Getting Ready

 We're getting ready to leave the northern Kentucky area.  We've spent the better part of last summer and this winter getting out and doing all those things that we won't get to do once we leave.  We've been to Columbus, Lexington & Louisville.  We've visited the Toyota Georgetown plant (home of the Camry, Avalon and Lexus ES).  We've been to Kings Island, Cincinnati Cyclones game, Churchill Downs, Mega Caverns, Cincinnati Zoo, Newport Aquarium, and the Underground Railroad Museum.

And now we're tired!!  We have one more thing for our checklist - a riverboat tour of the Ohio River (scheduled for the day before the movers arrive).

It's been so fun down here.  We will miss this area and all our friends we met along the way.

Summer of 16

 Summer, summer!  Welcome to the end of summer 2016!

It was a glorious summer.  We did so much and visited so many places, that any other summer is going to look boring!

We've filled our times with camp and VBS, trips to Lexington, Columbus and Monmouth Caves.  We've tie dyed shirts, learned to make cookies, help lemonade stands.  We've ran bubble runs and bouncy obstacle courses.  We've gotten dirty in the creek and threw water balloons and chocolate pudding all over ourselves.  We've visited museums, zoos, castles, bounce places, laser tags, trampoline parks, regular parks, waterparks, and the pool.  We've enjoyed time with our neighborhood friends and time with our families in MI and PA.

We've even crashed our van (and are no learning how hard it is to live without it!)

Overall, we've had the summer of our lives.  Not much will live up to this summer.  But as our 'last' summer in NKY, we were doing all that we could, going to close places that we'll probably never come back to see.

Now, we're back into the swing of school.  The routines, the homework, the activities.  They will keep us busy for the next months while we anxiously await our move to Michigan.

Enjoy!

Update for February!

 We've been having a lot of fun around our house.  So many snow days to try to entertain everyone.  One night, the kids and I had a game night.  Mustache Smash was a hit here.  Below you can see the kids have really taken off with the stacking game we did over New Years.  They have their own set of cups!!

We made snow cream one of the days.  They liked it but it probably would have been better if we tried to re-freeze it, it was pretty soggy!

 I took Nick ice skating for the first time this year.  Here he looks pretty happy, but that wasn't what he looked like most of the time.  He fell a lot, but I'm confident if we try again next year that he'll get the hang of it.

One snow day, Ryan and Emma were off, but Nick had school.  So that afternoon, we went to Orange Leaf and to the movies.  That may have been their favorite snow day!

Emma has been leaving me notes all around, she was really inspired by Valentine's Day.  Unfortunately, they didn't have their parties (R & E) until the 23rd because of all the snow days!

 Ryan came in 2nd place in the Pinewood Derby this year.  He was very proud of his car!  And Daddy had fun making it.  He's already thinking about next years car.

These 3 pictures are from the snow days last week.  They are by far, my favorite playing in the snow pictures that I've ever taken of my kids.  And they were having so much fun - Emma had made a slide in the huge pile of snow at the end of our street.

Almost a Year!

 I truly can't believe it's been almost a year since I've updated this.  But getting past that (because I'll make no excuses or say I'll do better)

Nick just celebrated his 5th birthday.  He wasn't a surprise football party.  But then wanted to know all about it - so not really a surprise.  It was football everything, from treats, to streamers to games.  He loved it.  I didn't really expect the sunflower seed spitting contest to be so popular!  He really enjoyed himself as did everyone else.

In other news, Kris took Nick and Emma out to PA for pig butchering last weekend.  They had a great time, but I think Ryan and I enjoyed our time home even more.  We went to the movies, did some Cub Scout stuff, went grocery shopping and out to dinner.  He played by himself and thoroughly enjoyed his time.

 This one is just too cute not to share.  He insisted I take his picture at school a few days ago.  

Waiting for spring?

We've been having an interesting and busy end of winter.  Below are some pics to show what we've been up to.  

Ryan won 1st place at the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby for his entire pack.  Kris was thrilled, Ryan just wanted to play with his car!  

My kids have really enjoyed the snow this year.  I think we are up to 13 snow days, which is amazing for Kentucky.  The day above, we had some nice far snow coming down.  It was great for taking some pictures of my beautiful girl!

Our new car arrived at the beginning of this month.  We would have gotten the same blue Camry, but the color wasn't available.  So we settled for a shiny red one.  We love it so far.

This was one wonderful day when Emma came downstairs to tell me that she hadn't gotten into anything.  You think?  She is so beautiful though!!

January and Nick's Birthday

 We have had a very interesting January.  Not only is Kris still doing his crazy travelling (now in Feb 20 weeks).  But the kids have had an outrageous number of snow days.  So here are a few things that have happened in our crazy January.

 We took the kids to see the lights on the last night of Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo.  As always entertaining (and as usual - cold).  But a good family time.

 We celebrated Nick's 4th birthday with a bowling party.  As usual for me, I forget to plan anything until after Christmas and then run around trying to figure it all out.  Thankfully, it worked out well and everyone was able to attend.  Nick had a great time bowling.  He dances while the ball is rolling down the lane - he's very entertaining.  All the kids also got tokens for video games and tickets to 'buy' trinkets.  He had an Avengers cake and had a wonderful time.

 The below right picture is one of our many snow day activities.  The kids were very enthralled with the spin art machine.  I really have to buy some more paper for it.  They made so many pictures.  But we are having trouble figuring out what to do with so many snow days (it is snowing again as I write and Ryan got let out of school early because of it).

 

 A few weeks ago, Ryan and I drove up to MI to help Robin move out of her apartment.  It was a very snowy weekend, but we managed to get there and back in one piece.  Ryan spent the day with Nanny and my dad and I drove the truck.  Got everything done and had some fun.  Ryan and I spent a few hours on Sunday waiting out the snow at the Detroit Auto Show.  Ryan enjoyed 'driving' all the cars for about an hour and a half.  Then he got overwhelmed and hungry and we had to try to get out of there.  But he did approve the new Tacoma as Daddy's next truck!

This is just a cute picture of Nick before we went to get his pictures taken at JCPenneys.  He was so excited to be Lightning McQueen from head to toe!  And looks so awesome!

Christmas and New Years, 2013 style

 Yes, it's been a while.  Here is a brief update from our holidays.  We spent Christmas in Michigan.  Kris went out to PA on the 21st to see his family and mostly work on the house his dad owns.  We met us in MI on the 23rd.  2 hours later he started throwing up.  Yay, Christmas!

I took the kids to my Aunt Dawn's house for our 1st celebrating.  It was wonderful seeing everyone there.  My kids - if you can believe this - were the calmest there when it was present time.  Could be because they didn't really know the other kids, but they were.

We went to Grandma's house that evening.  By then my kids were tired.  Kris tagged along, but slept at her house the whole night.  He was joined by Emma at some point.  We had a fun time and played some great games there.  My family from out of town was there (mostly) and it was so nice to be able to visit with everyone.

 Christmas Day brought a ton of gifts.  The kids got so much they didn't even know what to play with first.  They loved dressing up like the Avengers characters.  And they loved singing songs on their new karaoke machine.  Kris even sang a little, but wouldn't let up get a picture or video of that!   We stayed MI to celebrate my dad's birthday and go over the McCarthy's for a small get together.  Overall, a wonderful trip.

 When we returned home, we had more gifts to open.  New tablets for Emma and Nick and an electronic drum machine for Ryan.  All were thrilled!

For our anniversary, Kris took me to see The Nutcracker after I mentioned that I had never seen it.  We had a wonderful night.  He even arranged a babysitter!  We had dinner at a Brazilian steak house afterwards and were so full!!  It was so nice to spend some time together without the kids!

 We spent our 10th anniversary on New Years Eve going to the movies alone (kids were at a drop in day care center).  Then we did some last minute shopping for car seats and speakers.  Then had our own little party to celebrate.  This was the first year we let the kids stay up, or try to stay up until midnight.  Ryan made it with no problem.  He didn't even want to go to bed after the ball dropped - makes me wonder what he would do if we weren't here.  Emma didn't even celebrate with us, she was too busy on her tablet.  Nick made it until about 11:30, then curled up in a ball between Kris and I on the couch.  He looked like a little cat.  So cute!!  A great ending to another fabulous year!