting on her dresser.

So excited to see them!

Last week Tom and Sheri took the girls to an Akron Aeros game. They had so much fun. Thanks Tom and Sheri. There was much discussion of what they ate, the Jeep ride, getting their hats autographed and getting a foam finger and not as much about the actual game. "Who won?" I asked the girls and they stopped talking about the pretzels and dipping dots long enough to go, "What? Oh, we did." That just cracked me up. I am sure Tom and Sheri spent a small fortune on feeding two growing girls at the game. Tara fell in deep love with dipping dots. She may never be the same. Hee hee. Tara came in later that night and said that Tom and Sheri bought them both pretzels. "We didn't even have to share one!" Tara was very impressed with that. :)

It's off to the Cleveland Zoo tomorrow. The kids might watch the animals. More likely they'll talk about their lunch. :)

So not fair

Millie would walk through fire to be with Jay. Me? Not so much. She may walk across a cushioned floor full of salami to greet me, that is if Jay isn't anywhere in sight. Not fair. Who gives her the heart worm pill? Moi. Who makes sure Millie has clean water and food? Well both of us.. but that isn't the point! I want to be the favorite. Waaaaah. Jay didn't even want a dog at first. Who talked him into it? That's right, I did! I'm just sayin.

The dry swimmers

Swimming class is not going so well. The girls first had a "get to know the water" kind of class called "splash". We then signed them up for a beginner's class. The other kids in the class jump in when told, put their heads under the water, etc. Em and T are another case all together. They act like the water is surely going to kill them. There is no other class. This is the most basic one. There are only about six in the class so there is a lot of individual attention.

The teachers each class try to coax the girls in the water to no avail. One teacher got tough with them. It didn't work. Another teacher tried the gentler approach. They will NOT jump in. They will NOT put their head under water. Emily just refuses. Tara looked like she was trying but ultimately didn't do it either.

The parents usually sit near the pool and watch. I felt bad for the other kids and parents. One teacher tried for several minutes to coax Tara into jumping in. The other kids just sat there waiting. The parents looked annoyed. I don't blame them. I was annoyed and they're my kids!

Jay and I are torn. We feel bad that they are scared. But we want them to work through adversity w/o quitting. We have assured them that they are protected. They are wearing life jackets and the teacher is there with arms outstretched to catch them. It's not even over their heads. It's a tough call. We ask ourselves, do we just let them stay scared and hope they get used to the water eventually? Or do we try and force the issue? Parenting is hard.

A big surprise for Em and T

Jay bought tickets to the American Idol summer tour. He even kept the info from me. I am not that interested in Idol but Jay and the girls used to watch it faithfully whenever it was on. Also, it is Emily's passion to watch You Tube videos of all the idol contestants. She also looks up their bios and can tell you many details of all the contestants' lives.

So we took them down to Columbus yesterday. We told them it was to see Easton mall. We walked around and then we told them that there was a bigger surprise in store for them. (Incidentally, we mulled over calling you Columbus dwellers, but we figured you guys wouldn't like a visit with no notice.)

We drove to the Ohio State coliseum to check it out when right outside was a big truck with AMERICAN IDOL printed on it. We quickly tried to get the girls' attention away but they saw it. But they didn't know what it meant. We then drove to a Starbucks and video taped them getting the news. I want to show their reaction. Maybe I'll post it to You Tube or something. Emily started to jump up and down and practically lost her breath. It was like someone just told her she won the lottery. Tara? Well, Tara was tired and hot and just stoically stood there and stared at the camera. I guess she isn't as in to Idol as Em. But at the concert she perked up.

When we got to the 10,000 seat arena, we were in the true nosebleed seats. We were so high that when we got up to our seats, we all felt a bit of vertigo. Emily held on to me for about ten minutes totally convinced she was going to fall to the bottom of the arena. Every five minutes, Emily jabbed me in the side to ask how many more minutes were left. 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5, any minute now.... Then the Idol singers came out one at a time and sang a few songs. Emily knew who would come out before it was announced. She was telling us their hometown, what they'd probably sing, who they were dating... I was truly impressed.

The show was great but dang was it LOUD. It was so loud that we couldn't even hear the words after a while. It was so loud that the mother in me wanted to cover their ears. I suppose a little exposure to that won't make them go deaf. I hope not anyway.

Then we left and got the girls photos of their two favorites after standing in a really long line. It was then off to try and find our car in a sea of cars. We sat and waited for close to an hour in the parking lot waiting for it to clear enough to leave. It was a long drive home and the girls were wonky, to say the least.

I don't think Em and T's first concert will ever be forgotten. I loved seeing Em's excitement the most. She screamed and pointed at the tiny singers (remember nosebleed seats). She was like "They're here! That's really them!"