Enjoying the Last of Summer

As it gets dark earlier and earlier and the neighborhood kids are about to start school, we've been soaking up the last of summer. One night Jamie decided to take Katie swimming at the Y for a little father-daughter time. However, when Caroline figured out what was happening she went and got her swimsuit and said "swimsuit on?" so she and I went, too. Katie did a good job swimming and she's getting more confident in swimming underwater.

We also had another night of excitement at our house- the neighbor gave Katie her old bike and Katie took her first spin without training wheels. She did well going straight, but wanted to keep turning which then threw her balance off. In the second picture she is actually riding on her own.

The joy of having a new friend across the street has turned into the challenge of having three kids play together- someone is always left out. They do fine riding bikes in the cul de sac, but once they decide to play at one of the houses, it quickly goes down hill and one of the girls ends of crying and going home. The honeymoon's over . . . Both of the other girls will start school this week, so hopefully things will settle down.

I thought I would share this cute picture of Caroline at the table that I refer to as Goldilocks. She is quick to capitalize on distractions and when no one was looking she climbed into Katie booster seat and drank Katie's milk.

That same night Katie provided some after-dinner entertainment singing on her karaoke machine. (And you may notice from her appearance that she had a very busy and active day at school). Katie loves to sing made-up songs which lately have contained elements of "I Will Survive" (which we sing and dance to in the kitchen) and typically include lots of "Bay-buhs" (Baby, but said with Katie's rock-star voice).

Saturday we had our usual gym/grocery/housework morning. Most of us had a nap after lunch and then we took the girls out to dinner and shopping. Before we ate, I had Katie accompany me to Sephora and she could hardly contain herself with all of the fun colors and make-up to look at. We went to Mongolian Barbecue for dinner (a make your own stir fry place) and the girls enjoyed it a lot. It was a little more relaxed than last time we were there when it was prom night and I was nervous that one of the girls was going to bump into someone (there's a lot of bowl carrying involved). After dinner the girls played in the fountain and listened to a band while I got to do some shopping. Then we headed to Dairy Queen. Needless to say, we all enjoyed that. Caroline really loves ice cream and asks for it after every meal- including breakfast.

Sunday we made our annual pilgrimmage to the sunflower patch. Jamie and I always laugh at the fact that there are always cars parked there and multiple groups of people taking pictures . . . and we're those people too! It was hot and sunny so the girls didn't last long. Katie had trouble looking at me because the sun was in her eyes. We did get a decent family photo as a lady noticed we were all color coordinating (even though Jamie and I did not plan on intentionally matching) and Caroline liked running down the rows of flowers.

After that, we hit the farmer's market and then the park. We didn't last too long, and headed home to fill up our backyard pool. You can see how hot it was from the look on Lily's face! By the time the girls woke up from their naps (and non-nap for Katie) it was raining so we played inside and Caroline enjoyed playing with her new doll. She likes to give her lots of bottles and put her "night night". Then between rain storms we even took her outside for a walk. You might enjoy her fashion statement of short shorts with rain boots.

Before we sign off I want to share the news of our new cousin! Jamie's brother David and his wife Jenn welcomed a little boy on Monday, named Dillon John Elmer. Unfortunately, he wasn't expected until September and David had just left for Switzerland where he is playing hockey this season, but he made it back by Tuesday night and was able to take Bates with him to meet his new baby brother.

Busy, Busy

Hello everyone. We've had a busy week, and it has been made even busier by our need to watch as much of the Olympics as possible! I think we're all a little sleep deprived from Michael Phelps' quest for eight medals. Meanwhile Katie has been having a blast playing with the new neighbors across the street as well as her friend Miranda. The girls are quite busy riding bikes and running from one house to the next. Friday night the girls made s'mores at the neighbors house, so Katie got to stay out until after dark.

Saturday morning we had Caroline's 2-year-old portraits taken and it was the usual adventure. She was engaged for the first part of it, but then they wanted us to switch to a different studio (for different backgrounds) and had to wait, which pretty much used up the rest of Caroline's attention span. Unfortunately, her genuine smiles came along with the "beach motif" so despite my preference for plain and simple backgrounds and a minimum of props, Caroline at age 2 will be forever documented "on the beach". The primary photo that we selected is a close up version of this, but this one was so cute and funny that I bought a sheet of this pose as well.
After the photo shoot, Jamie took Caroline with him to the gym and Katie and I went to the mall to shop for a friend's birthday gift. We also managed to find a few pairs of fall shoes for ourselves, which Caroline enjoyed trying on when we returned home

That afternoon Katie had a birthday party for her friend Chloe and I went along to help out. She had a ton of fun and got a lot of energy out. We came home and had a quick dinner and then got to work on a special art project.

My Rotary Club is hosting an exchange student from Belgium this school year and Katie and I went to the aiport to be part of the welcoming group. Before we left the house we made a big sign for her and Katie was very excited to meet her. Once we arrived Katie was kind of shy, but I think it was good to have a kid along to break the ice. The student, named Florence, will spend her first couple of months at someone's house who lives nearby, so we're figuring out if we can have her join us for any fun family activities.

When we returned from the airport Katie and the neighbors were back in action until dark once again- which is coming earlier and earlier these days. They were having so much fun that we let her stay out later than we had planned-- fall will be here soon enough.


Sunday I had my company golf outing, so the girls had a Daddy Day. They hit the grocery store and the water park-- and even managed to find my team on the golf course and watch us tee off on one hole. Thankfully Caroline's prediction of "Mommy water" did not come true. While we were waiting to tee off Caroline climbed right into my golf cart and was ready to take off like she has gotten to do at Grandma and Poppy's house. Katie asked me to grab the key and said "she's going to drive away!"

Once the golf was over, we switched over to a Mommy Night, as Jamie was invited to the Bengals game Sunday evening. Caroline finally got to play with her new Aqua Doodle toy that she received for her birthday and I am thrilled to report that it kept her interest for 20+ minutes and is not messy, loud or annoying at all. The only issue was that Lily wanted to lay on the mat. (for those of you not familiar with the toy, it is a mat that comes with a pen that you fill with water and the mat turns blue where it gets wet, so it is like coloring with a marker, but not messy. The marks disappear when it dries).


The girls helped me make dinner, which included some veggies and herbs that we picked from the garden. This sounds like it might have been fun, but while I was having the girls "help" me in the garden there were problems right and left-literally. Katie would try to grab my garden scissors, so I would go to stop her. Meanwhile, Caroline was picking tomatoes as fast as she could- red, orange, green- our crops took a bit of a hit! And then I turned back and found Lily walking in the garden sniffing along, so I got her out without trampling the plants. Then Caroline had grabbed my glass bowl and dumped the herbs out . . . and so it went!

But we finally got dinner made and then enjoyed a yummy banana split cake for dessert. Caroline was sure she didn't want any because she wants "ice cweam" every night. But once she tasted it she came around and even had seconds.

Before I sign off, Jamie just reminded me to share about Katie's movie quoting. I think I reported earlier that she was repeating a line from the Bee Movie ("it's a little gusty out there today guys"), well now she can repeat whole sections. And if you watch it with her she recites it along with the movie- in many cases repeating words that she doesn't even know. For example, there is a scene where the bees are graduating from college and she says "Welcome faculty and staff" and even mimics the characters deep voice- it's quite entertaining, at least for now!

Caroline's 2nd Birthday

As I mentioned last week, Caroline turned two on Saturday and to celebrate her birthday we spent the day at the zoo.

My parents arrived on Friday afternoon, and while we were away at work and school, Dad got to work on the final touch for the playhouse- the diamond-shaped window in the front door, which makes it look more authentic.

Saturday morning our birthday girl woke up with a big smile on her face and enjoyed one of her favorite things for breakfast- peaches! After she finished her own, she shared some more with Poppy and Katie. The girls know that Poppy loves to eat peaches, but he willingly shared with them!

Once we got our picnic/birthday supplies organized and finished strategizing about what combination of coolers/strollers/wagons to take, we hopped in the car and headed to the Cincinnati Zoo. We managed to time it almost perfectly and arrived just a few minutes before Jen, Billy and Hannah. From there we partnered up and headed into the zoo. The girls did a lot of rotating around between shoulders, strollers, being carried and walking, but we managed to keep track of all three!

We saw the big animals in the morning (elephants, giraffes, rhinos, gorillas) and then took a break for lunch. We had an enjoyable picnic lunch and then brought out the cupcakes and ice cream, which were enjoyed by all. Caroline loves having "Happy Birthday" sung to her-- and was happy to dive into her cupcake. After lunch we visited manatees, bears and monkeys. I think the monkeys were Caroline's favorite animal. We came across a group of them that were very active and right in the middle of Caroline's wiggling to get out of my arms, she started paying attention to them and then became totally engrossed and laughed when they jumped close to the glass. She also like the polar bear.

By this point, Caroline and Hannah were running out of steam, so we made one last stop--a visit to the gift shop for Caroline to pick out a stuffed animal. She walked around a whole display of animals and touched each one, but didn't want to select one. She did keep going back to a $300 5-foot tall giraffe- we compromised and got her a little giraffe.

By the time we were heading out of the zoo, Caroline was tired of being contained. We had both Katie and Caroline in the double stroller and Caroline was picking fights with Katie-pulling her pig tails and she even whacked Katie over the head with her box of animal crackers. Katie walked from that point on!

We all returned to our house and the girls had naps, while the grown-ups relaxed. We cooked out and tried to keep the girls in line as they ate at their little table. A lot of corn on the cob rolled onto the floor and Lily ended up scoring the better part of Hannah's cheeseburger. So the zoo-themed party continued! And we all wonder how it will be when Jen and Buddy have their second little girl in Ocotber . . .

After dinner we did Caroline's presents. She liked the first things she opened--a play broom and vacuum from Grandma and Poppy--and then didn't want to open anything else. We actually had to coerce her to open her other presents! She was also excited about her new doll from Jen, Billy and Hannah. (And Billy, please note that I did refrain from posting any photos of you playing with the pink doll!) And once we opened them, Caroline had fun playing with the puzzles that Katie had picked out for her. We ended up saving the rest of the presents to open on Sunday.

Sunday morning we made muffins and then enjoyed being outside. The girls played some golf with Jamie and Poppy in the backyard and "cleaned" the playhouse. Later Grandma and I took them for a bike ride. Just before lunch we tried to resume the present opening, and once again it was a struggle to keep Caroline focused. Once she was sitting down and started ripping the paper she liked doing it, but then quickly wanted to move on to something else. We thought we would be strategic and have her open clothes first, so then she wouldn't be distracted, but then she was obsessed with the clothes. She received a cute outfit from Aunt Sharon and she kept taking it to Grandma and saying "open!" meaning that she wanted her to take it off the hangers so that she could put it on. Eventually she wandered away and started putting on all of the visors that she could find. . . she is a funny girl!

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes for Caroline! And thank you to Poppy, Grandma, Jen, Billy and Hannah for coming to celebrate with us!