Mom's birthday

Mom enjoying her new balloons from Aunt Dee

Mom had potatoes, jello and pudding cake. She got wind chimes, clothes, new towels, a funny card and a cookbook ( a replica of Better Homes 1953 edition). The girls were happy to get two dollars each from Aunt Dee. I still must assert that I was here first. I'm just setting the record straight. I'll be waiting for my two dollars....

After Aunt Delores and Uncle Jim left, I sat with my mom and read her some of the cookbook. We laughed because every recipe seemed to call for onions. So when I read the recipe and got to onions I would stop and she would say "ONIONS" and we'd both laugh. We also read some of the gross ones that called for pig knuckles as ingredients. I hate sausage and I swear every other night growing up we had sausage and brussel sprouts for dinner. So when we got to any recipe like that, I joked with my mom that we were now in "Faith town". I called her the living Octoberfest representative. She laughed. It was so fun.

Ten on Thursday

1. I just got home from my night class, hopefully my last one before graduation in December. What a long, long road.
2. My first week of work is behind me. I have had ups and downs that I feel better sharing in person rather than on a blog.
3. Jay is bathing the girls as I write this. What a great dad he is.
4. Emily and Tara are in different schools this year and are liking it so far.
5. I cleaned my whole basement and I feel so good about it! It was really messy. Really messy. Embarrassingly messy. But now it's clean!
6. Our power, cable, phone, car and hot water all broke this month. Not fun.
7. The hamsters and Millie are happy and healthy.
8. Em saw a profanity on the bathroom door at school today. She asked her classmates what it meant. They laughed at her. That breaks my heart. So when is it a crime to be innocent? The word was b----.
9. On a similar note, Tara came home today sad that a girl no longer wanted to be her friend. I wish they would never get hurt. But I guess no one leaves this world untouched.
10. On a happier note, I can't wait to celebrate my mom's 62 birthday this Saturday. She is an amazing person and I want her day to be special and fun for her. :)

Fishing and Visiting weekend

I thought the sky was beautiful from the boat.

Toward the end when everyone was getting tired.

Fishing for Nessie.

Stuffed bear is fishing with Tara.

Dad's camper.

Dad, Jay, Em, Tara, Mom and I went fishing at Cinnamon Lake on Saturday. It was a beautiful day. Mom stayed in my dad's camper while the rest of us went out on his pontoon boat. Everyone had fun but the girls got antsy after .0001 of a second of fishing. "Why aren't we catching anything?" My dad told them to be patient. The girls fully expected the fish to swarm to the worm, even though they cast the line about two inches from the surface at first. Well, it was a learning experience anyway. By the way... we caught nothing.

Then yesterday we had friends over for the day. It was great seeing my friends. It was cute seeing all the kids playing and then giving us singing concerts using a dollar store play microphone. Emily was too shy to sing in front of the adults but she sang for the kids. She uses these elaborate hand gestures that she learned from watching American Idol contestants. It cracks me up.

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. :)