Fair Day

One of the benefits of working for a rural school district is that Tom gets a day off in September as "Fair Day".  The Ashland County Fair was held last week, and Friday was the day.  We took the kids to the fair on Monday evening, and saved Tom's day off for something even better.

We spent the afternoon on Friday at Rolling Ridge Animal Park. We took a wagon tour of their 80 acres and enjoyed close encounters with the animals.  The animals get their regular feedings from the tourists during the warmer months, so they follow the wagon very closely to catch all they can.

And they are not shy at all about asking... 

Or just helping themselves, if you don't watch your feed carefully.

 

I had a bit of trouble getting good close-ups of our encounters, because I had to be far enough back to actually get them in the frame.

 

With trying to hold a baby, draw in the animal with the feed bucket, and actually snap the picture, it was quite a little dance.

 

 

Ellie loved the close views... 

 

 

 

 Tommy too, although he was actually having a pretty bad tooth pain day, and his smiles were a little harder to come by.

 

 Notice the mud on the side of the wagon? 

 

 Tom and Tommy had a very close encounter with this muddy Elk.  Tom came home with quite a bit of mud on his back after this guy snuck up behind them.

 

At the petting zoo area, Tommy found a carrot on the ground.  He carried it around for a while, and I didn't see him nibbling on it, even though he had eaten several pieces of the kibble that we fed the animals on the wagon tour.  I think he must have recognized this as a vegetable, which means it is classified as touch only, no taste. 

 

And the petting zoo animals actually stayed further away than the wagon tour animals.  We apparently arrived right at feeding time and as we went to each of several pens, the keeper came and fed the animals.  They all stayed busy with their hay, so there was nobody for Tommy to pawn that carrot off on. 

 

Ellie did spy one loose chicken.  For a second I thought I was going to have to watch her pet it... 

But like her shirt says, she's one smart cookie, so she changed her mind and walked away.

All in all, a terrific day, and we will definitely go back another day.  No lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) so we will also hit up a traditional zoo, but you just can't beat the close encounters with a yak that we found here.

And on Saturday, we were scheduled for a photography session, but Tommy fell and hit his head.  He got quite a good sized bump right between the eyebrows, so we had to cancel that.  We'll try again next month.

 

Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel

Today was a clear, beautiful day.  Not too hot, and not yet too cold, so we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's yard for a visit.  As you may recall, Tommy has not been a particular friend of "Nature".  Today changed his mind.

 

Grandpa gave the kids a ride around the garden in his wheelbarrow.

 

They thought it was pretty cool...

 

And Tommy decided he wanted to drive...

So Grandpa helped him push the Lorax around.

 

And when Grandpa got tired, Grandma helped too.

There is a lot of ground to explore here.

 

Eventually the grown-ups get tired, but Tommy doesn't!

 

Ellie, our new walker, did well maintaining her balance on uneven ground.

 

Especially while she was sitting. :)

 

Just kidding, she ran around all over the place...

 

Grandma brought out a ball to play with and Tommy chased it around, kicking it...

 

Is there a penalty for holding?

 

Such a fun afternoon!  We'll be back soon!

 

Story Time

This has been a yucky week, full of poopy diapers and not too much else.  But today Tom brought home a couple of books from the library and had some story time with the kiddos.

Ellie enjoys "Three Little Kittens"

 

Tommy then reads a book to papa...

 

Tommy and Ellie both love sitting with their papa and enjoying a book or two...

 

 

 

Also, this was overshadowed last week by Ellie's walking adventures,

but both kiddos are now using forks and spoons to feed themselves.

 

 

 

 

Well, sorta...

She is Walking!

For weeks now, Eliana has been flirting with walking.  She has been so close, but needed just the lightest touch to give her confidence.  Yesterday, she took off and walked across the floor alone.  As with all of her conquests, she went straight from "maybe I'll just watch for a while" to "I've been doing this for ages, haven't I?"

Tommy, on the other hand, seems to go by leaps and bounds with teeth.  A few months ago he cut seven teeth in one week.  When I noticed he was biting me a lot this week I checked his mouth, and sure enough, teething is on again.  He has 3 molars coming in.  Ellie has one molar erupting too.  And just like the last time, the poor kiddo has terrible diarrhea and diaper rash.  He out-pooped Ellie 9 diapers to 3 today. :(

Shrimp Boats and Golden Anniversaries

We've had a busy week and I have definitely fallen behind in blogging duties.  I was going to blog nearly two weeks ago about our awesome trip to the Cleveland Aquarium, and I would have, except for two things...
1)  It wasn't awesome at all.  We were very underwhelmed.  I have nothing more to say except don't bother wasting your time or money.
2) I am an idiot and cannot figure out how to turn off the flash on my camera, so I couldn't take any pictures at the Aquarium, as flash photography is expressly forbidden.  The best I can do is these pictures of the kids with the stuffed animals we bought at the gift shop.

This is Ellie with her sea turtle... 

And Tommy with his ray...

So, on to better things!

Ellie and Tommy had their first adventures in swimming this week.  On Wednesday, Sandy and I took them to the pool at Brookside Park.

Tommy viewed water as just another side of Nature that needs to be avoided.  I was a bit surprised at this, as he really loves splashing in the bathtub.  Perhaps it was the water temperature that was the problem...

I took him out of the water and let him play at the side of the pool...

 while Sandy played with Ellie the Water Baby.  She LOVED the pool.

After a while, the giggles and grins from Ellie lured Tommy back into the water.  He wasn't exactly exuberant, but he didn't cry again.  We missed our photo op there, and soon we headed to the locker room to change and go home.  We had to whisper a dirty diaper secret to the pool staff, and on our way to the parking lot we heard them announce that the baby pool was now closed.  Oops!

Thursday was Lindy's birthday, and Sandy and I took Tommy and Ellie for a visit and a swim in her pool.  This time it wasn't just a baby pool, so there was no way for them to stand up and get their sea legs; this time it was sink or swim.  Well, maybe just cling to mama, or ride the boat.

Once again, Eliana was in fishy heaven...

and Tommy was a little less certain... 

 

 Aunt Lindy saved the day though with the ultimate

 fun pool toy for babies, the Shrimp Boat.

Ellie was first to captain the ship, and her brother watched with envy!

  Soon it was his turn. 

You can see that he was cautious at first... 

But he explored the vessel...

and was soon smiling... 

We had a veryfun day with Aunt Lindy and her family. 

Everyone but Wyatt was there.

Emma provided great entertainment in the pool...

Ethan snuck home from Alabama to surprise his mother.

Justin has moved back from Arizona and just got the news

 that he and Jenn got the townhouse they wanted...

.

Phoebe was a little bit under the weather, so no pool fun,

but we did get to at least visit with her.

We celebrated the birthday girl's big day with cake and ice cream.

and Emma helped lick the balloons from the cake clean...

 Ethan and Tommy had some kind of serious chat...

while Ellie dreamed of going back in the pool... 

Then we all headed for home.  Shrimp boat in tow, so we can try it out next week at the YMCA in Cincinnati.  We'll be back.  I think Ellie will take the wheel to get us there if I let her. :)

                                                                                                             

 



Saturday evening, we celebrated Tom's parents 50th wedding anniversary. 

We gathered at Der Dutchman with all of Jim's siblings and their spouses, and with Norma's sister Polly and her daughter Valerie.

Jim and Norma knew that the family was meeting for dinner, but they didn't know that they were the guests of honor. We made them sit at the front of the room and open their gifts and cards. 

Tom and I gave them a photo book celebrating their fifty years together.  While gathering the pictures, we noticed that at every gathering, they do a family lineup photo with all of the siblings.  Tonight was no exception there.

Well, maybe a little exception.  Usually these line ups do not include spouses, but after 50 years of watching from the sidelines, I thought Norma deserved to be part of the pack...

Norma getting ready to cut the cake

(or is she just tired of marriage after 50 years?)

Kind of tricky to catch by couple, as most of the family members sat across from their spouses rather than next to them, but here are all of the family members in attendance:

Bill and Sue

 

Willis and Ruby

Judy with Ellie

Roger and Peggy

Roger was the one who pointed out that we ought to have this little dinner.  He should remember the anniversary, I learned that he and Peggy share the date, and they will be married 28 years next Saturday.

Pauline and Harry (plus Nancy and Judy)

Pauline & Harry, Nancy & Don, Judy

 

let's try that again, Harry wasn't paying attention...

Sara. I forgot to catch her with Tom, but he's here somewhere!

She was the one who arranged for this little get together.

Polly

Valerie

And of course my own crew, along with Grandma and Grandpa...

Harry and Don give us a special hello...

The evening was spent eating, visiting, and reminiscing...

 

just runnin' around

life of the party...

Tough to get all of the eyes open together, so here's another shot.  I need to learn how to use PhotoShop so I can edit all the good faces into one shot.  Umm, maybe by the next big get together!

Oh good, she put that knife down a little!

If you would like to have any of the pictures from the anniversary dinner to print, you can click here to access them on Shutterfly.

                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                          

 And one final note, for my regular followers.  Yes, I am still chocolate free!