Dance Camp

 Emma attended a Princess Dance Camp this week.  Monday thru Friday for 3 hours.  They learned a little ballet, tap and tumbling, did crafts and other 'princess' things.  She had a great time.  I'm so happy that she enjoyed herself and didn't seem pushed like when she took swim lessons.  She is interested in taking class during the school year and I hope she loves it!

Today, they performed a little dance and had a special tea party with Cinderella.  So sorry that Daddy had to miss it, but they were very cute!

Underground Tour

 Since I am not a native Cincinnatian, I have become pretty interesting in knowing the local history here.  And it's a pretty fascinating place.  I bought a Groupon a while back for an Underground Tour.  We've done a few of these in other cities, but they are all different, so we weren't sure what to expect.  

It was a pretty quick tour that showed some of the oldest buildings in the Over-the-Rhine district (the initial German area).    It ended in showing us one of the old brewery tunnels where they stored the lager.  It had a really cool way of cooling the tunnels even more than they naturally are thru water in the metal tubes on tob and side chimney like sides to let the warm air out.  

I'm so glad that Cincinnati is working on revamping a lot of these old buildings.  They have the most historical buildings than any other place in the country (per the guide).  

Summer time!!

                                       

It's summer time!! Yay!  Now we can all kill each other!  Well that's what my kids are thinking.  They seem to have this problem being together too much and yet are completely unwilling to ever take a break from each other!  

Anyway, we are having some fun though.  We've been to the gym, parks, and the pool.  Emma is set for dance camp for a week.  And we are looking forward to all our trips and Nanny camps (where my wonderful parents take one kid for a weekend).  

A lot of time has been spent at home.  We got the baby pool out this weekend and they all loved it.  The sprinkler was hit or miss.  We had our first Friday night at the waterpark.  They enjoy that so much, mostly because Daddy is there!  

Emma and Ryan are enjoying my new check/coin system.  They get check marks on the board for several things they do during the day (workbook, exercise, clean up, etc) and for that they earn their desserts and prizes from the prize bin (thank you Target $1 bins).  I do have to remind them often, but they are getting the hang of it and wanting to do some of it!  

Kris has been travelling a lot.  He was in China for a week then we went to MI for the weekend and then he traveled again.  We saw him this weekend, but he's gone again.  Thankfully we have some vacation time coming up!  

Mud wars!

 I ran in the Mudathon today!  Danielle and I finished the 3.5 mile (they said 5k, but were short on that) course with 40 obstacles.  We were on a team with a bunch of other friends of ours.  Most of them we saw somewhere on the course, but as we tried to run to get around some slower people that were ahead of us, we lost everyone else.

Needless to say, we had a great time!  Covered in mud several times and then rinsed off in the creeks and lakes that we waded through.

Our stellar time was 1 hour 45 minutes, but we waited at several obstacles for quite a while due allowing 1 person at a time.

We are geared up and hope to do the one in Cincinnati in August.  Any joiners??  I think I convinced Kris to do it!

Last Days of School

 Emma and Ryan both finished school over the last week.  We are so proud of the progress each of them has made in school this year.

Ryan had an almost 3 year jump in his Math standardized test scores from the beginning of the year!  He was also picked as one of the principal's Lucky Ladybugs this month.  The BUG part stood for Behavior, Uplifting attitude and Grades to show a hard worker.  He continues to progress so much that I'm amazed at where his reading, spelling and math have gotten!  Hopefully, with our workbook and challenge times, I can keep him on track and he'll retain everything he learned (and maybe learn something new).

 Emma has come a long way also.  While we have decided the girl should already have been through kindergarten, she's still so excited to learn and we are jumping all over it.  She knows all her colors, numbers and letters.  She can tell you all letter sounds, can  count to 29 and to 100 by 10's.  From her teacher's advice, we started playing a game to have her start counting by 2's and 3's and adding.  She's doing pretty well at it and will gladly show you every yellow and orange car we pass.  The one thing that she progressed at was peer play.  At mid terms, her teacher said she really didn't play with other kids.  Now, she is doing well with it and I see her getting better at home with Ryan, Nick and our neighbor, Logan.  She is still a spitfire and will go off quickly, but hopefully, this will fizzle!




Kris took all 3 kids to PA for Memorial Day this past weekend.  They all had a great time - although it wiped Daddy out (no doubt the cold I gave him before he left helped).  They all got to see everyone and go to the carnival and Kara's birthday party.

As for me, I enjoyed my few days at home by myself.  My house was cleaned from top to bottom.  All carpets were cleaned and floors washed.  All laundry was done and meals were made to freeze for another day (I should do that more often).  Summer plans were finished and put into effect.  Happily, when everyone got home, I got to enjoy my time with them since everything was done!

Now we are just beginning our summer vacation.  Parks and playdates await us as well as time at the waterpark and vacations!  We will be busy, but will enjoy it as well as we can!